In this solo presentation, Ed Weeks Jr., founder of HV Social Media, addresses companies that already have a marketing department—whether a single person or a small team—and explains why they should consider bringing in an external digital‑marketing agency. He outlines the typical mistakes made by in‑house teams, such as weak ad copy, insufficient calls‑to‑action, low daily ad spend, and a lack of systematic testing, retargeting, and multi‑touch strategies. Weeks introduces a simple A‑to‑D lead‑quality grading system he uses with clients, showing how marketers can shift leads from lower grades (C, D) toward higher‑quality A and B leads through ad tweaks and targeted testing. He stresses the importance of understanding realistic budget thresholds (e.g., $50‑$100 per day) given rising platform competition, and highlights two core attributes an outside agency can inject: fresh creative energy and authentic brand storytelling. The overall message is that even well‑intentioned in‑house teams often miss critical tactics and perspectives, and partnering with an agency can accelerate results by applying proven strategies, higher spend levels, and a creative, authentic approach.
Chapters
Hey everybody, Ed Weeks Jr. here. I'm the founder of HV Social Media. I wanted to follow up yesterday's video. Yesterday's video I talked about businesses that are ready to outsource their digital marketing and why they should avoid niche marketing firms. That is firms that are solely focused on just one industry. Today I want to talk about your business that has grown to where you actually have a marketing department. Now maybe that's one person, maybe that's two 2, 3 people, what are they doing in-house to stay on top of the trends that are happening in digital marketing? I see a lot of customers, clients, prospects put some tactics into the marketplace via Facebook, via Instagram, via YouTube, and they're just really Honestly, there's stuff that used to do great things. They don't understand what's working in today's digital landscape. There is so much noise. It is so difficult to put an ad out there and get immediate response. And I see oftentimes you'll see a company run 2 or 3 ads that are, you know, copy is a little weak, call to action is really not there. They'll go through that and then you won't see their ads anymore. You'll look on their page, look at info and ads, and you'll see they're not running ads anymore on Facebook and/or Instagram. It's a key sign to what you're doing is not working. Look, I wish every customer I started out with had immediate results. It's not the case, but through the pixel code and through retargeting and through the various techniques that you can utilize, you slowly start to chip away at turning somebody in from a cold prospect into an actual lead and then into an actual conversation, somebody you could potentially do business with. I actually had a client send something to me today that was ABCD, and I was listing The quality of leads. And yes, there was a couple of A's, a solid amount of B's, you know, there was a decent amount of C's and a few D's. And the reality is that A to D scale was used a lot, you know, utilizing the hottest leads at A and really bad ones at D. So the job of a good marketer is to take that information, tweak the ads that are out there, and get a lot more B's and A's coming in and a lot more C's and D's Not them disappearing. The other thing is you can test that market to see if maybe the C's— and they define C's as someone who's not responding back— maybe the C's can be brought into a B through a new ad. So we're testing some of those strategies today. The point of this is your digital marketing strategies in-house. Are your staff utilizing the latest techniques, understanding how many touches it takes? Understanding what kind of real budget that it takes. I've had a couple of conversations that I've heard out there that the things that I utilized for their businesses didn't produce the results they wanted. But these are people that are spending a few hundred dollars in spend. You have to understand that there's a lot more competition on platforms. You're not going to get results until you start understanding that $50, $60, $70, $80, $100 a day ad spend is going to start working in your favor. You have to understand what it costs. There's so many variables that people often miss in-house or even outside agencies. So what's the same? What is the, the one thing that I talk about when I meet with a customer who has an in-house marketing department? I think it goes into the same things that I talk to about yesterday, and they are creativity. When you bring in somebody who's outside of your business, you can get a whole new creative flow and a whole new creative energy to come in and really help your digital marketing take that next step. Authenticity. You know, you can work with an outside marketer to really understand what authenticity means and why it's so important in today's market. Often in-house, uh, when you're, you know, you're basically, you've got handcuffs to the company you're working for. Sometimes that outside perspective is exactly what you need to really bounce your, uh, marketing, specifically digital marketing, to the next level. So I hope that clarifies a little more. If you're a business that already has a marketing department, the chance to bring in an agency is a great chance to be Extremely creative and also— To know the latest strategies that are truly working in the digital realm. So, hope it helps, guys. Hope you have a wonderful day. We'll talk to you soon. Peace.
