How can a marketing agency help my business grow?

First of all, it’s not as scary as you might think to ask a marketing agency to help your business. It doesn’t have to be expensive either. A good agency should look at the best options for you, your business and your budget.

It’s what we do day in, day out. We’re constantly keeping up to date with platform updates, what’s trending and all the forever-changing Google and social media algorithms.

Think about it this way. If you’re a car dealer, you know your cars! You know what’s selling, what the best prices are for the cars you sell and part exchange, what MPG they do and what all the different features and accessories are.

It’s exactly the same for us in marketing.

We’re no pros when it comes to cars, how they work or what needs to be done to fix them. In the same way, a car garage might not know how to make sure their website is properly connected to Google, why their rankings have suddenly dropped or how to fix broken links.

How can you know what you’re doing if you’re not a pro in that industry?

Research. Research. Research.

Competitor analysis. Getting to know you and your business. Understanding the services you offer, who your target audience is, what areas you cover and, most importantly, what you actually want to achieve.

We work with you to get to know your business and understand your goals. These are all the ingredients we put together to create a marketing plan that actually makes sense for you.

I always joke to clients that we’d be a great “phone a friend” option on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire! We have to constantly keep up with different industries, news and trends and, more importantly, what’s going on in the world that could affect your business.

We might not know everything about your industry on day one, but it’s our job to learn.

How much input will I need to give?

Again, this comes down to the individual business.

We work with clients who want to provide all of their own content and ideas, and we bring everything together with designs, captions, strategy and promotion across their social media accounts.

We also work with businesses that want to outsource their marketing because they simply don’t have the time to do it themselves.

That flexibility is key to what we do and how we can help. We do the research, get your feedback and then take off with the plan!

You can be as involved as you want to be. We’ll still need your knowledge and input because nobody knows your business quite like you do, but you don’t need to spend your evenings trying to work out what Google wants from you this week!

How much does marketing cost?

Again, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer.

I hate seeing businesses offering set pricing for certain marketing services without first understanding the business. I can’t understand how a set rate with a set number of posts, stories and reels each month can work for everyone.

For us at Build A Brand, it isn’t about a tick-box exercise where we can say we’ve created three posts this week and two stories. What good is creating all of those posts if nothing actually happens as a result?

For us, it’s all about strategy.

We have some clients who consistently get hundreds of likes, while others might get hardly any, but that doesn’t necessarily mean their marketing isn’t working. It comes down to the type of business, the audience and what we’re actually trying to achieve.

Some businesses have beautiful images and videos that naturally work brilliantly on social media. Others are service-based businesses where people spend their days working on accounts and laptops.

And, in all honesty, nobody is going to love-heart an Excel spreadsheet every week!

What type of marketing works best?

What works is usually a mix of activities.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, and some social media platforms work better for certain businesses than others. Sometimes social media isn’t the answer at all, and the biggest opportunity is organic growth through the website and Google.

Other businesses might need ads to get themselves in front of completely new audiences.

Being focused on just one source of marketing is a bit like selling only one type of car.

Some people don’t want that make or model. Some might be too old or too young for that car. Some don’t even drive and don't need a car at all!

It’s the same with marketing.

If you focus on one area only, how are you going to reach the right audience? And are the people you’re trying to reach even on there?

That’s where having a strategy becomes far more important than simply “doing marketing”.

How does marketing make my business better?

Let’s keep going with the car analogy.

You buy a car - think of this as getting a brand-new website. It’s fully serviced, has a tank full of fuel, new tyres and it’s shiny inside and out.

Your website is the same. It’s fresh, new, working beautifully and full of good, current content.

But what happens to the car over time?

It needs an MOT. The tyres get worn. The wipers need replacing. The oil needs changing. Things need maintaining and, of course, it always needs fuel.

The same thing happens to your website.

A website can’t just be left to gather dust in the search engine rankings. Having a website doesn’t automatically mean you’ll get sales and enquiries. If you’re not driving traffic to it or adding relevant content that helps people find you, eventually it’ll become the online equivalent of a rust bucket that needs replacing or SORNing!

My point is, the more you look after your marketing - just like your car - the longer it will work for you and the less likely you are to need expensive fixes further down the line.

If you consistently focus on organic growth, for example, it can reduce your reliance on paid ads. If you regularly maintain and optimise your website, you’re less likely to suddenly need to spend a lump sum fixing years of neglected SEO, content and technical issues.

Look after it a little each month and, hopefully, it’ll look after you.

So, can a marketing agency actually help my business grow?

Marketing is one of the most valuable tools you can have for your business. It can be a quick fix in some areas, but the best results come when it’s consistent. It’s about keeping your business visible, keeping your website healthy, understanding what’s working and changing what isn’t.

And that doesn’t mean throwing thousands of pounds at marketing every month. Sometimes it’s a few hours of the right support, in the right places, that can make the biggest difference.

A good marketing agency shouldn’t be trying to sell you every service they offer. They should be looking at your business and telling you what you actually need. And sometimes, that means telling you what you don’t need too.

So, how can a marketing agency help your business grow?

By becoming an extension of your business. By understanding what you want to achieve, keeping an eye on everything that’s constantly changing and making sure your marketing is actually doing something rather than just ticking boxes.

Think of us as your marketing MOT, service, mechanic and occasional breakdown recovery.

You concentrate on driving the business. We’ll help keep the marketing moving.

And if you’re not sure what your business actually needs? Just shout. We’re always happy to have a chat.