Should I Hire a Marketing Agency?

Your consumers’ behaviors are constantly changing. That means you probably wake up every morning asking yourself, How do I ensure my sales and talent pipelines are full? How do I build brand awareness in an already noisy world? And how do I reach my audiences with so many platforms available?

Hiring a marketing agency can be one of the best decisions you make for your business. Not only does it give you access to unique talents and skills, but a marketing agency can become an extension of your team. 

So when is the right time to hire a marketing agency?

Reasons to hire a marketing firm

Utilizing strategies and tactics that align with your business goals can be just what your organization needs to reach the next level you maybe didn’t think was possible.

We’ll often start talking to businesses when they’re facing the following marketing roadblocks or challenges:

You need more hands on deck

Maybe you’re wearing a whole wardrobe of hats, from CEO to marketing director. Or maybe you’re a one-person marketing department and simply don’t have the capacity to keep juggling all of the requests sent your way. 

A good marketing agency becomes an extension of your marketing department. They’ll think, act, and execute marketing tactics as if they hold a stake in your company — and they’ll keep a close eye on results to make sure that what you’re doing is working.

You need specific skills to drive results

Businesses need a wide range of talent (versus one or two specialties) to market their product or service effectively. The problem is that most businesses don’t have the budget for a full marketing department, so they end up with one or two people who are responsible for updating the website, writing, designing, and coming up with the next’s year's strategy.

Agencies are made up of experts who are each dedicated to a niche area of marketing — and they can be brought into your business as needed to work toward your business’s goals. That means you’ll get the skills of an entire marketing team, often for the cost of one or two full-time employees. 

You’ve experienced employee turnover

Turnover creates experience gaps in your team that aren’t easy (or quick) to fill, no matter how quickly you explore hiring. Marketing agencies can be advantageous in times of disruption. With honed skills and a deep understanding of marketing, an agency can fill in the gaps and stabilize your operations until you create a long-term plan to push you forward.

You’re looking for scalable marketing support

Maybe you can’t justify a full-time hire with your current budget, but you need more brainpower to create your marketing strategy (and a little help along the way). A marketing agency allows you to scale your staff, sharing workloads when needed and giving you a source of truth for your strategy.

What to look for before hiring a marketing agency

If you’ve spent any time looking for marketing help, there’s no denying that there are a lot of different agencies out there. That makes it all the more important for you to do your homework and find the one that is best for you and your organization. 

You want to find an agency with a reputation for doing good work and creating an exceptional experience. Here are the top five things we believe you should look for before hiring an agency:

1. Unwavering curiosity

All too often, marketing tactics and strategies quickly contribute to a giant echo chamber. But you deserve a group of people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and try new strategies and tactics to hit your goals (whatever that looks like). A good agency is willing to leave the beaten path and try something new to set its client aside from the competition.

2. A human-focused approach

In order for consumers to resonate with your brand, your agency must care about more than meeting a scope of work — they must put themselves in your company’s shoes (and the shoes of your consumers) to really understand how to communicate your mission and value add.

3. Talented team members

The people who make up your agency team should be talented, motivated, and have what it takes to achieve results. Don’t be afraid to ask about the team members who will work on your business (and their past work and qualifications). 

4. Results-driven work

Don’t just take an agency at their word — make sure they have the numbers to back up what they can do. 

Most agency websites feature a portfolio of all the great work they’ve done. But if it’s not clear how a campaign performed, or how the agency used their strategy to get the final results, it’s difficult to know the difference between something that just looked good and something that added real value to a company.

5. Transparency

If it looks too good to be true, chances are it is. Just like any other business, agencies don’t always get it right. Don’t be shy: Ask about strategies that didn’t work and had to be revisited to drive success. An agency that’s willing to share with you how they course-corrected can show you how they will handle challenges your business might face once you’re in the thick of carrying out your strategy.

Why Vye?

New to Vye? We’re a full-service agency that helps companies get better and drive growth. We don’t believe in random acts of marketing — instead, we start from the beginning to learn your business so that we can truly act as an extension of your team.

“We started our partnership with Vye when we realized we needed to reach a new demographic...From completely redesigning our website to running our social media, they have been a part of our organization.”— Sam Switzer, United Way of Central Minnesota

Curious what a partnership with Vye could look like? Let’s start by chatting about your goals.