Why you should hire an agency as your digital partner.

When it comes to working with a digital partner, companies have a lot of options. They can go the in-house route and hire an employee who has all the skills they need. They can also work with individual freelancers, which has its own set of pros and cons. The other alternative is to work with a digital agency. Agencies have multiple skills under one roof and can bring an outside perspective to your business. In this blog post, we'll discuss why agencies are a great option for digital partners and how they can help your business grow!

Reduced staff management

One of the main benefits of working with an agency is that you don't have to manage internal staff or external freelancers. Managing a team of multiple specialists can be difficult, its hard to create balance between completing ideas, and you're also responsible for keeping everyone on the same page.

When working with freelancers these problems are even worse. You have to constantly be on the lookout for new talent, as freelancers can be unreliable. And when you do find a good freelancer, you have to hope they don't get too busy with other projects and drop your project.

With an agency, you only have to manage one point of contact. The agency will handle all the logistics, from finding the right team members to managing their workload. This frees up your time so you can focus on other aspects of your business.

Digital Strategy

Agencies are focussed on business outcomes rather than just completing tasks. They'll work with you to understand your business goals and objectives and then create a plan that will help you achieve those targets. It's then their responsibility to deliver on those goals, tweaking the plan as they go and reporting back through regular meetings.

Multiple skills

With an agency, you have access to multiple experts who can help you with all the different aspects of your digital marketing, including strategy, design, UX, content creation, digital product development and social media management.

You don't need to worry about finding the right person for each task and then managing them all yourself. The skills needed on each project and at each project stage will be different and the agency will seamlessly manage this for you, taken from their a pool of specialists.

An outside perspective

Agencies work with multiple companies at once, they are continually exposed to new ideas, processes and technologies. They can bring an outside perspective to your business, which can be really valuable. When you work with an agency, you get access to their knowledge and expertise, which can help you to improve your own processes and grow your business.

When working inside a company it can be difficult to see the bigger picture. You can become too close to your own product or service and lose sight of what's actually happening in the market. An agency can help you to understand your place in the market and how you can improve your offering.

Flexibility

Another great benefit of working with an agency is that they offer flexibility. Companies often have peaks and troughs in their work, with some periods being really busy and others being much quieter. It can be difficult to manage this internally, as you need to have the staff in place to cope with the busy periods but then what do you do with them during the quieter times?

With an agency, you only pay for the services you need, when you need them. This can be a really cost-effective way of working, as you're not paying for staff that you don't need.

Don't reinvent the wheel

Agencies create base solutions to many common problems, especially when working with websites. This can help get all the basics in place quickly whilst maintaining all the best practices to keep the solution clean and efficient. The agency can focus on solving your particular problem quickly and effectively, without having to start from scratch each time.

When creating solutions in house you will be creating the solution from scratch which will take a long time. You won't benefit from hard won experience and learnings from using the solution multiple times. This can lead to frustration for everyone involved as the project drags on and costs mount up.

Continuance

In-house employees or external freelancers come and go, its hard to keep direction and momentum going when team members move on. New people have new ideas and they may want to change direction or start again which can be costly and time consuming.

Agencies have continuity, they maintain the same team and processes over time. This helps them to be more effective and efficient as they work on your project. Keeping moving in the same direction with the same solution, building on top of what is already there rather than constantly renewing.

Support and coaching

When you work with an agency you get more than just the results of their work, you also get access to their knowledge and expertise. Your internal marketing team can learn from working with the agency and this can help to upskill them. The expertise, ideas and processes leak through to your team and they can learn on the job.

Upskilling or training your marketing team on the job is a great way to keep them motivated and engaged. It also means that you have a team of experts who are up to date with the latest trends and technologies.

Conclusion

There are many benefits to working with an agency as your digital partner. They can offer an outside perspective, flexibility, continuity and support. They also have a wealth of knowledge and expertise that can be passed on to your team. Compared to hiring freelancers or creating an in house team working with an agency may be more expensive in the short term but in the long term the benefit outweigh any additional costs.