# 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐨 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲

When a company's growth starts to flatten or decline, one of the first options founders consider is hiring a marketing agency.

Sometimes that's the right move. Often, it isn't.

The issue isn't necessarily the agency. It's whether the business is mature enough to extract value from an external marketing partner.

𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬. Some excel at paid acquisition, others at creative, content, SEO, or strategy.

An agency can improve marketing execution and increase traffic, but it cannot compensate for unclear positioning, a weak offer, poor unit economics, or an ineffective sales process.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞: 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Marketing is about positioning, offer, creative, content, acquisition, conversion, retention, and analytics. Very few agencies excel at all these things. But founders often want one agency to act as their outsourced CMO, creative team, media buyer, and growth partner. 

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞: 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐤

Let's say your website receives 1,000 visits and 1% of them become customers.

Your founder might say, "We require more visitors!" However, if inefficiency is the true issue and more visits are what you require, you're just going to scale that inefficiency up. The same is applicable when your traffic comes from paid ads. If a customer brings in $500 worth of gross profit, and they cost $600 to bring them into the company, those new customers aren't exactly a marketing victory.

Before increasing spend, founders should understand:

-Customer acquisition cost

-Customer lifetime value

-Gross margin

-Conversion rate

-Average order value

-Payback period

-Retention

Without these numbers, an agency may optimize campaigns while the underlying economics remain broken.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞: 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲

An agency requires a solid foundation upon which to perform. The inability to properly define the customer base, explain the proposition, maintain consistent positioning, or have the sales force articulately express the value Proposition transforms advertising into a costly experimental space to work out fundamental business issues. 

A competent agency is able to push against assumptions and adjust strategy. It is not intended to come up with the complete business model while simultaneously producing marketing impact. 

𝐒𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲?

Outsource the support when you know:

-The business goal

-The real bottleneck

-The required skills

-The economics

-Internal ownership

The strongest agency relationships are built on a simple principle:

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐭.

So the question isn't:

“Which marketing agency should we hire?”

It's:

“𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁?”

Get that answer right first.

The agency decision becomes much easier afterward.

Before investing in external marketing support, make sure you’re solving the right problem. 

𝐃𝐌 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭.