Digital marketing is no longer an option for startups -- it is a necessity to get ahead of the competition. 

Top digital marketing agencies chalk up effective strategies to ensure that the efforts show results and push the brand forward. Showcasing yourself through various digital channels is imperative to get the attention of the target audience. While you can have web design companies design a stellar website for your startup, you need a full-service digital marketing agency to achieve various goals and scale up your marketing efforts. Similarly, the best SEO companies cannot achieve tangible results unless you adopt a holistic approach toward increasing the outreach of your business.

Lack of marketing is often the number one reason why new businesses shut shop even before they complete a year. So here is why it is time to hire a digital marketing agency for your startup if you are serious about growing your brand.

What is digital marketing and what does a digital marketing agency do?

In simple words, digital marketing refers to online marketing activities performed to showcase a brand to its audiences. From search engines to social media, everything that’s an online medium is a powerful way to highlight your brand and attract more customers. At the same time, digital marketing is a lot more than merely having a website or an active Twitter or Instagram account. It also involves employing the right tactics to form deep and meaningful connections with prospects and get them to convert. 

Here are some of the key activities performed by a digital marketing agency:

Social media marketing: It includes attracting, retaining, and engaging audiences on social media platforms. If you plan to run ads on these channels, the digital marketing agency can do that for you. The chief objective is to increase traffic, boost engagement, and build better brand loyalty. 

Content marketing: Digital marketing relies heavily on content to achieve various goals of the business. Whether it is about increasing engagement or simply making the audience aware of a new product or a service, you need stellar content. A digital marketing agency uses various content formats such as blog posts, ebooks, whitepapers, articles, videos, static posts, etc., to present a variety of engaging content for your audience. 

Website optimization: the goal of optimizing your website is to make it more attractive for search engine results so it ranks higher. Digital marketing agencies employ SEO and other strategies to boost your website to the top of the line which generates better traffic and increases your revenue.

Email marketing: This marketing method strategy relies on using emails to promote your products and services to the audience. A good digital marketing agency knows how to craft compelling emails that force the audience to take the desired action and generate a high ROI and bring you more traffic.

How does it benefit your business when you hire a digital marketing agency 

They can help identify target audience and markets

Marketing cannot happen in the void. 

When you start a business, you need to ensure that your product is showcased to the right audience in the right market. And finding both is no walk in the park. Without developing a buyer’s persona and employing audience demographics analysis, you will end up targeting everyone which, in effect, means you target no one. 

Working out specific marketing strategies that are compliant with the needs of your business is a necessity. You need to also ensure that these tactics are applied in an objective fashion to preserve the sanctity of the results. Here’s where a digital marketing agency can step in and make a difference. They can help:

• Suggest the most effective marketing methods for your product;
• Create a buyer’s persona to identify the target audience in the market 
• Find out which digital platform is best suited for business based on customer behavior analysis 

They help you know which results to track

No amount of effort in marketing is useful unless you employ a way to track the outcomes. But then, what are the metrics you are supposed to track? How do you decide them, and what tools do you use to find out the metrics?

These are some of the other areas where a digital marketing agency can make a difference. The competitive landscape makes it essential to consistently track the results to understand how effective are your marketing efforts. 

An agency tells you the Key Performance Indicators to focus on. They identify the ones that are most important on channels where you are running campaigns and also provide you with analytical reports and detailed insights to assess the effectiveness of your efforts. You can use the information to make better marketing decisions and decide how to best allocate your budget every quarter. 

Now compare this with traditional marketing efforts and you will realize how challenging it gets to know the actual numbers. For instance, if you publish an ad about your start-up in the newspaper, there is no definitive way to know how many read the ad. With a digital marketing agency, you can say goodbye to such uncertainties. Knowing the results in real-time gives you much better insights into where you might be going wrong.

Moreover, in the digital age, targeting audiences based on personalized and location-based demographics are more important than ever. There is a tremendous opportunity to use that information and analyze it to chalk out future strategies. It is not too far-fetched to suggest that traditional marketing practices and metrics may soon become outdated. So without a solid digital strategy, the chances of your startup succeeding may not be very bright.

 You can boost your sales

When you have launched a new product or service in the market, your number one goal is to reach a high sales figure. After all, the sales revenue determines your profit.

But how can you do it unless you know how to market your products to the audience in a way that appeals to them? Can you encourage customers to buy something from a new business without using a robust digital marketing strategy?

