When Should You Hire a Marketing Agency? 5 Signs You’re Ready

Do any of these sound like your inner dialogue lately? These five thoughts are the signs it’s time to hire some marketing help for your small business.

The key isn’t whether you’ve ever thought of one of these. It’s whether they have become recurring roadblocks that keep your business from growing.

1) “I know I need to show up on social media more, but I just don’t have time.”

Consistently running out of time for marketing is one of the clearest signs it’s time to outsource some or all of your marketing efforts.

Just like with all good things in life, half the battle is showing up. But when client work, leading a team, making sales, nurturing prospects, and planning for the future growth of your business are dominating your days, it is SO easy for social media to fall by the wayside.

The problem isn’t that you don’t know social media matters. It’s that marketing becomes the first thing pushed aside every time client work gets busy.

If this thought comes up every week, it is a sign it’s time to hire a marketing agency to help you create and post that social media content.

2) “We need better qualified leads.”

If your marketing is attracting the wrong leads or not generating enough qualified prospects, it’s time to evaluate your marketing strategy before investing in more marketing tactics.

You could be doing all the marketing things (email, social media, blogs, networking, PR, etc..) recommended online and still not be attracting qualified leads. This is the sign it’s time to bring in an expert to identify where your marketing could be improved.

More marketing doesn’t automatically equal better leads. Sometimes the issue isn’t how much you’re doing, but whether your messaging, positioning, website, and customer journey are attracting the right people in the first place.

You can identify the real pros because they will always want to start with a brand and marketing audit to see how your current efforts are actually performing. They’ll cross reference that with the goals you’ve identified and then outline a marketing strategy to bridge the gap.

3) “I know continuous marketing & PR is important for long-term growth of the business, but I don’t have time to do it all.”

You are already ahead of the game by understanding that you do need to keep marketing your business even when you are busy.

Many business owners only focus on marketing programs when business slows down. The challenge with that approach is that marketing takes time to build momentum, which means waiting until you “have more time” will cause that slowdown to be even longer by the time you begin promoting your business again.

To continue servicing current clients and ensure you have new leads and nurtured prospects coming down the funnel behind them, outsourcing even part of your marketing efforts is the right move here.

4) “I know I need to be marketing, but I don’t know what I should be focusing on right now.”

Not knowing which marketing tactics will have the biggest impact is your cue that it’s time to focus on strategy, not trying every new trend.

In this scenario, a marketing consultant is likely your best place to start. They can outline a marketing strategy for you based on your specific business goals, then be there to guide you along the way as you execute the details.

Sometimes a documented plan tailored to your business and a month or two of one-on-one support can save you six months of spinning your wheels.

5) “I know the content I want to create, but I never seem to have time to actually make it.”

As an entrepreneur you are naturally full of ideas. What you are not always full of is time to execute on all of them and that is where outsourcing content creation can be really beneficial to your business.

It’s also important to note that you are not alone here, friend. This is something all creative business owners think at one point or …well, 1,000 others throughout the course of a year.

Content creation may not be as hard as rocket science, but finding the time to show up consistently can be just as challenging.

A marketing agency can take the ideas you have, interview you to capture your expertise and tone of voice, pair that with your existing videos & photos, and turn it all into a consistent content marketing presence. All while you focus on other areas of your business.

If any of these thoughts started to sound like a broken record in your head – and true roadblocks in your business – then it’s officially time to start talking with marketing agencies and find the right support for your needs.

Not every small business needs a full-service marketing agency. Some benefit most from a consultant guiding them on the right path, while others simply need help with content marketing, PR, or strategic direction.

The important part is recognizing when trying to do everything yourself is costing you more than asking for help.