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How to Set Up Distributed Teams for your Digital Marketing Agency

How to Set Up Distributed Teams for your Digital Agency

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In January 2020, if you would have told anyone that they would spend a chunk of their March and April working remotely, they would have asked you to stop yanking their chain. Wasn’t that just wishful thinking?

Well, some magical monkey’s paw has now made that wish come true. We are all sitting in our comfy PJs, attending meetings over Zoom (Am I audible? Can you see me now?), and have officially lost track of what day it is! As we stay in, working from home is “in.”

However, as we adjust to this “new normal” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies may find it challenging to track and manage their remote teams. But, companies are readily adopting the ‘distributed teams’ trend to beat the heat of this pandemic. 

In this article, we would be hovering over the following segments:

  • What is Distributed Team
  • The Distributed Team Advantage
  • The popularity of Distributed Team (Statistics and Numbers)
  • The Core Ingredients for Managing Distributed Marketing Teams
  • Actionable Tips on How to Set-up A Distributed Team
  • How to Build The Right Work Culture among your Distributed Teams
  • The Road Ahead

What is a Distributed Team?

The concept of distributed teams is not new. Even if you operate from a physical office, every team becomes a distributed team after surpassing a stipulated team size. These teams are then distributed across cabins, rooms, floors, office buildings, cities, countries, and even continents!

A distributed team comprises decentralized, location-independent coworkers who communicate and collaborate to achieve a common goal. 

In simpler words, the workforce is a mix of full-time employees and freelancers, who may or may not share a physical office space. As stated previously, these teams could either be co-located or operate internationally!

The Distributed Team Advantage

Major enterprises such as Google, MasterCard, Oracle, Amazon, GSK, and Microsoft have been making use of distributed teams for years! It is an indication that the shift towards working remotely and employing distributed teams started way ahead of the pandemic. If anything, the Coronavirus outbreak has catalyzed the adoption of this approach.

So, what pushed this decision in the first place? The following advantages:

1. Limitless Access to Talent Pools

The talent shortage is one of the greatest hiring challenges of the current times. Traditional hiring procedures will only tap into the local talent possessing a limited number of eligible candidates. Commuting to work and the time taken thereof is yet another challenge to overcome.

On the other hand, distributed teams originate from different locations, which not only broadens your talent base but also makes it quicker and easier to employ the services of a top performer. Furthermore, using flexible talent facilitates on-demand services, which will offer your company a bang for its buck.

2. Happier Employees

Happy employees make for a happy business – this adage comes through when you offer workplace flexibility to your employees. A study indicated that full-time remote workers are 22% happier with their job when compared to those who have never worked remotely. The reason for better job satisfaction stems from better work-life balance (91%), better focus/increased productivity (79%), less stress (78%), and no more commuting (78%). 

Happier Employees

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Naturally, happier employees are more likely to stick around longer. Higher employee retention will save you on resources.

3. Greater Scalability

The current global condition has made a strong case for companies to stay adaptive and agile. It has come to light how organizations may have to scale up or scale down at a moment’s notice. Distributed teams enjoy hiring flexibility, especially as it allows you to recruit talent on an ad-hoc, need-per-basis rather than offering full-time employment. As a result, distributed teams can easily be regrouped and reorganized as when the situation demands so.

4. Access to Local Intel

Small and medium enterprises that wish to expand to different geographical areas can hire distributed teams right from their targeted region. At the same time, the teams are equipped with local insights, which will make their efforts more relevant and effective!

For example, consider that you are a company based in France but marketing to the UK. Naturally, a UK-based marketing team can conceptualize more appropriate campaigns. Depending on their inputs, the company may delegate tasks to its web development team in the Philippines, SEO teams in Brazil, and content development teams in India to align the various aspects of marketing.

Distributed Teams in Numbers

Here’s what the world (and major industries) thinks of distributed teams:

what-percent-of-company-works-remote-2019

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The Core Ingredients for Managing Distributed Marketing Teams

A company cannot accidentally shift towards a remote work environment. The transition must take place deliberately and with elaborate planning. To manage your remote teams, you need to take care of the following systems and practices:

1. Communication

Whether you are attempting to align marketing with sales or outlining a new marketing strategy – communication plays a vital role in sustaining all activities. Avoid using negative phrases and offer corrections and suggestions paired with GIFs and emojis to set a positive tone.

2. Coordination

Building coordination between distributed teams will ensure that you have a highly responsive marketing unit. Have a timezone spread in place so that overlapping teams can hand over the business to each other teams in a ‘pass the baton’ relay format.

3. Collaboration

Collaboration between distributed marketing teams is both a science and an art. Managers will have to closely monitor the collaboration between the various limbs of marketing and develop a formula that works for them best.

4. Organization

Curate an organizational structure to facilitate and execute the marketing efforts. Your team does not need to reinvent the wheel. Thus, ensure that they enjoy organizational support to address the pain points that affect them.

5. Operations

Operations are all about bridging the gap between planning and execution. Train your distributed teams to mirror the procedures that an in-house marketing team would follow to achieve the desired result.

6. Culture

Even though the employees may operate remotely, they are an integral part of your marketing department and the organization as a whole. Hence, companies must make an effort to inculcate a healthy work culture that is uniform and inclusive. Nearly 80% of Millennials prioritize culture fit above every other factor that determines their willingness to work for an organization.

Actionable Tips on How to Set-up A Distributed Team

Now that you have an understanding of the key elements that come to play while managing a distributed marketing team, you have to establish a process to facilitate smooth and seamless operation throughout the network.

Here are a few actionable tips that will help you set a standardized marketing process:

1. Recruit the Right Talent

It has already been established that distributed teams give you access to top talent on a project or ad-hoc basis. Thus, if you do not have a distributed marketing team in place, now is a good time as any to get started. Remote working may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Some individuals will outperform others, while some will find struggle with staying productive. Find the right people and make them a part of your team. Individuals who are self-motivated, independent, trustworthy, and capable of making autonomous decisions are more suited for remote operations.

