Is It Better to Hire Industry Specific Marketing Services?
July 24, 2019
Today, many business verticals can find marketing services that specialize in working with their industry. Here are the things to consider with these types of marketing services.
We recently talked to a roofer in need of marketing services. He liked Marketing 360® and wanted to hire us.
But he felt unsure because he was also considering a marketing service that “specializes” in working only with roofers. This brought up a legitimate question.
Is it better to work with an all-in-one agency like Marketing 360®, or a marketing service that specializes in your business vertical? Let’s break down the important considerations.
The Industry Specialist
It’s pretty easy to identify the advantage of working with an industry specialist. Presumably, their marketing team also has a background in the business they specialize in so they know more about how to develop a strategy for that vertical.
For example, there are a number of marketing services for contractors like roofers or plumbers that are run by people who used to work in those fields. If you talk to a marketer who also use to be a plumber, they’re gonna speak your language and have keen insights into your problems.
It’s a useful perspective, and it certainly can create the perception that this is the best type of service.
The problem with these types of services is that they are boutique agencies that often have limited resources when executing marketing tactics. Finding a team with a plumbing background that also is capable at search marketing, copywriting, videography, social media, and digital design is difficult.
Most often, vertical-specific marketing services have to farm-out a portion of their work, which is a disadvantage. It’s helpful to talk to a marketer with a background in your industry, but not so great if they’re outsourcing the actual marketing work itself.
The All-In-One Agency
Marketing 360® is a full-service agency with software, tools, and staff to execute all marketing tactics for any type of SMB vertical or eCommerce website. We do it all in-house in our Fort Collins, Colorado offices.
So we offer the major advantage of a centralized, complete marketing solution an SMB can afford. But what about the industry expertise?
The truth is in the past we used to downplay the need for industry background because there was so much overlap with SMB marketing. Ten years ago, there wasn’t – in practice – that much difference between marketing a plumber and a lawyer. Most of the tactics were similar enough that any of our marketing executives could do it.
Today, we realize this is changing. Because of the level of personalization required when targeting today’s consumers and the need to develop brand affinty, marketing is more strategically granular than it used to be.
So it’s an advantage to have industry-level experience when developing a marketing campaign. For many businesses today, in fact, the marketing process is hyper-specific. Canned content and basic advertising tactics won’t be enough.
Fortunately, at Marketing 360®, the last ten years created immense opportunities to work with virtually every type of business out there. From one-man contractor shops to large law firms to eCommerce sites with thousands of SKUs, we’ve seen it all.
In fact, we now have an impressive library of case studies that document this experience.
Today, when you work with us, we’ll funnel you to people who have experience and expertise with your type of business. These are not usually people who previously worked in your industry, but the team will have experience with that type of marketing.
The Bottom Line: It’s Personal
So here’s something you might not expect to hear.
Today, even industry-specific marketing services are often not specific enough. What you need is marketing specific to your actual, individual business.
Your location, product, business history, target audience, and competition are all unique to you. If you’re a divorce lawyer in Manhattan, Kansas, with 10 years experience, you’ll have very different marketing from a tax lawyer in Manhattan, NYC just starting out.
The buying process for consumers today is research-based and non-linear. Brands need to establish a sales funnel that personalizes the journey for each prospect.
This means you must think about how you’ll market your business. Marketing tactics and business verticals are only part of the picture. Every business using digital marketing connects with its client-base in its own way.
Experience still counts, of course. If you talk to a marketing firm and they seem to have no idea about how to work with your type of business, it’s likely to be a disadvantage.
At the same time, just because a guy used to work as a roofer or lawyer doesn’t automatically mean he’ll be capable of meeting your marketing needs. With today’s extended, complicated buying cycles, you must think of marketing as a process where you continue to refine your tactics and collateral to maximize the impact of your brand.
So you need to market your new roofing business. You need someone with experience and skill in marketing roofers. But even more than that, you need someone who can help you become the top roofing company in your area.
To do that, you need someone with marketing savvy and resources that can be applied directly to your needs.