What is the Difference Between a 360 Digital Marketing Agency and an SEO Agency?

While searching for an answer to the above question, many people decide to choose services of an agency which is either more specialized or covers a wide range of activities. 360 digital marketing agencies as well as SEO agencies are perfect examples of such external companies. The first ones work in multiple fields and help you to gain new customers, the latter are concerned primarily with attracting new buyers through organic traffic from the search engine. However, in the era of a constantly changing world, many of us may have missed what actually differs an SEO agency from a 360 digital marketing agency. But don’t worry – today we’ll explain everything at length.

A 360 digital marketing agency – when you focus on the totality

In the today’s world of omnipresent media, brand building and dissemination of knowledge about its services has become a priority for many international companies. In a nutshell, that’s exactly what 360 digital marketing agencies do on a daily basis but specific functions of a given agency can be quite diverse due to the fact that the majority of such companies focus only on one of the numerous branches of marketing.

The offers of 360 digital marketing agencies most frequently include creating a marketing strategy, public relations or press conference services. They also organize various events such as banquets, product premieres or sports competitions. 360 digital marketing agencies can be very useful in terms of attracting bloggers, influencers or other famous personalities that would support the brand. Simultaneously, all of the carried activities may be monitored by the agency in respect of brand visibility and market analysis.

What’s more, it’s not the end of the possibilities of 360 digital marketing agencies. Their presence has become an integral part of all social media – from Facebook to Instagram. Some agencies even prefer to focus solely on this aspect of brand building, they run profiles of their clients and take care of the satisfactory contact with potential customers who eagerly use the Internet. Nevertheless, the companies that limit themselves to the abovementioned activities are rather called social media agencies. 360 digital marketing agencies also offer such services. This way, they create numerous links that can increase the number of users of the target client’s website.

It’s worth mentioning that not only social media profiles attract potential customers to a website. To a great extent, organic traffic which comes directly from the search engine is also responsible for this issue. One of the solutions that improves the organic traffic is taking advantage of SEO and sometimes this is also offered by 360 digital marketing agencies. However, in most cases this type of agencies usually don’t specialize strictly in SEO activities. Often the linking performed by 360 digital marketing companies is limited only to social media and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when we consider processes carried out by a more specialized agency. The links created by 360 digital marketing agencies in most cases aim to attract users and create a brand image, hence, usually they’re not sufficient to generate a satisfactory increase in organic traffic. Nonetheless, it’s not a rule – there are companies that focus mainly on this particular aspect.

When to choose 360 digital marketing agencies?

As it can be easily guessed from the specifications, 360 digital marketing agencies and their wide range of activities definitely outperform other similar companies on the market. At the same time, locating all these strategies within one external company enables better coordination of activities and planning them on many levels – from impressive events to stimulating activity in social media or a catchy campaign based on a captivating advertising spot.

However, many people point out that such an approach can sometimes lead to the omission of small, yet very important aspects of the brand building. Large-scale activities may also be not the most optimal choice when it comes to small businesses or online stores, as the cost of the services may turn out to be disproportionate to the profits generated thanks to them. On the other end of the spectrum, large and well-developed corporations often decide to hire more specialized agencies that would deal with particular components of broadly understood marketing separately. Nevertheless, such a solution also has drawbacks – the most crucial one is the lack of communication between different companies or agencies that take care of the image of their common client. So when you decide to choose a 360 digital marketing agency, you must be sure that it meets the expectations of your company such as brand building or promotion in various media.

An SEO agency – specialization to scale your results

The success of a company, particularly of the one whose revenues are based on visits to the website, to a great extent depends on its visibility in the search engine. The visibility, on the other hand, depends on the construction of the website, the offered products, the content and… SEO that may prove to be crucial, especially for small entrepreneurs.

SEO consists in locating phrases selected by a given client high in the search results. It’s a multi-stage process, although it’s slightly more limited when other areas of marketing are concerned. SEO is largely based on editing the page in such a way that it’s received better by the Google search engine which, in turn, decides about the position of given phrases. Social media or other communication channels may be significantly helpful during this process, for example, by placing valuable links and references to the website.

All the actions undertaken during the SEO process aim to increase the visibility of a given website in the search results. Such a process, if successfully completed, has a noticeable impact on organic traffic meaning the number of visits to the website with the use of the Google search engine. The bigger the organic traffic, the more people visit a given site and take advantage of its offer.

Compared with the offer of a 360 digital marketing agency, SEO may seem quite limited. However, nothing could be more wrong – properly conducted SEO activities can have equally satisfying results as a large-scale campaign. What’s more, activities that aim to increase the visibility of your website don’t generate huge costs, after all, when you decide on an SEO campaign, there’s no need to worry about renting billboards or choosing the face of a company.

Activities carried out by a specialized unit such as an SEO agency may also be more focused on achieving the set objectives. Thanks to the dozens of programs, such as Semrush great for keyword analytics and Ahrefs which helps in determining external links to the site, the process is also easy to monitor. This type of software combined with tools like Google Analytics or Search Console will not only help to determine the goals of a given agency, but also to monitor the progress and results of changes on a daily basis.

Who will benefit most from cooperation with an SEO agency?

The activities conducted by an SEO agency usually include only SEO process. Contrary to the 360 degree agencies, companies specializing in SEO generally don’t offer creating a campaign, attracting influencers or organizing an unforgettable banquet. Nevertheless, SEO agencies still have a lot to offer.

First and foremost, this form of promotion is suitable practically for every company, regardless of its size or time of operation. From the very beginning of your operation on the market, SEO can help you to improve the visibility, whereas in the case of the Internet business tycoons, it can facilitate gaining completely new customers. Organic traffic is also one of the most beneficial methods of increasing sales on the website – it requires a relatively modest budget and at the same time gives outstanding results. Therefore, SEO agencies are suitable for everyone – from the prestigious entrepreneurs to those who are just starting their adventure with the online world.

Visibility of phrases or building a brand, that is the question

Choosing the right company to support your sales activities is never a piece of cake. However, while resolving the dilemma between a 360 digital marketing agency and an SEO agency, it’s worth considering what are your real expectations. Despite the similarities between these two types of agencies, there are also noticeable disparities that make it difficult to talk about any goal alignment. Indeed, in the case of 360 digital marketing agencies, the aim will be mainly to promote the brand, while SEO agencies focus primarily on the visibility of the company and its individual products.

As it’s been probably deduced from the above table, the offer of 360 digital marketing agencies is addressed to those who want to be visible in the media. This type of agencies is perfect for clients who aim to build their brand and gain new customers thanks to its recognition. It’s also a profitable choice for big corporations that have a craving for carrying out the marketing activities on a large scale – from huge advertising campaigns to social media profiles or cooperation with celebrities. However, small companies or shops that are just taking their first steps on the market may not be able to fully benefit from the potential of 360 digital marketing agencies, as a wide range of activities on their offer may turn out to be too overwhelming.

SEO agencies, on the other hand, can address their offer to a slightly more sizeable audience. Both online giants and shops that have just started their adventure with e-commerce can take advantage of their services. The proper positioning process helps to increase profits at a relatively low cost and improves the results with each month. It’s an excellent choice as long as large-scale campaigns are a bit of a waste of money for you.

But the most importantly, while selecting the right agency you have to know the needs and expectations of your company – and then, simply rely on the knowledge and services of professionals.