If you have an online business or a company that wants to be present online, you sure have thought whether you should hire an online agency or you should do all the marketing activities in-house with you own team. Once this question arises it is not an easy decision to make. You have to take into account costs, but also to think about giving your business the best chance to achieve its marketing objectives.
One way to think about it is by using the SWOT model. If you extend the meaning of this type of analysis and you transgress the traditional model, you can envisage the Internal Environment as the Company and the External Environment as the Agency.
The Strengths can all be linked with the internal knowledge of a business and of its specific market.
Being inside of a company provides a unique understanding and a global view of the business. First, the team inside knows best the core message they want to transmit and the brand. Second, they know their products, the market and the competition, and also the customers.
In the Weaknesses section can be mentioned the superficial knowledge of the online environment and the eventual costs of a dedicated team.
Every medium has its specialists and online marketing makes no difference. If you want to hire someone to handle internally the online marketing activities, you have to be aware that specialists that deliver outstanding results and that would work full time, need a great investment. Also, online marketing is divided in many specialized areas and you will need a complete team. And even if you create this team of online specialists, they need someone to create the strategy and a team manager. So you have to think if this will really suit the budget of the organization.
When one thinks of the agency as the external environment, will surely notice among the Opportunities the agency’s expertise, its specific knowledge and the experience.
Just as you know best your field of activity, agencies know theirs. A full-services agency can offer integrated services, consultancy on your online marketing strategy and also the specialists that can implement this strategy. The expertise goes hand in hand with experience. If you chose an experienced agency, chances are they have worked on multiple websites and various online businesses. They have encountered different situations and know how to face them.
The specific knowledge is another opportunity offered by a digital agency. Various specialists can handle different aspects of your online marketing strategy: SEO and conversion optimization specialists, developers, web designers, marketers, social media specialists and many more.
Sometimes you can be mesmerized by your own strategy. Being an external entity, an online agency can offer a very valuable thing: an objective perspective. If you chose an agency that likes to say things just the way they are, and offer you a realistic opinion and a realistic strategy, it’s great. Agencies work is based on research and analyses. Therefore their opinion will not only be based on intuition, it will be a professional opinion and will surely provide a fresh perspective on your business.
We can categorize as Threats, the cost of an online agency and also the lack of information about the organization.
However, the costs do justify if the agency does bring good marketing results and the business objectives are achieved.
The agency being unfamiliar with the field of activity of the organization is a weak point that can be managed. Actually, if you hire an online agency the first requirement would be a great communication.
This last point, the partnership, is the key to the whole SWOT analysis for online marketing with an agency. If a collaborative relationship is established between the organization and the online agency, the threats and the weaknesses can be eliminated and the business objective will have the best chances of success.
