Shout about it!

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF HIRING A PR/MARKETING AGENCY?

When you work with a reputable agency you get the benefit of their combined experience across a range of channels, who will have insights on the latest trends and updates, with ideas that can help you grow your reach and exposure to new audiences.

Compared to the cost of hiring an additional marketing person internally this usually works out as pretty great value, because you don’t have to worry about putting time and resource into upskilling someone who might only specialise in one area (eg PR, social media, SEO). Instead, for a comparable cost you can have access to a team of experts, across a selection of channels.

JAMIE MACKENZIE, PEAKY DIGITAL

Employing an agency means a dedicated team, with longstanding professional experience, that is focused completely on delivering your brief. They come to the table with fresh ideas and a considered outsider’s perspective, allowing them full clarity to focus on delivering the best results for your business.

JAMES NEALE, IDENNA

HOW CAN AN AGENCY HELP A BUSINESS GROW?

PR professionals tend to shy away from linking coverage to sales, understandably. Earned coverage is not always in our control. However, a PR, marketing and communications agency should be working to understand how their brief fits into the wider business strategy. At Agile, we work closely with the client from the outset to dig into business or organisation goals and use these to set measurable objectives for our work. This can mean time and budget is frontloaded into strategic work to set any following activity up for success.

So, if growth is your goal, we’d want to know about your strategy for growth plus identified audiences you are looking to reach, and we’d build a communications strategy that meets that.

RACHEL FOSTER, AGILE

HOW IMPORTANT IS BRANDING TO THE MARKETING MIX?

Your brand is your promise to the world. Being able to quickly articulate who your business is, what you do and what your customers should expect from you is crucial. Your brand sits at the top of your sales funnel and it is the foundation of your identity that should distinguish you from competitors and help customers to realise that your business can best meet their needs. When starting out with branding, begin with the business’s story, pillars, and elevator pitch and use them to build out your visual identity.

JAMES NEALE, IDENNA

Your brand strategy is the combination of your brand values, brand identity, tone of voice, and overall vibe. It’s the essence of your organisation and how you want to be perceived by your audience. Your brand is the foundation of everything you do. Your branding, in turn, supports and reflects this. Your brand strategy should inspires relationships and be authentic.

RACHEL FOSTER, AGILE

FOR THOSE BUSINESSES LOOKING TO RAISE THEIR PROFILE THEMSELVES, WHAT TOP TIPS WOULD YOU GIVE THEM?

Don’t try to be everywhere and do everything if you’re doing it yourself. It’s better to be really good and see impact in a few areas, such as blogs/social media/website, than to try and be in lots of different places and do it badly. You won’t see results, you’ll feel frustrated and burnt out!

SUZIE SMITH, PIECE OF CAKE

Be realistic with your expectations: don’t expect a couple of weeks’ worth of social media content or a new website will have a dramatic impact on sales overnight - sometimes it can be a case of your customers needing to take several days or weeks before they make a purchase, and the knack then is making sure you engage them in the right way, and at the right points to ensure when they are ready to buy they come to you and not a competitor.

JAMIE MACKENZIE, PEAKY DIGITAL