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Should I Hire a Local Digital Marketing Agency?

By Jahniah Dryden on May 29, 2022

Should you hire a local digital marketing agency or a huge, well-known firm that serves brands that are household names – but are not in your location?

Many business owners prefer to outsource some or all of their digital marketing so they can focus on their businesses. Outsourcing may enable them to direct more of their attention to producing a better product, better serving customers, increasing sales, hiring, dealing with HR issues and a million other things that are required to run a business. The primary focus of most businesses isn’t usually about keeping on up on Google’s latest SEO algorithms or this year’s email marketing trends.  Even if you have good marketing staff, it only makes sense to outsource for those areas where it’s just not practical to pay for full-time, inhouse expertise.

Though large agencies may have more resources, large, remote marketing agencies are not always the best choice no matter how illustrious, particularly for small, local businesses. You may get a whole lot more bang for your buck by hiring a local agency that knows your local market like the back of their hand.

The Advantages of Hiring a Local Digital Marketing Agency

Easy Communication

A lot of us became used to working remotely during the pandemic. Sure, it can be done. It’s not as your digital market agency is going to take up a corner office in your space. But when you are planning a major initiative that requires strategic discussions, or when you want to discuss messaging or design options, it sure is a lot easier for everyone to get on the same page if they can get into the same room once in awhile.

Sometimes when you meet remotely or communicate solely via email, you may think your agency gets it, but then realize they entirely missed your point when they show you their deliverables. When you work with a local digital marketing agency, you can meet in person periodically to adjust direction and correct misunderstandings. And there really is no replacement for in-person discussions to brainstorm new ways the agency can help you to grow your business and get customer attention.

Even if you rarely meet in person, when you just want to jump on the phone for five minutes, it helps tremendously to be in the same time zone. Otherwise you may need to wait half a day or even longer to schedule that phone call or get a response to a small request. Working in different time zones slows everything down, and marketing is at its best when you can act quickly. This is true even if you have a large national or international business. Communication is just easier if you use a local digital marketing agency is within easy driving distance.

Knowledge of Local Audience

If your business’, there are even more reasons to hire a local digital marketing agency. A local agency already understands a lot about your clientele. They know the inside jokes, they know the local trends, they know what’s hot and what’s not locally. That means they can better connect with your audience in marketing campaigns. A marketing agency that is not local is likely to create marketing campaigns that are much more generic than a local agency – and generic is never going to give you optimum ROI for your marketing dollar.

Helpful Local Contacts

If your business is a local one, you can benefit from partnerships with other local businesses. For example, a San Francisco based tech company could hold a client getaway meeting at a vineyard in Napa Valley. Both could show the great time everyone is having on social media and do cross-promotions. Only a local digital marketing agency will have these kinds of local connections. Often a local agency has clients with complementary interests.

Optimum Flexibility

Because the members of your local marketing agency live in the community, they know first-hand when the local conditions or market shift suddenly. For example, they are not going to miss when a tornado touches down in several neighborhoods and causes havoc. They know immediately to put a pause on that advertising campaign that features people picnicking with their client’s culinary product. Instead, they could perhaps organize a community outreach where their culinary client delivers food to those who lost their homes.

Interview and Ask for References

Of course, you don’t want to hire just any local marketing agency. Ask business colleagues who they use and then do a bit of research. Once you have some possibilities, get to know the candidates. You wouldn’t hire an employee without interviewing them first would you? The same goes for hiring a marketing agency.

Among other things, find out

  • What kind of success they have produced for their clients. Ask to see examples.
  • Their familiarity with your industry
  • How they will communicate campaign successes and failures with you
  • Their process of working with you
  • Their pricing

Umbrella Local Offers the Best of Both Worlds

Umbrella Local is a large, well-known digital marketing agency with local marketing experts in almost every state in the US and around the world. When you work with Umbrella Local, you can work with a dedicated account manager who is close to you geographically and knows your market. That means you get all the benefits of a local digital marketing agency but also all the resources of a global firm.

Umbrella Local covers all services in digital marketing and digital accessibility including

  • Pay Per Result SEO
  • Pay Per Revenue marketing
  • Financing solutions
  • Facebook advertising with guaranteed results
  • Google advertising
  • Winning websites
  • Website accessibility
  • Review generation and reputation
  • 4X Conversions with AI chatbots
  • Business and voice search listings
  • Email marketing
  • Conversational texting

Whether you want to grow your business but are not sure how or you already know what marketing services you want, we invite you to contact us for a free, 30-minute conversation filled with free advice. Contact us today and get started optimizing your business.

 

 

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