Why Hire a Marketing Agency? - Fonteco Marketing Agency

Why Hire a Marketing Agency? Short answer, being found online organically is not only necessary but expected by potential customers.

Organic Search: Why hire a marketing agency?

Online presence of small businesses has increasingly become a critical factor for their success. Here are several reasons why being found online organically is not only necessary but expected by potential customers but the time needed by businesses and staff to manage these fundamental marketing needs.

Consumer Behavior:

With the advent of digital technology, consumer behavior has drastically changed. Today’s customers typically start their buying process online, researching to find the best businesses that can meet their needs. If your business can’t be found during this research phase, you’re likely to lose out on potential sales.

Decision Making: The majority of consumers use the internet to make purchase decisions. If your business is not found and ranked highly online, you miss out on these potential customers due to customers finding your competition before your business.
Convenience: Online presence makes it convenient for consumers to find and access your services or products, increasing the chance of purchases.
Research: Consumers often compare different products, services, and businesses online before making a decision. Your online presence can ensure you’re considered in these comparisons.

Weekly Time Needed: (Research & Analysis): 1-2 hours. This involves understanding your audience’s behavior, including the platforms they use, the content they consume, and their online purchasing behaviors. Why Hire a Marketing Agency? We help businesses get found online organically by understanding your potential customers.

Credibility and Trust:

An online presence allows you to showcase your products or services, customer testimonials, awards, and other credentials. This builds credibility and trust with your audience. When a business can’t be found online, it can raise doubts about its legitimacy and quality.

Reputation Management: Having an online presence gives you control over your business’s reputation, enabling you to respond to reviews and feedback positively.
Transparency: Online presence enables you to share details about your business, its history, values, and offerings, creating an image of transparency.
Professionalism: A well-designed website or a well-managed social media page is seen as a sign of a professional, modern business.

Weekly Time Needed: (Website & Social Media Management): 5-6 hours. Regularly updating your website with relevant content and managing your online listings, responses, and accuracy is crucial.

Online Accessibility:

Your online presence allows potential customers to discover and learn about your business anytime, anywhere. The importance of being found highly ranked can mean the difference between a business that struggles versus a business that thrives.

Reach: Online presence allows your business to be accessible to customers when searching your local area for 10’s and maybe 100’s of terms.
Customer Convenience: Customers can access your products or services at their convenience, which enhances their shopping experience.
Information Availability: Customers can find information about your products/services, business hours, contact information, and more, when searching via mobile, desktop, iPads, and any smart device.

Weekly Time Needed: (Website Maintenance & Updates): 2-3 hours. This involves ensuring your website is always up and running, user-friendly, and updated with the latest information, articles, blog posts, about your products/services.

Competitive Advantage:

If your competitors are online (which they most likely are), not having an online presence puts you at a disadvantage. Organic online visibility allows you to compete on a more level playing field. Why hire a marketing agency, a competitive advantage over all of your competitors is our expertise.

Visibility: Your business becomes visible to potential customers who are searching for businesses like yours.
Level Playing Field: All businesses have the potential for ranking highly in organic searches & directories. The ones that succeed are doing the best job of marketing in their local area.

Weekly Time Needed: (Competitor Analysis & SEO): 2-3 hours. Keeping an eye on what your competitors are doing online can help you stay competitive. Also, regular SEO activities are necessary to maintain and improve your search engine rankings.

Cost-Effective Marketing:

Organic online visibility, achieved through strategies such as SEO (Search Engine Optimization), content marketing, and social media engagement, is a cost-effective way to reach a larger audience compared to traditional marketing methods.

Budget-friendly: Digital marketing strategies such as SEO and content marketing require lower investments compared to traditional marketing.
ROI: Online marketing has the potential for a high return on investment, as it can reach a wide audience at a relatively low cost.
Targeted Marketing: Digital marketing allows for targeted marketing, ensuring you reach the right audience and increase conversion rates.

Weekly Time Needed: (Content Creation & SEO): 6-8 hours. Why Hire a Marketing Agency? Developing high-quality content, such as blog posts, videos, or social media posts, takes time. SEO activities also require regular effort.

Customer Engagement: Why Hire a Marketing Agency?

Being online gives you the opportunity to engage with your customers and potential customers directly. It enables two-way communication, allowing you to receive immediate feedback and address customer concerns promptly.

Relationship Building: Engaging with customers online helps build relationships and fosters customer loyalty.
Immediate Feedback: Online platforms provide an opportunity for immediate feedback, allowing businesses to improve quickly.
Personalization: Businesses can offer personalized experiences to customers based on their interactions, enhancing customer satisfaction.

Weekly Time Needed: (Social Media & Email Marketing): 5-7 hours. Engaging with your audience online, responding to comments and messages, and sending out regular email newsletters are all important activities.

