If you are keen to bolster your brand awareness, better showcase your products and/or services, and ultimately take on more customers to increase profits, you’ve likely been giving some thought to hiring a creative agency. But, what role do they play? Is it really worth working with a creative agency, and can they bring genuine value to your business?
In this article, we’re going to tell you everything you need to know. That way, you’ll be better positioned to decide as to whether or not hiring a creative agency is the right move for you and your business.
What is a creative agency?
First, let’s take a closer look at what a creative agency is: a creative agency is an organisation that utilises a variety of creative strategies to help businesses achieve their goals and boost profit.
While creative agencies come in all shapes, sizes and specialities, typically, they will focus on one of the following key areas:
- Business strategy: business strategy focuses on how a company serves their customers and generates revenue.
- Graphic design: graphic design refers to how a business, brand, and its products appear, visually.
- Technology: technology refers to how a business integrates various technological solutions into its business practices in order to achieve streamlined functionality.
- Digital marketing: digital marketing refers to social media campaigns and search engine optimisation solutions designed to increase your online presence and generate more leads.
- Advertising and content creation: advertising and content creation is the process of marketing a business and its products and/or services to its target audience.
While some creative agencies focus on one particular niche, there are many organisations out there that specialise in the whole shebang. Working with a creative agency that can assist you in all the above can make your life so much easier! That way, rather than having to work with a multitude of agencies, you can have all of your creative needs taken care of under one single banner.
Isn’t it better to work with multiple agencies that specialise in each niche?
Some might argue that it is better to work with multiple agencies that each specialise in their own specific niche. However, in the long run, that is only creating more work for yourself. The fact is, in order to get the best possible results, all of these areas of creativity need to be functioning in perfect synchronicity – and unless it is handled under the same roof, it can get messy. If you have to go to one agency for your digital marketing strategy, another for your graphic design requirements, and a third party for some content, there’s going to be a lot of unnecessary faffing in between. However, a full-service creative agency will have all of these requirements taken care of with open communication between the necessary departments. With everyone on the same page, your creative efforts will be far more efficient.
How does it all work? What role do full-service creative agencies play?
A full-service creative agency can typically help you with the following processes:
Advertising
Creating promotional campaigns designed to attract new business, bolster customer loyalty, and improve brand recognition. For example:
- Carrying out extensive market research
- Creating innovating brand strategies
- Producing effective advertising campaigns
- Placing adverts in the appropriate places.
Digital marketing
Leveraging technology to engage customers and outshine competitors. For example:
- Grow online presence
- Harness website analytics and data to make smart-decisions
- Use various digital marketing strategies to attract more business.
Graphic Design
Establishing brand voice, improving the overall aesthetic appearance of products and services, and designing innovative offerings to make a business more relatable and appealing to a specific (or wider) audience. For example:
- Digital design: creating layouts for online desktop and mobile marketing tools (e.g., landing pages and e-Books).
- Print design: designing and creative physical elements such as flyers, newsletters, and posters.
- Branding design: creating visual elements that define a business’s corporate identity (e.g., logos and packaging).
- Product design: drafting innovative product designs, improving aesthetic appeal without compromising functionality.
Content Creation
Producing high-quality, emotive, educational, and engaging content to communicate with a brand’s target audience and solidify industry authority. For example:
- Written content: written content is essential for building authority and communicating with your target audience (e.g., social media posts, blogs, articles, and sales copy).
- Video content: video content is a great way to engage an audience and showcase various products and/or services in a visually appealing manner.
- Infographics: infographics are great for informing a customer in a visually compelling way. When a lot of information needs to be conveyed as effectively as possible, infographics are highly effective marketing materials.
Interactivity
Creating innovative digital projects that incorporate state-of-the-art technology in order to provide potential customers with an exciting experience. For example:
- User-friendly websites: a functional and highly user-friendly website will significantly increase the chance of converting those ‘clicks to customers,’ rather than losing them to a competitor with a smoother website.
- Branded mini-games: interactive games for websites such as ‘spin-the-wheel’ for various promotions on e-commerce websites.
Consultation
Consulting businesses on new trends and growing markets in order to attract new customers and hold onto existing clients with greater efficiency. For example:
- Expanding into new markets
- Increase sales and revenue
- Launching new products and/or services
- Improving business operations and processes.
Why choose a creative agency to handle projects that can be done by an in-house department?
When considering whether or not to hire a creative agency, many people ask why they should bother when many of these tasks can be handled in-house.
Think of this way: you hire a qualified accountant to take care of the numbers because that is their area of expertise. Rather than waste manpower with such time-consuming tasks, you allow the professionals to take care of it instead. Hiring a creative agency is much the same. Rather than have to hire new staff and set up a dedicated in-house department to take care of all of your creative, digital, and marketing efforts, you can leave it to those who specialise in it. Not only will this save you money, but it allows your employees to focus on other important tasks, such as dealing with customer enquiries and making sales.
For specialist help with creative projects, contact us for a virtual coffee and chat with a human.
