Back in the ’70s, McDonald’s needed help. Their executives worried as sales slowed.

And then along came a golden idea, one which dramatically changed Ronald McDonald and the entire food industry.

What did McDonald’s do? And where did the idea come from?

Enter the Happy Meal, the colorful cardboard lunch pail for kids. Inside awaited a burger, small fries, cookie packet, and a surprise gift. 

It skyrocketed into a huge hit. With its 1979 introduction, the restaurant landscape changed forever.

In 2017 alone, Mickey D’s sold 3.2 million Happy Meals per day, adding a cool $10 million in daily revenue. This past summer, the iconic kid's meal celebrated its 40th anniversary.

But where did this revolutionary idea come from? Surprisingly, not from within the hallowed halls of the burger giant.

Instead, it originated with an advertising professional named Bob Bernstein. 

Bob's agency developed the Happy Meal concept, artwork, and name. In short time, television, radio, and in-store promotional posters flooded the nation.

The rest is food history.

McDonald’s needed strategic, creative help to jumpstart their sales. So they turned to a marketing agency.

Maybe the thought of using an agency gives you the hibbie-jibbies:

…Aren’t agencies expensive?

…What kind of return will my small business get? 

…Is it worth the effort?

Perhaps an agency isn’t the best option for your company, especially if you prefer in-house DIY marketing. 

There are tons of powerful tools to help you with website development, writing blogs, sending email campaigns, crafting ad placements, and nurturing leads.

With the right resources and training, you can accomplish great things without outside help.

But while agencies aren't necessarily the best fit for every company, the right one can help a small business experience dramatic growth. 

6 Reasons To Use A Marketing Agency
Vs In-House Team:

1. COST SAVINGS

A great agency will save you money by protecting your time.

Ever wasted hours twiddling with a website, finagling with Facebook ads, or editing the contents of an ad? These activities can devolve into a massive time suck. 

An agency also saves you from a bloated payroll. If you employ in-house staff to handle marketing, you’re paying for salaries, benefits, equipment, and training. That can work.

But if employees ever leave, you’re back to the beginning with onboarding a new hire. There are also constant software updates to think about.

And if you’re a solopreneur, a word of warning… trying to do all the marketing, sales, and fulfillment will wear you down in a hot second.

Sometimes seeking professional help is the best decision for your business.

Working with a reputable agency alleviates these concerns and helps you hunker down on other important areas.

2. COMBINED EXPERIENCE

Since most agencies provide you with teams of professionals, you benefit from their cumulative experience. 

These teams often represent a wide spectrum of skills (design, strategy, copywriting) across a diversity of industries. One in-house person can’t possibly replicate it all.

Experience also brings wisdom about what works and what doesn’t. Agencies have a long history of best practices (and misses) in their wheelhouse.

Use that treasure chest to your advantage instead of plodding away with internal trial-and-error, missing opportunities along the way.

By using an agency’s collective knowledge, your small business can reach goals at light speed.

An agency’s experience protects your business from projects that waste time and money.

3. UNBIASED VIEW OF YOUR BUSINESS

Perhaps the greatest advantage of using an agency is the “fresh eyes" it provides for your company.

A new perspective can lead to groundbreaking success. But often, leaders become blind to marketing opportunities because they’re too busy making the sausage.

Agencies have a long and storied history of extracting effective messaging for companies. For instance:

…Ever heard the tagline “A Diamond Is Forever”? (an agency created it for De Beers)

…What about the tagline “Got Milk?” (an agency created it for dairy farmers)

…How about “Just Do It” (an agency created it for Nike)

Just like McDonald’s needed a big idea to drum up new business, an agency can help you see options you may not have otherwise considered.

4. CONSISTENCY ACROSS PROJECTS

Whenever a company has staff turnover, there’s always the danger of inconsistency. 

Without an intentional strategy, your small business marketing can disintegrate into a hodgepodge of unconnected images, colors, and messages.

In other words, a hot mess.

Inconsistency confuses potential customers, and as the marketing saying goes, “If you confuse, you lose.”

Top agencies operate with a meta-mindset for each client, ensuring projects connect together seamlessly. 

This includes internal documentation and outgoing messaging — everything from colors, fonts, tag lines, and measurement strategies.

5. MEASUREMENT OF RETURN

Making pretty bells-and-whistles for a client isn’t the primary goal of a marketing agency. The number one objective is to increase sales. 

Effectiveness should always come before creativity.

Top agencies deliver measurement metrics to show the results of how you invested your marketing dollars.

Without measurement and testing, it’s all guesswork. However, too many businesses throw their advertising money to the wind, believing that doing “something” is better than doing nothing.

Smart agencies show you the most efficient places to use your budget and then present you with data both during and after a campaign.

It’s a simple but often overlooked philosophy: your marketing must make you more money than it costs you.

6. TRAINING 

The best agencies train their clients to run their own marketing.

Yep, those with your best interests at heart eventually work themselves out of a job.

That’s one of our goals at Genie Jar Marketing: to train our small business clients to manage at least 80% of their marketing efforts in-house. 

The other 20% (such as website design, graphic design, etc) is left to those with specialized skills and the right software/equipment. But with time, even those are trainable skills.

We’ve seen it over and over. Businesses with an “ownership mentality” toward their marketing always fare better than those who blindly pass it to others.

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About Me

Hey, I’m Brian, co-founder of Genie Jar Marketing. Born a Tar Heel but now a Virginian, I can do a great moonwalk on a slick floor. If you need help with your small business marketing, check out these resources for either your start-up or established business.

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