Why do businesses work with Digital Agencies?

Think back 12 months and the first national lockdown here in the UK was underway due to the coronavirus pandemic. We have all been impacted in numerous ways and this has affected our professional and personal lives. The past year has been challenging with lots of changes that have seen many of us reassess our outlook and really take stock of what’s important to us on a personal level.

The speed of the vaccination programme has helped many countries set out a roadmap for opening up their respective economies and beginning to return to some kind of normality.

Here in the UK, the first significant relaxation of the rules is due in April, with many more stages planned up until June. The knock on effect of this reopening is the impact this will have on many businesses as they plan for life post the pandemic.

If you ask any business owner, uncertainty is something that they view with dread. Uncertainty makes it very challenging for all types and sizes of businesses to look to the future with any optimism as it negatively impacts their planning.

The last year has seen us live through some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable and the impact to the business world has been well documented. From closures to redundancies, many businesses have tried to ride the wave of uncertainty as best they can.

Government interventions such as the furlough scheme, bounce back loans and grants have provided some respite to many businesses who have been affected by the pandemic.

However, things look to be moving in the right direction as we now begin the process of gradually transitioning away from lockdown. As a result, many businesses are now planning for how they will bounce back in the months ahead.

The whole marketing world has seen a big shift over the last year as it’s become apparent that traditional marketing methods are not as effective as they once were.

In this weeks blog, we wanted to answer the following question, why do businesses work with Digital Agencies?

Traditional marketing vs Online marketing
Marketing is important for every business as it creates awareness for the products or services being sold. Without marketing, a business will struggle to attract new customers and this will have a negative impact upon profitability.

For large businesses, marketing represents an opportunity to reach out to potential customers and scale at speed. Big businesses have huge budgets, teams and resources to deploy marketing campaigns across multiple channels. Their sheer size means they can test and optimise their marketing to achieve a positive return on advertising spend (ROAS).

In contrast, small businesses are often at a disadvantage when it comes to marketing. The global marketplace has pitted smaller businesses against larger companies. With small businesses not having access to the same resources, budgets and tools, it becomes difficult to compete.

Many small businesses have relied on traditional marketing campaigns such as printed posters and flyers to reach new customers. However, the pandemic has really highlighted the need for businesses to embrace digital marketing.

One of the biggest difficulties of traditional marketing such as printed collateral is the lack of data. With online advertising such as social media advertising or Google Ads, a business has a wealth of metrics that can be accessed such as reach, impressions, cost per conversion etc.

In contrast, with traditional marketing it is difficult to measure the effectiveness as things can’t be quantified in the same way. Furthermore, as customers we are spending more and more time online than ever, which makes it a necessity rather than a luxury to market online.

Businesses that fail to build and enhance their online presence will miss out on a huge chunk of traffic and over time become invisible/irrelevant. It is for this precise reason that many businesses are now looking to web, social and search as key ways to connect with their customers.

What are Digital Agencies?
As we have seen above, large as well as small businesses recognise the need to start engaging their customers online. This is where Digital Agencies can step in and provide a valuable service to many different types of businesses.

Digital Agencies typically specialise in a full stack of services that can help clients build and leverage their online presence. Some of the services provided by Digital Agencies include web development, SEO, social media management and ordering systems.

What separates a Digital Agency from other single service agencies is the range of solutions that can be offered to clients in order to unify their marketing/technology needs. Most small businesses don’t have the capabilities to deploy online solutions in-house and therefore look to work with Digital Agencies that can save them time in building their online strategy.

Here at iOB Business, we have seen a huge uplift in activity levels from our partners working with lots of different types of clients, especially during the last 12 months. Many local businesses enjoy working with a local Digital Agency that can service their needs and almost become an extension of their marketing team.

Businesses need help
It is a fact that businesses, especially small businesses, need help when it comes to building an online presence. Small business owners lack the resources of larger competitors and therefore find the online world quite challenging.

Some small business owners try the ‘DIY’ route and attempt to build their own website and run their own campaigns initially with limited success. This often eats into their time and budget before leading to frustration as the business owner does not yield the results he/she was expecting.

As a consequence, many business owners turn to Digital Agencies that are specialists in helping the business achieve its desired outcomes. One of the biggest advantages of Digital Agencies is they are solving genuine problems for the business owner.

Most people incorrectly think it’s relatively straightforward to build an online presence. After all, once you’ve built your website the traffic will surely come? This isn’t the case as often, a business needs to have multiple touchpoints to engage and convert customers.

For example, a website is a key component of a businesses online presence as it’s classified as ‘owned media’, something that the business controls. A website is a business's digital shop window.

However, a business needs to also focus on making sure the website is optimised for mobile devices, loads quickly, has multiple call to actions (CTAs) to interact with customers and is set up correctly to be indexed by search engines such as Google.

But a website is only one component of an overall online strategy. A business also needs to ensure it is driving customers to its website, through search engines (SEO) and social media. Furthermore, a business needs to build its credibility and reputation by collecting online reviews to validate its products or services.

There are many other touchpoints that a business needs to focus on and trying to factor all of these mediums alongside actually running the business makes it very overwhelming for business owners.

This is why business owners all over the world, look to work with Digital Agencies that can help them build and manage their online visibility.

Solving problems
All of the most successful businesses in the world solve problems. Without solving problems for customers, most customers will struggle to have longevity. A Digital Agency is no different and aims to solve multiple problems for business owners.

Most small businesses find it incredibly difficult building an online presence but fundamentally recognise that they need to market online. It’s almost a catch 22 situation where a business owner understands they need to do something but don’t have the skills, time or resources to complete the task.

This is why Digital Agencies are so successful as they can often help a business solve the challenge of marketing online. The most successful Digital Agencies are the ones that can combine a range of solutions that trigger engagement from customers across multiple channels to help their clients compete online.

In a nutshell, Digital Agencies solve the problem of building an online presence for small businesses without the need and cost of building a marketing/technology team. They also save their clients countless hours and money by making sure the right solutions are deployed based on the clients needs.

Summary
As we have seen throughout this blog, small businesses are competing in the global marketplace against bigger companies and this has been amplified due to the pandemic. Local businesses can’t rely on traditional marketing methods as we are moving more towards a digital society.

Therefore, many small businesses are turning to Digital Agencies to help them gain an advantage and accelerate their online presence without making vital mistakes.

Here at iOB Business, we are experts in helping people launch and scale Digital Agencies without any experience. Matching solutions that businesses need with the most value driven package on the market, our partners are well placed to be at the heart of delivering digital transformation for their clients.

To find out how you can launch a Digital Agency, please contact a member of our team.

Until next time, take care.