Selecting a marketing agency to partner with your business is a vital decision. Yet despite the importance of such a choice, there are no real best practices or guidelines to follow; every business’ needs are different, and often the industry you’re in comes with its own set of special considerations.
A common question when beginning a search is the type of agency. Should you partner with a generalist agency that works in a variety of industries, or a specialized partner who operates primarily in your vertical?
Generalist vs Specialist
In the case of healthcare marketing, there’s little question that the expertise and experience of a specialized agency partner is valuable. In fact, Werremeyer Creative is based upon that premise; that our knowledge of the healthcare industry and successful track record have afforded us a level of expertise- experience that our partners value.
Why is relevant industry experience important? It’s simple, really- agencies that specialize in your vertical have likely encountered situations and scenarios similar to those you’ll encounter. This can be a huge benefit, especially when an organization is undergoing a marketing transformation, like making the move from more traditional channels into digital marketing. An agency partner that knows the industry landscape, the ever-changing rules and regulatory nuances, the competitive climate and the realities you face every day can contribute immediately, without a time-consuming educational curve. Efforts and energies can be focused on the transformation at hand.
To borrow an analogy from health and wellness: choosing a generalist agency partner to perform a specialized marketing task is the same as choosing your general practitioner to perform orthopedic surgery on your knee. Yes, they have general knowledge of what needs to happen, and an idea of the steps necessary to complete the surgery, they just don’t know how to perform it themselves and have a positive outcome.
Generalist agencies have split interests by design. Their top clients may cut across a variety of industries. Therefore, their knowledge level in the healthcare industry ebbs and flows based on whether they have an active client in the space. As anyone in this industry can attest, if you step away for a couple of years or even months, you can’t just step back in and know the healthcare marketing landscape. It shifts far too quickly.
Always Looking Ahead
As a specialized health and wellness agency we are constantly reading articles, attending webinars, listening to podcasts (it’s the new reading) and discussing issues and new marketing ideas with our clients. We also keep up on the latest regulations, best practices and industry trends at Werremeyer. It’s important that we know the current landscape so we can propose informed solutions and identify relevant insights for our client partners.
So is a specialized agency the right partner for your business? That’s for you to decide. Werremeyer can only speak to our experience, and the things our client partners tell us about the benefits of working with a specialized health and wellness agency. If you’re in the market for an agency partner, we can only encourage you to make as informed a choice as possible.
In other words, Choose Well.