Marketing agencies are becoming more and more popular among ecommerce shop owners. Getting the word out about your ecommerce business isn’t easy, and the methods for doing so are constantly changing. It’s hard to be up-to-date on all the current social media and online advertising trends if you aren’t in the business. That’s where marketing agencies come in. They have a wealth of information about how to advertise ecommerce businesses, and their services can make a huge difference.
There are a lot of different agencies out there, though. Knowing exactly which one to pick can be tricky. Here’s how you can find your perfect ecommerce agency, along with all the information that you should know about marketing agencies in general before beginning your search.
Why ecommerce marketing agencies are so important
If you’ve never had the help of a marketing agency before, you may be skeptical as to how much impact they can actually have. Will they actually provide you with a real return on your investment? What makes it so critical that you team up with one rather than creating all of your own marketing content?
The first reason is that working with a marketing agency gives you access to a wide variety of specialists in different types of advertising. If you handle all of your own marketing duties, it’s unlikely that you will be highly knowledgeable about any one subject – instead, you’ll likely be a passable jack of all trades. Similarly, hiring an SEO expert won’t help you out if you end up needing someone who knows everything about PPC. An agency will have employees who can handle all of your advertising needs. If what you need ends up suddenly changing, they can immediately account for that change.
The second benefit of working with an agency is that they will be able to offer you an unbiased perspective. Any campaign that you create yourself will undoubtedly be affected by your own feelings about your business and how you envision it in the future. An agency will cut through all of those personal ideas and simply create ads that are as effective as possible. Getting that outsider’s view is incredibly important in something as subtle as advertising.
Additionally, many ecommerce business owners choose to partner with agencies because it is simply the most cost effective option. Hiring your own marketing specialist may seem like it would be cheaper, but it ends up being quite costly when you consider salary, benefits, paid time off, and other expenses. When working with a marketing agency, you won’t be forced to cover those extra costs, and you will also have access to more specialists than you would ever be able to employ yourself.
Finally, a marketing agency just makes the entire process much simpler. Rather than hiring new employees, training them, and working alongside them on an ad campaign, you simply pass everything off to a group of experts that will handle it all for you. While some find this hands-off approach less appealing, many business owners like knowing that they have one less thing to worry about. The simplicity of this strategy frees up time to focus on other important tasks that will help grow your business.
How much do ecommerce marketing agencies charge?
Even though partnering with an ecommerce marketing agency is generally cheaper and more effective than hiring someone to do the same work, the price varies quite a bit. Depending on who you end up working with, you can pay per project, per month, or per hour. Figuring out which of these options will be cheapest for you is a good move to make before making a choice, as it will help narrow down which agencies you might want to work with.
In 2022, the range of prices for a single project or ad campaign can be anywhere from $1000 to $7500. If you decide to go with a per month rate, you can expect to pay somewhere between $2500 and $12,000. Finally, an hourly rate will typically lie between $50 and $500.
As you can see, the range of possible prices is quite large. It varies based on a few different factors. For instance, the price will typically be lower if you are working with less established agencies and higher for those agencies that have already proved they are constantly creating high quality content. Similarly, a project that is done quickly without much attention to detail will usually be cheaper than something that requires a lot of intense work, research, and revisions.
Another major aspect that goes into determining a marketing agency’s cost is the exact kind of work that you want them to do. Email marketing is generally on the cheaper end of things with social media posts being slightly above that. SEO and content marketing will then be more expensive than those options, and then the most expensive type of advertising will be PPC.
Deciding which of these you think you want before approaching an agency will help you work out a rate that will work for everyone involved. But you should also be willing to be flexible on what kind of marketing to go for. Sometimes it’s clear that you need email marketing help, but an agency might also point out that an SEO update will be even more effective at getting new customers. Remember that they’re the experts and heed their advice if you think that it is worthwhile (and if you can afford it!).
Preparing to work with a marketing agency
Once you’ve decided that you want to work with a marketing agency, there are a few steps you should take to make sure that you and your business are ready for the upcoming partnership. This preparation process will help clarify what you are expecting so that you walk into the partnership with a clear plan for the future. Additionally, a marketing partnership can be a big investment, so you want to make sure that it goes the way you want it to.
