If you’re a business owner or marketing manager, then you know how challenging it can be to manage all your marketing needs. From developing a marketing strategy to executing campaigns and analyzing results, there is just so much that needs to be done. That’s why outsourcing your marketing to a professional agency can be an effective solution. Here are some reasons why you should consider outsourcing your marketing efforts.
Time Savings & Cost-Effectiveness
Hiring an agency allows you to save time, money, and resources as they have the necessary skills and expertise to take over the whole process of managing your digital marketing campaign. By relying on professionals, you don’t have to worry about hiring extra staff or dealing with the recruitment process—which can be expensive and time-consuming. Plus, they will be able to provide advice and insights into what works best in certain situations so that you don’t have to figure it out yourself.
Outsourcing marketing Give Access To Expertise & Experience
When looking for an experienced marketing agency, look no further than Measurement Marketing! Find a team consisting of experienced people who specialise in digital marketing disciplines such as Graphic DesignSearch Engine Optimisation, content creation, website design & development,email campaigns, marketing automation, and more! A good agency will understand trends in the industry as well as emerging technologies that can help improve your overall online presence. This makes them an ideal partner for any business looking for reliable results from a trusted team of experts.
Focus On What Matters Most
When you own or run a business there’s enough to do right? With up to 10 hats of business that you can be wearing at any given time, time is not your friend. Whilst initiatives like Digital Boost NZ suggest you can do it all yourself. Is it really feasible? Outsourcing your marketing efforts gives you more time and resources to focus on what matters most – running your business! By entrusting all your digital marketing needs with Metric Marketing, we will handle everything from strategy development to execution and analysis of results so that you can focus on taking care of other aspects of your business such as customer service or product innovation. This way, you can rest assured knowing that your digital presence is in good hands while still having control over every decision made by our team.
Outsourcing your marketing needs is an excellent way to maximize efficiency and ensure success without breaking the bank or sacrificing quality results. With the right partner like Metric Marketing at your side, you’ll have access to expert advice and experience that helps make sure your campaigns reach their full potential while giving you more time & resources back in order to run other aspects of the business more efficiently. So if you’re serious about taking advantage of all the benefits that come with outsourcing your digital presence management – get in touch with us today! We would love to hear from you!
How much should I spend on marketing is a pretty common question we get asked. And it’s a fair question. But like anything in the marketing world, it’s like asking: How much does a good logo cost? Or How much does a website cost?
The short answer is… It depends… Not very definitive is it? It depends on what your goals and budget are and whether you see marketing as an investment or a cost. Fortunately, there are some guidelines that can help you decide.
What do the experts say?
While there is no hard and fast answer about how much to spend on marketing, there are some guidelines and general rules of thumb that can help you make the decision about what’s best for you.
Well how about this. According to figures from a recent CMO survey published in February 2021, across all industries the spend averaged 8.9% of revenue on marketing. In theory, this money spent should generate more revenue. When it’s done right, it’s money well-spent.
Finding the sweet spot for spending can be a challenge though. Ultimately it comes down to what you believe the purpose of marketing to be. And if you see it as an expense or an Investment.
Marketing is an Investment
The important thing is to see any marketing spend as an Investment. Not an expense or cost.
Sometimes investments return a lot, sometimes they return a little. Sometimes investments return nothing and sometimes they end up losing you money. However, if you look at any long-term investment, whilst there are always peaks and troughs. In the long run, if you understand what you are trying to achieve, monitor and measure results, and adapt when necessary, most of the time you will see a good ROI.
Marketing is no different. If you define really good SMART objectives, it is much easier to put measures into place to get to the destination.
If you’re throwing money at various activities with no real plan or direction, and not measuring the results, then you are just throwing money away. Marketing without a plan is like driving with your eyes closed. You’re probably going to crash.
Like anything that involves the unknown, and when there are so many options, knowing what to look for to choose the right marketing agency for your business is no different. In this article, we will try and point out some things that may help you get to a decision you’re comfortable with faster.
Digital marketing can provide your business with so much potential return, so, why would you ever leave something as big as your company’s success to chance? Or why would you sacrifice your own time to learn (or try to learn) how to do your own marketing? Wouldn’t you be best doing what you do best? That’s probably why you went into business in the first place right?
Knowing how to choose the right marketing partner for your business is not an easy feat. After all, marketing companies are all pretty good at talking – it’s what they do! But finding one that also ‘walks the walk’ can be somewhat difficult. And when the growth of your business depends on finding and working with people you can trust, there’s a few things you can do to make sure you make the right CHOICE.
Choosing a marketing agency
There are plenty of ways of deciding which agency you want to work with:
Formal Quote or Proposal
Pitch for your business
Seeing sample/small projects up front
Word of Mouth – Getting a referral
Basing your decision on cost
As I alluded to above, Finding an agency is easy. The hard part is finding an agency that is the right fit for your business. I recommend you think about the following things before trying to decide.