Freelance Adoption is Increasing

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On the other hand, if you already have a marketing team in place, you could hire a marketing head or a manager possessing the requisite experience and speciality in handling distributed teams.

2. Focus on Onboarding

Whether it is new recruits or your marketing team turning virtual, onboarding plays a crucial role in determining the team’s abilities. Unfortunately, several companies fall short in providing a holistic onboarding experience.

distributed team - Focus on Onboarding

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An employee that has a better understanding of the tools and how to operate them will be more engaged and enthusiastic about delivering the desired results. Further, creating an organizational chart can lend structure to your distributed marketing team. Finally, assigning team leaders that can aid and assist the onboarding of your marketing team can help the employees adapt to the digital workplace.

Thus, if you wish to have a marketing team that is loyal, creative, productive, and innovative, you need to have an effective onboarding strategy in place.

Digital Marketing Team

3. Define Clear Expectations

Your team members cannot read your mind. As your marketing team gears up to work together remotely, they lack the personal connection and cues such as interpreting body language or reading between the lines. At the same time, it is easy to misunderstand or overlook any instruction. Hence, it is crucial to set out expectations clearly while working with a distributed team.

As a marketing unit, your goals have to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound). Communicate these goals to keep them focused on the big picture. At the same time, break down these expectations into smaller, individual goals to ascribe them to different roles and positions to enhance accountability. 

With a more transparent system in place, marketing heads and team members can easily track and report on the progress and focus on the end result rather than the hours spent on achieving it.

4. Establish Multiple Channels of Communication

Email marketing is great. However, operating a distributed marketing team through emails will be slow and frustrating, to say the least.

Your marketing team is responsible for translating your brand value and company message. Thus, it is mandatory that the distributed teams are in constant communication to ensure uniformity in brand voice. As a result, several communication channels over digital platforms have to be readily accessible.

Have a mix of video conferencing tools, instant messaging applications, and other collaborative platforms to keep all team members in the loop. You need to enable synchronous and asynchronous channels of communication to offer more context to every interaction.

5. Conduct Regular Meetings

There is something personal and comforting about bouncing ideas off of each other through face-to-face communication. Considering that marketing involves frequent brainstorming sessions, you may have to come together often to exchange ideas. While in-person meetups may be on hold, you can conduct virtual meetings to track progress, review goals, and revise your marketing strategies.

However, exercise caution while hosting virtual conferences as they may result in unproductive time sinks. To avoid letting this opportunity go to waste, draft an agenda, and stick to it before your team gets on a call. In addition to group meetings, encourage one-on-one interactions to check up on your employees.

6. Choose a Collaborative Platform

There is a slew of marketing collaboration platforms that can facilitate seamless collaboration. Utilize technology as an extension of your team and individual capacity to bridge the gaps between a distributed team. 

Have a dedicated tool for all activities, whether it is monitoring the efficacy of email marketing or checking up on your content marketing efforts. Get a marketing dashboard where all metrics are readily available so that your teams can deliberate on issues and develop innovative solutions.

A visual dashboard not only reports on the marketing strategies, successes, and tasks, but it also makes the distributed team feel like a part of a common process.

7. Make Data Accessible

According to a report titled ‘The Experience of Work: The Role of Technology in Productivity and Engagement’ employees spend more than 25% of their time searching for information that they need to do their job!

Hence, to allow your distributed teams to operate as a cohesive unit, you must provide the right information at the right place. Whether it is company details or brand designs, marketing teams must have access to information in a centralized location. Skip the confusing email attachments and share all the information in a Cloud-based repository of company data.

As a result, you are allowing unrestricted movement of data between your teams while preventing the formation of data silos, loss of data, and data dilution. Passing on bad data to your sales team will only result in a loss of time and resources!

Naturally, the last thing you want to deal with right now is the constant bickering between sales and marketing.

8. Develop a Team Spirit

Extended lunch breaks and chit-chats around the breakroom may seem unproductive. Still, they are an integral component of social life, and there is no better substitute for team building than a people-to-people connection. 

distributed team - Develop a Team Spirit

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At the same time, there is no denying the fact that working remotely can result in an employee disconnect. Hence, it is imperative to develop a working team spirit. The collaborative tools and platforms can double up as channels for having fun and unwinding with your colleagues. So take this time to build rapport between distributed team members.

Companies are encouraging quarantine activities such as the Getty Museum Challenge to motivate and engage remote team members. Plus, it’s a great way to tap into your creativity!

9. Define Key Performance Indicators

Most marketing activities have moved over to the digital domain. The corresponding key performance indicators (or KPIs) can help you quantify and track the progress made by each individual or team in reaching the marketing goal.

Some marketing KPIs for the different branches of marketing are outlined below:

  • Social Media: Reach, Impressions, Followers, Likes, Comments, Clicks, Shares, Mentions, etc.
  • SEO: Total website traffic, organic search traffic, keyword ranking, page views, uniques, domain authority or page authority, conversion rate, etc.
  • Email Marketing: Delivery rate, email open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, conversion rate, etc.
  • Content Marketing: New leads, opt-ins or downloads, marketing qualified leads, time on page, pages per session, etc.
  • Paid Ads: Total spend, cost per click, customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, impressions, etc.

These KPIs will allow you to keep an eye on the performance of your marketing campaign and work on the avenues where you fall short.

Also Read: How to Train Your Offshore Teams as per Your Company Standards

10. Respect Time Zones

Time-Zone-Differences

Scheduling activities and meetings can be easy when you are operating in the same time zone. However, if your marketing teams are distributed across continents and time zones, it can be rather tricky to formulate realistic work hours that accommodate everyone without disrupting their personal schedules. 

Moreover, most collaborative platforms have an in-built calendar to set up schedules and timelines. Similarly, a good practice is to block overlapping periods for strategic discussions and meetings where you may need inputs from other teams.

