Prior to founding LimeLight Marketing, I was a Senior Marketing Manager for LEGO® Education North America. Working for the world’s #1 ranked brand, and a marketing powerhouse at that, was an exciting venture and I learned a lot through that experience. One valuable insight I gained was understanding why and how a marketing team benefits from working with an ecommerce marketing agency.
During my career at LEGO, our marketing team grew from a team of six to a team of 13. You might think that with a marketing team of that size there wouldn’t be a need for marketing agency support. Yet we found that working with professional agencies was an important part of our marketing plan and that finding agencies that treat you like a partner can feel like an extension of your marketing team. But let’s start from the beginning…
What is an Ecommerce Marketing Agency?
An ecommerce marketing agency contains all the skills, knowledge, and expertise businesses need to support their in-house marketing function, grow the number of visitors to their website, and convert these site visitors into customers on their ecommerce store.
Ecommerce marketing agencies vary widely in size and skill sets. Some specialize in building and enhancing ecommerce websites, for example, while others may focus on SEO (search engine optimization), web design, social media, etc. Larger agencies tend to offer the full suite of ecommerce marketing services, including things like paid search, email campaigns, affiliate marketing, and creative solutions.
What Does an Ecommerce Marketing Agency Do?
Your ecommerce agency can do as much or as little as you need them to (and this will also depend on your budget, of course). They can create a strategy, implement your marketing tactics, advise on channel direction, etc. One of the great benefits of ecommerce marketing agencies is that they’ll provide you with the up-to-date expertise and technology you may not have in-house.
3 Reasons to Hire an Ecommerce Marketing Agency
Here are the top 3 reasons to hire an ecommerce marketing agency:
Reason 1: Agencies provided expertise in specialized areas of ecommerce marketing
In today’s digital world, there are so many specialized roles in ecommerce marketing, such as social media, website design, development, strategy, creative design, search engine optimization, PPC, and many more. Trying to find individuals for each and every role can be a daunting task.
Few companies are able to hire in-house employees for every role that the company will need. Oftentimes hiring in-house is not the best option because these specialized areas don’t require a full- or even part-time position. There are only a few aspects of ecommerce marketing that an in-house employee will be able to cover, which is why they’re almost ineffective in terms of cost. The cost of hiring and maintaining an in-house team can be far more expensive than simply hiring an ecommerce marketing agency. Aside from providing the right skills for each marketing strategy, an ecommerce marketing agency offers the experience and knowledge you need to get your online store in front of your ideal audience – and get them to purchase from you.
Hiring an agency that has experts who focus on specialized areas every day is more efficient and effective than trying to handle it in-house. It also helps save on extra salaries, time, and training. Every company will always take their time to train the employees they hire for a specific role – but you won’t have to spend valuable time on training if you have an ecommerce marketing agency. With one by your side, there’s no need for training because they’re already experienced in developing and growing brands’ ecommerce platforms and implementing ecomm strategies and tactics. They are capable of understanding various business models in order to establish the right ecommerce marketing program for your needs. The only training that you would possibly invest in is the time it takes for the agency to understand your business and audience.
Reason 2: Agencies help scale to fit business needs
As your business grows, so do your marketing needs – but it isn’t always at a consistent and predictable pace.
There might be months that are extremely busy and other months that feel manageable. There may be roles that require 5-10 hours a week, but not a full 40.
Working with agency partners allows you to meet business needs in peak times with added support and capacity. If you can relate to this, you might consider hiring an ecommerce marketing agency.
Reason 3: Agencies help you prioritize and focus
If you’re a growing company, you might find that there are more requests for experienced staff than budget will allow, so you are forced to prioritize.
Ask yourself: is this a role you should hire in-house, or something you should outsource to an agency?
This exercise allows you to focus on hiring the right roles at the right times, while using agencies to fill the gaps and maintain focus on all the necessary and opportunistic work. Without an ecommerce marketing agency, it’s easy to deprioritize and push projects to the back burner simply due to capacity or lack of focus.
The competition in finding and hiring experienced talents for your ecommerce needs is high. Most businesses will pay top dollar to hire and retain qualified talents. If you’re looking for quality talents then you may need a high budget to get the talent you want. You won’t have to worry about this as much if you were to work with an ecommerce marketing agency, who can always optimize the marketing strategies you require for your current marketing needs.
