It is increasingly common for businesses to outsource their technical work and their marketing work. In itself, this is not an issue, as the breadth of experts available and the use of more experienced groups is beneficial to a business’ presence online.
However, this outsourcing is often not contracted to one company, but rather spread out across a wide variety of different agencies. The corporate website is completed by one company; a search engine optimisation (SEO) company takes over to ensure that the website is picked up in search rankings, another group handles email marketing and social media marketing is covered by yet another company. The diffusion of all of these core business ingredients can be spread far and wide, with ensuing negative consequences that cause issues further down the line.
The Common Problem for Businesses Outsourcing to Multiple Agencies
The most common issue for businesses that outsource their technical and marketing work in this way is that there are often serious inefficiency issues and problems with communication. Each agency is determined to leave its mark on the business’ efforts, and this can be detrimental to the business’ online presence. Each company requires briefing meetings and strategy meetings, each with their own internal processes and ways of handling communication, which can be difficult to oversee and manage effectively.
With websites and SEO strategies separated, businesses end up paying two groups to go over the same ground, with one revising the other’s work needlessly. Website designers and copywriters will likely have SEO experience, but many may not have the specific knowledge needed to make a business website stand out amongst the crowd. SEO companies will often be handed a corporate website to optimise, and simply have to redo work because they are more experienced in search engine optimisation and because they want to ensure the client knows they have made adjustments.
Marketing ends up being split into two camps: email marketing and social media marketing. These two highly compatible marketing types - which often have to work in tandem for maximum efficiency - are divided into labour by two agencies, which may work at cross purposes. For example, it is highly likely that those who elect to receive marketing emails are also following the business on social media. By splitting one online marketing strategy into two, businesses may often see repetitive messages being put out, or worse, messages at cross-purposes to one another.
This common problem puts many businesses at a disadvantage, particularly when it comes to keeping up with competitors. The time and effort it takes to coordinate these, often overlapping strategies, is a needless waste of energy. There is, however, a very simple solution to all of these issues.
The Solution for a Fractured Marketing Strategy
The simple fact is that there are numerous agencies that handle all of these complementary services under one umbrella. Going for one overall strategy, handled by one agency, can greatly cut down the amount of time wasted coordinating messages from agency to agency and covering the same ground.
For example, the issue of SEO agencies redoing the work of an agency of website designers and copywriters is eliminated. The corporate message is decided with the consultation of SEO experts, and a cohesive message is formed, and when the website is designed, it will already have the necessary information for full optimisation integrated into its build.
Email marketing will blend seamlessly into social media marketing efforts, with results seen across both outlets and complementing both outlets’ advantages. Rather than repeating messages (or worse, putting out different messages), marketing for the business will be brought under one unified message, with an in-depth understanding of each medium’s particular strengths and weaknesses. Any issues - such as a social media flare-up - can be handled efficiently and the damage mitigated across other channels, without there being confusion.
There is one fee, and usually only one account manager to handle the smaller aspects of the site design, production and promotion. Each team pulls together to create a cohesive and strong online image for the company, and the promotion of the business is planned and carried out in a way that takes into account each facet of the business. There is little issue with a lack of communication between agencies; under one agency umbrella, businesses can rest assured that their needs are being met without having to repeat the same introductory process with multiple companies.
This is a much more efficient and cost-effective method of creating a corporate web presence, and one that can be easily amended according to client needs. Do away with the hassle of multiple agencies and choose one that meets all business needs.
JDR Group: Your Marketing Partner
Watch this short video to see how JDR Group could be your all-in-one marketing agency:
