When it comes to choosing a digital marketing company to
help you create your company’s digital strategy, you may be tempted to choose a
company that specializes in your industry. While this may sound good on the
surface, we’d submit to you that too much specialization can actually cost you.
Many times industry “experts” can get tunnel vision. They
are so focused on what they already know that they sometimes do not see what is
going on around them.
Every year, Russell Reynolds
Associates surveys more than 2,000 C-level
executives on the impact, structure, barriers, and enablers of digital
technologies across 15 industries. The chart below shows the percentage of
executives surveyed who responded that their business would be moderately or massively
disrupted by digital, broken down by industry. As you can see, the impact of
technology driven change is affecting a broad swath of industries. We suspect
it is pretty much across the board in all industries and governments too.
In a time of rapid change, nimble companies have the
advantage. If your marketer is heavily rooted in an industry, it can slow down
the adoption of change. They will resist change because change threatens their
base of knowledge. In times of change you are much better off with a marketing
company that is aware of what is going on around them and will keep your
company ahead of the changes.
One size does not fit
all
Adoption of new ideas and innovation is what protects your
business from being disrupted. Specialized marketing companies tend to live in
belief silos. They are so sure they already know the answers they don’t go looking
outside to see what might work from other industries.
We’ve seen extreme examples where a specialized web design
company was so entrenched that they were using the same cookie-cutter templates
for all their clients in that industry. A search revealed, they had used the
same template and content for 81 different companies! It is true… if you are a
hammer everything looks like a nail. You don’t want your marketing company to
be a hammer.
A good balance is to look for a marketing firm that has broad base of experience
and has served at least some clients in your industry. If you’re looking for a
digital marketing company with over 25 years of experience helping thousands of
diverse businesses, call us! We can be reached at (407) 682-2222 or use the
contact form below to get in touch.