The first thing that you should decide upon is what sort of budget you have to work with. Figuring out your marketing budget will determine what agencies you can partner with and what kind of ad campaign they can create for you. Your budget will depend entirely on how much money you have to spend, but you should also consider how much money you stand to gain from an effective ad campaign. Having a large budget will allow for even greater returns on your investment.
Second, you should clearly define your brand identity. For businesses that have been around for a long time, this won’t be a difficult task. New businesses that have never created a serious ad campaign, though, may need to do some deep thinking about what kind of identity they want to present to the world. Is your shop casual and fun or serious and professional? Do you want to use humor and creativity to your advantage, or does that not align with the spirit of your business? Answering these questions early on will make a huge difference when you start actually meeting with agencies.
You should also consider the questions that you want to ask whatever marketing agency that you end up speaking to. Because you hold the power in these meetings, you can really quiz the agency to see if they fit your style and preferences. Prepare for these meetings like you would prepare for interviewing a potential new hire. Ask them about what matters to you and your business. Questions about their history, advertising style, payment options, work process, and organizational structures are common to prepare ahead of time.
Finally, you’ll want to concretely decide on how much growth you are prepared to experience. While an infinite amount of new customers sounds great, many businesses aren’t ready to handle a huge influx of business like this. With that in mind, it’s wise to have a clear series of goals for how many new customers and purchases you can sustain.
How to find an agency that works for you
Once you’ve finished these preparatory steps, it’s time to start actually looking for an agency to work with. This can be an exciting part of the process, but it can also be somewhat tedious. It involves lots of research, multiple meetings, and many emails exchanged back and forth. The end result, however, is definitely worth the effort.
When picking a marketing agency, you’ll want to keep your eyes out for a few different factors. First of all, you want an agency that fits the culture of your own business. If you find an agency with a very fast-paced and busy work environment that completely contrasts with your casual and friendly approach, it may not be a great fit. Keeping this in mind will help narrow down your choices and will allow you to locate an agency that you and your employees really connect with.
Second of all, you should be paying close attention to an agency’s location. Are they close enough to you that you could actually meet up in person and work on a project together? This is ideal for many business owners. Others, however, don’t mind (and may even prefer) working remotely. Check out where an agency is located and remember that many of the larger agencies out there have multiple offices in different cities. If in-person meetings are critical for you, only consider those that are close to you.
You’ll also want to get on the same page in terms of what the agency requires from you. Some agencies are ready to handle your entire campaign almost immediately while others want to work with you every step of the way. Both of these approaches are totally valid and equally effective, but each agency does it differently.
Another huge part of the puzzle is the agency’s past experience. Have they ever worked on a campaign in your niche before? If not, they may not be ready to handle yours. Getting to know about their previous clients and advertising projects will let you know what they are capable of, and it should be a pretty solid indicator of whether they are the right agency to partner up with. If you find that their experience doesn’t seem well-suited to what you have in mind, don’t feel bad looking elsewhere.
Unfortunately, these questions can’t all be answered by quick Google searches. To really get to know agencies on the level where you can find these answers, you will likely need to sit down with them in a meeting and ask them about these factors. But make sure to still do your research before getting to that step. You might just find through an Internet deep dive that a seemingly perfect agency actually doesn’t suit you at all.
What are the best ecommerce marketing agencies?
As you have probably gathered, the best marketing agency will vary for each company depending on its needs. But there are some agencies that stand above the rest as the most popular among ecommerce businesses. Here are a few to help jump start your search.
Atmosol is an ecommerce agency that is able to handle a wide variety of marketing tasks. They take care of design, development, and digital marketing, and they are very well-versed in making sure that all of your campaigns are effective on mobile devices.
Guidance is another top agency that is very renowned in the ecommerce industry. They’ve worked with major apparel companies like Foot Locker and Sole Society, making them a great choice if your business is also within that niche.
Northern is the only Elite BigCommerce Partner in Canada. That lends them a level of credibility that other agencies in the nation don’t have. They make campaigns for any Internet platform from Facebook to Google, and their ads are known for producing very high returns for their clients.
