Ahmad Kareh

When you first started your business, you may have worn every single hat yourself, including marketing. Now you've grown to the point that you need help – but do you hire an in-house staff member or outsource an agency?

Not long ago, mom-and-pop shops struggled to compete with the big conglomerates and internet businesses luring their customer base away with convenient shopping at low prices. Today, the local business scene has made a resurgence, thanks in part to millennials who want to "shop small" and support entrepreneurs in their own backyard. In fact, nearly half of consumers in this generation are willing to pay more to support a small business.

There are three key components to any great advertising campaign: It must communicate a promise, be strategic and come across as effortless. People engage with brands that are real and authentic, not brands that try too hard to be cute or that don’t seem to care.

Determining pricing structure is often one of the most difficult tasks for a service-based business. Product-based businesses can easily quantify the cost of making, storing, displaying and shipping goods, but the intangible nature of creative agency work often means that campaign metrics determine your firm's value and worth to a client.

In November 2017, Snapchat unveiled a new design that separates content from a user's "friends" from branded content by publishers and creators. Parent company Snap hopes the changes to its popular social app will "lead to more conversations between close groups of friends," and ultimately expand its stagnant user base, reported The Verge.

A robust social media presence has quickly gone from a "nice to have" to an absolute necessity for new and established brands alike. Whether your target audience is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or all of the above (and then some), being where your customers are and providing consistent, interesting content is key to creating loyal followers.

This past September, Amazon announced plans to build a second headquarters to complement its existing Seattle location. Since then, cities across North America have been scrambling to draw the attention of the tech giant in hopes that they'd become the chosen location for HQ2. By the time submissions closed in mid-October, Amazon had received more than 200 proposals from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The integration of virtual reality (VR) is gaining more ground across all industries, and your company will have to decide pretty soon whether the technology is beneficial for interacting with your customers.

With 30% of consumers likely to buy a product recommended by a non-celebrity blogger, according to a study by Collective Bias, investing in influencer marketing just makes sense. It can be the push in taking you to a new level of awareness with your customers.

Picking the right agency for your business takes some effort and homework on your part. You need to find a company that meshes with your personality and your business style, but you also want an agency that is affordable and in tune with your industry.