How to choose the right marketing agency near you: A local business guide.
When you ask yourself, ‘which is the best marketing agency near me?’ What criteria come to mind? Perhaps you’re looking for an agency with bags of local knowledge. Maybe you want to work with people that know your local area, and the markets you operate in.
At Ketchup, we understand the importance of local community. Based at our office in Nottingham, we work with many clients within the city, county and wider East Midlands region. We’ve helped companies grow from humble beginnings to national or global powerhouses, and learned huge amounts along the way.
So, if you’re looking for a local marketing agency, look no further than Ketchup.
Why hiring a local marketing agency matters
Ketchup has over 16 years’ experience of offering local marketing services. When you hire a local marketing agency, you get first-hand knowledge of the business environment, and a team of people that speak your language.
We know the issues faced by businesses in Nottingham. While we’ve got great transport links provided by our central location and East Midlands Airport on our doorstep, we know that links to places like Leeds and Bristol are sadly lacking. We know that traffic along Maid Marian Way is a nightmare in the mornings, and that Huntingdon Street is best avoided by all but the bravest souls.
We understand the business landscape in our local area: while Nottingham is a hub for creative and tech business growth, there is still a heavy reliance on public sector employment. Nottingham is a melting pot of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but Brexit has hurt many of them due to increased red tape around exports.
What we’re saying is, we get it. When you hire a local marketing agency [like Ketchup], you get local marketing services that naturally fit with the local landscape, without having to explain your circumstances to someone who wouldn’t know Clifton from a cheese cob.
The benefits of working with a marketing company near you
As well as this local knowledge, working with a marketing agency in Nottingham has other benefits. Ketchup is a full-service marketing agency. What that means is, we offer the full spectrum of marketing services, should you need them.
We pride ourselves on being able to slot right in with your existing processes, and becoming an extension of your team. Working out of our office in Nottingham means we’re never too far away for a face-to-face meeting. We love a chat, whether it’s about the over-arching strategy, the next event on the horizon, or a granular tweak to your SEO plan.
How can local expertise drive better results?
Local expertise is about more than speaking in the right accent or knowing the cultural references. Sure, at Ketchup, we say ‘cob’ not ‘bap’, and we know what happened against Malmo in 1979. But more than that, we use our local knowledge to deliver amazing marketing for our clients.
Local knowledge means we can target and segment audiences more effectively. We know the areas that are affluent, the ones that skew heavily student-y, or where the young families are living. Knowing this kind of thing means we can tailor offers, events or messaging to micro-demographics, and get your products seen by your target audience.
When it comes to local marketing, ‘channel strategy’ takes on a whole new meaning. Social media is one thing, but what about local message boards, school notice boards or community hubs? It takes a local marketing agency to understand these things, and in Ketchup, you can be sure that your messages will be shared in the right place, at the right time.
What are the key factors to consider when choosing a marketing agency?
When asking yourself, ‘which is the best marketing company near me?’, it’s important to consider a number of factors.
Industry experience and portfolio
Experience within your industry is key. All the local knowledge in the world won’t make up for the fact that an agency has never worked in your industry and doesn’t know its nuances. At ketchup, we have experience of a wide range of industries and sectors. Why not check out our work to see if we’re a good fit for you?
Range of services offered
Your goals will dictate which services you require. Ketchup is a full-service marketing agency, which means we provide all marketing services, and can operate as a bolt-on marketing function for your company.
We have experts and specialists in every department, so you can be sure that no-one is wearing the wrong hat or giving you information based on a best guess. Why not browse our services to see how we can help you succeed?
Transparency and communication
Whichever agency you choose to work with, it’s important that lines of communication are clear, and that the agency is able to show, clearly and transparently, how it has added value for your business.
At Ketchup, we report on everything we do, at a frequency to suit our clients. When you work with us, you’ll be assigned a brand manager as a single point of contact. All our BMs are fully-qualified marketing experts, so you can be sure that all the advice you receive comes from a place of knowledge and know-how.
Reviews and local reputation
Trust is key in any working relationship. When choosing a local marketing agency, be sure to check out the reviews and testimonials from previous clients on their website. If they don’t have any, that might be a red flag.
Ketchup’s clients have provided lots of reviews and case studies that you can check out across our site. We pride ourselves on creating happy customers, and hope that, if you choose Ketchup for your local marketing services, it will just be a matter of time before we can add you to that list.
Check out this case study and see for yourself.
‘How can I find the best marketing agency near me?’
Finding the right local marketing agency to work with is important. You’ll be trusting these people with your business goals, so you need to make sure you find the right fit.
The first port of call is, of course, Google [or your preferred search engine]. One of the services that a marketing agency is likely to offer is SEO, so, make sure they practice what they preach and see how well they rank in Google search results. Try searching ‘marketing agency near me’, or ‘marketing agency in Nottingham’, and see what comes up.
Another way to check out an agency’s credentials is to look at its Google business profile and client testimonials. Its profile should appear on the right-hand side of the screen when you type its name into Google [on desktop].
The profile should include a star rating [out of five], and a link to read any reviews that people have left for it. For a marketing agency, you ideally want to see reviews left by clients, as this will give you a feel for what it’s like to work with.
As you start to build up a picture of the best local marketing companies, you can begin to create your own shortlist. If local knowledge is important to you, why not include a category based on local presence? How many local businesses has the agency worked with? Do those local businesses recommend the agency via reviews and testimonials? This should give you plenty of food for thought [hopefully, with a side of Ketchup].
Final thoughts
If you’re ready to choose your local marketing agency, we’re eager to meet you! We love nothing more than that initial chat to get to know a prospective new client, and we know you’ll feel right at home if you were to pop along to our office in Nottingham.
In the meantime, why not give us a call on 0115 671 3868, or drop us an email at sayhello@ketchup.marketing.