Frequently Asked Questions About Cleveland Marketing

Cleveland is a large city with many businesses that are all looking to get the best bang for their buck when they hire a marketing agency. There are so many options to choose from, and not every marketing agency in Cleveland has the same tools and services offered to their clients. While the options seem endless, we hope to whittle down the choice for you in this insight, and to point you in the right direction of choosing a marketing agency here in Cleveland. These are the frequently asked questions about Cleveland marketing.

For the purposes of this insight, we are going to assume that your business is going to be represented by a local marketing agency and not an out-of-state or out-of-country agency. Local agencies can provide real-time feedback, have knowledge of the local markets, and can help with filming on short notice. We hope to address the most frequent questions a Cleveland business might have when hiring a marketing agency.

Digital Marketing – All agencies offer a digital marketing package of some sort. Here is a concise list of some of the most common services:

• Copywriting
• Social Media Management
• Website Development
• Graphic Design
• Search Engine Optimization

These are considerably basic things any agency with a decent computer can accomplish. When looking for an agency make sure they offer at least these in their package as they are all quite common.

Traditional Marketing – These types of actions are more old-school and tend towards an older crowd. Think about radio, television, and print advertising. These are much more traditional routes that were popular up until the rise of the internet. While they are still prevalent, most advertising is done via Google, Outlook, Facebook, etc.

More traditional approaches to marketing are exceptionally good for a grassroots campaign though, as getting print media is much rarer in today’s world people tend to remember it more often. Printing is often expensive when compared to modern marketing on social media and Google Ads. Radio and television ads, while still existent, are shells of their former selves. With the rise of streaming services like Netflix and Pandora hardly anyone under the age of thirty-five watches or listens to old fashioned television or radio. Many marketing agencies do not focus on this as it is more expensive and riskier.

Branding and Graphic Design – Some agencies have a dedicated graphic artist to create logos, graphics, brand guidelines, website design, and a plethora of other things. Most marketing agencies will either have the capability themselves or will have a resolute contractor to create graphic media for your business.

Having a cohesive brand across all platforms is considered widespread practice in most marketing circles. There are rare instances where a brand’s identity is based around a constantly evolving artistic impression, but this is the exception not the rule. Graphic designers specialize in consistency with your colors, fonts, logo variations, and it helps look more professional when your brand can be recognized without context.

Content Creation and Copywriting – Copywriting is offered at every marketing agency in Cleveland while “content creation” needs to be defined for the purposes of this insight. When we say content creation, we usually mean valuable pieces of content to draw people to your business, like blogs, social media posts, newsletters, etc. Those are more common for a marketing agency to manage, but the modern use of the words “content creation” have come to also mean photography, video production, livestreaming, etc.

Sometimes an agency does not have the talent or capacity to offer full-blown video productions, and they will hire an outside company as a contractor to oversee those and then function as the mediator. Make sure to ask the agency you are about to hire if they have in-house staff for things like this, or if they use contractors. We do not have anything against contractors but having a resolute employee on staff who can grab a bag of camera equipment and be there to film your business in 30 minutes is an incredible valuable thing to have in your business’ back pocket.

Digital marketing is much more behind the scenes and revolves around strategies implemented online. Traditional marketing is much more in your face and deals with printing flyers, running an ad in a magazine or newspaper, and placing a television commercial on local stations. Some full-service marketing agencies, like us, offer everything in both camps.

Digital marketing is more popular and more prevalent. Making sure your website is safe and updated, consistently raising your placement in search engines via search engine optimization, and managing online stores are all super important in today’s climate. Traditional marketing focuses more on things like billboards, flyers, physical mail, and obtaining a spot in local magazines advertising your business.

Local search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most vital things for a Cleveland business. We have a robust economy with so many demographics that it is important to cater to specific audiences. For instance, Cleveland has a large Polish population and that has evolved into Cleveland having a pierogi obsession. No joke, we have festivals for pierogies. Being able to target demographics as specific as that in an online campaign will yield much better results than a billboard with a pierogi on it. Think about what approach you would like to take for your business specifically, but digital marketing and print marketing have two separate pools of niches to pull from.

Here are some pros and cons for both digital and traditional marketing:

Digital Marketing

• Pros – Cheaper, wider reach, and more common for agencies to offer these services.
• Cons – It is a constant work in progress as algorithms change, sometimes it takes longer to see a significant return on investment, and can easily be done under the radar by a contractor without your knowledge.

Traditional Marketing

• Pros – Higher local engagement, focused on niche markets, more memorable mediums like business cards and billboards.
• Cons – More expensive, hard to gauge return on investment, and involves mediums that are not as popular as the internet.

Take some time to think about what types of marketing would help your business the most. A restaurant might want to get menus and flyers into peoples’ hands, and a new start-up might value a website before anything else. It is situational as each business might have different wants and needs.

