Key Reasons Why Working With Marketing Agencies Is Worth It

Are you wondering if hiring a digital marketing agency is a worthwhile investment for your brand? Right? 

This choice could have a big influence on your marketing campaigns and entire business development in the digital marketing ecosystem. The advantages of working with an agency—such as specialized knowledge, cutting-edge tools, and significant cost savings—often greatly exceed the expenses, even though the initial investment may seem high.

In this blog, we discover whether working with an agency is truly worth the investment. If you start to think hiring a digital marketing agency is worth it, come back to this paragraph and check out our digital marketing marketplace to explore your options.

Quick Question: Why Consider Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency? 

Hiring a digital marketing agency is quite a strategic choice for businesses aiming to enhance their marketing efforts, undoubtedly. We are going beyond listing benefits – like accessing a team of specialists with diverse skills and building meticulously planned and effectively executed marketing campaigns – to answer that question. 

Agencies, actually, are good at handling time-consuming tasks like content creation, social media management, and campaign optimization. So, in case you need significant time savings, allowing you to focus on their core activities, you may want to consider working with one of them. Furthermore, agencies bring advanced tools and technologies into play. The Content Marketing Institute also agrees with it; it highlights that 50% of businesses report that outsourcing marketing saves them money, underscoring the financial advantages of working with an agency. 

On the other hand, in case you’re stuck with a bunch of cliches in your marketing activities, agencies can offer you fresh perspectives and creative ideas that can lead to innovative campaigns and solutions. And best part, agencies provide detailed analytics and transparent reporting, offering comprehensive insights into key performance indicators, campaign effectiveness, and ROI. 

So, although it may initially seem expensive to hire a digital marketing agency, the investment is well worth it for growth opportunities. Need more details? Keep reading.

Are Marketing Agencies Worth the Investment? 

In short, yes, hiring a digital marketing agency can be a highly cost-effective decision for brands and businesses, since it offers advantages over building an in-house marketing team. 

Put another way, working with a digital agency may seem more costly at first because of retainer fees, but in the long run, you will save money on overhead, salaries, benefits, and specialized tools by working with them. Agencies also guarantee that businesses receive thorough and efficient marketing support without the financial strain of maintaining a full in-house team by offering flexibility, scalability, and access to a wide range of skills. 

How Do Agencies Price?

We know that you want to see some figures! 

According to First Page Sage, the average annual cost of a fully-staffed in-house marketing team can exceed $261,500, while a full-service digital marketing agency typically costs between $120,000 and $150,000 per year​​. Given that agencies give access to a vast range of specialized skills and cutting-edge technologies without the overhead costs associated with full-time employees, this cost difference is significant.

In contrast, teaming up with one of the best digital marketing agencies can be more cost-effective. According to a Fractl survey, agencies normally charge $1,000 to $10,000 per month for small-scale services and $10,000 to $20,000 per month for comprehensive services. This means that full-service digital marketing will set you back between $120,000 and $150,000 annually. 

Similarly, a mid-sized enterprise can benefit from comprehensive agency services at $150,000 annually, – and it is more cost-effective than an in-house team costing $350,000 or more. 

Need more detailed information about agency pricing? Then you may want to head out to our marketing agency pricing guide. 

Key Reasons Why Do You Need Marketing Agencies

Here’s why partnering with a marketing agency can be a game-changer for your marketing efforts:

Consistent Brand Image Across All Channels

A study by Demand Metric found that consistent brand presentation across all platforms increases revenue by up to 23%. So, ensuring all marketing materials and communications align with the brand guidelines is quite important in the marketing ecosystem. And digital marketing agencies know how to create a consistent brand image across all channels. 

In other words, digital marketing agencies play a pivotal role in developing cohesive brand strategies, integrated marketing campaigns, and maintaining a unified visual identity. They can craft detailed brand guidelines that encompass visual & verbal elements that align with the brand’s core values and vision. In addition to designing cross-channel campaigns, these agencies ensure that every piece of content, from social media posts to website banners, maintains a consistent look and feel.

Take Nike’s social media accounts as an example; the marketing agency behind Nike does not release the same photos on all platforms but ensures that all posts speak the same language. 

