Creative agencies can serve numerous purposes. They are staffed with people who have experience in shooting video, photography, and writing. Many function as advertising agencies, whose sole role is to design and implement strong advertising campaigns for clients ranging from small businesses to much larger firms.
The importance of creative agencies–aligned with terms like advertising agency and marketing agency–comes down to the shift in the way consumers receive information about products. Twenty years ago, reaching a consumer meant through print mediums or television. Now, consumers have shifted to searching online for products.
According to statistics, 80% of consumers do “a lot” of online research before making a purchase. 46% say they count on social media while making that purchase. Whether through laptops, desktop computers, or mobile devices, consumers are making decisions by what they see online.
Marketers in the United States will spend $24 billion on online display advertising this year along, with 59% of CMOs viewing display ads as an effective marketing channel. Content creation and management now claim the 2nd largest share of digital marketing budgets. But companies aren’t often up to speed with the latest trends and methods.
While 50% of companies are using digital marketing, they do not have a plan. Further, 83% of consumers reported that they have had a bad experience with social media marketing. An error in social media can lead to a bad reputation and those using ineffective methods may have a nonexistent one.
Creative agencies can help with numerous parts of the online marketing strategy.
One area many companies may need improvement is with their websites. Websites act as the face of the company in the online medium. A poorly designed website with an unattractive color scheme can lead consumers to conclude that the company is not as credible as others. Individuals within creative agencies can design a more professional website that can beat out competitors and retain consumers who click through.
Another area where creative agencies can help companies is with social media marketing. Social media ads pose a special obstacle in the quest for more clicks and more revenue. Generally they are short enough to catch the attention of the social media users and catchy enough to be shared, generating more views without additional cost to the company.
One position within many creative agencies is the copywriter. A copywriter specializes in persuasive copy, which gets the reader’s buy-in to take some sort of action. This can mean a new, catchy slogan or a full-blown landing page that asks the reader to click thru to go to a company’s website. This is another example of how a creative agency can help.
Companies spent, on average, 25% of their total marketing budgets on digital in 2014. That number is expected to rise to 75% five years within five years. As more individuals move to mobile devices like cell phone and tablets to find information, the value of digital advertising will increase even further.