Many people that come to us don’t understand the difference between a web design company and what we do as a digital marketing agency. That’s alright, we’re here to clarify.
There’s a lot of web design groups and freelancers that can make you a pretty website. Some of them even do decent work and for many businesses, a functional “brochure” website for you to send potential customers to is all you really need. If that is the case, we recommend you work with a web design company or even better, go down to the local coffee shop and support an up and coming young web designer- just ask to see their portfolio first.
Other businesses need something more than just a pretty website hidden in the corner of the web.
They need a responsive website that gets FOUND by potential customers and generates leads that can grow their business.
THIS IS VERY DIFFERENT.
These businesses need a digital marketing strategy that drives traffic to their website all on its own. Then, converts those visitors into leads and/or sales.
Ask yourself this simple question, do you want to send people to your website or do you want your website to send people to you? If it is the latter then you need Spade Design.
If you still aren’t sure if you need a digital marketing agency check out our list:
10 reasons you need a digital marketing strategy
1) You’re directionless
I find that companies without a digital strategy (and many that do) don’t have clear strategic goals for what they want to achieve online in terms of gaining new customers or building deeper relationships with existing ones. If you don’t have goals, you likely don’t put enough resources into reaching the goals and you don’t use analytics to determine whether you’re achieving those goals.
2) You don’t know your online market share
Customer demand for online services may be underestimated if you haven”t researched this. Perhaps, more importantly, you won’t understand your online marketplace: the dynamics will be different to traditional channels with different types of customer profile and behavior, competitors, propositions, and options for marketing communications.
3) Existing and start-up competitors will gain market share
If you’re not devoting enough resources to digital marketing or you’re using an ad-hoc approach without a clearly defined strategy, then your competitors will eat your digital lunch!
4) You don’t have a powerful online value proposition
A clearly defined online customer value proposition will help you differentiate your online service encouraging existing and new customers to engage initially and stay loyal. For instance, if your about page is all about you or your company, you’re doing it wrong. Put your value to the client and tell your visitors what you will do for them.
5) You don’t know your online customers well enough
It’s often said that digital marketing is the “most measurable medium ever.” Google Analytics and similar will only tell you volumes. It will not tell you sentiment. You need to use other forms of user feedback tools to identify your weak points and then address them. This can be both direct and indirect.
6) You’re not integrated (“disintegrated”)
It’s all too common for digital marketing to be completed in silos whether that’s a specialist digital marketer, sitting in IT or a separate digital agency. It might be easier in some cases but it’s less effective. Everyone agrees that digital marketing works best when integrated with traditional media and all other response channels.
7) Digital doesn’t have enough people/budget given its importance
Insufficient resources will be devoted to both planning and executing digital marketing and there is likely to be a lack of specific e-marketing skills which will make it difficult to respond to competitive threats effectively.
8) You’re wasting money and time through duplication
Even if you do have sufficient resources they may be being wasted. This is particularly the case in larger companies where you see different parts of the marketing organization purchasing different tools or using different agencies for performing similar online marketing tasks. You need to focus your efforts, get organized.
9) You’re not agile enough to catch up or stay ahead
If you look at the top online brands like Amazon, Dell, Google, Tesco, Zappos, they’re all dynamic  – trailing new approaches to gain or keep their online audiences. You need to be ahead of the game.
10) You’re not optimizing
Every company with a website will have analytics and data, but many senior managers don’t ensure that their teams make or have the time to review and act on them. Once a strategy enables you to get the basics right, then you can progress to continuous improvement of the key aspects of search marketing, site user experience, email and social media marketing.
So that’s our top 10 ways to know if you need a digital marketing agency or not.
So, do you want to send people to your website or do you want your website to send people to you?
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