You can see the same attitude across different platforms; the same graphic sense, and the same filters and fonts in different shots. 

So, when it comes to maintaining a consistent brand image across all channels and building trust in that way, it is worth working with a marketing agency.  

Fresh Perspectives and Creative Ideas

There are many reasons why companies perform well, such as market position or technology leadership. But it’s also true that creativity is at the heart of business innovation, and innovation is the engine of growth. With an increasing focus on the science of marketing—including performance marketing, marketing AI, and advanced analytics—it’s important not to forget about the art of marketing.

As McKinsey Digital explained, creativity; unique angles, innovative strategies, and external viewpoints that internal teams might overlook mean so much in the digital marketing world. 

When compared to the internal, in-house marketing teams of brands, agencies provide access to a diverse team of professionals with various backgrounds and experiences, and it creates an environment where creativity thrives. This diversity translates into innovative campaigns that stand out in a crowded marketplace. Moreover, agencies keep up with the latest industry trends and best practices, ensuring that their clients’ marketing strategies are both current and effective. 

Not convinced? As many marketers may remember, the “Fearless Girl” statue by State Street Global Advisors, created by an advertising agency, garnered huge media attention. More importantly, it sparked important conversations about gender diversity in corporate leadership and showed that creativity speaks loudly. 

Credit: Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

Time Savings Leading to Business Growth

Let us start with the truth, time-consuming tasks, including content creation, social media management, SEO optimization, email marketing, and campaign analytics, can be overwhelming for internal teams, alongside their other responsibilities. 

Teaming up with a digital marketing agency is a substantial time savings, which directly contributes to business growth, on that kind of occasion. By outsourcing marketing tasks to professionals who use different kinds of tools, businesses can focus more on their core activities. This reallocation of time and resources can drive overall business growth, as leaders can devote their energy to areas that directly impact their bottom line.

Cost-Effectiveness: Comparing In-House Costs vs. Agency Fees

Another benefit of teaming up with a digital marketing agency is saving money in the long run, even though the initial perception might be that agency fees are higher. Especially when compared to the in-house team, whose hiring and training costs are high. 

As you already know, in-house team expenses include salaries, benefits, and ongoing training for multiple roles such as SEO specialists, content creators, social media managers, and data analysts. A report by Glassdoor indicates that the average annual salary for digital marketing personnel in the U.S. is around $70,000. And that figure does not include the additional costs for each specialized role. Furthermore, providing employees with the necessary tools and software can add thousands of dollars to the budget annually. 

Crisis Management and Rapid Response

A corporate crisis is real; we are talking about occasions experienced by 69% of leaders at least once in the last 5 years. That figure, actually, underscores the importance of being prepared against them. 

By developing management plans that include key actions, communication strategies, and response protocols, marketing agencies can help you respond quickly when a crisis arises.

Especially new-age digital marketing agencies use advanced tools to track brand mentions, social media chatter, and news coverage and are able to identify potential issues before they escalate. What’s more? When a crisis does occur, agencies deploy their expertise in public relations and crisis communication to manage the situation effectively.

Remember the KFC shortage crisis back in 2018? The agency developed a humorous and apologetic campaign. 

Detailed Analytics and Transparent Reporting (Holding Agencies Accountable for Achieving Your Goals)

As we mentioned before, agencies offer various digital marketing services, and, fortunately, reporting is one of them! 

Reports, which cover various aspects of performance, such as website traffic, conversion rates, engagement, and ROI, are typically generated using sophisticated analytics tools that provide in-depth data and actionable insights. Brands themselves, and their in-house teams can also do it, however, we know that an external agency brings an unbiased viewpoint and provides an objective analysis of marketing performance. When considered internal teams may sometimes lack this objectivity due to their close involvement with the brand’s activities.

On the other hand, digital marketing agencies employ experts in data analysis and interpretation, and these professionals can understand how to derive actionable insights from complex data sets. They can identify trends, anomalies, and opportunities.

So, while it’s true that brands and their in-house teams also engage in reporting, digital marketing agencies bring a level of expertise, objectivity, and access to advanced tools.