Do Inbound Marketing or hire a digital advertising agency? Understand once and for all what is best for your business.
Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2024 9:00 am
Some time ago I thought that, to obtain results through any type of marketing, a company necessarily needed to hire an advertising agency.
To the joy of micro, small and medium-sized business owners in Goiânia, I was very wrong .
And I say mainly in the Goiânia market, because here the advertising and publicity agencies, which do an excellent job helping large companies to improve their brands, sell more, create innovative actions, etc., are out of reach of this small group due to their high cost, which is unfeasible for small businesses.
Furthermore, the communication culture in Goiânia is very focused on retail and quick sales , which is somewhat different from what Inbound Marketing aims to do (I will explain this better by the end of the post), making it difficult to implement long-term marketing strategies that generate constant results, and not just at the time of the campaign.
The word campaign has nothing to do with Inbound Marketing and Content Marketing.
Speaking of campaigns, this phrase was said by Vitor student database Peçanha, Co-Founder of Rock Content , during the RD on The Road event in Goiânia . Why does it make sense? Everything I have been discussing here on the blog, since the beginning, makes it very clear that the results of working with content are continuous and long-lasting , unlike the effects of a campaign, which are punctual and require a new creative proposal to be maintained.
Still in our scenario, it is common in any market for smaller companies to follow the best practices of larger companies. This causes small and medium-sized companies to try to “imitate” what is done by large entrepreneurs in the Goiânia region, leading them to a cycle of failure .
Read also: Facebook Ad Library: What is it, what is it for and how does it work?
There is no magic formula for business, so why would there be for marketing?! If a mid-sized company wants to compete with a large retailer in Google AdWords campaigns, they will end up spending a lot of money and getting little results.
Not to mention that digital advertising rates have decreased in the last year, and tend to fall even further, which is due to the increased use of AdBlockers, online advertising blockers.
This data leads me to conclude that retail companies are dominating this market, and micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs need to find a way to avoid being swallowed up by the market.
The Inbound Marketing methodology was designed precisely for this type of scenario. But why exactly?
A good Inbound strategy depends much more on learning and team efforts than on financial investment .
Inbound Marketing or digital agency, which is best for your business?
Inbound Marketing or digital agency, which is best for your business?
Let me explain better: When a company hires an advertising agency, whether digital, offline or integrated, some information is provided and the need for communication is discussed. Thus, a fee is paid for research, planning, creation, production, execution and analysis of results. It is quite a package, and the material that comes out of it will probably reach thousands of people and bring good results to companies that have a defined communication problem and need for quick sales or branding.
The Inbound Marketing flowchart can even be integrated with an agency, with a view to finding more creative and innovative solutions. However, to execute an efficient Inbound strategy you have everything you need within your company .
Implementing an Inbound Marketing strategy requires:
Gather real information about your potential buyer to create a persona .
Align expectations and knowledge that your company can offer to this potential client.
Draw up a plan with objectives, goals and necessary tactics.
Raise the potential need to hire some type of tool.
Organize your team and start executing each phase of Inbound Marketing.
Read also: The importance and difficulty of implementing a Growth culture
To make you even more eager to get involved in this strategy, Hubspot conducted a survey across Latin America to understand what the Inbound Marketing trends would be for 2016.
The three main conclusions I was able to draw from this research are:
Tweet Companies with up to 40 employees are ideal for doing Inbound Marketing.
Tweet Traditional marketing generates returns, but Inbound Marketing makes it possible to analyze the ROI (Return on Investment) in detail.
Tweet It is much easier to train an internal team to carry out Inbound Marketing actions than to hire an outsourced service.
Please note that at no point did I intend to say that one strategy is better than the other. My intention here is to show you which type of company Inbound Marketing works best for .
If you own a retail company, or any type of business that has fast and large-scale sales, Inbound Marketing may not be the strategy for you. In this case, hiring an agency is ideal, with a view to creating campaigns to make your sales break records.
On the other hand, if your company provides some type of service, is focused on a specific niche or audience or has a long sales cycle (such as real estate agencies, used car stores, hotels, etc.) then Inbound is the perfect strategy to not only boost your sales, but also to create an audience that is passionate about your brand.