Trust
The digital marketing landscape can be a bit of a minefield. It’s continually changing, so it’s natural that plans and tactics will need to change over time. Do you trust your agency to keep up, and keep you informed long the way?
Like any relationship, it won’t always be smooth, and there’s bound to be some turbulence from time to time. It’s really important, essential in fact, that you know you can communicate with your agency freely and address difficult situations. Being open to engagement feedback will help. So ask them what happens when things go wrong. Can you trust them to step up and fix and/or deliver without unexpected invoices coming your way? When deadlines are fast approaching and something’s not right, can you count on honesty, even if what they say is the last thing you want to hear?
Value
When you choose to move forward with an agency, it’s a good idea to ask them for some real-life examples of how they have helped businesses like yours. Do they have case studies available? What are their fields of expertise? Will they deliver you real value?
Transparency
Transparency relates back to trust. Pricing for example–and let’s be honest, no-one likes to talk about money–but if all the cards are on the table from the start, everyone knows where they stand. This includes the agency being upfront about charges and costs and you being upfront about budgets and what you can afford. It’s no secret that some marketing companies will tell you what you want to hear just to win your business. Be wary of this. Starting a relationship on false pretences will more often than not lead to more deception later on. You simply can’t build on a foundation of misrepresented truths.
Choosing an Agency is your decision
Size doesn’t matter
You might not be looking at being the biggest client, or the smallest, but the days of judging companies on the number of desks in their office are gone. Bigger teams don’t guarantee work will be done faster or to a higher quality.
Look into the company’s culture. Does the team communicate well, collaborate with each other internally and externally? And most importantly do they demonstrate an understanding of your vision? Do they get how important what you do is – to you!
Often, (and we hear of this a lot) the people pitching to you won’t be the ones doing the work, so we recommend you find out who will actually be working on your project. In larger agencies, your projects could be handed down to less experienced or junior members. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing–unless they use you as “practice” for the “real clients”. Would you want that?
Are Case Studies Enough?
Before you hire a new employee, you would conduct interviews and check their references. Does the same happen when you engage a marketing agency? Whilst previous work is a good benchmark, it’s not the be-all and end-all. If you’re serious about marketing your business, you should ask to speak with some of your prospective agency’s clients. Then they can tell you themselves what the agency is actually like to work with and how it has helped their business.
Price isn’t everything…
Transparency and trust are key here! It’s true that time and costs can and probably will fluctuate from project to project or campaign to campaign. This can depend on the products and/or services used in each case. The important thing to keep in mind is the open-minded communication mentioned above. If the agency has a good track record of this and the clients they have are seeing good results or ROI, then this is a good indicator – if a campaign costs you $2000, but returns sales of 5X ($10k) then the value should outweigh the price every time.
How are the agency’s own marketing efforts?
Do they market themselves well? Do you find what they do engaging and educational? ‘Practice what you preach’ is essential when it comes to marketing.
Of course, how they promote and advertise their own business should be different from how they market yours. However, if you want to know how to choose the right marketing agency for your business, you will want to know and be comfortable they can do it for themselves.
How to choose the right marketing agency
Any decent marketing person can tell you that running any marketing activity without a plan or clear strategy without some type of optimisation, whether that be SEO, defining a conversion path or CTA (Call to Action) is ultimately going to result in failure. I said it in the into, but it bears repeating, you’re an expert at what you do – that’s why you started your business. The right marketing agency for your business is an expert at taking what you’re great at, helping you develop your ideas, and turn those ideas into action. This will, in turn, help your buyers connect with you and ultimately if everyone plays their role well, will result in reaching your objectives – whatever they may be.
It’s true that marketing has dramatically changed in the last decade and if you want to find an agency or outsourced marketing department that is a good fit for your business, you just need to do your research, consider the options available to you and be comfortable that you choose what you think is the best fit for you! And to help even further (based on Google search and excluding us) here’s an article for the best marketing companies in Southland.
When it comes to any business in any industry, not all businesses are created equal. The same can be said for Design and Marketing Companies. With that said, how do we define the best?
Business is not a finite thing, in fact, if business were a game, it would be an infinite one. There is no official way to measure who is better. Or is there? We have business awards, design awards, and a number of other ways to measure who is best in business, but these are still finite things within the infinite.
The best way to decide is by reframing the question – or adding to the end of it – Ask not “Who is the best Marketing Company?” but “Who is the Best Marketing Company for me? And my business?”
Truthfully, there is no one-size-fits-all company in any industry–which will be the best for you depends on your needs and circumstances. What’s your criteria for partnering with an agency?
One of the most important parts of teaming up with a company is working with people who believe what you believe. You can usually feel that in your gut. And from my experience, I would say trust your instinct!
