How do you know you need to hire a marketing agency?
Over the years we’ve found there are some common reasons education and edtech companies turn to our expert team to help them build their marketing muscle.
We’re going to get super honest here so strap in. And if you recognise any of these in your own business then you should probably get in touch 🫡
1. All marketing tasks are done by one person
Who’s the Jack or Jill of all marketing trades on your team (whether it’s their actual job or not)?
In any company with more than a handful of staff expecting a single person to manage all the aspects of marketing is asking too much.
And this isn’t confined to start ups where everyone wears lots of hats. We see this in companies of all sizes.
For example, from a non-marketer’s perspective posting a X/Tweet seems like a quick and easy task, right?
But from a marketer’s perspective it likely involves the following skills and jobs:
1. Brain storming creative idea(s)
2. Copywriting and proof reading
3. Hashtag analysis
4. Image design in accordance with platform rules and post type
5. Video filming, editing, branding, and subtitling
6. Scheduling and posting
7. Responding to comments
8. Post-publishing data analysis
And that’s just a single social post, a tiny part of a wider marketing remit.
Widen that remit to strategy to scheduling to content creation to editing to analysis…I’m tired just even thinking about it.
Marketing is so easy, just position your product, write great content, create growth loops, design a great landing page, analyze your data, engage with people, build links, collaborate with creators, post on social every day and optimize your conversion rate, anyone can do it.
— Andrea Bosoni (@theandreboso) February 7, 2023
So your marketer does their best. But they have to think small because they’re spread too thin to think BIG.
And BIG is where your best marketing will come from.
They know they’ll struggle to do everything that needs to be done to make any sort of substantial difference.
So if you wonder why your marketing manager always looks stressed this might be why.
A discussion with a marketing agency is the answer.
An agency can plug a short term gap while you find your feet, work on a project while you concentrate on other important objectives, or completely handle the whole marketing strategy and execution.
So does hiring an agency mean you don’t need a marketing manager anymore?
Absolutely not. We’d 100% advise against this. Your marketing manager is a crucial part of the relationship between your business and your agency.
Your marketing person might feel threatened by the involvement of an agency. But decent agencies are well versed in working tightly and empathetically with marketing teams all day every day.
In fact, we often see the marketing person gain huge experience and leadership skills working in partnership with our agency. We love working with other marketers!
Empower them to work alongside an expert marketing agency and watch them (and your marketing strategies) fly.
2. Your marketing idea bank is empty
This is a tough thing to admit – sometimes it feels like you’ve tried everything and still seeing little result or change.
We speak to many clients who have done things like spending £1000s on an event, bought and blasted a database of teacher emails (which we do NOT generally recommend), and sent out multiple PR pieces.
And yet website traffic, leads, and sales remain flat.
Why? Because without a strong experienced team to manage the marketing you end up working tactically instead of strategically.
You’re throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.
And eventually you run out of things to throw.
A good marketing agency should be able to understand your business and customers, analyse your current marketing strengths and weaknesses, and produce a clear strategy and campaign.
Then they will decide what tactics, channels, and media will deliver the strategy and help you overcome your challenges.
Which means you don’t need to worry anymore about having ideas – that’s what you pay the agency for.
3. You never have enough time to do marketing
“If I had more staff…”
“If there was another 12 hours in the day...”
“If only I could clone myself…”
When you help manage a growing business there’s never enough time to do everything.
You’re tired. Sometimes you just…run out of puff.
You want to focus on all the different areas of your business but having to manage a productive marketing strategy on top just leaves you anxious.
So it gets sidelined.
And that leads to delay.
And you know what delay means?
Delayed marketing activity is a boiling frog problem that will hit your bottom line, draining you and your team.
Eventually the problem will be so large you won’t know how to fix it.
One of the best reasons to hire an external marketing agency is so obvious it hardly bears writing: we’re not you.
- We DO have time to take an independent and unbiased look at your company, product, and audience and undo that gordian knot for you.
- We DO have the right marketing expertise on hand to make things happen for you.
- We ALREADY have all the groovy marketing tools and platforms to do the work
- We CAN do the heavy lifting
- We ARE full of beans and ready and eager to help.
Your success is our success.
Act before it becomes too late.
The best time to book a call with us is today.
We're here to help you
If your marketing feels overwhelming, under-resourced, or stuck in a rut, you’re not alone.
And you don’t have to fix it alone either.
A good agency can bring clarity, capacity, and fresh ideas to help you move forward. If any of these signs sound familiar, it might be time to start a conversation.