Moreover, teams may agree on setting up time boundaries where employees can turn off their devices and spend their time with their family or get some sleep.

How to Build The Right Work Culture among your Distributed Teams

Every business has a unique company culture that reflects its guiding philosophy

Make your remote teams a part of this work culture by:

  • Introduce new employees to the teams and regularly communicate the work culture.
  • Circulate internal emails on the latest news, updates, and developments on the ongoing projects. Keep them fun and informal.
  • Recreate a digital water cooler over Slack or Google Hangouts, where employees can exchange non-work information.
  • Conduct informal virtual events such as book club meetings or parties where they can talk about their personal interests.
  • Include training and courses that enhance your employee’s knowledge base in terms of career-related skill or educational growth.
  • Promote in-person meetups wherever possible.
  • Establish a feedback system to promote transparency and establish a sense of shared leadership.
  • Prioritize the health and wellness of your employees and take time out to check in on employees that are exhibiting signs of burnout.

Rather than picturing your distributed teams as small groups or individuals, companies must adopt a unified outlook. Make your employees feel like they are a part of something bigger, and it will make them give their best. For instance, the shared sense of accomplishment that comes with reaching a goal or a target surpasses that of an individual’s achievement.

The Road Ahead

The benefits of distributed teams remain uncontested. However, managing them can feel like a challenge for those having a traditional approach.

Invest in your distributed teams, and your company will be suitably rewarded. Eventually, it all boils down to developing trust, building rapport, and establishing communication that can determine the success of your remote marketing teams. Above all, communicate, communicate, and communicate to ensure that your marketing department can function as a well-oiled unit.

There is no shortcut to having a fully functional distributed team network. In other words, it takes time, effort, and patience. In these trying times, your team’s ability to adapt and rise to the occasion will surprise you.

A final piece of advice – Jump aboard the remote culture bandwagon because it is clear that it is here to stay!

How These 15 Digital Marketing Agencies Have Changed Their Messaging In Response To COVID-19

How These 15 Digital Marketing Agencies Have Changed Their Messaging In Response To COVID-19

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While every media and every other genius on the planet is talking about the world being pinned down by the wrath of Coronavirus – there are people who are applauding every form of human gesture made to combat the intensity of it. Well, this is not the monotonous COVID-19 article. We have compiled an insightful article pitching COVID-19 impact on Digital Marketing Agencies and how boldly have they responded to it. 

Be it embracing Work from Home setup, influencing employer branding, maintaining employee morale, changing marketing trends to reinforcing solutions – we are being hunted by uncertainties. But some facts state that these parameters have given rise to more satisfied employees, higher retention rate, and low overhead costs.

How? Are we talking about Marvel Superheroes? Or magical creatures right out of the Hogwarts School? Well, the answer is both No and Yes. No not from Marvel or Hogwarts but yes, they are no less than superheroes or magical creatures who are winning BIG. 

In the current times of crises where even digital marketing sharks took a backseat for a moment to rethink about best retention strategies – numerous Digital Marketing agencies have made customer management and employee management sound like a piece of cake. So, the question is what do digital marketing agencies do to improve digital marketing goals? 

Here’s our run-down to 15 Digital Marketing superheroes who have batten down the hatches in re-inventing business retention strategies.

1. DEG Digital

DEG Digital's response to COVID-19

Respecting their clients’ needs and thriving to make their marketing-dreams true, DEG Digital has dived into the HOWs of Digital World since 1999. These guys have created a dedicated page for COVID 19 with a thought leadership. It’s more of a repository including hacks, practices and tactics to change the way content and strategies can be pitched. They have created valuable content on media strategies, driving brand engagement through social media, content production for brands and many more. 

Takeaway 1

The content revolves around executing effective marketing plans. Their blogs are crafted with vivid elements including quotes, gifs, tweets and real-content which makes them unique.

Website – www.degdigital.com

2. Loop

Loop - a Salzburg-based Digital Marketing Agency's response to COVID-19

Proving to be a fully charged powerhouse for their digital campaigns – LOOP, a Salzburg-based Digital marketing agency is all set to push their Global reset button. The Global Reset is their new perspective towards catering marketing services meant for the new reality. With a challenging turnaround time of just 3 days – they have curated a concise PDF for all those whose businesses are suffering a burnout due to the Pandemic. The PDF confides a clear objective, what will their clients get, deliverable, costs, timeline and the benefits they can draw. It is a go-to marketing plan.

Takeaway 2

Talk – direct and clear with your clients instead of following the gibberish trend. They are anxious and they want a solution – so give them one. Period.

Website – www.agentur-loop.com

3. Squiz

Squiz's response to COVID-19

With current drawbacks – not only strategies but the tools and resources for online marketing used have changed too. Squiz has catered for more than 20 years to help enterprises scale up their Digital efforts. They have released tools and resources like simple Q&A chatbots, website alert banners, website templates and Web App (PWA). Their marketplace has got many components, extensions and apps to optimize websites.

Takeaway 3

As the COVID-19 is unfolding its unbearable impacts – they are ensuring health and safety with updated business continuity plans for their global network of customers and employees.

Website – www.squiz.net

4. Seer Interactive

Seer Interactive's response to COVID-19

Established in the year 2002, Seer Interactive is a Digital Marketing Agency that believes in ‘Whatever you do, do it well’ and they stand by it with their SEO, PPC and Analytics services.

They pulled-off an insightful guide to beat this global crisis. They have created a one-pot dish not just for their customers but also for teams to survive the current reality. From prioritizing precise budget cuts, maximizing efficiency, searching for free keyword tools, identifying bad ad placements, carrying out effective PPC Audits, determining Project profitability to keeping a close eye on website trends – they’ve caught every crucial-nerve.

Takeaway 4

It’s a go-to solution to innovate your digital marketing strategies. It’s a guide with a set of innovative principles to keep going and keep delighting the customers.

