In today’s hyper-connected digital world, digital marketing is the ideal way to connect with online audiences. As per a State of Inbound report, social media generates 100% more leads as compared to telemarketing, mailing, referrals or calling.
With 64% of consumers saying they would trust a brand that has positive social media interactions, utilizing this powerful channel for generating leads is a top priority for businesses.
However, not many businesses are leveraging the power of social media for lead generation.
Green Hat, along with ADMA, surveyed 335 marketing leaders across various industries in 2017. The survey was conducted to understand and analyze B2B marketing space in Australia, lead generation, marketing strategy, customer experience, among others. Even though lead generation was the top priority for many businesses, the researchers found that less than 50% of the B2B respondents had a lead generation strategy.
In addition, while close to 80% of Australians are active on multiple social media platforms, only about 47% of businesses have a social media presence.
Top 4 Reasons To Hire An Agency
Past trends indicate that quality lead generation has been the top challenge across the globe. According to ‘The Black Report’ of 2014, 58% of companies believed lead generation was the top marketing challenge.
Some of the barriers to lead generation include lack of skilled staff, lack of time, budgeting concerns and a dearth of high-quality data.
Given the critical role quality lead generation plays in boosting brand equity, partnering with the right people is a smart strategy. Not only will an experienced agency have access to quality data but it will also be able to analyze important metrics to facilitate informed decision-making.
Here are the top four benefits of partnering with a digital marketing agency:
Expertise
It is a challenge for the in-house marketing team to understand the intricacies of lead generation and online marketing given the shifting social media landscapes. The cost of recruiting specialists well-versed in each of these aspects can be considerable.
By outsourcing to an agency or CRM specialists, you gain access to a team of qualified and highly experienced specialists. Another benefit is that the agency is updated with the latest developments in the world of digital marketing and can identify and analyze your target audience’s changing perspectives, behaviors, interests and preferences on an ongoing basis.
End-to-end solutions
A key challenge that business leaders face in the current scenario is managing multiple external agencies, consultants and freelancers for digital marketing campaigns. For instance, a business could engage a freelancer for SEO articles, a digital agency for graphics and another agency for lead generation, all of whom bring different skill sets and levels of expertise. But managing the disparity in skills and expertise is a difficult task.
An expert digital marketing agency that knows how to deliver end-to-end marketing solutions can help boost brand equity by driving quality leads. While they handle all aspects of a digital campaign, they are also adept at handling the metrics, the measurement and analysis to arrive at actionable data.
For example, specialist CRM consultants can help interpret and analyze the wealth of data collected from your customers and leads through systems like Salesforce, helping deliver valuable solutions for your business.
Focus on core business
Marketing is often an added task for many businesses that place a huge demand on time and budget. While it is necessary to hire resources with the right skills and knowledge, ongoing training on current trends, data analysis and budgeting can all take away the focus on the core business tasks.
Best results
Lead generation was given top priority by marketing professionals in the Green Hat and ADMA survey with 76% of the respondents naming it as the top objective. The survey results showed that while 72% of respondents said they published advertising content on social channels, a mere 14% of these achieved consistent return on investment (ROI). Close to 34% of B2B marketers said the ROI was inconsistent.
In the same survey, 37% of B2B marketing professionals were unsure of the average cost for lead generation.
Agencies are equipped with the latest data analysis tools and metrics to monitor the sales funnel, lead generation metrics, ROI of your campaign, enabling businesses to optimize their sales. Working with an experienced marketing agency will enable your business to optimize its budget and plan ahead effectively for future campaigns.
Scalability and cost-effectiveness are the other obvious benefits of partnering with a digital marketing agency. From the development of a lead strategy to lead validation, tracking to reporting the metrics, a digital marketing agency can handle every aspect of the campaign, optimizing your marketing ROI and brand growth.
