B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

“Do we need a Web marketing firm? …we already have an ad agency.”

March 4th, 2008 Posted by: Bill Gadless

In a recent posting on our B2B Web Strategy blog, we summarized David Meerman Scott’s fine piece on RainToday, provocatively titled “Don’t Trust An Advertising Agency To Build Your Web Site” …primarily because we couldn’t agree more with his premise.

Today we thought we’d turn it around to the positive, and discuss why you should engage a specialized Web marketing firm, and for more than website-building …even if you already use a traditional agency for such things as image and branding. Not surprisingly, the major reason for using a dedicated Web marketing firm is its specialized expertise – which explodes into numerous component segments, including:

• Web marketing strategy
• Website design and development
• Website usability and architecture
• Corporate and product/service branding as conveyed via online marketing
• Web lead generation and integration with CRM (e.g., Salesforce.com)
• Search engine marketing, both organic and Google Adwords (SEO & PPC)
• Content management
• Email marketing, webinars, blogs, etc.
• Web analytics and analysis

That’s really a lot to expect of traditional ad agencies, most of which became established long before the Web came along …and generally not by being strong on technology. As terrific as such firms can be at what they do well, it’s just not reasonable to expect any company to be good at everything.

By contrast, a “pure-play” Web marketing consultancy has typically spent years exclusively in this space, assembling a technology-savvy team with solid mastery of all of the segments listed above. (eMagine, for example, has been doing this since the very dawn of the Web, working with literally hundreds of B2B clients exclusively on Web marketing issues.) You’ll be hard-pressed to find a “full-spectrum” ad agency that can hold a candle to most specialized Web marketing firms in online expertise. But then… most such firms wouldn’t dream of advising you on your next print media buy, either.

But isn’t using multiple agencies just asking for management headaches?
Not necessarily, according to Kate Maddox’s recent article “Managing multiple agencies” for B2Bonline, in which she reviews in depth some tactics used by a variety of client companies (AT&T, W. L. Gore, Epson, Barclays). It’s really not rocket science; in fact, there was general agreement “that establishing guidelines and finding common ground are keys to success … recognizing that specialization of services can bring benefits to their overall marketing efforts.”

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Internet Marketing