Website – www.seerinteractive.com

5. Slingshot

Slingshot - Austin-based Digital Marketing Agency's response to COVID-19

Based in Austin – Slingshot is a Digital Marketing Agency which greets you as soon as you land on their website. Holding themselves to be collaborators, sidekicks and partners – they’re known for pushing up their sleeves to cap it all in a classy way. Their response to COVID-19 unfolded in the form of insightful articles that talked about the abrupt change in consumer behavior, addressing marketing plans, showing care towards customers and putting purpose before everything else. 

Takeaway 5

Their way of pitching “Every Brand Has A Purpose” is so apt and cliché-proof – something which is every Digital Marketer’s need-of-the-hour.

Website – www.slingshot.com

6. Ignite Visibility

Ignite Visibility's digital marketing response to COVID-19

A company kickstarted by two Digital Marketing crazies – John Lincoln and Krish Coughran spends a whopping 100 million in advertising each year.  

While everyone else is busy making their version of Dalgona Coffee, Lincoln and his team have come up with a rescue plan – A six-step guide to redefining the possibilities of growth via Digital Marketing. A guide which talks about communication as the vital key in tackling this whole not-so-normal way of dealing with personal and professional lives. This guide also talks about revising your approach to providing a solution, dealing with the money-crunch, the ad-copies on your marketing mediums and most-importantly maintaining the VALUE as well as the QUALITY of your service.

Takeaway 6

The times are sensitive so offer more value than business. Let your customers know that you aren’t consumed in a black hole – keep pushing your care in every way possible. After all, we are dealing with humans.

Website – www.ignitevisibility.com

7. Traff1k D1g1tal

Traff1k D1g1tal - an Australia-based Digital Marketing Agency's response to COVID-19

The Australia-based Digital Marketing Firm’s how to deal with COVID-19 is as unique as their placements of 1’s in their name. Their version is quite simple yet on-point. How? Firstly, their messaging ensures how they managed to move their teams from a typical 9-5 schedule office culture to a Work from Home setup. This has led them to minimize any disruptions or communications gaps when it comes to customer-servicing. 

One unique point they penned was listing advisories and guidelines by Google MyBusiness, Facebook and LinkedIn to give their customers the most basic yet significant information they need for their business. Advising businesses to build a list of FAQs was quite on-point. 

Takeaway 7

FAQs are the best ways to provide dedicated and customized solutions to your customers. They have truly given a purpose and value to their corporate morals.

Website – www.traff1k.com

Also Read: How Russia’s COVID-19 Vaccine Success can Impact the Remote Working Culture

8. King Kong

King Kong's response to impact of COVID-19

No, we aren’t talking about the movie here, but a Digital Marketing Agency! (We all loved the movie though.) When was the last time you found a website which pumped up your love for Digital Marketing with a badass ad copy? A content which made you say – There you go! The times where every other copy ends with the word CORONA VIRUS or COVID-19, not many can bring up the charm and freshness to their content. 

You’ll be flattered to find the landing page that claims about EXPLODING YOUR SALES IN THE NEXT 90 DAYS – to be exact. Imbibing 5 different ways with a strong CTA section – they’ll make you go for it.

Takeaway 8

You still can be creative, witty and spot-on – all at the same time!

Website – www.kingkong.com.au

9. Highland Solutions

Highland Solutions - a Chicago-based Digital Marketing Agency's response to COVID-19

Highland Solutions is a Chicago-based Digital marketing firm – catering technology solutions to businesses ranging from small to community organizations since the past 20 years. Going by the word of the Company’s President – ‘We’re open for business’ – it seems obvious that they’ve got their remotely placed teams and Work from Home setups in place. With offers like a “Free two hours session to small business owners” and “A five-day research engagement program” reflects their people-first culture and passion to turn obstacles into opportunities. 

Takeaway 9

Twitchiness and adrenaline rush might be there but when curiosity and transparency are your driving forces – not a damn thing can stop you.

Website – www.highlandsolutions.com

10. Devotion

Devotion - a Sydney-based Digital Marketing Agency's response to COVID-19

A Sydney-based Digital Marketing agency’s ad-copy stating “It’s business (not) as usual” clearly marks their proactive approach in response to the COVID-19. A 3-minute read by Andrew Whitehead, Creative and Managing Director of Devotion walks you through the real-facts and impacts. As he boldly puts it – DEVOTION IS NOT IMMUNE, it cannot get any more precise. The statement is raw and refined. It states that even they have suffered budget cuts, projects being cancelled or put on stand-by mode and deadlines being disturbed. Ensuring their clients with business continuity, they’ve shared their insights making conversations more real via video chats, creating discipline for work setups, saying goodbye to all the noise and trusting each other. 

Takeaway 10

The six key points in their messaging is something to ponder upon and which everyone would resonate with.

Website – www.devotion.com.au.

11. Impressive

Impressive's response to the impact of COVID-19

It’s very impressive of Impressive to have placed the COVID-19 highlighted form along with a CTA. It promises their clients to drive performance and out-run their competitors irrespective of bad times. With a cheesy offer of a FREE 30-minute strategy session to shape your business needs during COVID-19 is something that can’t be missed. Their punchline is simple and effective. Their offer is tailor-made and deliciously satisfying for all those craving for a great branding. Instead of over-reacting to how long it might take for this Pandemic to subside, they are focusing more on making the most of this time. 

Takeaway 11

You can always make a little compromise with your pricing if it means retaining your existing clients and bagging new ones.

Website – www.impressivedigital.com

12. Lamb

Lamb's response to COVID-19

One common thing that every agency is buzzing about is how you are changing and amplifying your ad copies on the marketing material. You need to put it out smartly – because you don’t want to sound lame or blunt about the services and offers you have for them. LAMB VISION is what these guys like to call it. They have come up with a one-stop-shop for the latest Government regulations, health advice, science and stats. Their version of keeping Australians informed about COVID-19 through real-time data is appreciable. It is called their OFFICIAL SITUATION DASHBOARD for CORONAVIRUS. Topics include Dos and Don’ts, how to wash hands, preventive measures, symptoms and a list of businesses that are open and those which are closed.

