After creating a business and lining up a few clients, business owners are often left with the question of how to market to new audiences. After all, their own network will only get them so much business before it dries out. At this point, they'll either hire marketers and branding experts for their team or outsource them. So, when looking at digital agency vs. marketing agency, how will they know which is more suitable?
While the two terms get thrown around a lot, there are some distinct differences. This post will go through what each type of agency does and how to know which you need according to your goals.
If you are looking for a way to share logins with an outside agency, using a password manager can mitigate the risk of unauthorized sharing and access. TeamPassword is an affordable password management solution for teams to share company credentials securely and efficiently. Sign up for a 14-day free trial today!
What is a digital agency?
When comparing a digital agency vs. marketing agency, you should know that digital agencies offer services including:
- web design and optimization
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Social Media Marketing
- PPC (pay-per-click) ads
- Content creation
- Market research
- Search Engine Marketing
- Lead generation and nurturing
- Email Marketing
General characteristics of a digital agency
- Provide clear processes
- Measurable KPIs
- Goal-based plan of action
- Emphasis on business and revenue growth
What is a marketing agency?
A marketing agency is a more general term for agencies that can do a wide range of marketing work for you. Before the internet, marketing agencies would often help businesses reach audiences on the radio, television, billboards, magazines, and more. Now, these agencies also create marketing campaigns for online channels but usually do a mix of both online and OOH (out-of-home) ads and marketing depending on their clients' needs.
Marketing agencies offer services like:
- Campaign planning and execution
- Design
- Communication
General characteristics of a marketing agency
- Emphasis on storytelling
- Understanding of your buyer persona
- Mainly made up of creative professionals
What is a content agency?
So, we've differences between a digital agency vs. marketing agency, but while looking for marketing help, businesses might also run into the option of a content agency. So, how does a content agency compare with the previous two? Content agencies take care of, well, content creation. They often do similar research as marketing agencies on a business's industry, competitors, and users.
This way, they'll define the most valuable content to create and the one that will make the most impact. After conducting a preliminary study of your brand and goals, a content agency will provide one or more of the following services:
- User research
- Competitor research
- Creation of articles, images, videos, and other content
- Brand positioning on social media and search engines
A content agency's primary goal is to create a content strategy that positions a brand or business as a leader in its industry. They do this by creating content that generates a feeling of trust, reliability, and expertise in those who read or consume it.
Benefits and risks of using an agency
Businesses choose to go through an agency for a variety of reasons. These reasons include access to a team of experts with a good reputation, ease of keeping their team focused on their own tasks, and cost-effectiveness compared to hiring experts for their company. But is hiring an agency secure for a company's private data? Let's look at the benefits and risks of hiring an agency.
Benefits
Expertise
Though it's possible to find freelancers with a high level of expertise in creative work, digital marketing, or other marketing services, it's more simple to find everything you need in one agency. Agencies tend to hire staff with many years of experience who work together to accomplish your goals. With agencies, you have case studies and track records of past achievements to understand what they can do for you.
Ease
Since your employees won't have to do work outside of their niche, your whole team will save time and effort trying to complete marketing and content tasks. If you don't need the full array of services an agency provides, negotiate a smaller scope or fewer hours, and you can still get the most out of their work.
Budget
Agency costs vary widely according to expertise, niche, and other elements but will almost always be more cost-effective than hiring experts. If you were to onboard individuals to work on your marketing and content tasks with the same experience as those in an agency, you'd spend much more time and money.
Risks
Security
When hiring an agency, you'll need to share important information, files, and even access to online accounts and tools. This exchange of delicate information can potentially open opportunities for cyberattacks. Using a password manager like TeamPassword can make collaborating with agencies safer by allowing password sharing securely.
How to choose the type of agency you need
So how do you know which type of agency to choose? Go through the following process to define what agency will be most beneficial.
- Set your goals. First, you need to define what you'd like to achieve, your timeline, and the type of professionals that would be best suited for the job.
- Go through the list of services the agencies you're considering offer and assess whether they're likely to move you towards your goals.
- Look at the agency's team and profiles. The agency you choose should have a team full of professionals that match the work you're looking for. If you want mainly ad management and the agency is made up of 90% creative professionals, you may have to look elsewhere.
How to keep partnerships with agencies secure
Maybe you're no longer debating which to choose, a digital agency vs. a marketing agency. But, regardless of which one you decide to work with, you should still be preparing to make it secure for your company. Since partnering with an outside organization will include exchanging logins and credentials for tools and resources, doing this in the safest way possible should take priority.
To make your work with agencies secure, use a password manager like TeamPassword.
Why TeamPassword
TeamPassword is easy-to-use, convenient, and safe to create, store, and share your passwords. Using TeamPassword to share credentials and logins with agencies can significantly reduce the risk of a cyberattack.
So, what makes TeamPassword such a valuable tool to keep your company safe during cross-company collaborations?
Safe password sharing inside and outside of your team
TeamPassword gives businesses the option to keep all passwords under one large group or segment them into smaller ones. This way, your product team has their logins, your customer service team has theirs, and so on. The same goes for external teams.
You can create TeamPassword groups for your marketing or digital agency and share the passwords they need. With TeamPassword, you have complete control over who has access, and can remove them when the job is done.
Built-In Password Generator
TeamPassword’s built-in password generator lets you create passwords from 12-32 characters using numbers, letters (uppercase/lowercase), and symbols. You can also use it as a username generator to create stronger credentials for your most sensitive accounts.
Two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security to your TeamPassword account. Each team member can set up their own 2FA using the Google Authenticator app available on iOS and Android. With 2FA, even if attackers manage to steal an employee’s TeamPassword credentials, they can’t access the account without Google Authenticator’s six-digit code. They can also create backup codes so they’re never locked out of their account.
Activity logs
Finally, TeamPassword carefully tracks login activity. So, despite providing high-level security for access, you can still rest easy knowing TeamPassword records all activity in logs—making it easy to investigate unauthorized sharing and access.
You can also set up email notifications for any TeamPassword activity. If you have a group for an external digital or marketing agency, you can set up notifications only for that group, to get instant notifications for any activity.
Accessibility
TeamPassword makes it easy to use the password manager, no matter which device or browser you’re working with. You can use one of our browser extensions (Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) or the TeamPassword mobile app, available on iOS and Android.
Are you starting work with an agency soon? TeamPassword is an affordable password management solution for teams to share company credentials securely and efficiently. Sign up for a 14-day free trial today!
