First off I want to start this by saying this does not pertain to every company. There are most certainly exceptions to what I’m about to say, and I would go so far as to say that this relates to about 50% of marketing agencies. Many marketing firms were started years ago in a golden age of things like SEO management and Google AdWords. In this time those two things alone could elevate a business to a super power if done right. Because of that it’s understandable that so many people who knew how to do it jumped in and started marketing their skills.
As time has gone on these tactics have become less effective. These days AdWords are more expensive and I believe a focus on social media far outweighs SEO. For that reason it would reason that many companies that started during the previous golden age would have made transitions to things like content creation and promotion. However while I’ve been doing research while starting a business myself is that many of the local marketing agencies seem to have never made a transition, while some have only slightly incorporated the new.
While SEO and AdWords campaigns can still be effective, a company now days to focus on these without putting first something like Instagram growth is borderline predatory. Business owners who know nothing about marketing and wish to delegate can be easily pulled into these tactics because there is proof they have worked in the past and they don’t know that active social media management works better. These companies may get stuck in a place of no growth.
I think it’s important to note I don’t think any business that is doing this is actively trying to do bad. I think it’s a result of ignoring the dynamic changes to the industry. You have to be willing to change your plan quickly, yet a lot of these business set up a plan and never changed.
The above is almost entirely the reason I’m starting my own business trying to accomplish what I criticize others for not doing. I claim it’s not difficult, well I guess I’ll see.
Best of luck!