Takeaway 12

Showcase your strengths and amplify them to gain your customers’ confidence.

Website – www.lambagency.com.au

13. Bonfire

Bonfire's unique response to impact of COVID-19

Campaign Brief WA addresses BONFIRE to be the Digital Agency of the year. With this Global Pandemic being around – this company has got its crew of researchers and data experts at work. The bright yellow colored ad copy stating “Differentiated by our DEPTH OF DATA” is unique. Sounds cool, doesn’t it? No wonder their approach has a tone of unique selling proposition. Their organic way of doing business is what makes them innovative in achieving desired outputs. Promising clients with a formula for success, adherence to technology, data-centric metrics and driven by people – they’re a ball of fire. 

Takeaway 13

Their way of redirecting you towards their company’s core values and working principles will woo you. 

Website – www.bonfire.com.au

14. Beyond Definition

Beyond Definition's response to COVID-19

Beyond Definition has got its priorities set to deal with COVID-19. Instead of being judgmental about how Pandemic has driven the world to the edge – they have chosen to be optimistic. How? By working at full capacity and reforming new methodologies to move ahead. All thanks to their manpower who enjoys their new-essentials like WFH and social distancing as much as their not-so-old 9-5 work environment. They’ve talked beautifully about the power of unification in times of crises. From re-imagining events and conferences, futuristic social media strategies, good corporate citizenship and communicating with your audience using Facebook live – they’ve evaluated every parameter.

Takeaway 14

Pondering on an African Proverb – “To go fast, go alone, to go far, go together.” – they have managed to hold the right nerve.

Website – www.beyond-definition.com

15. Wegacha

Wegacha - a Florida-based Digital Marketing Agency's response to COVID-19

Wegacha – a Miami based agency is helping its entrepreneurs go easy with their stress-levels and thrive during these quarantines. The times when Work From Home is becoming the new normal – these people are ensuring to stay calm and let them handle their business like a pro. They have managed to introduce a range of COVID-19 packages for their services targeting small businesses. 

Takeaway 15

Don’t push yourself to an extent that you go crazy beating the bush around. Instead, take a chill-pill and prepare a plan-of-action for your client’s business.

Website – www.wegacha.com

How is Uplers supporting the community during COVID-19 situation?New call-to-action

We are lending a helping hand to the Digital Industry by providing assistance in EMAIL, LANDING PAGE, and BANNER worth $300 at ZERO COST. We believe that now is the time to capitalize in work cultures and innovative strategies rather than focusing on monetary profits. This would be our way of redefining the purpose of marketing and branding. It will be our digital endeavor to help industries in these bad times.

Final Word

Let’s face it, who would have anticipated that the onset of COVID-19 would end up with people facing the toilet-paper crisis. Literally – NOBODY!

This is the time where leadership needs to be in the driving seat. Leaders need to communicate care and concerns for both families – employees and clients. Time is a powerful thing, a great teacher. It teaches us to be kind, compassionate and purposeful – the one which imposes to be HUMAN first. It reminds us of our abilities to embrace change, believe in human-values and still win BIG.

Also Read: How Digital Agencies Are Affected By COVID-19?

Why it Makes Sense for Startups to Outsource Digital Marketing large

Why it Makes Sense for Startups to Outsource Digital Marketing Services?

Approximately over 543,000 startups are launched every single month. On the contrary, 90% of the startups are likely to fail within 10 years of their journey. You might have the greatest startup idea, but you need the right digital marketing strategy to break out of this high-risk phase.

58% of startups invest about 75% of their total yearly marketing budget to digital marketing, so to break out of the high business competition in the early phase. But, does it help them succeed?

Well, 37% of startups try to manage their digital marketing strategies themselves despite having no background experience. And this is one of the most crucial reasons why new businesses fail.

What is a Possible Solution?

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Outsourcing digital marketing to a specialized digital marketing agency for startups.

But, does it make sense for startups to outsource their digital marketing services? Here are the reasons for the same:

Top 7 Reasons for Startups to Outsource Digital Marketing Services

1. Minimizing the Risk of Campaign Failure

65% of new businesses have never had a defined digital marketing training and are absolute amateurs to the ever-changing paid marketing landscape. While a specialized outsourcing agency is backed by paid marketing experts have years of experience in the domain.

From defining the right target audience, planning the right campaign strategy, to executing a strategically planned campaign, a specialized agency minimizes the risk of campaign failure. Outsourcing digital marketing services to an agency or business makes them accountable to draw you return from paid campaigns and measure the success of your business and campaigns.

2. Defining the Right Roles for Your Digital Marketing Team

Most startups lead with an incompetent or poorly-structured in-house digital marketing team that consists of a paid marketer, SEO copywriter and a graphic designer. But, this small team may fail to meet the aggressive marketing goals a startup may need in its initial phase. On the other end, a specialized digital marketing agency for startups can help you build a well-structured marketing team. This includes an SEO specialist, a PPC manager, a graphic designer, a front-end developer, a social media specialist, a content marketer, and a marketing strategist. A self-sufficient marketing team means boosted marketing efforts.

3. Drawing Evident Results in Rankings & Conversions

outsourcing digital marketing for startups

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63% of startups have their primary goal to acquire new customers and business opportunities through their digital marketing strategies. But on the contrary, 71% of startups lead without a documented digital strategy. Outsourcing digital marketing services to a specialized agency can help startups lead with a result-focused strategy. Further, the agency is responsible for tracking and reporting the results and conversions, to better analyze your ROIs.

