In an increasingly congested and competitive digital marketplace, it can be difficult to wade through all the sales messaging and determine which type of digital service provider could work best for you and your business.
In general, they fall into two main categories; those who would present as a Digital Agency - usually working on a monthly retainer fee - and those who would call themselves Lead Generators, who usually charge on a per-lead basis, potentially with different rates for qualified or unqualified leads.
Having worked across both a Digital Agency model and Lead Generation model in recent years, our leadership team at We Are Web has decided that, while we are committed to - and highly proficient at - generating a good volume of quality leads for the clients we work with, we prefer to operate as a Digital Agency for a number of reasons, which we’ll outline here.
As an experienced Digital Agency team, we are well aware that there is a broad spectrum in terms of the quality and reliability of Digital Agencies across the UK. We have put a lot of thought into what does and doesn’t work well in terms of properly servicing clients, so we have specifically structured our team to be able to cater to the key areas of the Digital Marketing spectrum.
Our team provides in-house expertise on Web Design, Web Development, Technical SEO, PPC Management, Social Advertising and Content Marketing.
What this means, in short, is that you can take on as much or as little of that range of digital services as you need, but that every individual service will be carried out with an understanding of the benefit it can offer to all the other key areas of digital marketing.
So, if we design you a new website, we will do it in a way that takes SEO, PPC and Social effectiveness into account. If we run a Content Marketing campaign, we make sure that we take into account the User Experience of your site ready for when your new increased audience arrives.
This all works in tandem to ensure the best possible chance of achieving your online goals, from giving you a website that you can truly be proud of, to providing you with an immediate increase in leads coupled with long-term organic growth that is built to last.
Let’s just say that many Lead Generators, while they may be adept at producing a shiny-looking shop window, might not always build in the potential for much substance behind that window, so once the market shifts even a little, that shop window all too often comes crashing down, leaving you to pick up the pieces while the Lead Generator moves on to a new sector.
There are a variety of ways to look at the Digital Agency model, and obviously each different Digital Agency is a unique entity offering its own level of service, but in terms of general benefits and drawbacks, we’d boil it down to:
- Wider range of digital marketing expertise
- Detailed research and strategy
- You retain full control of your digital assets; website, content etc.
- Varied pricing model to fit your exact needs
- Cheaper than an in-house sales team
- Clear communication, reporting and analysis
- May take a few weeks/months to see an upturn in rankings
- Learning process involved with effective PPC campaigns
- Complex web builds can be costly and take a while
Thankfully, our level of experience and expertise means we can give you the best possible chance of seeing a real boost in your SEO as soon as possible, while being realistic and open with you about the current health of your website and the competition for terms within your specific industry.
We have also managed a number of PPC campaigns so can ensure that the learning process is as quick as possible, and we have a reliable team of designers and developers to ensure budgets and timescales are kept to.
We’re sure they did. They like to do that.
Often, you’ll find that a lead generator makes big promises about the number of leads they can produce, but they’ll usually skip past the depth of market research and consideration of the user journey that guarantees the lead quality stays at the level you’d desire.
Lead Generators like to imply that with a Digital Agency, you can get bogged down in numerous planning discussions with different staff that slows the project, but any Digital Agency worth their salt knows how to properly project manage and ensure that you deal with one central point of contact, hearing input from other specialist staff only as and when their expertise is called for.
We find that this level of detail and organisation actually aids the success of the project in the long-run and saves the time created by the need for re-designs or corrections down the line.
When it comes to managing Paid Ad campaigns, a Digital Agency can do this just as quickly and efficiently as a Lead Generator, but we believe that we do so with a more strategic approach that fits with your current business aims and future growth potential, rather than trying to get as many leads in as possible to make a quick profit before moving on to the next short-term market.
Ultimately, it depends on what you’re looking for. If you want a quick fix in a short-term market, maybe a lead generator will work for you, but if you’re looking at building long-term growth through a range of well-produced digital assets that you’re proud to be associated with, we’re confident that you’ll find a Digital Agency is best placed to meet that need.
We’d be happy to take you through our working process and range of digital services. We let our results do the talking and offer a very flexible pricing model, with experience across sectors including Legal, Financial, Renewable Energy, Virtual Reality, Retail, Education and much more.
To find out more about how we can help your business to achieve real and lasting growth online, get in touch with us today by phone on 0151 321 2320 or by sending us a short message via our contact form.
“With over 30 years collective experience across various industries, We Are Webs team of experts, are uniquely positioned to help your business grow”
