A vertical-specific agency can sound like a good idea when you’re looking to grow your business through your website, social media, or any other kind of marketing. However, vertical-specific agencies tend to miss the mark. You instead should be looking into an agency that works with clients whose industries run the gamut. The difference lies in how these two kinds of agencies operate, and in the results they achieve.
What is a Vertical-Specific Agency?
A vertical-specific agency is a marketing agency that only does marketing services for one industry. It can be realtors, doctors, psychologists, dentists, etc. Vertical-specific agencies work with clients in that specialized niche and no one else. The idea behind being vertical-specific is that the agency becomes an” expert” in that niche. These agencies have a deep knowledge of that niche.
On the contrary, agencies that are not vertical-specific represent companies from a variety of industries and niches. These agencies don’t claim to be an expert in any industry except their own of marketing, website building and design, social media management and marketing, and advertising.
If you are looking for an agency for the first time or looking to make a change, an agency that is not a vertical agency is going to be your best bet. Vertical-specific agencies aren’t offering an as high quality of a product as agencies with clients in all sectors.
Reasons Why Vertical-Specific is Inferior
The biggest reason why you should avoid a vertical-specific agency is that you will end up with generic content. For any marketing strategy to work, you need to be able to stand out and be different. In vertical-specific agencies, there is a lot of copying and pasting when it comes to content. You will end up with the exact same content as your competitors. This doesn’t just look unprofessional, having the same content can actually hurt your SEO and hurt the organic traffic coming to your site. Your business can’t afford to have generic content.
When you decide to use a full-service agency to handle your content and marketing, you’re not getting a copy-and-paste approach. The services you receive are individualized for you and your company. This includes research in your industry, ideal customer research, and content and website creation. Your website and/or social media will be more unique so you won’t blend in with your competitors. Everything the agency creates will be for your business, not for your competitors. This unique approach will allow your business to rise above the rest.
If your business has been targeted by a vertical-specific agency, you can bet that same agency is targeting your competitors. Quantity, not quality is the name of the game in vertical-specific agencies. It takes time, effort, and knowledge to come up with a marketing strategy if it’s specialized. If all you’re doing is copy-and-pasting a company name into generic content, it’s easier to have a high volume of clients.
What makes your business unique, makes it great. This isn’t a priority for vertical-specific agencies. You have to stand out not only in your field but online and on social media. Full-service agencies highlight what makes your business special and unique. This is what will get you noticed. This is what will make your business top-of-mind when a potential customer or client is looking for a service or product like yours.
Agencies with clients from industries across the board know all of the latest trends. From trends on Instagram to algorithm changes, an agency that does it all knows what is going on across the board. This isn’t true for a vertical-specific agency. That agency might know what is happening in their niche, but not others. Algorithm changes in one niche can greatly impact another niche. An agency that covers all niches will be better prepared to know what’s up and coming, as well as what’s coming up when it comes to changes.
An all-encompassing agency is better equipped to notice and anticipate these kinds of changes. This is because the agency is an expert at what they do- marketing. You are the expert in your niche. Your marketing agency should be an expert in theirs. If you’re a realtor, do you want another realtor to build, design, and maintain your website and social media? Or would you rather an expert in website building and designing did your website? And a social media expert takes care of your social media? You’re the expert in your field, your agency needs to be the expert in theirs.
One of the most important jobs an agency does is to help your business speak to its ideal customer. To best understand how to do this your need to understand who your audience is. A full-service agency knows how to tune into your audience and how to position your product or service as that thing they have to have. The problem with a vertical-specific agency here is that by knowing the ins and outs of your niche, they don’t have the questions your ideal audience would. Chances are your ideal audience isn’t going to be an expert in your field. This audience needs someone to speak their own language, not the industry lingo the experts use. You need someone who can tap into what the audience is thinking and feeling to best understand their wants and needs.
When shopping for an agency, go with the experts in what they do, not what you do. You can’t afford to have generic content on your website, or on your social media. There is a lot of competition out there, you need to stand out and be seen. The Creative Agency is a full-service agency that has helped more than 260 clients in all different kinds of niches and industries grow and flourish. You keep doing what you do best and leave the marketing to us, it’s what we do best.
