Digital Marketing: Choosing An Agency vs. Doing-It-Yourself

As a business owner, no matter the size of your operation, you have a great many decisions to make every day that affect your bottom line. Just consider how many things crop up unforeseen and how long those things take you to deal with. Now imagine that on top of all that you’re trying to juggle search marketing, website design or anything else in this digital realm of your business. Do you really think you have the time to do it right?

That’s an excellent question and one we should examine more closely, so let’s take some time to compare how DIY digital marketing stacks up to an agency team on your side. Okay, we’ll start with a website design and work our way through the primary services offered at Lift Conversions – just to be thorough you understand.

DIY Web Design vs. Agency Web Design

First off, this is something that we, as professionals, never recommend – no matter the budget constraints you’re under as a business owner. You have to think of your website as what it really is – your digital storefront. Imagine you walk up to a brick-and-mortar store and it’s dilapidated and unsightly from the outside. Then when you walk in there’s nothing on the shelves, no customer service attendant and the lights are flickering on and off. Would you buy something from that store? Of course not, and we don’t blame you!

Now think about the fact that your website is what your digital customers experience. Why would you be satisfied with a web design that gives the impression you went the free route? people can tell and it impacts the way they view your business. Check out the pros and cons of each below:

DIY PRO: DIY is often free using a builder like Wix or Squarespace.
DIY CON: DIY site builders are inflexible and limited in scope.
DIY CON: DIY sites can break and when they do who fixes them for you?
DIY CON: DIY sites are easily identifiable as such and lack functionality.
AGENCY PRO: Our sites are built using the latest technology and are fully scalable.
AGENCY PRO: Our sites are built to market your business effectively using all platforms.

DIY Search Marketing vs. Agency Search Marketing

Today, Google and Microsoft both offer entry-level search marketing services for business owners without the time or expertise to handle it themselves. That means that any interested business owner can get ads running in a relatively short time, but what exactly are they doing when they decide to go that route? Our founder describes it like going to Las Vegas, handing the dealer all your money and asking him to win for you. That’s exactly what it is when you use AdWords Express or Bing to just spend money in the hope that it works. You don’t understand how it works but you want it to. Does that kind of uncertainty make you comfortable?

We didn’t think so and it’s pretty much the same when you try to run campaigns on your own with your in-house expertise. Search marketing is a complicated business but it’s truly the only instant gratification in terms of lead generation or sales that you’ll find online and it works so much better when you have an agency team like Lift Conversions on your side. The pros and cons below make that clear:

DIY PRO: Google and Microsoft Express versions have click costs are lower and it takes zero effort to manage.
DIY CON: They have limited ability to secure clicks that have actual intent behind them.
DIY CON: You won’t have control over anything but vague keyword concepts and spend amount with Express.
DIY CON: You have limited ability to firewall things you don’t want when using Express versions.
DIY CON: Running your own successful search marketing campaigns takes time, expertise and planning.
AGENCY PRO: Working with an agency gives you a better chance at finding success.
AGENCY PRO: A good agency will not make you sign a lengthy contract. ROI will be the deciding factor.
AGENCY PRO: A good agency manager can prevent headaches, downtime and policy issues.

DIY Local SEO vs. Agency Local SEO

When we say Local SEO, what we’re really talking about is content for your website, your social media channels, your promotional materials and anything else you need. But first and foremost, it’s about your website content – which if you’re smart will be the driver of your organic rankings. Many business owners are more than capable of writing their own content but they simply don’t have the time. And there’s also the fact that writing for a site is not necessarily the same as writing for anything else. Why? Because of keywords, that’s why. They drive the engines and power the results you’ll see from your website and that’s something an agency team excels in – at least the writers from Lift Conversions do and we have case studies to prove it!

Now, there’s another reason to let an agency team handle the workload when it comes to Local SEO, or any SEO for that matter, and that’s experience. Search engine optimization isn’t something to be undertaken by anyone who doesn’t understand it because it can have negative impacts too – very severe negative impacts if done wrong. Linkbuilding can lead to penalties and too often that’s the road businesses take because they get a cheap offer with SEO attached. Here are a few of the reasons that’s a bad idea:

DIY CON: Cheap SEO linkbuilding can lead to disaster. If the site you link to gets suspended you may be next!
DIY CON: You don’t really understand what you’re paying for so how do you know if it’s working?
DIY CON: Writing your own content can be great but you might miss out on keywords that are too important to miss because you didn’t know they mattered.
DIY CON: You need a coherent content strategy and that takes serious time to implement.
AGENCY PRO: Working with an agency means you get experienced writers who know your vertical.
AGENCY PRO: We write content that’s as evergreen as we can make it so it’s as effective tomorrow as it is today!
AGENCY PRO: We design the content strategy – like Location Pages – and keep you on track!

Working With An Agency Is Clearly A Winning Idea

With so many pros in the favor of choosing the right agency to partner with, and a whole lot of cons speaking to why it’s never as effective to go it alone, it’s clear you should reach out to Lift Conversions at the earliest opportunity to schedule a free consultation where you’ll have the opportunity to get straight answers about the marketing possibilities available to you from the team at Lift Conversions. We’ll take the time to get to know you, your specific needs and communicate openly about how we would address them. So, what are you waiting for? Schedule a consultation today by calling (773) 419-3636 or using our contact form to get underway!