Andrew Scott, MD of Purplex discusses
how a full service agency will help you get the right “marketing mix”
The way people consume media has changed a lot in the last 10 years. They’re on their
smartphones checking social media sites, searching the web on their tablets and
receiving emails on the go. And despite the rise of digital technology people
still like to read a physical object such as a magazines or a letter – after-all
it can be tiresome reading everything off a screen all the time.
To ensure maximum marketing results, companies need to display their message across
multiple channels. Traditional marketing
is still important, for instance you still need a presence in trade magazines
and direct mail to generate leads, but you also need an up-to-date website,
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, email marketing and more.
Covering all these bases and getting the right ‘marketing mix’ can be a challenge. Large
organisations will have entire marketing departments but what about the SMEs
that make up a huge percentage of the window industry?
It’s not always viable for a manufacturing firm to employ a marketing team. Many will have one
or two staff looking after marketing, but expecting them to be PR experts,
web-designers, graphic designers, email marketing experts, social media
managers and look after the prospect data is a big ask. To be done well each of
these disciplines is a specialist job, and one person trying to be all these
marketing roles is in danger of spreading themselves too thin.
Many firms therefore choose to outsource marketing activities to an agency. Employing
experts in a particular marketing field will give you better results without
the hassle having to manage activity in-house, enabling you to concentrate on
running your business.
Cohesive marketing
The main difficulty comes when trying to conduct a cohesive strategy. Marketing works
better when it’s integrated, for instance your online marketing should mirror
what’s happening offline, so ideally you need the same company managing your
web-site as looking after your PR and direct marketing.
Most agencies specialise in one area of marketing, for instance they are a
web-design company or a small PR team, but few can offer all these disciplines
in-house, meaning the client either juggles multiple agencies or misses out on important
areas of marketing.
5 agencies under one roof
Rather than focussing on one area of marketing, Purplex five agencies under one roof. We
employ 26 staff consisting of teams specialising in PR and media, creative
design, web and digital, and direct marketing. We operate from a closely knit
office and all the departments feed of each other and share ideas – and the
result is our clients benefit from integrated campaigns with a consistent
message.
Say for example a client is launching a new product. Typically we will promote this via
direct mail and email to generate leads, produce the stories and adverts to
appear in the trade press, update the website with new content, promote it on
social media and produce new marketing literature. All this activity is produced
simultaneously by experienced teams who have worked closely together for a
number of years – and the client enjoys much faster and better results than if
they were to commission these projects to various agencies.
Industry knowledge
Another benefit of working with Purplex is our industry knowledge. We specialise in the building
products industry and when it comes to producing a marketing strategy, we know
your products, market, competitors and potential customers. Our team work with
companies throughout the supply chain and are experts at devising powerful
strategies and catapulting companies ahead of their competitors.
Ultimately marketing is becoming ever more complex and you need to ensure your strategy
works across all platforms. Employing a full-service marketing agency with an
industry background such as Purplex can make all the difference.