Based on Google search results, below are five of the most visible design and digital marketing companies that do business in Invercargill, New Zealand.
Well, it’s us… Back9 Creative!
There’s no way of disputing it when you’re ranking number one on google for Best Marketing Southland! Especially when you have a featured Snippet!
At Back9 we’re a trusted agency in the digital marketing landscape of Invercargill, Back9 Creative was started back in 2011 by Phil & Alli Robinson. With the rise of digital technologies, they believed that without the huge budgets of global brands, the ‘traditional’ outbound way of ‘interruptive’ selling and marketing was no longer as effective.
As design-driven agency with a focus on Web Design, Custom Apps and Search Engine Marketing, Back9’s goal is to help is to help ambitious businesses grow and succeed by tapping into new technologies and new ways of thinking.
Market South Now Naked Creative
Market South was an award-winning marketing, communications, and graphic design company. A recent rebrand to Naked Creative, they still appear to be a full-service studio. This can include Branding, Web Design, Advertising Campaigns, Strategy, Copywriting, PR, Print, and more.
Market South was passionate about creating kick-ass brands and campaigns that drive sales and help their clients make more money! The new Naked approach is stripped back. Honest. Authentic. Naked Creative believes “Quite simply, our job is to sell more things, to more people, more often and at higher prices.”
As well as a full-suite of marketing and advertising services, they produce and own a range of products and publications focused on promoting Invercargill and the greater Southland region under their brand The Locals. Owner and Director Carla Forbes is a well-known Southland business personality and has held a number of roles on boards including the Southland Chamber of Commerce, where she was president. Forbes has also been the face of a number of local campaigns including, Stand up for SIT and The NZAS Tiwai Point Fight for Fairness campaign.
Market Elements
Market Elements offer Google Ads, Social Media Marketing, SEO and Web Design services. They have been providing marketing support and integrated marketing campaigns for small and small-medium businesses since 2010.
Market Elements say “It’s all about the relationship and the results for us. Most of our clients ask us to work with them well beyond their initial project, as they value the fact that we’re local and offer professional, independent advice and services”.
With team members collaborating from multiple locations, Market Elements do not appear to have a home base. However this can probably work to their advantage too. Lower overheads can mean more cost-effective pricing.
If you are a small or medium business then Market Elements are well worth touching base with to see if they can help you grow your business.
Digital Club
Digital Club, based in Invercargill, Southland, is a leading digital marketing agency dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes achieve their online marketing goals. Their comprehensive services include responsive website design, tailored SEO strategies, and targeted advertising on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google. With a mission to turn business aspirations into achievements, Digital Club focuses on guiding young entrepreneurs, revitalising existing businesses, and partnering with startups. Their transparent communication and client-centric approach ensure that each business receives personalised solutions to enhance its online presence and drive growth
Grow NZ Marketing
Grow NZ has recently shown up in Google for the Search query: Best Marketing Southland. They specifically say on their Landing page “We’re your Otago – Southland based marketing partner. Let’s work together to grow your business with strategic and savvy marketing”.
They may have over 20 years of successful experience with profitable marketing and to be fair they have managed to rank in Southland for this query. However the title in the google search result clearly says Bay of Plenty.
A quick search of the website shows they claim to have multiple locations and to be fair in the realms of digital marketing you don’t need to be in the same town these days – Or country… The question you need to ask yourself is. If this business is claiming to be based in Southland (and Otago) why do they not have an address here? And that being the case, how honest are they. If you don’t have a problem with businesses making misleading claims, then they may well be worth chatting to. If honesty and integrity are important to you, then you may want t give them a miss. Your call.
Who is the Best Marketing Company for me and my business?
So which design and digital marketing company that is based in Invercargill, is the best for you and your business? Well… That really depends on what you’re looking for.
At Back9 we strive to be the best digital marketing agency in Invercargill. Firebrand, Grow NZ and Market South aka Naked Creative, all aim to offer a full-service. From managing social media to building a brand new website they say they can do it. Netbranding and Market Elements appear to be more focused on the web side of things. That makes them good options if you are looking to go full digital and don’t need traditional marketing campaigns.
If you’re looking to partner with an agency for your marketing endeavours, it’s worth taking time to do the research! Check out each of these businesses and other Invercargill-based design and marketing companies. Look over their services and see if their style and tone match what you want for your own business. See how well their own efforts work. How well does their website rank? Do you like what they have done and what others are saying about them? At the end of the day, as marketing agencies, we all say we are experts. We all say that we can help your business succeed. Ultimately, the Best Marketing Company will be the one you feel most comfortable approaching. One thing is for certain, Taking time to find that right fit and work with credible, reliable businesses can save time and trouble later on. So it’s worth the effort!
