Considering employing a digital marketing agency, or possibly want to make yourself aware of what is involved? Based on experience gained since the mid 1990’s, this series will shed some light to aid your decision (be it outsource vs. in-house, remain with your current supplier, or highlight considerations as to why you may want to move, review potential agencies, how to measure, and how to decide).
Welcome to Part 1 in this series – Introduction.
In ensure you get the most value possible, and the right guidance in selecting a digital agency (if that is the route you have decided on for your business or organisation), we need to look at some key concepts.
- Concept 1: How does Business Profit From Marketing
- Marketing, when done properly in the context of your business, will positively impact the immediate, short-term and through to long-term of your organization. It is the process of announcing, informing and attracting (as well as retaining and growing) customers to your company to generate revenue. A well-thought-out marketing campaign allows a company to research, position, promote, distribute products or services, and sell for a profit through relevant lead generation.It also helps build sustainable brand awareness, brand recall and brand value, in other words brand equity – a positive line entry on you balance sheet (speak to your accountant about this)
- Marketing enables businesses to forge better, longer-lasting customer relationships and keeps your brand community engaged. Customer-centric marketing also helps with client retention. In the long run, it will earn your business valuable brand advocates and grow brand equity.
- Concept 2 – What is Digital Marketing
- Digital marketing, also known as online marketing, is any form of marketing that uses the internet and other forms of digital communication to reach an audience. Digital marketing includes email, social media, websites, social media advertising, web-based advertising, text and multimedia messages as marketing channels.
- Concept 3 – What is Traditional Marketing
- You might be wondering why traditional marketing is raised here. Please go with it for the moment, you will shortly see how and why it is included in this article.
- Traditional marketing, also known as offline marketing, is any form of marketing that uses offline media to reach an audience. Offline strategies include direct sales, direct mail (postcards, brochures, letters, fliers), tradeshows, print advertising (magazines, newspapers, coupon books, billboards, vehicle livery, branded clothing, branded corporate gifts), referral (also known as word-of-mouth marketing), radio, and television
- Concept 4 -Why South African Businesses Should Consider Undertaking Both
- Overall, South Africa has a very diverse demographic make-up, even within specific business target markets/audiences.
- Ages, a lot of South Africans are needing to work longer as complete retirement is becoming less of a reality for the majority of people out there. People are also living longer and remain engaged in the economy for longer as a result. And there may be other reasons, but the point is, different age groups have different preferences for how and where they are communicated to (i.e marketed to) – non-digital, digital versions of printed newspapers, magazines and periodicals, social platforms, other digital platforms, groups/sub-sets within these. Online media usage measurement still continues to show a varied adoption rate between other demographic variables, be it the number of platforms, which platforms, what is done on those platforms, how much is done, and frequency of access. Due to signal coverage (or challenges therein), electricity shortages, as well as that non-digital had never completely gone away in any event, there is a strong case in South Africa for considering more than one channel. So barring very particular cases (not the focus of this article), a blend of marketing channels is recommended in order to avoid risking missing your intended audience, this being of blend of traditional and digital, as well as possibly various options within each.
- Combining both traditional and digital marketing methods appropriately, where and when relevant, enables your organization to take into account your specific business, your business type, your industry, your typical clients’ preferences and circumstances.
- Helping your company reach a wider range of your audience (current and potential), as well as creates opportunity for multiple engagements to inform and/or remind your audience where and when it works for them. Thus, when correctly applied increases the likelihood of conversion, which loops back to how does Business Profit From Marketing.
- Overall, South Africa has a very diverse demographic make-up, even within specific business target markets/audiences.
So, having looked at how businesses profit from marketing, what digital marketing is, what traditional marketing is, and the case for considering a blended approach between the types of marketing (if relevant to your business/organisation), then the next aspects to consider are those that aid your decision as to how to go about digital marketing, traditional marketing, or a blend of the two.
Not knowing the particulars of your specific business, below are some questions for you to help guide your decision making.
- Does your business profit from its marketing efforts?
- Are there any marketing efforts currently actively in place?If not, how are business decisions about the future informed? How are sales enabled (not made, but enabled) on an ongoing and sustainable basis? If so, how are they informed and directed, how are they implemented, and then how are they accurately and consistently measured and managed to optimize benefit and remain relevant to market shifts
- If so, does it take clients (perceptions, sentiments, acquisition, retention and growth) into account, and if so then how?
- Is there in-house capacity, objectivity, as well as relevant skills and experience to undertake effective marketing?
- This applies in-house to your company if undertaking it yourselves, but depending on the supplier that you engage with, this may equally apply to the inhouse person/team at the business that you may currently be outsourcing to. Will the marketing hat move between various people? If so, how is accountability managed? Will marketing be a part-time, or split time focus?Is it just another responsibility loaded onto someone due to lack of other alternatives
- Are the necessary core competencies in place with whom it being assigned to, be they in your company or in a supplier’s?
- Is your business in need of a traditional marketing agency?
