As with any professional service, finding the right marketing company to work with can be a challenge. As with every business, all marketing companies in Portsmouth are different. They’ve got different backstories, leadership styles, skillsets and specialisms. Some marketing companies are more targeted to a corporate environment whilst others are more set up for working with start-ups or SME’s. The main thing to get right is to find one that can meet all of your needs, help you achieve your objectives and be a great part of your team. Much will depend on what you’re looking to achieve with your marketing.
1. Are you looking for one-off marketing support where you need a marketing company in Portsmouth that can deliver the whole project or more of a long term partnership to fill a gap in your marketing?
Maybe you just need an extra pair of hands to run things like Pay Per Click Advertising campaigns or set up and manage your Social Media accounts, or you need greater direction and a marketing strategy to carry you through the next few years. Whatever you are looking for you will need the marketing company to hit the ground running and have the expert capacity to run your marketing for you. For companies that already have ‘marketing-doers’ in-house, you might need just a little expert direction to make sure your strategy and tactics are the right ones and can help to evaluate their marketing activities. Before even beginning your search for a marketing agency it pays to be clear about what you support you’d like from them.
2. What budget do you have for your marketing campaigns and services?
Different marketing companies are set up differently and approach their work differently. The levels of expertise and experience they bring to a project will differ as well as the time they will be planning to commit to the work. This will all have an impact on price – or at least it should. The important thing here is to check the pricing and get a sense of things that are comparable. This is important because one service can only really be called cheaper than another service if it’s at a lower price and the service is comparable. The most important aspect of this service is quality and how much it will help you to achieve your aims.
3. How do you assess the quality of the Marketing companies in Portsmouth?
Reputation is key, there are lots of things you can do to find a reputable marketing company in Portsmouth. Find out who your direct point of contact will be and check them out on LinkedIn – do they have recommendations, are they experienced in this line of work? What is the company’s digital footprint like? If you’re looking to purchase digital services like web design, social media management or SEO – look at their own. Check out their online reviews from independent sources like Google – how do they compare. See what previous work they’ve done and check out the credentials of the people running the business. Are they suitably qualified and experienced? Last but not least what sense do you get of their values – from their website, social channels and printed materials. This matters because it is the foundation of trust between you. Trust is important because many areas of digital marketing are highly technical and often changing and so it can be difficult to really get the measure of someone’s expertise or lack of. In addition, the chosen marketing company will represent your company and so you need to make at least some basic assessment of whether this is going to be something you are comfortable with or something that makes you nervous. Get specifics on exactly what will be provided and when – ask for detail.
There is a lot to think about but choosing the right marketing company to partner up with can bring a host of benefits over the long term. They can help cover gaps in personnel, add a bit of spark and firepower to campaigns and bring an external perspective that can be very valuable. If you can develop a great synergy with a stable marketing company, it can be a partnership that lasts for many years and brings many benefits to your business.
