We always think of fit, function, or fee as the reasons a marketing agency might be a miss.

But the real problem is that they’re not going to get you any closer to where you eventually want to be: An industry leading brand with a rock solid and self-sufficient marketing engine.

If you’re in a phase of hyper growth, building an internal marketing department may or may not be the move right now—it depends entirely on your business, the balls being juggled, and every detail of your SWOT that may or may not change next quarter.

The benefits of owning your marketing operation are big. The competitive edge that comes with full-time brand evangelists driving your consumer-facing conversation is game changing. The ability to chart forward progress and build strength through both success and failure is huge. You can iterate your way into the most effective blend of creative and analytical marketing magic with total quality control.

But that takes time and quite a bit of human capital.

Right now? You need all the things. You need a cohesive communication strategy, a social media master, a content producer, a copywriter, a PR pro, an advertising specialist, an email marketer, an SEO superhero, and maybe even an influencer or affiliate program. You need all of these functions to LOCK DOWN around your unique value prop for a coordinated blast off.

Since there’s no finding all that in a single hire, partnering with an external team starts to make some sense.

If you’re investing in external marketing partners, there are a number of things you need to trust:

• That the tender loving attention you receive during the sales process stays true all the way through to the last day of your contract.
• That when the agency has turnover, your account progresses seamlessly.
• That the agency’s copywriters whom you may never speak to understand your brand. Not the mission statement and not the tagline, but your customers, their problems, and how you solve them better than anyone else (with a unique brand personality to boot).
• That the costs you’re looking at are true, and not some trumped up version engineered to favor the agency’s profit margin.

In so many ways, it comes down to trust: That this team you’re hiring to champion your brand does so, to the point that love bursts from your marketing channels with a genuine fury that stops your audience dead in their finger-swiping-tracks. These unicorns exist, and if you vet hard enough, you’ll find them.

But what about your end game?

When hiring internally becomes the best tactic for your brand, what then?

How will all that you’ve invested in these partners help you in the long run? Will you be starting all over, or continuing upward from the peak you’ve spent the last few years climbing?

As an agency owner, I want your business (your business: your growing, good-for-the-world business).

As a marketer with an “in-house” background that wants what’s best for you, I want you to own your own marketing.

That intersection is precisely where we’re providing a different sort of service for our clients.

We are not your end game.

It’s with that understanding that we proceed, building you a marketing program that works now and in the future, with strategic frameworks, custom playbooks, and all kinds of training to hand off to your future team for a seamless transition. We provide unparalleled collaboration to our partners. 

But enough about us. I want to talk about you.

In your corner,

Katie

If you’re looking to join a community of business owners who are on the path to better social media marketing and working together to learn about greater growth, engagement, and website traffic from social, join Strong Brand Social today for $37.