Challenges to Digital Marketing Agencies
Knowing the main challenges in Digital Marketing agencies is a good step to who aims to grow in this area that gained great popularity throughout the job market.
Therefore, Resultados Digitais and Rock Content (from Latin America) performed, between August and September 2017; research with more than a thousand participants to collect data that resulted in the Landscape Of Digital Agencies 2018.
The goal was collect data about the agencies profile, the main offered services, the adoption of digital strategies from the own company and obstacles that need to be overcome.
In this article, we focused, specifically in the most pointed challenges according to the results of the research and in solutions that can be helpful in case they are a part of your reality. Check it out!
Price the services of Digital Marketing
According to Panorama, one of the most appointed challenges from the agencies, in general, is to put a price on the offered service.
Of the participants, 43,2% showed difficulties defining the optimal price for each project and finding ways to add value in what they are selling to the customers. For many agencies, pricing tends to be linked to the costs generated by the development of its services, taking into account production costs, hours worked, profit margins and deliveries determined from fixed packages.
However, these do not have to be the only factor influencing when it comes to budgeting for customers. Of course, the costs involving the production makes a lot of difference, although it must be linked to the value that your agency wants to generate for their customers. If one of your biggest challenges is pricing too, start thinking about the impact you wish to make on your costumer’s business through the Digital Marketing services offers.
2. Increase the numbers of recurring costumers
One of the challenges of Digital Marketing agencies presented in the research was to raise the numbers of customers that are recurring or that close long-term contracts. This problem, occupied the first place in the ranking of obstacles to be overcome in 2018, was registered for 63.3% of the participants that aren’t looking only for new customers, but also to get loyalty from those who already are in the agency.
This brings us, once again, to the question of seeing value in the agency deliveries and in the outcome, it generates through its services. A possible and highly advised solution, for example, is the adoption of Inbound Marketing strategies for your own brand. Through well-planned and developed content, you can reach new opportunities with potential customers who recognize you as a specialist in Digital Marketing and are aligned with your goal.
This way you can generate information and value so that they get to you, understand how the service work and how they will get a return on your marketing investment. The survey data showed that the agencies that invest in their own communication get 3.25 times more visits and 2.74 times more leads than others who don’t implement these strategies.
3.Proving the value of Digital Marketing to potential customers
The same way you need to show the value of your services to your customers, you also need to prove it to the audience you aim. Not all people understand what Digital Marketing is and how it can help leverage their business. Therefore, this obstacle gained second position in the ranking of ‘Challenges in providing Digital Marketing’ of Panorama, affecting 42.4% of the agencies.
The growth in this problem compared to 2017 was 6.2%, showing that many potential customers still don’t understand how digital services work. Again, the solution appears through the adoption of Inbound Marketing strategies for the agency itself. The relevant content offer will gradually make them understand the importance of Digital Marketing, recognizing the value of their solutions and see how they can align the services to their reality.
4.Rising the income from digital services
Panorama also points out that 62% of the agencies that participated in 2018 face the challenge of increasing revenue generated by Digital Marketing services. Along with the data, 59.5% of them also responded that their goal is the increase of customers for digital projects. Solving the second hurdle would help make the first one easier, for sure. Nevertheless, both depend heavily on the value the client sees in the service the agency offers.
Once again, we hit this key because it is extremely important for those who want to sell more and for those who want to retain customers. If you can demonstrate the importance of Digital Marketing to potential customers, they will understand the value of your services and will contract based on this rather than pricing. Likewise, if you deliver results and they meet the expectation of your customers, you will be able to plan strategies to increase your revenue from the deals you already have.
If that is your main obstacle, how about taking advantages of these opportunities to make your agency take off and gain the trust of your audience?
5.Improving customers retention
One of the major challenges of Digital Marketing agencies is still customers retention. Of the total number of participants in the survey, 50.6% identified this problem as a big obstacle to overcome during 2018. Panorama indicates that this issue may be directly related to the lack of alignment with customers’ expectations, demonstration of results that lead to the opportunity of new business and the understanding that success is not immediate.
For this reason, 64.2% of the agencies adopted as the main strategy to solve this problem the presentation of monitoring project’s reports. With exposing metrics that are aligned with your company’s customers success, you‘ll show to them that you are there to generate opportunities. This way, you can also involve him in tracking results and strategy, making him understand what actually happens and open doors to loyalty.
The results can be presented according to the frequency that you think is ideal, but 68.4% of the participants choose to send monthly reports to their clients. It is worth emphasizing other ways to improve customer’s retention as pointed out in Panorama. In addition to aligning with customer’s expectations and reporting, your agency can focus on delivering proven results early in the project so the client sees hiring as a good investment.
The production of educational content is also an excellent option since the client will gradually understand how the services are developed and how they can generate results for his business.
Other challenges of Digital Marketing Agencies
In addition to the main challenges of the Digital Marketing agencies mentioned above, some other obstacles were pointed out that still need attention to solve recurring problems. Among them are mainly internal improvements that can upgrade the supply of quality projects.
Of the total, 56.8% of the agencies, for example, mentioned that the services provided needed improvements, while 39.8% wanted to increase the Digital Marketing portfolio. Another challenge that worries agencies is related to knowledge: 31.7% of them want to overcome barriers related to the training of the team.
One possible solution to these small internal difficulties is the encouragement of studies and the constant updating of the changes taking place in the field. Digital Marketing constantly evolves, so you have to keep up with your trends and innovations to always offer the best services to your customers.
That’s a way it’s worth remembering once again: the value and quality of an agency’s work is beyond any price, so make it the greatest ally of your success. Now that you know what the main challenges of Digital Marketing agencies are, how about applying our Customers Marketing Checklist in your company and standardizing your processes to boost your results?