4. Employing Efficient Multi-channel Marketing

A common flaw in the marketing strategy of startups is that they either use too many digital channels or stick to a single channel. In the wake of attracting traffic and raising brand awareness over different platforms, new businesses employ directionless strategies. While outsourcing to experts can help startups utilize the perks of multi-channel marketing. E-commerce startups leverage multi-channel marketing to multiply their sales by up to 3 times. Multi-channel marketing campaigns can help you reach a larger audience in a more effective way.

5. Focus on Core Business Activities

Benefits-of-outsourcing digital mareting for startups

Time-management is a critical factor when it comes to deciding the success of a startup business. Outsourcing digital marketing services to an agency helps you focus on your core business activities. The agency manages your strategy, execution, analytics, and conversions. You just have to take a look at reports and plan on your future goals. You do not have to worry about the monthly marketing plans, campaign performance, rankings, and website traffic.

6. Better Budget Control

When startups decide to do their digital marketing themselves, they need to plan and hire a marketing team in-house. This means long-term budget planning including considerations like payroll, employee benefits, and investment on infrastructure. Moreover, a startup business has a lower investment potential and outsourcing can be a better budget control option. Furthermore, outsourcing can help startups minimize the risk of loss of investment.

 

Outsource Digital Marketing

7. Leveraging Offshoring Benefits

Startups based in tier 1 countries like the US, UK, and Australia, find it hard to invest in a dedicated in-house marketing team because of the high resource hiring cost. Here, if the startups find a reliable outsourcing partner in tier 2 or tier 3 countries they could save a great deal of money in their digital marketing investments.

Closing Thoughts

Today, almost 34% of small businesses outsource their digital marketing services and this rate is rising each year. Further, there are various other alternatives to outsourcing, one of which is hiring a dedicated digital marketing team. This model can give you better control over your digital marketing activities than project-based outsourcing. A startup business witnesses the highest risk of business failure due to lower investment potential and low brand awareness. This is the reason why most startups spend above 50% of their total budget on sales and marketing.

5 Reasons To Consider A New White Label Agency Partner

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Being a digital marketing agency owner or digital marketing department head, many white label agencies must have approached you for partnership. Either through Email or LinkedIn. They would have tried to touch base with you through every possible channel.

What’s Your Obvious Response?

Either you say no on their face, or just simply ignore their emails and messages. The reason being, you are happy with your current white label agency partner.

You must be getting these basic benefits from your white label service partner:

  1. They might be a Premier Google Partner (If not, you must work with a Premier agency)
  2. They must be cost effective to you (up to what extent, is a different question)
  3. They might be available 24×7 for you (but are they willing to walk the extra mile?)
  4. They must support you in end-moment changes (but with what kind of maturity?)
  5. They might seem to be the best Technology partner (but have you tried to explore a better option?)

As you think upon the points above, I would like to share here 5 reasons why you should consider a new white label marketing agency for your projects although you feel satisfied with your current agency partner.

Reason 1. Get a One-Stop-Solution Provider

Does the agency you are working with sell a limited category of digital marketing services? If yes, then you are also being limited in scaling up your business. The right way to scaling up is to have a big umbrella of different services at one stop. One-stop-solution white label agencies are the best when it comes to working and managing your clients and their tasks.

For Example: If your agency is doing PPC campaigns for your clients, but when it comes to design ad banners for them, they don’t have the resources. Then you have to find another agency or freelancer for the task. Which stretches the deadline and it might impact your client management process.

Working with a one-stop agency can benefit you in terms of cost-effectiveness. This also relieves you from the hassle of signing NDAs with different agencies for different services.

What services you can expect in a One-Stop-Solution digital marketing agency?

  1. SEO
  2. PPC (Google/Yahoo/Bing)
  3. Social Media Marketing (Facebook-Instagram/Twitter/LinkedIn)
  4. Analytics
  5. Web Development (HubSpot/HTML/WordPress)
  6. Graphic Designing (PSD/AI/Sketch/InDesign)
  7. Ad banners Designing & Development (Image/HTML)

Reason 2. Go Beyond Cost-effectiveness

Are you working with an agency just because they are cost-effective? Then, this might not work for you as there are more things which you should expect from a good white label agency.

  1. Are they giving you enough expertise needed for your clients’ projects?
  2. Are they giving your clients real results? Or just excuses on what didn’t work well?
  3. Are you being paid for every new client campaign you send to them?

Considering the above points can help you understand the true value of your white label partner, which might be over the cost perspective.

Reason 3. Expect Support Throughout

Urgent deliverables and narrow deadline tasks can turn out to be complicated if you lack enough resources or your white label partner isn’t willing to offer you round-the-clock support.

Even if your white label service provider is available 24×7, does he promptly cater your requirements round-the-clock? Because that is what a dedicated white label service partner is bound to offer.

It should be willing to accept urgent projects and meet close deadlines for your clients. Thus, making you a preferred digital marketing agency for your clients. The attitude with which your white label service partner provide you support matters in the long run.

Reason 4. End Moment Modifications (Their Behavior)

Do you face the situation where you have to please the white label agency for the end time modification from your/client’s side?

Well, if that is the case, ‘pleasing’ isn’t something you need to follow just because they are not flexible to make those changes. Or just because they have limited resources to manage the end time modifications and their team is busy with different other projects.

You must have an agency who is available for you any time, who can start your project as soon as possible and they have a good number of resources available. Only then they would manage your end time modification with maturity without frowning upon them.

Reason 5. ‘Second Option’ is Always a Good Idea!

There are times when your partner agency goes out of resources or they just simply shut down. Then you have someone who can manage all those clients’ campaigns promptly. Here a backup white label digital marketing agency comes into the picture.

If you hire a white label agency partner as a backup, it should be capable enough to support you promptly with a capable team of resources and the required amount of expertise. It can help you meet your client expectations and deadlines in a stable manner and build your brand reputation as a reliable service provider.  

