3 Benefits of Working With a Fully Integrated Marketing Agency

When it comes to choosing a B2B marketing agency, there are many options. Some agencies have a narrow focus, specializing in a very specific skill set. Others bring a broader range of expertise and knowledge.

An integrated marketing agency offers some distinct advantages by delivering capabilities and resources across many disciplines. This can mean better results for you. Here are three key benefits of working with a full-service marketing agency.

A successful full-service marketing agency is built and centered around integration. The focus is on streamlining the delivery of truly connected programs and campaigns while also providing the greatest impact to your markets and prospects.

With the right agency partner, you have access to all the skill sets and expertise needed to support your marketing objectives. These services may include digital marketing, strategic communications, creative design, content planning, and more. Combined, they help create continuity with your brand experience across all communication channels, which is especially important in this digital age. Continuity keeps your brand experience consistent and connected. It also offers better efficiency and transparency compared to fragmenting tasks as specialized agencies or internal teams with separate departments do.

Also, integration itself is a skillset that delivers value. Perhaps you are facing a marketing or branding challenge that is new to you. It’s likely that an integrated marketing agency has solved this problem before. The experience and perspective they bring to the table are tremendous advantages.

Integrated agencies also know that effective cross-channel marketing campaigns should work hand in hand, with each channel leveraging and supporting the others. These types of campaigns are more efficient and impactful because your customer hears your message from a variety of channels. Content can be leveraged from channel to channel, but it will have more meaning and impact when all channels are working toward the same goal. Your customers expect a seamless brand experience wherever they find information about you. If your brand promise is confusing or the content you serve is inconsistent or irrelevant, you’ll probably lose customer trust.

It is also important to understand the customer journey. If you understand where a customer is in the buying process, you can identify their problem and offer a relevant solution on a channel that targets them. Getting your message to the right prospect at the right time is a crucial tactic. It’s one of the biggest advantages of partnering with a successful, fully integrated marketing agency.

It’s common for mid-sized and large companies to work with multiple agencies. This requires establishing appropriate expectations — including open and honest communication with all parties. Otherwise, you risk creating a fragmented approach and a competitive environment with your partners. Your brand suffers in that situation. If you work with multiple agencies that have narrow expertise, they often don’t see the full picture and are not responsible for seeing it.

Integrated agencies often carry the stereotype of being marketing generalists. As a result, some companies may seek out specialty agencies to deliver on specific objectives or address a very narrow challenge. That’s a logical approach and may provide the right solution in certain circumstances. But you risk missing the chance to address challenges more holistically, which is often a wiser investment that delivers more efficiency in the long run.

Integration isn’t only an agency descriptor. It’s a core competency that can provide your organization with tremendous value. Integration influences everything the agency does — from the way they approach strategies or manage projects to how they hire employees and align teams with clients. Full-service marketing agencies focus on delivering holistic solutions regardless of the channel. These distinct skill sets allow them to incorporate your campaigns together and produce better results. When you pay a full-service agency for this type of marketing approach, the accountability shifts to the agency to deliver those results.

Integrated marketing agencies are also adept at staying ahead of industry trends and bringing you the most relevant tools for your brand. The marketing landscape is always changing. You can and should lean on your agency to research top trends and bring you new ideas. This can be especially beneficial to companies using in-house departments that may not have time for these efforts. Adapting and evolving is crucial for an agency’s livelihood.

In today’s dynamic workplace, recruiting and retaining talent for internal marketing can be challenging, costly, and time-consuming. When you engage an integrated marketing agency, you shift that responsibility to your agency partner. The agency’s priority is to deliver the skills, experience, talent, and capacity to plan and execute your marketing activity in this fast-paced environment.

It’s also easier and more efficient to establish your marketing and campaign goals with an integrated agency partner. Tracking progress, monitoring campaigns, measuring success, and reporting and analyzing metrics is much more comprehensive when managed holistically through your agency partner. And there will be greater accountability from your agency to manage the campaign and adjust it to achieve success.

An integrated marketing agency takes all your data and uses it to make better decisions that deliver proven results. Without this, you’re looking at data in silos by discipline or channel, which makes it harder to know which tactics are working.

Your agency team — regardless of discipline — should have a deep knowledge of your audiences, your products, and your brand. They should be a true partner with your internal team and have a passion for your business. Expect your agency to invest the time upfront to live up to that expectation.

B2B marketing results with an integrated agency

What can you gain from working with an integrated marketing agency? The ability to draw on a wealth of expertise in many disciplines. The efficiency of a partner who looks at the full picture. The trust in a partner who shares a deep passion for your business. Contact us to learn how integrated agency services can deliver the results you want.