By Jennifer Goddard Combs
In an increasingly niche world, specialization pays.
Say you’re a company, and you’re looking for some marketing help. You know you want to drive traffic to your website, boost your social media presence, land speaking engagements, get noticed as an expert in your field, increase earned media, and have business journals writing about your savvy new hires and products.
You set out to hire a firm that can do all those things.
Odds are good if you do find one place that offers it all, something may get shortchanged. That’s why it may make sense to hire different companies that specialize in different aspects of what you seek.
Consider the first thing on your list: Driving traffic to your website. Whole companies are set up just to do this One Thing. Google’s constantly changing algorithms means that what works one month could change the next. Staying on top of that requires agility and skill, not to mention learning the technical language of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Then there’s figuring out how to use Google Ads to maximize your advertising spend, not to mention designing ads and graphics.
You also want to get your name out there so journalists turn to you for expert advice or clients know about your services. That means knowing the industry – be it real estate, finance, wealth management, or the law – and knowing the players. It means connecting with someone who has well-established relationships in the media and other community’s movers and shakers.
In both cases, the skill set required to execute effectively is vastly different. So, when a company promises to do it all, they may be over-promising.
Today, it pays to specialize.
The good thing is companies have adapted to this reality. Increasingly, they offer flexible arrangements catered to your specific needs. Instead of one company that assures you it can do it all, you may find advantages in working with different companies that really know their space.
Once, I had a client who wanted more from their public relations firm. What I learned is there was a mismatch in expectations. The client wanted everything in one place but didn’t feel they were getting it. We agreed to take over part of the effort.
The result was a long-lasting, fruitful relationship for both sides. It was a win-win.
Most clients want to focus on creating and improving products or delivering the best services they can. By hiring the right mix of marketing professionals, they can do just that.