Local Search: Why Hire a Marketing Agency?

With the increase in “near me” searches, small businesses can benefit significantly from local SEO. Potential customers are looking for businesses in their locality, and being found online can attract these customers.

Local Traffic: Local SEO helps attract customers in your vicinity, who are more likely to visit your physical location.
Local Reputation: Positive online reviews can improve your reputation in the local community.
Google Business Profile: By optimizing your Google Business Profile listing, you can increase your chances of showing up in local searches and Google Maps.

Weekly Time Needed: (Local SEO): 1-2 hours. This includes optimizing your Google My Business listing, gathering and responding to local reviews, and other local SEO activities.

Data and Insights:

An online presence offers valuable data about your customers. This can help you to understand their needs, preferences, and behavior better, allowing you to adjust your offerings accordingly.

Informed Decision Making: Online data can inform business decisions, from product development to marketing strategies.
Understanding Customer Behavior: Data insights can help you understand customer behavior, preferences, and trends.
Performance Tracking: Online platforms allow you to track your business performance in real-time, enabling continuous improvement.

Weekly Time Needed: (Analytics Review & Reporting): 2-3 hours. Regularly checking your analytics and drawing insights from the data will help you understand if your efforts are paying off and where improvements are needed.

Brand Building:

Your online presence is a vital extension of your brand. It helps you to communicate your mission, values, and uniqueness to your audience.

Brand Awareness: An online presence allows you to increase awareness of your brand among a wider audience.
Brand Image: You can communicate your brand’s personality, mission, and values to customers through your online platforms.
Brand Loyalty: Regular interaction with customers through online platforms can foster brand loyalty.

Weekly Time Needed: (Content & Visual Design): 3-4 hours. This involves activities like designing visual elements that reflect your brand and crafting brand messages for your content.

Customer Expectations:

Today’s consumers expect businesses to have an online presence, including a website and social media profiles. It’s become a norm in many industries, and businesses that aren’t posting regularly and keeping relevant may be perceived as outdated or skipped over when customer search for businesses like yours.

Customer Service: Online platforms offer an additional channel for customer service, and many customers now expect businesses to respond to queries and complaints online.
Keeping Up with Trends: Businesses that aren’t online can be seen as out of touch with modern trends.
Convenience: As mentioned earlier, customers appreciate the convenience of researching and buying products or services online.

Weekly Time Needed: (Customer Service & Experience Management): 3-4 hours. This involves responding to customer queries, reviews, and complaints, and making sure your website and customer journey is as seamless as possible.

Inside the Numbers: Why hire a marketing agency?

In total, you’d be looking at approximately 30-40 hours per week to fully manage and optimize your online presence across all these strategies. It’s a significant investment, you can think of it as one extra full-time member of your team.

Working with a marketing agency like Fonteco can indeed save significant time and provide expert strategies to accelerate results. Here are a few reasons why:

Expertise and Experience: We have a small dedicated team to meet your marketing needs – from SEO to content creation, social media management, analytics, and more. Their knowledge and expertise allow us to develop and implement effective strategies for your business to excel.
Efficiency: We can accomplish tasks much more efficiently than a business owner or small team could. We understand the nuances of different marketing channels and we avoid common pitfalls that can derail a marketing campaign.
Dedicated Resources: Unlike a small business owner who needs to juggle multiple responsibilities, we dedicate our full attention to managing and optimizing your marketing efforts. This means campaigns can be launched faster, data can be analyzed more thoroughly, and adjustments can be made more quickly.
Ongoing Optimization: A good marketing agency doesn’t just set up a campaign and let it run; they constantly monitor and analyze the results to optimize performance. This ongoing optimization can lead to better results in a shorter time frame.
Keeping Up with Trends: The digital marketing landscape changes rapidly. We keep current with these changes and adapt strategies quickly. We understand what strategies are best to use in the current digital climate and pivot when needed.
Holistic Strategy: We develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that ensures all your marketing efforts are aligned and working towards the same goals. This strategic approach can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your marketing efforts.
Cost-Effective: While hiring a marketing agency requires a monthly and ongoing investment. The investment is recouped with the new organic traffic that the marketing drives to your business. We offer a marketing hub to watch what we are doing “live” and see the results for yourself.
Focus on Core Business Functions: By delegating marketing activities to us, you and your team can focus on what you do best—running your business. This can lead to better overall productivity and business performance. especially for the new customers your marketing drives to your business.

Remember, every marketing agency is different, so it’s crucial to choose one that understands your business, shares your values, and has a proven track record of success. An experienced agency will be able to tailor their services to your needs, helping you get the best results in the quickest time frame.