Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
Source: Marketing magazine,
Author: Sašo Palčić
Engaging a digital agency is often a large investment on an often overstretched marketing budget. Why do so many good companies literally give away their funds to (bad) agencies? How can a company tell when an agency is failing in their job?
Most of us don’t need be a dentist or a plumber to know whether they’ve done a good job; if your filling falls out within a week or if the tap comes of the wall that’s when you find out they haven’t done a good job. At first glance it does not appear easy to tell how effective an agency is.
A mystic aura emanating from majority of digital gurus is of no help. Everything runs smoothly initially until they start talking social networks, RLSA, PLA and 3PAS. We digitals are modern shamans; our ways are secretive and incomprehensible to mere mortals.
From Mad Men to advertising expenses
Once upon a time agencies were respected and looked up to, and jobs with them were sought after. Innovative ideas, ads with content, increase in sales and at the end of the day a glass of whiskey and a fat cigar. In the mean time things have changed. Evening dress has been replaced by polyester shirts; creativity has been replaced by mass production, choosing an agency has become a lottery.
For most of the clients marketing agencies have become a drain and necessary evil. Block TV advert sales, pop-up adverts and unwanted electronic mail have made advertising tasteless even to us mere mortals.
How is an agency created?
As it is with internet economy, the entry threshold for a digital agency is rather low. You don’t need a huge factory producing tons of digital marketing to be stored in a huge warehouse. In practice, a search on Google for a digital agency produces 300 000 results. You’ll get the same number of results when searching for production and service companies combined.
Let’s return to the opening statement. Digital is a complex thing understandable only to a select few. Does anybody see a contradiction in this? There are two ways to understand the discrepancy. Maybe digital is not as complicated as some would have you believe or there’s far too much charlatanism in many agencies. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Race to the bottom
There are unwanted consequences due to too many bidders and the resulting competition. New agencies are springing up like mushrooms after rain and straight into battle for survival, their main weapon being low fees for their services. This leads to a cheapened product and scrimping and saving.
Why should we, let’s say, develop our own design when we can download from the internet. Haven’t got a man to write an advert? Let’s copy last year’s. We haven’t got time for AdWords segmentation…You can see where this is going!
Don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes
Bad agencies are using variety of tactics to justify their work for the client. Highfalutin abbreviations are but just the tip of the iceberg. If we continue to nibble on a rotten apple we might find yet more questionable and harmful methods.
Who is the owner of your products?
Minimal hygienic standard of an internet agency is a monthly report on most important indicators of a success. Are you aware that that is the bare minimum that you should expect from them? Do you have access to your Google Analytics account; do you sometimes take a peek? What about your advertising account?
Whether the agency have created these accounts at the beginning of the campaign or you gave them access to your old accounts they are still your property. If you don’t have access to them the agency are having their cake and eating it. If you haven’t got control over your accounts the situation will get even worse if you change your agency. If you had a new employee you wouldn’t throw documentation into the fire or send it with the old employee to work for your rival. Therefore why would you leave all the info with your old agency and make the new one start from scratch.
Campaign before continuity
Naturally, campaigns are extremely important part of digital marketing. But they are not the only part. If a digital agency advises you to only have campaigns then something is missing in their understanding of marketing.
What are the negative consequences of campaign focused marketing? Of course, continuation of a good campaign can increase sales. After that activities and sales dwindle whilst you are preparing for a new campaign. You’re spending time buying snack at a petrol station whilst your rival is in the fast lane on the motorway.
Without detailed plan each campaign is stand alone. It can succeed but is just as likely to fail and you’re left having wasted your time.
Too much focus on campaigns alone distracts from the long term goals. The agency and in-house marketing are working solely to achieve campaign goals. Meantime the brand and long term goals get forgotten.
As a part of wider marketing strategy the digital strategy must be focused on all long-term goals. That’s what all the best agencies aim to achieve. Together with you.
It is not only about faster revenue growth, although that is a good thing. Certain tactics and campaigns have their place but they are tools to be used for long term goals.
Maintain control
You are probably aware of the old Chinese proverb about fishing and feeding. Bad digital agency will sell you rotten fish every day and a good one will sell you guide to fishing, the best rods, bait and show you the best places to fish.