The answer is -- NO. You need to highlight the value and benefits of your offering to entice the customers. You need to show your products on the platforms where your target audience is most likely to be found. You also need to use other channels of marketing such as email marketing and influencer marketing, to increase the chances of more people noticing your business. In other words, the goal is simple -- you have to walk the extra mile to make yourself available to your entire audience base. 

An agency can help you achieve these goals and do the groundwork. Despite the fierce competition in the market, a good agency can help establish you on a level playing field. They can use a variety of online marketing tools to run your campaigns smoothly and increase your sales. You don’t have to worry about investing in these tools individually -- by availing the services of an agency, you get automatic access without any recurring costs. 

You can leverage the power of storytelling

Storytelling is an integral part of showcasing your business to your potential customers. When your prospects come to your website or social media channels, they don’t want to just see your product. They want a narrative that shows them how your product or service is helpful for their pain points. 

When you onboard a digital marketing agency, they ensure that your products and services are marketed in the most attractive manner. They know what to eliminate and what to shine the spotlight on so that the prospects become paying customers. They can help you generate the right PR for your products to increase your visibility. Instead of relying on traditional modes of advertising, an agency with a qualified team can guide you in the right direction to craft effective messaging that gets noticed by your audience. 

You can increase web traffic 

The right kind of digital marketing campaign can generate quality leads who can get directed to your website. The more traffic you receive, the higher your chances of getting good leads. If you put in the right efforts, you will find it easier to convert the leads into customers. 

Let’s remember that SEO is only a part of driving traffic to your website. It can surely help increase the visibility and authority of your website but you need something more to cross the finish line. 

Without a digital marketing strategy in place, you may find it difficult to drive the right traffic to your website, hampering your lead-generating opportunities will likely be damaged. As a startup, this can be extremely damaging to your revenue. 

Enjoy the scalability without going out of pocket

Once the campaign starts showing results, you need to scale up your efforts. If you rely on an in-house team for digital marketing, you may have to hire more for better growth. This means additional resources and money which can sometimes be a challenge for a new business.

With a digital marketing agency, that is never the case. Even if you need more people involved in the project, you don’t have to expand your team. Most agencies offer a range of packages and services to suit your needs to the T. So whatever it is that you need, you can implement that without worrying, about expanding your team. 

You can focus on running your business

When you have a startup, your business needs your attention. If you are constantly chasing marketing efforts, you may find yourself in a situation where your strengths are not utilized in the right manner. Moreover, it can be very time-consuming to be a one-person army looking after each aspect of your business. And let’s not forget the resources you would have to apply to build a digital marketing campaign from the ground up.

Why go through so much effort when you can easily delegate the responsibility? When you get a digital marketing agency to work with you, all you need to do is share your expectations and goals. They will handle the rest. You don’t have to worry about hiring talent or training them to get them up to speed with the deliverables. Everything will be handled by experts who know the right means and method of achieving the targets.

In turn, this will free up your time and make it easier for you to focus on running your business to the best of your abilities. This is a win-win and can help you perform much better. 

You can save on costs compared to other marketing methods

Digital marketing agencies provide a lot of flexibility regarding campaign strategies. Since you can track the performance of your campaigns daily, you can easily decide when you want to increase your spending or reduce it for specific exercises. For instance, if your email marketing strategies are giving you better results than running ads on Facebook, you can cut down on your ad spending immediately. However, this is not the case when you use traditional forms of marketing. If you are getting a flyer printed to spread the word about your startup within the local community, the cost remains the same whether your business performs.

A digital marketing agency even gives you the option of how you want to allocate your budget towards various digital marketing channels. For instance, you may decide to allocate the lion’s share to beards getting software designed that can create high-performing content for social media instead of running multiple PPC campaigns. An agency worth their salt will allow you to pivot at all times so that you are not stuck spending money on something that is not delivering the desired results. 

In search of a digital marketing agency that can deliver as promised?

Finding an agency that helps you realize your marketing dreams is not easy. And unless you partner up with the right agency, you will never be able to relish the results. If you are looking for support in Los Angeles, look no further. SPINX Digital, a web development, and a creative agency, is here to help your startup run effective campaigns. Whether designing and launching a new website or running a social media ad campaign, you can reach out for all your digital marketing needs. 

Author Bio: 

Brijesh Jakharia co-founded SPINX Digital in 2005 and takes great pride in crafting web and mobile marketing solutions for mid-market businesses to enterprises. Marketing is his passion, and the thrill to build a brand from the ground up has helped him craft successful brand stories for world-class clients. While not at work, he loves to spend his time on research and reading digital content stories.