Local Market knowledge will be the most important box to check. When you are investigating and researching different agencies make sure to look at their previous and current clients. If they have a large number of clients out of state or out of country, they might not have the same knowledge about Cleveland’s markets that another agency might have. Cleveland is a rich and robust culture, and a business should look for a local agency collaborating with local companies.

Checking if an agency has worked in the same industry as your business is also another important thing to look out for. All their clients might not be in your business’ industry, but you want to utilize a marketing agency that has also helped other businesses in your niche. There are specialized marketing agencies out there that focus on one industry, but they might be collaborating with your direct competitors.

Some agencies specialize in certain categories of marketing. If you need a brand refresh and graphic design more than anything else, there are marketing agencies out there that specialize in that area. Consider hiring a marketing firm that meets your needs first then decide if you want something more general after the work is done.

Here are some of the pros and cons of a specialty marketing agency versus a full-service marketing agency:

Specialty Marketing Agency

• Pros – Usually has more specialized tools and experts, generally higher quality in their specialization
• Cons – If other needs arise, they might charge a premium price to hire external contractors, and they might have different rates depending on the work asked of them.

Full-Service Marketing Agency

• Pros – Usually charges an hourly rate or retainer for all work and can do much larger elaborate projects requiring multiple skill sets.
• Cons – May not have specialized tools or experts in specific areas, and an hourly/retainer agreement may lead to larger bills if multiple large projects come up simultaneously.

Full-service marketing agencies offer a more comprehensive approach to a smaller business or startup. As an example, if a full-service marketing agency is creating a website, brand guidelines, and social media accounts for a small business then all of the colors fonts, logos, and layouts will all match or at least get passably close if there is an extreme case on an application or some outlier.

There are short-term and long-term strategies, and both have some variability when the return on investment is demonstrated. Depending on what kind of goal you have in mind it is going to take a different amount of time. If your goal is to have more interaction on your social media pages, it will be quite easy to see an increase in likes and shares. If you want to register higher on Google through search engine optimization it will take months before you see a consistent uptick in Google’s Search Console.

Common short-term approaches to marketing include:

• Social Media Management
• Email Marketing (If there is an email list to work with)
• Pay-Per-Click advertising on Google or Bing
• Paid Video Advertisements

Common long-term approaches to marketing include:

• Website rebranding
• Search Engine Optimization
• Video Production
• Public Relations

It is important to be patient with long-term strategies like Search Engine Optimization, as the facets are extremely firsthand. Writing blogs, rewording website metadata, getting backlinks, and so many other things take time and lots of attention. You can check out our insights on SEO here and here.

Many services provide a shareable report, like Google and Meta advertisements so the ROI can be spelled out plain as day. More traditional marketing tactics, like brochures, do not have a calculation for the return on the investment unfortunately. It is impossible to track who took a flyer and followed the steps to becoming a client or customer, it is not feasible to track that.

We can expect regular reports from a marketing agency with graphs that show website visitors, clicks on a Facebook Ad, or even tracking who fills out a form on your website and then is added to the email list we have all been creating.

Most interactions start with you or the marketing agency reaching out to one another. After an initial email there is usually a Zoom call scheduled, and both your business and the marketing agency will talk about goals, capabilities, and key performance indicators. After a definite deal has been struck, the marketing agency will send you a contract for you to review and sign, and then the fun begins!

In the preliminary steps of working with a marketing agency your business will be asked to make them administrators on social media sites, access to your website’s back end, or access to any marketing materials or portals (such as Basecamp, Google Docs, etc.) After that the marketing agency will get their hands dirty with the practical details of your brand and start their job.

Here is a simplified breakdown of the onboarding process:

1. Initial consultation.
2. Building a marketing strategy catered to your business’ goals.
3. Creating short-term and long-term key performance indicators.
4. Account access and account setup.

Then the marketing agency will start to work on the SEO, website, or whatever you agreed upon. These agencies should give you regular updates on things, but if nothing is written in stone do not be afraid to ask them for a report.

While each marketing agency is different, these answers should point you in the right direction to a lot of the questions you may have. The next time you are out looking for a marketing agency for your business you will have a better idea of what to expect, and what points to bring up in your introductory calls.

Remember to ask:

• What services do you offer?
• Are you a full-service agency or partial-service agency?
• Do you have experience in traditional marketing as well as digital marketing?
• Are you located in Cleveland?
• Can you show me some work examples of similar industries?
• What are the time frames for short-term and long-term marketing efforts?
• What does your onboarding process entail?

If you ever have any questions about what a local marketing agency can do for you in the Cleveland area, feel free to reach out to us here at Acclaim. We will talk shop with you all day and give you advice on what you are looking for.