To the joy of micro, small and medium-sized business owners in Goiânia, I was very wrong .
And I say mainly in the Goiânia market, because here the advertising and publicity agencies, which do an excellent job helping large companies to improve their brands, sell more, create innovative actions, etc., are out of reach of this small group due to their high cost, which is unfeasible for small businesses.
Furthermore, the communication culture in Goiânia is very focused on retail and quick sales , which is somewhat different from what Inbound Marketing aims to do (I will explain this better by the end of the post), making it difficult to implement long-term marketing strategies that generate constant results, and not just at the time of the campaign.
The word campaign has nothing to do with Inbound Marketing and Content Marketing.
Speaking of campaigns, this phrase was said by Vitor student database Peçanha, Co-Founder of Rock Content , during the RD on The Road event in Goiânia . Why does it make sense? Everything I have been discussing here on the blog, since the beginning, makes it very clear that the results of working with content are continuous and long-lasting , unlike the effects of a campaign, which are punctual and require a new creative proposal to be maintained.
Still in our scenario, it is common in any market for smaller companies to follow the best practices of larger companies. This causes small and medium-sized companies to try to “imitate” what is done by large entrepreneurs in the Goiânia region, leading them to a cycle of failure .
Read also: Facebook Ad Library: What is it, what is it for and how does it work?
There is no magic formula for business, so why would there be for marketing?! If a mid-sized company wants to compete with a large retailer in Google AdWords campaigns, they will end up spending a lot of money and getting little results.
Not to mention that digital advertising rates have decreased in the last year, and tend to fall even further, which is due to the increased use of AdBlockers, online advertising blockers.
This data leads me to conclude that retail companies are dominating this market, and micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs need to find a way to avoid being swallowed up by the market.
The Inbound Marketing methodology was designed precisely for this type of scenario. But why exactly?
A good Inbound strategy depends much more on learning and team efforts than on financial investment .
Inbound Marketing or digital agency, which is best for your business?
Inbound Marketing or digital agency, which is best for your business?
Let me explain better: When a company hires an advertising agency, whether digital, offline or integrated, some information is provided and the need for communication is discussed. Thus, a fee is paid for research, planning, creation, production, execution and analysis of results. It is quite a package, and the material that comes out of it will probably reach thousands of people and bring good results to companies that have a defined communication problem and need for quick sales or branding.
The Inbound Marketing flowchart can even be integrated with an agency, with a view to finding more creative and innovative solutions. However, to execute an efficient Inbound strategy you have everything you need within your company .
Implementing an Inbound Marketing strategy requires:
Gather real information about your potential buyer to create a persona .
Align expectations and knowledge that your company can offer to this potential client.
Draw up a plan with objectives, goals and necessary tactics.
Raise the potential need to hire some type of tool.
Organize your team and start executing each phase of Inbound Marketing.
Read also: The importance and difficulty of implementing a Growth culture
To make you even more eager to get involved in this strategy, Hubspot conducted a survey across Latin America to understand what the Inbound Marketing trends would be for 2016.
The three main conclusions I was able to draw from this research are:
Tweet Companies with up to 40 employees are ideal for doing Inbound Marketing.
Tweet Traditional marketing generates returns, but Inbound Marketing makes it possible to analyze the ROI (Return on Investment) in detail.
Tweet It is much easier to train an internal team to carry out Inbound Marketing actions than to hire an outsourced service.
Please note that at no point did I intend to say that one strategy is better than the other. My intention here is to show you which type of company Inbound Marketing works best for .
If you own a retail company, or any type of business that has fast and large-scale sales, Inbound Marketing may not be the strategy for you. In this case, hiring an agency is ideal, with a view to creating campaigns to make your sales break records.
On the other hand, if your company provides some type of service, is focused on a specific niche or audience or has a long sales cycle (such as real estate agencies, used car stores, hotels, etc.) then Inbound is the perfect strategy to not only boost your sales, but also to create an audience that is passionate about your brand.