Have you thought about why we use the term captain for a person who is sailing a ship? It is because they are the ones responsible for navigating, anchoring, and sailing the boat to the destination. Similarly, a marketing agency is like a ship's captain called marketing. In this article, we will discuss the core concepts of a marketing agency such as its importance and functions.
Marketing Agency: Meaning
A business hires a marketing agency to lead its marketing plan. The marketing agency could offer comprehensive as well as specialized marketing solutions. It sets the plan of action to achieve the marketing objectives of a company, executes those plans, and evaluates the performance.
A marketing agency provides services to businesses regarding the marketing mix i.e., product, price, place, and promotion. It assists businesses in the planning, execution, and evaluation of marketing strategies. It could either offer a specialized service or bundled services to a company.
A relevant question to ask here is why does a business even hire a marketing agency in the first place? It is because a marketing agency employs marketing specialists who know the market inside out. First, they understand the demands of a client and then provide them tailored solutions resulting in increased brand value and return on investment on the marketing campaigns. Furthermore, if a marketing agency provides comprehensive marketing solutions, it can communicate a consistent brand message to the target audience across all marketing channels.
A new company in the market wants to increase its brand exposure. It will hire a marketing agency to lead the marketing activities. The agency would conduct market research, identify the opportunities, plan the activities, execute the plan, and evaluate the performance.
Functions of a Marketing Agency
There are many functions a marketing agency offers to its clients. From leading the marketing activities to selecting the suitable marketing communications strategy, a marketing agency can do it all. However, the core functions of a marketing agency are:
- Conduct research – A marketing agency could conduct market research for its clients. The purpose of this is to understand and analyze the business model, identify the opportunities for a given business model, discover competition in the market, and select the target audience.
- Set the goals – The marketing agency works in tandem with the client to set the goals. It is essential to have clearly defined and realistic goals. For instance, a goal could be to increase the number of subscribers for a service.
- Execute the plan – This function is all about executing the plans. At this point, the marketing agency already knows the business model, target market, and goals of a campaign. It must utilize the tools and methods to effectively execute the plan.
- Evaluate – This function is about tracking the performance of marketing campaigns. Marketing agencies assess the performance against the set objectives to track the performance. It is about finding the return on investment. For instance, a company spends a certain amount of money on marketing activities, and along with the marketing agency a certain return was expected. If the performance is on track to meet that return, it means the performance of the marketing agency is heading in the right direction.
Fig. 1 - A marketing agency employee designing marketing materials
Types of Marketing Agency
As mentioned earlier, the marketing agencies could offer comprehensive as well as specialized marketing solutions. Therefore, there are many types of marketing agencies, and these are based on different functions.
Digital marketing agency – This type of marketing agency is concerned with the digital presence of its clients. It includes improving the ranking of websites on search engines, website designs, and content creation. The goal is to increase the digital presence of the clients. Search engine optimization (SEO) and, search engine marketing (SEM) are some of the common tools used for this purpose.
Performance marketing agency – This type of marketing agency is only driven by achieving maximum output. These agencies employ data analytics to identify high and low-performance areas of a campaign. Once they know these areas, they allocate more resources to high-performing areas to increase the overall performance of a campaign.
Social media marketing agency – This type of marketing agency specializes in handling the social media presence of its clients. It handles social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. It sets a marketing budget for each platform and evaluates the performance based on engagement and conversions.
Advertising marketing agency – This type of marketing agency is tasked with creating ads for its clients. It creates commercials for electronic and print media. It also creates online ads on websites and, social media platforms. It helps the clients to set the advertisement budget based on their marketing objectives.
PR marketing agency – This type of marketing agency deals with improving the image of its clients in the market. It handles media relations for its clients, and it communicates a well-planned image to the audience. Through PR marketing agencies, businesses can form strong relationships with the target audience.
Branding agency – This type of marketing agency deals with branding for its clients. It means improving brand awareness and reputation. It assists its clients in connecting with their target audience on a deeper level.
Marketing Agency Vs Advertising Agency
Many people seem to confuse the terms “marketing” and “advertising” with each other. Let’s discuss the key differences between these two terms.
Marketing is about using all the components of a marketing mix to ensure that the right product is available at the right time to the right person. On the other hand, advertising is about communicating the message to the target audience in terms of brand value or product specifications.
Similarly, a marketing agency collaborates with its clients from the beginning to the end of a campaign. It involves conceptualizing and executing marketing campaigns. It offers a wide range of services to its clients such as digital marketing, performance marketing, and advertising. When a business does not have a marketing strategy, it is better to hire a marketing agency to plan and execute the strategy.
On the other hand, an advertising agency only handles one aspect of the marketing mix i.e., promotions. It specializes in handling the communication and advertising strategy for a business. When a business already has a marketing strategy but is unsure about the communication and advertising strategy, it is better to get an advertising agency on board.
In short, a marketing agency provides a wide range of services, and advertising is a part of the services. Advertising agency offers specialized marketing solutions relating to communications and advertising.
Fig. 2 - Marketing agency offers bundled services
Advantages of Marketing Agency
The advantages of hiring a marketing agency are:
- Expertise – A marketing agency has the expertise to plan and execute marketing strategies effectively. It employs marketing specialists who know the industry inside out. They understand the requirements of the clients and provide the best possible solutions to them.
- Fresh ideas – One of the reasons for hiring a marketing agency is that it could provide much-needed fresh ideas and new approaches to tackle marketing-related problems. Additionally, since their primary focus is on getting the best solutions for their clients, they could provide key insights to them.
- Success rate – A competent marketing agency is more likely to get the required results for its clients. It specializes in offering 360 degrees in marketing solutions. Additionally, when a business hires a marketing agency, there are key metrics and objectives that the agency must accomplish by the end of its contract. It gives them the impetus to get things right and successfully complete the marketing campaigns.
Disadvantages of Marketing Agency
The disadvantages of hiring a marketing agency are:
- Expenses – For a business, it could cost a lot of money to hire a marketing agency, especially when it hires them to handle all the aspects of marketing. In marketing agencies, the specialists are hired on big salaries, and there are other operational costs.
- Lack of control – When a business gets a marketing agency on board, it must delegate some authority to the agency. Although, they work together on the marketing campaigns, mostly the planning and execution are done by the agency.
Marketing Agency - Key Takeaways
- A marketing agency sets the plan of action to achieve the marketing objectives of a company, executes those plans, and evaluates the performance.
- It understands the demands of a client and then provides them with tailored solutions resulting in increased brand value and return on investment on the marketing campaigns.
- From leading the marketing activities to selecting the suitable marketing communications strategy, a marketing agency can do it all.
- A marketing agency provides a wide range of services, and advertising is a part of the services. Advertising agency offers specialized marketing solutions relating to communications and advertising.
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