YEG Proud: Being an Agency in Edmonton

Edmonton is an amazing yet misunderstood city. People in other parts of the world usually base their conception of our home on stereotypes that are only partially true at best (it’s only minus 30 a couple weeks of the year, not for 6 straight months, come on people).

We at IBA have clients in different parts of the world, and our ability to listen to their stories, align with their goals, and deliver results is not dependent on living in the same city as them.

However, understanding what businesses are dealing with here in Edmonton is something not every marketing agency can boast.

Hands-on YEG Experience

Ask anyone their favorite donair place in Edmonton and tell them that, chances are, they get their meat from one of only a handful of vendors in town, then watch the look of shock and offense cross their face. “But I thought they made everything themselves!” Yeah, well, we won’t name names here, let’s just say we have sources…

Likewise, it may surprise you to discover how many marketing agencies in Edmonton do not handle their digital advertising services in-house. Going one step further: those who do are often just using templated campaigns with automated software to save cost at the expense of customization.

Large full-service agencies typically outsource their digital advertising because there aren’t many experienced ad strategists & media buyers locally. The result is that when you have a detailed question, you ask your rep who typically replies with the default “I’ll look into that and get back to you”.

You then play a game of telephone to get information, and often have to wait for a few days because the fulfillment team is in a different time zone. It’s not just one degree of separation from the people who are actually operating your campaigns, it’s several. Have a follow up question? Back to the end of the support ticket queue it goes, and you get to wait again.

Contrast that to us at IBA, where you get faster answers from someone who knows what they’re talking about because we are hands-on, working with your campaigns daily, making decisions informed by data firsthand. Digital advertising is not a side project or an additional service we offer because we feel obligated; it is our core service, and has been for years.

Tailored YEG Solutions

Working with our Edmonton clients and hearing their stories when we sit down with them to discuss ideas has taught us a lot about our own backyard. One thing we hear that out-of-town agencies don’t always grasp is that many local businesses don’t need more leads, they struggle with fulfillment.

It’s a challenge especially for service-based businesses in Edmonton to retain skilled employees, and the owners find themselves having to do everything, including administrative tasks which are not what they want to spend their time doing. Generating more leads doesn’t help if they can’t keep up with responding and nurturing them along.

We help address that by looking at the big picture, expanding the focus from solely the bottom of the funnel, and incorporating a full-funnel approach to reach their audience consistently. The result is that prospective customers are more familiar with the business and are closer to making their decision by the time the lead arrives.

Sometimes that means decreasing the quantity of leads but increasing the quality - and fewer leads is a thought that spooks clients at first! But let’s do some napkin math.

Hypothetically, if the marketing budget was the same and all sales are equally valuable, and a local business had the choice between:

• Option A) 50 leads with a 50% closing rate for 25 sales

• Option B) 100 leads with a 20% closing rate for 20 sales

They would rather have Option A. Even if the closing rate of Option A was 40% and resulted in 20 sales just like Option B, they would still pick Option A because it’s the same outcome and saves them time in the process by not dealing with as many tire-kickers.

For different businesses, that answer could change due to their capacity to handle more leads, in turn affecting their closing rates. In those cases, we can’t just point to the data we see on our end and declare what’s best, we want to do what works for them.

So What?

Our job is to understand the situations faced by our clients and respond accordingly with solutions. That two-way street of dialog with clients is important to us because their input and perspective informs and evolves our strategy.

Marketing trends come and go like the weather here in Edmonton. When our clients get anxious and lose sight of the bigger picture, they benefit from a voice of reason that is rooted in data. When they face situations that do require a pivot, we understand the landscape and come up with a strategy we can execute quickly.

The balance of experience and agility is part of what makes us unique. We’re proud of our roots here, and of being able to help organizations of different sizes, industries, and locations reach their goals.

Is it time you were heard, not just by your customers, but by an agency that understands you? We want to hear your story, and help tell it to the world! Get in touch with us, read more about what makes us tick here, or browse our service packages anytime.