We Don’t Need a Marketing Agency Because…

Written By: Holmes Team

We are privileged to work with amazing organizations in and around the Miami Valley to help them share their story and grow their sustainable audience. However, the title of this post is a phrase we hear probably more than we would like to admit.

Either we end up hearing it straight from a leadership team member at the organization, or we hear it repeated through their strung-out, stressed-out and overworked team.

Below, we will dispel this myth along with some of the most common phrases that follow it.

This is not just for leadership teams to read and discard as some good advice for a later day.

This is for leadership teams to read and understand the struggles and frustrations that their team goes through every day.

We also hope that these answers will help those same team members start the conversation with their leadership team about the importance of partnering with a marketing agency.

While we know the situations are endless, here are the top ones broken up by an organization’s current level of dedication to their marketing.

1 Person to Do It All!

Congratulations! You are the one-person marketing team for your ENTIRE organization! Here are some of the scenarios you might be familiar with if you have ever asked your boss for a marketing agency…

“We don’t need a marketing agency because that’s what I hired you for.”

Kind of. You hired me to manage all internal marketing and communications for this organization. I am fully qualified to do so and believe in my abilities.

However, I am not thinking about just creating a content calendar or writing a blog post.

I am thinking about creating a full marketing strategy for our organization. It will sustain our revenue stream for years to come. I need a team of marketing experts that have skills, knowledge, and experience in areas of marketing that I do not have. It would be impossible for one person to be the absolute expert in everything when it comes to the field of marketing and communications.

Just like you hired me to be your marketing expert on-staff, I need a team to challenge my thinking, push my abilities forward, and support me in areas that I need to learn more about or cannot do myself.

For example, we are going to need a new website in a year or two. Instead of looking for a company then that we know nothing about, I would rather have a longstanding relationship with a marketing agency that already knows us and knows our goals and mission.

Or, what about when we want to do that creative mailing piece for our next promotion? Imagine how much time, money, and resources we will save by partnering with experts instead of trying to do it all ourselves?

“We don’t need a marketing agency because our current strategy is working fine.”

Yes, today our strategy is working. But, I am not thinking about just today.

I want to ensure that we are moving forward and are profitable for years to come. By partnering with an agency where it is their whole job to stay up to date on what is next in the world of marketing, it frees me up to focus on content and to continue building relationships with current or potential clients.

Through an agency partnership, I know that the team will have my back when it comes to the next big industry trend or opportunity.

“We don’t need a marketing agency because you can bounce ideas off the team here!”

While I love the ability to collaborate and work with my team here, they are not marketing professionals. Think about it like if the administration team asked me to sit in on a meeting about new QuickBooks processes.

I am sure I would still bring value to the meeting with my different perspective. But I would not think about the situation like an accountant or an administrative professional. So while my ideas are still valid, they are not optimized for the conversation at hand.

In order to push our company to the next level of marketing and communications, I need to surround myself with other experts in marketing and communications.

Through partnering with an agency, it gives me access to an entire team of topnotch consultants that literally exist to give me the best and newest advice when it comes to sharing our organization’s story.

Part-time Marketing

A part-time marketer is someone that may or may not have some marketing training, but it is only a portion of their role.

“We don’t need a marketing agency because there’s not enough marketing for someone to do it full-time.”

We don’t have the resources or expertise to have someone in-house full-time for our marketing. This is why it would be beneficial to have me be the liaison between our organization and a marketing agency. We will have the full force of a team on our side. This will make up for not having a fully dedicated person to handle our marketing in-house.

It’s not that there isn’t enough marketing. It’s that we haven’t had the time or resources to reach our full communications potential for our business.

“We don’t need a marketing agency because we already have too much work.”

Marketing is not something we should do as a reactive measure once the business is starting to slow down. Marketing and branding our business is something we should do all the time.

By continually sharing our messaging, growing our audience reach, and sustaining our current business relationships, we will see our business consistently be successful and busy, instead of these random spurts of busyness.

“We don’t need a marketing agency because you can just learn the basics of marketing online. All we really need is social media anyway.”

I will not be able to grasp the full picture and potential of marketing without obtaining higher education or training. It is no different from an accountant, a trades-person, or a designer. Successful marketing requires learning and practicing the fundamentals first and building on those over time.

Social media changes every single day. What works today is not guaranteed to work tomorrow.

Also, we do not technically own the content on our social channels. If the network shuts down tomorrow, we have lost our entire following and all of our content.

Marketing is more than just posting a funny tweet or creating an intriguing video. It is about sharing your story, building trust, and creating strong business relationships that will withstand the test of various forms of communication.

What’s Your Scenario?

These are just the top scenarios we have heard over the years. We are sure there are more and would love to hear them. Email why you or your boss thinks that your organization doesn’t need a marketing agency to marketing@thinkholmes.com.