The list of perks of white label partnership has been growing significantly with time, so are you able to get out enough from your existing white label agency partner? Well, it is time to think upon the above points and choose the right white label digital marketing agency partner.

 

5 Reasons Why Your Digital Marketing Agency is not Scaling-up

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For a business to thrive, it needs to keep growing! And the biggest challenge digital marketing agencies are facing today is ‘faded growth’. With the huge business competition today, most digital marketing companies serving the local businesses are targeting the same set of options, thus only able to draw a small share of the market each.

Here we have worked on some of the main reasons why your agency isn’t growing and how to scale your digital marketing agency:

1. You Are Satisfied With The Small Fishes

Several agencies feel satisfied with their small list of clienteles and fail to put in extra efforts to expand it or grow their business further. A list of regular clienteles may seem to be satisfying and manageable, but it offers the same constant returns for your business. Thus, the growth of your business is restricted to and dependable upon these regular set of clients.

In one survey from HubSpot, 39% of agency leaders said that they look for new business every single day.

2. You Lack The Expertise

Another most crucial reason that might taste a bit bitter is ‘lack of proper expertise’. Often digital marketing agencies tend to hire inexperienced resources that demand lower salary based on their experience. This may sound like a good deal on the investment part, but cheap resources also lack the desired knowledge and expertise required to meet various project requirements. With this, if your client isn’t satisfied with your deliverables or services, he is unlikely to convert as a regular client. Therefore, you need to make sure that your business offers the desired expertise, as it crucially affects your business revenue and makes it hard for your agency to scale up.

3. You Lack The Real-time Resource Availability

Working as a small digital marketing company with no outsourcing partners can be one of the main reasons why you are not growing in terms of business revenue. In cases when your clients need urgent deliverables or there is a need for additional real-time resources to complete a task, you may require stepping back. So, partnering with a white-label services partner would be a crucial step on how to scale your digital marketing agency.

4. You Are Not a One-Stop-Solution Provider

About 8.3% digital agencies are still functioning as a point-solution provider, which narrows down their target customer base. With this, 86% of the clients prefer to buy services from a one-stop solution provider. These statistics clearly state why point-solution providers fail to build a big clientele for their business.

Of all the marketing agencies only 22.5% provide “full-stack” solutions, offering at least one service from each major marketing category. How does it benefit their businesses? With more service offerings agencies can increase their revenue by pitching more up-sells and cross-sells to their clients.

5. You Are Failing to Give Expected Results

As a service provider, you need to meet your clients’ expectations every time you earn a project, and this is what your client values you for! And this cannot be possible without a skilled and dedicated workforce. Approximately, 40% of the agencies are involved in a regular client churn during the time of project execution. And 18% of them find it very difficult to meet the complex client requirements. These instances fade your value in the client’s book of preferred service providers. A low client retention rate and lazy customer service can surely affect your scaling-up goals.

The digital landscape is growing immensely and the market competition for agencies is surely on a rise every year. Thus, you need to scrutinize on your limitations as a digital marketing agency well before you it is too late. Another smart approach would be partnering with a reliable white label digital marketing outsourcing company, which can provide you with dedicated resources in real-time and offer the desired expertise to meet your client requirements.

8 White Label Digital Marketing Services for Agencies to Earn More

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As a digital marketing agency owner, you will have already heard about ‘white label digital marketing services’ but have you really thought about how it could help your business?

White label digital marketing services enable you to scale your business, boost your client offerings and increase your business revenue without any overhead costs. By outsourcing tasks and services to a third party, you can grow your business and expand your client portfolio without increasing the work-pressure on your team or yourself.

Benefits of Deploying White Label Digital Marketing Services:

Digital Marketing is a broad and fast-growing field. Whether your team lacks the specific expertise for certain tasks or simply don’t have the time to take on more work, white label agency partner can help boost your agency’s profit.

So let’s have a look at the various tasks you can outsource by using white label marketing services.

1. Facebook Ads

Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. With over 2.2 billion users as of 2018, you simply cannot ignore its huge customer reach. The paid Facebook ad network is enormous and has helped many businesses to multiply their revenue figures. Ecommerce and restaurant businesses are among the many large industries that find their major customer-base on Facebook. The service is in demand and you can make good money by adding it to your list of offerings to your clients.

2. Website Speed Optimisation

‘Slow website loading speed’ is one of the main issues fading the growth rate of many businesses in the digital world. Reports reveal that 53% of visitors will abandon a mobile page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. A bounce rate of more than 50% can significantly impact the growth of a business and website speed is, therefore, a vital concern for every business.

Website Speed Optimisation should be at the top of your list of client offerings as a digital marketing agency. And if you don’t have the expertise in-house, why not outsource to a company offering white label digital marketing services?

3. Website Audit

One of the most common modes of lead conversion is a business website. All companies want to generate high conversions from their websites and will, therefore, pay top dollar for quality website audits. A website audit helps a business to analyze their website’s performance and understand the factors that aren’t working or are decreasing its conversion potential.

Website audit requires specialist knowledge and explore website speed & performance, content issues, keyword analysis, SEO audit, page errors, broken links, backlink analysis and website structure analysis.

4. Content Outreach

Content Outreach remains one of the most important factors when it comes to search engine rankings. It is how you get your website mentioned on other popular platforms and draw backlinks from there. Content Outreach is practiced by almost every business that wants to lead with organic search. It is a long-term service that pays off after a certain period.

Offering link building services can help you generate good long-term revenue.

5. HTML5 Banner Ads Creation

The first phase of lead acquisition is creating ads and attracting your target customers to click on them. For your SEM services to succeed, it is crucial for your creatives to be engaging and influential. HTML 5 Banner Ads are an important part of your display ad campaigns. You can include the HTML5 banner ads creation services to your list of white label digital marketing services and generate good instant profits. Static banner ad design is also an important service that needs to be added to your list of offerings.

