WHY USE A MARKETING AGENCY?

You have a product or service and you’d like to let people know about it, and pay for it, and you are left with the decision of how to do this.

There are many considerations here; Who are your customers?  Where are they?  Why should they use your product or service?  What will entice them to choose you over your competitors?  What logo and branding is appropriate for your business?  What are your competitors spending on advertising and how is it working out for them?

There are many more questions of which I’m sure you are aware, and I could easily fill this blog with a list of relevant questions which need to be answered before you come with a suitable marketing and promotions strategy.

This blog is aimed at the pros and cons of using an advertising/marketing agency, and doing it yourself.

“Time is money”

This seems to be an obvious statement, but the more time you spend on the marketing and promotional strategy, the less you are spending on the day to day running of your business. 

In some cases, when starting from scratch with no budget or guaranteed income to speak of, going it alone is often your only choice.  However, those with a budget at their disposal should be looking at the quality time spent in return for what they get out of it.  For example, here at Matrix Advertising Group I could spend two days working on a graphic design for a client, alternatively I could hand the brief over to our graphic designer who will have the logo designed to a professional standard, usually within the a few hours. Of course I will always hand this over to our graphic designer as this is where his expertise lies, which leads us nicely to our next topic…

Where does your expertise and interest lie?

People often set up a business because they have a passion for their chosen profession.  If you are a baker, then cakes pies and pasties are your passion.  If you are an accountant – numbers.  If you are a traffic warden - self defence and a penchant for living life dangerously.

Few people set up a business because their passion and skill lies in marketing and advertising, unless of course they have set up a marketing and advertising company, like I did back in 2001.

A marketing and advertising agency completely removes the guess-work in which ways to best promote your business.  They will do all the background research on who your competitors are; the best way to entice, educate and engage your potential clientele; all design work and campaign planning, and of course the right choice of advertising media to use.  

Where to advertise, when, for how long, and to achieve what purpose are all responsibilities taken on by a dependable marketing and advertising company.

Media buying

A quick note that may also help you make that informed decision media buying.

Media buying, as the name suggests, is how much you will be charged to book space or time on a radio or television station, printed media i.e. newspapers or outdoor advertising to name a few of the major players.

In almost all cases it will always be significantly cheaper for a reputable agency to book in your promotion than for you to go to the supplier direct.  This is because the agencies give those relevant media partners so much work in terms of clients’ bookings that they receive in general two distinct advantages:

1.     An agency discount (an average or around 15%) for every separate booking that is made for a client.  The agency receives a commission from the media partner which is a set percentage taken off the overall price of the booking.  Some agencies use some of this commission to give back to the client so they are receiving better value, others however will charge you for their services.  In this respect it’s best to do your research.

2.     Different agencies will receive better base rates for the media partner in the first instance without having to use their own agency commission to give a ‘kick back’ to the client, this also depends on how well established the agency is and their relationship with the media partners themselves.

There are many agencies out there, so as not to be purely self promoting here, I have listed a few who you might want to try.  Ok there are us www.matrixadvertisinggroup.co.uk full service marketing design and advertising agency.  Please visit the site let us know if we can help you.

Some other agencies you might like to try: Push Creative, Mercury Marketing, Jukebox Marketing, Stark Hartley Marketing and Virgo Consultancy.


If you have any questions we'd love to hear from you.  Please email us at info@matrixadvertisinggroup.co.uk or call us on 0191 4551222 and we'd be happy to assist in any way we can.