- You may have arrived at this article seeking insights to online marketing and online digital agencies or suppliers. But irrespective of how you arrived here, you are now realizing there might be a need for traditional marketing. Being an extensive and complete skill separate from digital marketing, can your current solution properly serve your business interests in this regard?
- Need an integrated approach between traditional marketing and digital? How is that integration defined, allocated and managed?
- Is your business in need of a digital marketing agency?
- You may have arrived at this article from a digital marketing perspective, or equally from a website and/or social media implementation perspective without understanding digital marketing as well as the roles the various online channels perform within the online marketing space to help drive conversion to customers
- Much like building a house takes more than just access to the component bricks, cement and the like, but rather a skill in implementing correctly, according to a plan derived from relevant knowledge and experience, that takes current and future considerations into account – such is digital marketing. Being more than the mechanics of merely designing and building a website and/or merely designing and posting on social media, in order to be effective, does your business have access to the skills, capacity and accountability needed (either in-house to your business or in-house to your current digital provider) in order to undertake your digital marketing strategy and implementation effectively and impactfully.
- Is your business in need of a traditional marketing agency and a digital marketing agency, or an agency that is equipped to undertake both?
- Depending on the specifics applicable to your business (be it common to your industry or unique only to your organization) it might be applicable to have two separate agencies or service providers.
- If so, do you have both in place, and are either or both of them the correct business partner for your business moving forward? If both are in place and only one is relevant moving forward, does your business have the best fit and relevantly experienced service provider identified that can successfully come alongside the current supplier/provider that is to be retained?
- If both are in place and both are relevant moving forward, how is the overarching strategy put in place, efforts defined and co-ordinated, measurement put in place, assimilated and interpreted? Are in-house relevant skills, capacity, experience and accountability in place?
- Seeking a single-source solution for online and offline marketing?
- Does your current provider(s) have the relevant set of skills, capacity and experience to address your business needs and solely take over this function on both traditional and digital?
- Does your current provider(s) have the relevant set of skills, capacity and experience to address your business needs and solely take over this function on both traditional and digital?
- Depending on the specifics applicable to your business (be it common to your industry or unique only to your organization) it might be applicable to have two separate agencies or service providers.
- Big Agency Skills and Experience
- Your business is a substantial business, and you have determined that an agency would be relevant to guiding your needs and/or implementation, but agencies that are sufficiently skilled are typically big agency with matching fees that are ridiculously high, so where can you go to get the same needed big agency skills and experience at an appropriate price?
We are honest and transparent as to why we have put out this article. Yes it should be an asset to the industry and customers of our industry, but we also need to do business for many of the same reasons you do. So here is our ask:
Are you seeking a digital marketing agency, a traditional marketing agency, a combined agency or a service provider that can co-ordinate multiple suppliers (in-house and/or outsourced)? Why you should consider 3G’s Branding, Consulting & Digital and/or Marketing Head Outsource
- All founders have been in marketing, branding, business management and digital online communication since the mid 1990’s
- Principals daily hands-on involvement in all client work
- Qualifications include
- BComm. Marketing
- Design Diplomas
- Program in eCommerce
- BTech Multimedia
- IT Specific Project Management (Levels 1 -3)
- Technology Qualifications
- Clients have included amongst others:
- B2B
- B2C
- Multi-Nationals
- JSE listed companies
- Government agencies
- National Lottery South Africa
- Gautrain
- Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME)
- One-man operations
- Volunteer only operations
We As An Agency
- Are a specialist communication agency offering a complete consulting, design, implementation and management solution
- Have an experienced multi-faceted specialist team
- Leverage our organisational learnings to date
- Have substantial experience collaborating with third party vendors
- Have our proven processes and procedures
- Limit the risk of time, money, and client reputation
- Maximize synergies
- Leverage service and cost efficiencies
- Retain a high level of creativity, professionalism and quality outputs
- Have undertaken standalone projects as well as multifaceted projects that may or may not integrate to third party vendors offerings
- Have aided clients with operational improvements and increased productivity.
- Are grateful to our clients, some of whom are still with as from the very beginning
- Have working relationships with of our clients, within the context of what 3G’s provides, going back to 2002.
Testimonials
- We received the following accolade from yet another satisfied client (reproduced with permission from Selhurst)
Hi Ricardo
“My new website went live early Wednesday morning and the first response to a job that we had advertised came in minutes later. I had been told that a new website would be effective, but I wasn’t expecting it to work quite so well”.
Laurence Stubbs
Selhurst Recruitment
Access further testimonials
Reach out to us via email, website or phone call, our client experience has proven we can add value.
Well, that was Part 1. There will be more to follow. You are welcome to access the balance of our articles and other posts.
And…….. Expect more from your communication
#3Gs #3GsDigital #branding #consulting #digital #design #development #maintenance #digicards #socialmedia #website #ecommerce TraditionalMarketing #DigitalMarketing #DigitalMarketingAgency #DigitalAgency #MarketingHeadOutsource
