The Power of Partnering with a Digital Agency

Digital Agency Partners: Your Secret Weapon

In an age when competition for customers is more fierce than ever before, having a robust digital footprint is essential. Done correctly, it really can make all the difference to a brand’s long-term prospects.

Businesses have more than one place to turn to for their digital needs. The three most common options are:

• Hiring Freelancers For Individual Projects

• Hiring An In-House Team

• Working with a Digital Agency Partner

All of these options can yield positive results, but how they do so — and the impact it has on an organization — can vary widely. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at why working with a digital agency partner is often the best solution for forward-thinking brands.

It Saves You Time

It takes time to find the right people to work with, but how much time it takes can vary widely. Brands that hire an in-house team can spend significant time and energy — and a lot of money — interviewing, recruiting, and onboarding digital marketing employees. And even after all that, there’s no guarantee that those employees will work out.

Hiring a freelancer for an individual project takes less time than hiring an employee, but can still be time-intensive, especially if a business needs to hire a bunch of freelancers for a range of projects.

Finding and hiring a digital agency partner takes a little bit of time, but once a brand has, the job will be done. There’ll be no need to go through the process again — the agency will be right there whenever they’re needed.

Digital Agencies Can Tackle More Tasks

Freelancers can complete one or two jobs to a high standard. An in-house team can complete the tasks that each individual employee was hired to do. But a digital agency partner? They can tackle all the standard digital marketing tasks and more.

Here at Bowen, we offer a wide range of digital services, including:

• Custom Web Design

• Digital Marketing

• Brand Identity

• Digital Strategy

An in-house team may have the capacity to do all of those tasks to a high standard, but it’ll have to be a pretty big team. An individual freelancer could complete a couple of those tasks, but standards would begin to dip once they moved away from their specialty. 

Brands that work with a digital agency partner have peace of mind that whatever job needs completing can be done so to the highest of standards.

It’s More Cost-Effective

Brands would have to spend a small fortune to hire an in-house digital team. It’s not just the cost of salaries, but also the cost of placing job advertisements, interviewing candidates, and onboarding new employees. And after all that, there’s no guarantee that all — or actually any — of the new staff members will work out.

By working with a digital agency partner, brands can remove many of the costs attached to hiring an in-house team. There’s no need to advertise the position or invest in onboarding. And, of course, the monthly fee can be much more affordable than the cost of paying the salaries for a whole team of employees.

They Can Meet Your Unique Needs

A brand’s digital needs can evolve over time. What a business requires early on in its existence won’t be the same as what it needs three years down the line. In the early stages, having a world-class website will be the priority. Later, the focus might switch to digital marketing. And after that, website redesigning might be what’s required.

A digital agency can tackle whatever task is needed. With a partner by their side, brands can have peace of mind that all elements of their digital presence can be completed to the highest of standards, whenever they need it.

You Can Build a Relationship

Some businesses think that, if it’s not in-house, then there won’t be a relationship. However, that’s not automatically the case, and it’s certainly not true when they work with a digital agency. 

A good digital agency partner will be just that — a partner. They take the time to really get to know the business that they work with. Plus, unlike working with freelancers on one-time projects, the relationship with the digital agency might last for years. They’re not employees, but they’ll feel much closer to being direct members of your team than a temporary freelancer will.

Your Digital Agency Partner Will Have The Latest Tools

Putting together a digital landscape that gets results is complicated work. Unlike a decade or so ago, it’s not possible to simply put together a basic website, incorporate some keywords, and expect to get results.

To succeed in the hypercompetitive digital space, digital strategies need to be advanced, data-driven, and set up for success. There are a lot of software and other tools that go into putting together an exceptional digital strategy, and, crucially, leading digital agencies have them. Brands that hire a digital agency won’t just be gaining access to expert digital professionals, but also all of the world-class tools they use every day as part of their work.

New Ways of Working 

Digital agencies can have many other clients. To some businesses, that’s a negative thing, since they want to work with professionals who only focus on their brand. However, the fact that digital agencies have a selection of clients is usually beneficial to the business. When a business hires an in-house team, there’s a danger that their digital strategies become static and repetitive. After all, the employees are working exclusively with just one brand all the time.

Hiring a digital agency opens up a world of possibilities. They’ll see the brand through fresh eyes, making it easier for them to offer a fresh perspective and move things forward. Plus, since they’ll continually be working with other clients too, businesses can be confident that the agency won’t fall into a one-dimensional perspective.

Consistent Branding 

A business’s marketing efforts are strengthened through consistent branding. In fact, you could argue that they’re paramount to the success of a digital strategy. 

A digital agency partner works with businesses on a long-term basis, and, as such, has an in-depth understanding of the branding practices they use. In some cases, the agency will have helped to create the businesses' branding aesthetics in the first place. 

Working with brands on individual projects makes achieving a consistent tone of voice and aesthetics more difficult to achieve.

How to Decide Between Freelancers, In-House Staff, or a Digital Agency Partner

There’s no hard-and-fast rule regarding whether to choose freelancers, in-house staff, or a digital agency partner. While we’ve outlined the many benefits that come from working with a digital agency, there are occasions when selecting between the other two options makes sense.

Small businesses that require only small amounts of digital marketing help will likely find that working with freelancers on an occasional basis will be enough to meet their modest needs and ambitions.

Medium to large-sized companies and organizations will find that partnering with a digital agency makes the most sense for all the reasons we’ve outlined above. Putting together an in-house team is best for large corporations with complex digital needs, or for large brands that require thorough privacy and data protection. Those instances are rare, however.

What to Look for in a Digital Agency Partner

As we’ve said, working with a digital agency partner is nearly always the best solution for medium to large businesses. 

However, keep in mind that not all agencies are created equal. Getting the full benefits of working with an agency depends on selecting the right one. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the key things businesses should look for when making their decision.

The Services They Offer

A digital agency is often a better option than hiring a freelancer or employees because of the range of digital services they can provide for a business. However, some agencies have a more limited range of services than others. 

The ideal digital agency is one that can provide total digital coverage, including the following services:

• Web Design
  

• Digital Marketing
  

• Brand Identity Design
  

• Digital Strategy
  

Their Previous Work

A new digital agency might provide exceptional services, but it’ll be difficult to know just how good they are until they’re already part of the business. Brands can be much more confident by working with an agency that has a proven track record of success. Take a look at their, and if everything indicates that they’re a quality agency, then they’ll likely be a great fit.

Their Commitment To Your Business

Digital agencies aren’t employees, but they should be just as committed to the success of the clients they work with. During the consultation stage, decision-makers should look for signs that the agency is fully invested in getting to know its brand and making it better tomorrow than it is today.

Ready to turbocharge your brand’s digital presence? Bowen is here to help. Offering a wide range of digital services, we’ve developed a reputation for being one of the best digital agencies on the planet, and we’d love to show you what we can do. Contact Us to get started.