6. Google Ads

One of the most important service to add to your array of digital marketing services is Google Ads. Whether it is about generating leads or promoting your business, Google advertising is a must. Google Ads offers businesses an opportunity and a platform to find their target customer base and reach out to them directly on Google. It helps businesses build a direct lead acquisition funnel.

Types of Google ads include:

  • Display Advertisement
  • Search Only Ads
  • Search, Display and Gmail Ads
  • Remarketing Ads

Google Ads marketing is a wide field requiring specific expertise and a lot of work including analytics, ad creation, ad optimization, creating lead acquisition funnel, etc.

Google Ads or SEM is a must-have in your arsenal of digital marketing services.

7. Emailers Development

Emailers Development remains one of the most effective business promotion and customer acquisition strategies in digital marketing. It offers businesses a direct reach to their target audience and has a high conversion rate too. The average open rate for emails as of 2018 is 24.88% and its click-through rate is 4.06%.  Email development and Email marketing services should definitely be included in your list of client offerings.

8. Lead Generation Page Creation

An important part of a lead generation campaign is your lead generation or landing page. Each business requires a lead generation page to help capture leads. From an agency perspective, the service includes creating the perfect landing page design, adding content to the page and optimizing it for conversion using lead acquisition forms and other best practices. This is an important offering to include in your array of digital marketing services.

There are various other services like Google My Business page optimization, social media marketing, Facebook paid marketing, influencer marketing, etc. which can be achieved through white label digital marketing services. Ultimately, it enables you to broaden your offerings and give clients a wider expertise and boost your profits whilst keeping your costs down.

Online Marketing Tips: How To Perform An SEM Audit

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When it comes to your online marketing SEM strategy, never disregard the importance of performing regular SEM audits. Chances are that however hard you worked on building an account – implementing all the best practices along the way – you probably missed something. It happens! It’s easy to overlook the basics when you’re stuck in the nitty gritty.

This is why SEM audits – like audits of SEO tools – are so important. Aside from highlighting the effectiveness of your Paid Search campaigns, ad groups and keywords, they can reveal any issues and provide actionable intelligence on website optimization. Therefore, in order for your accounts to maximize their performance and increase ROI, you can’t afford not to conduct audits.

What’s more, if your account isn’t performing well and you need a more in-depth analysis, there’s no harm in outsourcing the project to a white label digital marketing agency. Often, someone with a fresh outlook can easily pinpoint any internet marketing problems.

So, what exactly is an SEM audit? What can be revealed, and what opportunities does it present? Here’s what you need to know.

What does an SEM audit entail?

An SEM audit is beneficial for measuring the performance of your Paid Search campaigns – both before their inception and throughout their lifecycle – to help inform future strategy.

An audit will look at:

  • Metrics such as conversion rate, cost per conversion and average position, and any emerging patterns in those metrics.
  • Campaign settings such as targeted locations, allocation of budget, language settings, etc.
  • Campaign structure including keywords, ads and ad extensions

When should an SEM audit be performed?

SEM audits should be performed before the launch of a campaign to set a baseline marker upon which performance can be measured. They should be conducted whenever there are performance issues, but it is good practice to complete an audit once every six months even when your account is performing well. However, you shouldn’t perform an audit within three months of a major account structure alterations.

What are the benefits of an SEM audit?

In short, performing an SEM audit will uncover budget wastage and reveal hidden opportunities to scale campaigns, with the aim of increasing website traffic and boosting ROI.

How to perform an SEM audit

The basics

Before you begin, set a date range by which you can analyze data. At least 3 months’ worth of data is recommended.

Also, ensure you are acquainted with the business’ KPIs, so you have a key understanding of what metrics to look at.

Now it’s time to dive into the settings of the campaign. If an account was set up a long time ago the settings should be reviewed, as they could be negatively impacting the campaign. So, analyzing the settings and their effectiveness is a good place to begin.

A couple of things you should analyze are:

  • Targeting Search and Display networks

You might see that one campaign alone is targeting both Search and Display traffic, and this could be negatively impact the performance of a campaign. Try dividing this across separate campaigns.

  • Geotargeting

You should consider geotargeting your campaigns if specific geographical locations are relevant to your marketing. Geotargeting your campaigns (with the help of tools like Google AdWords) will ensure you reach a targeted audience and increase conversion rate. What’s more, doing this can help you save money on your budget.

Account settings

Start by reviewing the structure of the campaigns. For example:

  • Campaigns

Could the campaigns be named in-line with the groups they are targeting? Are campaigns divided among topics and interests, or are they housed in one campaign? Could you be do something different here to increase impact?

  • Keywords and ad groups

Keywords are at the heart of Paid Search, and so should be treated with appropriate diligence. Each ad group should be targeting specific categories of keywords, but make sure each ad group has no more than 20 keywords in it, otherwise the wide range could be negatively affecting reach. Plus, creating copy that includes too many keywords will be difficult to achieve and will read robotically.

  • Quality Score

A high Quality Score is vital for Paid Search. It depends upon how effectively your keywords are grouped and their match type (the relevance of the keywords against the copy on the ad and landing page). A higher Quality Score will mean your ads rank higher, therefore you spend less money per click.

  • Ads

Are all of your ads relevant, displaying correct information and grammatically correct?

  • Ad extensions

Ad extensions aren’t appropriate for every business’ internet marketing approach, but when utilized correctly they can add real value and increase click-through rate. Consider what additional information and services ad extensions could offer a searcher: call extensions, location extensions, price extensions, review extensions, etc.

Conclusion

After you have completed the audit, you will have a list of actionable insights. You should then prioritize what needs to be done, and set a realistic time frame for which they can be completed. Don’t make any rash decisions to your online marketing strategy without careful consideration, though, as you may end up harming account performance further. And if you’re ever unsure on how to perform the audit and what to look for, call on a digital marketing agency for advice.

By getting these fundamental account aspects in-check, you can make a bigger impact, achieve greater performance and increase your ROI.