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Generating leads and improving sales. This is why companies advertise and create marketing campaigns in the first place. In a very small nutshell, marketing campaigns increase brand awareness, engage clients, and make companies and products visible.  These campaigns can be fun, creative, and memorable - but the main goal is always better sales.

Better reputation? Better sales. 

Better visibility? Better sales. 

Better engagement? Better Sales. 

You get the gist. Large marketing agencies are pros at accomplishing this in many ways. But a lot of them are still missing a big part of the puzzle - SEO. SEO aims to achieve similar goals by placing value on searchability. Marketing and SEO go hand in hand, and more clients want to see them both as one service. 

SEO services are an important part of any marketing strategy

SEO has been a part of online marketing ever since it started, but a lot of marketing agencies still haven’t gotten the memo. In reality, every website is a marketing project. 

The cost of adding SEO services to your agency’s offering

This is what a lot of agencies fear. People don’t go into marketing because they’re technical. They go into marketing because they are creative, want to come up with new ideas, and like to solve puzzles. Technical SEO can seem like a foreign concept. 

SEO done badly can do more harm than good. So what are your options? No one wants to add a full department to their company without having the expertise to manage it well. And in order to do SEO well, you need experts. 

But how do you get experts without investing in an in-house team? Of course, an in-house team is great once you have enough interest and you are sure of the ROI. Here are some of your options: 

White Label SEO Agency - There are established SEO agencies that are happy to take on your clients as a white-label service. It’s worth it to create a long-lasting relationship. In cases like this, SEO companies approach your client as if they were their own and provide you with all the necessary reports. A good company will coach you on how to answer your clients’ questions and give you in-depth information about the strategy they picked and why they think it’s the best course of action for your client. 

Pros: 

• Access to experts 

• Ready reports 

• Scalability 

• Cost-effectiveness 

Cons: 

• Dependence on an outside company 

• Potential communication issues 

• Managing client expectations and communicating with your clients 

Freelancers - You can hire a freelancer who is an SEO expert and put you on the right track. A lot of agencies choose this path for consulting, or to test out the SEO option on a limited basis. After all, a freelancer is just one person, and unless you hire a whole army of them, their output and experience are limited. In some cases, however, it may be worth it to choose the freelancer path. 

Pros: 

• Cost-effective (less than an in-house team) 

• Specialization (you can hire a freelancer per client to get maximum niche specialization)

Cons: 

• No scalability with one freelancer 

• Being dependent on one person

• Managing multiple freelancers can become a challenge 

• A freelancer can quit, leaving you and your client in a lurch

Train your own team - if you’re a marketing agency, chances are that you already have employees who are interested in SEO or have experience in SEO. Ask them, and take a poll of what your potential is. You can put a specialized team together and test the waters. As a hybrid option, you can hire a freelancer or an agency to train your team. 

Pros: 

• You don’t need to hire anyone new 

• You can use the resources you already have 

• Your in-house team will know how you operate with no extra training 

Cons: 

• Your employees might not have the expertise needed to run a successful campaign

• You are taking their attention away from other important projects 

• You still need to train them 

Answer these questions if you’re thinking about an SEO service

Integrating SEO into your services isn’t a walk in the park, and it needs careful planning and consideration. You don’t want to get this one wrong, as it will reflect on your whole agency. Before jumping in, you have to test out the waters and answer some very important questions. 

What specific SEO services will we offer? 

How will we integrate SEO with our existing marketing services? 

How will we track and report progress? Will we? 

How much do we want to go into SEO without becoming an SEO company rather than a marketing agency? 

What are our competitors doing? Can we improve on their offer? 

 

Conclusion - SEO is worth it in the long run 

Marketing and SEO go hand in hand. SEO supports your marketing campaign and makes it more visible and recognizable in search. Knowing how to optimize your marketing content for the best SEO results will help it become evergreen, and work hard after your initial campaign is over. 
 

As Google constantly updates its algorithms, it’s important to have the knowledge of how to make your content stay safe from ranking tribulations. There are a lot of simple fixes that will get your clients to page one in the SERPs - and trust us, you want to know about them. 

There are also the more technical aspects of SEO to consider. Marketing agencies deal with setting up web campaigns for their clients and creating new landing pages. Don’t let your great design get in the way of SEO - work together for maximum results. 

Adding SEO to your services is worth it. It will get you caught up with the competition and enable you to make the most of your campaigns. Besides - most marketing clients already ask about it. But you probably already know that!