What Actually Happens Inside a Marketing Agency
Is it worth the money or a waste of time?
So you want to grow your business. You feel like you can close more sales and scale your business.
But you’re confused about how you can achieve it and need some marketing advice. Now you have three options: You’ll either take a marketing course and do it yourself (and train your employees), or you’ll find a marketing agency or an independent consultant.
It’s likely that you’ll ask for help from your old friend Google and search for the best marketing agencies in your city. But do you really need an agency to help you out with marketing? And how to find the right agency to work with?
Well, this article will help you find the right solution.
What I Saw Working With Marketing Agencies
A digital marketing agency, usually, has a group of employees working for them and have multiple clients at a time.
Yes, most marketing agencies are full of chaos. I know because I have worked with a few. There are ping-pong tables, Friday beers, office politics, gossiping, employees hired due to nepotism instead of talent and competency, power trips, more gossiping, awkward office love affairs that lead to more politics, burnouts, and, of course, a little bit of actual work and occasional results.
A lot of times, the senior decision-makers onboard more clients than their employees can handle. After all, they’ve got to increase their revenue to buy that new Range Rover — so who are you to judge?
Anyway, having way too many clients brings an unmanageable workload that requires some employees to stay in the office until 9 PM — I have been that employee. The Pareto principle also applies here. This means that 20% of the employees will do 80% of the work — I have been there as well.
Even though I was only supposed to work till 5 PM (according to the contract), it was hardly the case, ever. The extra hours were unpaid, of course. And having a side hustle or life outside work was almost impossible. This is the side of marketing agencies that clients never get to see. Only the employees know, but they keep their mouths shut.
And a lot of employees stay late to appear busy. “Hey boss, I left the office at 8 PM yesterday.” “Wow! You’re such a hard worker,” says the boss, who doesn’t know that the actual number of productive hours during that day was actually two! The rest involved using social media, gossiping, and just having a big hangout with work buddies — which is cute, but that’s not what the clients paid thousands of dollars for.
Not only this, but an employee’s value is judged by how late they stay at the office. So a team member who is efficient enough to finish work on time and go home and have a life is less likely to get a bonus or a promotion. I know this makes no sense. An employee should rather be judged on the results they produce, but in marketing agencies, that’s hardly ever the case.
If you work with an independent consultant, they’ll only care about work — no drama, no petty talk, no fake “extra” work hours because there are no fixed hours of work. In my experience, the relationship between a client and a marketing consultant is way more productive and has zero drama as compared to an agency.
Not only this, but agencies will put a big hole in your pocket. Yes, most of them are very costly. And the more overrated they are (because of XYZ awards that they’ve somehow managed to win), the more expensive they’re going to be.
However, don’t let the high price tags of agencies demotivate you from hiring one. There are still some chances that you’ll get your desired return on investment. But just so you know, I have personally witnessed clients spending thousands of dollars and receiving nothing in return — not a single customer, not one sale, not one landing page visit.
Should You Hire a Marketing Agency?
Well, it depends on the size of the project. Your company’s internal resources cannot handle CRM integration, data migration, content strategy, Facebook ads, Google Analytics, SEO strategy, etc., on their own.
You could hire multiple consultants who are experts in different fields, but communicating efficiently, and keeping the project on track will be a nightmare if you do so. That’s when, unfortunately, you’ll need to seek help from marketing agencies.
However, as someone who has worked with agencies and feels empathy for clients who could lose thousands of dollars, I had to share these things with you. So don’t get your hopes too high when you outsource your company’s marketing to an agency.
If possible, try to be self-reliant and handle your marketing yourself. If need be, hire new employees who are passionate and hardcore marketers — there are plenty of them out there. Or upskill existing team members who are dedicated and are loyal to the business.
Some Red Flags to Look for Before Hiring a Marketing Agency
Don’t work with an agency if:
- Multiple employees have left the agency within 6–12 months of employment — this is a huge sign of toxic workplace culture. If the employees aren’t happy, how can they make their clients happy?
- There are hidden, undeclared fees that come up out of nowhere and weren’t discussed during face to face meetings with the client.
- They propose complicated contracts that are hard to get out of. If they're trying to make it hard for the client to leave, they’re going to be a very difficult agency to deal with.
- And the easiest of all — if they have consistent negative online reviews on social media.
If you see any of the aforementioned red flags, don’t even bother contacting them.
Final Thoughts
I’m sure this article has changed your perspective on marketing agencies and you’re probably thinking that you’ll never work with one. However, there are some good marketing agencies who treat their clients and employees well. So don’t get me wrong.
This article isn’t meant to generalize a whole industry, but to call out those few who are just out there for one reason — money.
They don’t care if their employees are overworked. They don’t give a crap if their clients don’t get the results they promised. So watch out for these ones and save your money, time, and mental health.
