The Fine Line of Specialization
Specialization is a part of life. The cars we drive each have different purposes. The clothes we wear are designed for different scenarios. Heck, even the careers we’ve chosen are a sort of specialization within our existence. There is tremendous value in this type of specialization. Each and every person, place, idea, business, or anything else you could imagine has a focus to its existence, and we are much better off for it. As a society, a focus on our strengths leads to an approach from a position of power, rather than one of questioning. Advertising agencies are no different.
The way we see it, there are two ways to specialize within advertising. An agency can specialize by service offering (SEO, PPC, paid social, etc.) or by industry. There are positives and negatives to each type solution, which creates what we call the “specialization dilemma.” Let’s talk about both of these scenarios.
Specialization by Service Offering
There are a few pros and cons to this type of specialization. The main advantage is having a small range of focus. Your team is highly skilled and trained in the services it offers, allowing you to limit the number of variables in play. This decreased margin of error leads to lower risk and higher reward within the services that you do offer.
The major downside to specialization by service offering is that it puts the agency in a naturally biased position. They will always assume that their service is the best solution for another company’s problems, regardless of circumstance. For example, an SEO firm presenting to a company will always recommend that the client put a large portion of their budget into SEO, regardless of their market standing compared to other industry giants. This isn’t dishonest, it’s simply what the agency believes. The problem is that this narrow view of marketing will cause in many cases for the best solution to be overlooked.
We already discussed how specialization is critical to success. So does this mean that the rule doesn’t apply to advertising? Not in slightest, but we’re glad you asked.
Specialization by Industry
This is the type of specialization we adhere to at Relic. While it’s impossible to be the best solution to every industry, we believe that it’s possible to be the authority on a few niche industries. We’ve chosen the three industries where we feel that we are thought leaders: tourism, telecom, and technology. Each one of these industries is distinctly different within their strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. Offering one service to these groups would be a disservice to them. Within our agency, we’ve created departments that can execute on each service offering needed to solve a marketing problem. These departments include creative services, copywriting, traditional media purchasing, digital marketing, public relations, web development, and social media. Our team has industry experts to run each department to ensure that our service offerings are competitive with an agency that specializes in one specific service.
The path we have chosen came as no small decision. We spent hours discussing the strengths of each and which would be the best for Relic, and we believe that specializing by industry allows us to be the thought-leading experts we strive to be for each of our clients. With our full slate of services available, we are able to recommend solutions specific to each client that generates the highest return on investment. Instead of being bound to a certain service, we are able to generate creative solutions and be a partner, not just a vendor.
What are your thoughts on the specialization dilemma? We would love to them. To learn more about Relic, visit our website at relicagency.com
