Digital Marketing

Sometimes businesses can be intimidated by moving away from traditional, outbound marketing activities that used to work well, but are no longer very effective in reaching today’s consumer.

Can you relate to any of these statements?

• “I know marketing online is important, but there’s so much information out there I don’t know where to start!”
• “I don’t know what I would blog about or post to social media.”
• “Neither I nor my staff have time to write blog articles, do social media or send email newsletters!”
• “I have a feeling our competitors are getting an advantage over us by being more savvy with their online marketing.”
• “My competitors’ websites come up when searching Google, but we’re nowhere to be found.”
• “We paid a lot of money for a new website, but it’s not actually getting any results!”

If any of these statements ring true for you, then you should consider hiring a digital marketing agency like us to help.

We get it. You want to know the bottom line—what’s it going to cost us?

According to this article on SBA.gov, if your business is generating less than $5 million in revenue and wants to grow, then spending 7 to 8 percent of your revenue is a good target for your marketing budget as a whole. And according to Forrester Research, companies averaged spending 35% of their marketing budget on digital in 2016 and were forecasted to increase this each year. 

What digital marketing will cost also depends on your company’s goals for the digital marketing program. As a general number: 

• A company looking for moderate growth could expect to spend $1.5k–$2.5k per month. 
• A company wanting more significant growth may expect to spend $2.5k–5k per month. 
• A company with really aggressive growth goals could expect to spend $5k+ per month.
  

   

What we can tell you is that digital marketing costs about 61% less than traditional outbound marketing. So you’re getting much more bang for your buck with digital. Often we may recommend scaling back a little on your outbound spend (TV, print ads, direct mail, radio, billboards, etc.) in order to shift more dollars to digital, where you’ll get a higher rate of return. 

In short, digital marketing is actually an investment in your company, not an expense, and the money spent on digital should generate a net positive return on investment (ROI) over the long term. 

If you’re like most companies, you’re already wearing several hats and your team is probably stretched thin. There’s a slim chance someone in your company has the time to learn, develop and carry out an effective digital marketing strategy.

Sure, you could appoint someone to manage the company Facebook page and maybe write an occasional blog post. But can this person consistently handle:

• Digital marketing strategy
• Creating an editorial calendar
• Blog writing, editing and promotion
• Search engine optimization and link building
• Managing multiple social media accounts
• Creating content such as ebooks, whitepapers or guides
• Creating call-to-action graphics
• Building landing pages with lead generating forms
• Creating and optimizing pay-per-click campaigns, such as Google Adwords and Facebook ads
• Lead nurturing campaigns using marketing automation
• Website design and development
• Measuring and tracking marketing analytics
• Not to mention hiring, training and managing enough staff to cover these different skillsets (plus providing benefits, office equipment, etc.).

What we’ve seen that works effectively for SMBs is to have a CMO or marketing director who is the internal driver of the overall marketing. That person thens works closely with a digital marketing agency like ours, who approaches relationships as a partnership, to support and help achieve company goals.

Larger corporate clients that have a small internal marketing department may tap us to help provide specific services to complement what the internal team provides.

Finally, in cases of a smaller company that doesn’t have the resources for a marketing director, we usually work directly with the business owner and fulfill the role of a CMO/marketing director and marketing team.

We understand the challenges companies face in marketing to today’s consumers. We are great at creative design, and we also know that design has to be partnered with solid marketing to achieve results.

It’s no longer enough to have an incredible-looking website. You need to attract qualified visitors to it through online search and social media. The website needs to convert those visitors into leads. You need to have a marketing system in place that nurtures those leads into customers. And you need for much of this system to be integrated and automated.

That’s the value we bring—merging the creative and the digital marketing together to achieve measurable results.

Think of us as an extension of your marketing department. For about the cost of hiring an administrative assistant, you can have our dedicated design and marketing team working to bring you new customers.

A few of the benefits we bring:

• A single agency who is able to expertly handle your digital marketing and design
• A single fixed monthly cost with our digital marketing retainer packages
• Certified Inbound Marketing Professionals who have undergone extensive digital marketing training
• More than 20 years experience

We believe in starting with a simple conversation. We take the time to understand your goals and challenges and see if we feel we’d be a good fit. No aggressive sales tactics. No having to enter the witness protection program to avoid pesky salesmen. Just a chat to learn more about your business, where you’re looking to take it, and how we might be able to support you. 

Schedule a free 30-minute consultation today