Is Your Digital Marketing Partner Covid Proof?

Adaptability and growth is part of LION’s DNA. LION Digital was officially launched in April 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic; this allowed us to build the business to solve today’s challenges. Over the last year, LION has created a unique agency model with a Global reach in response to the current business landscape. 

The model consists of five single channel-focused departments, such as SEO, SEM, Email, Social and Development.

Each is designated a Head of Department, a seasoned veteran with over a decade of eCommerce experience enabling LION to provide channel-specific, specialised services within a holistic digital marketing strategy. This structure and approach hyper accelerates success, generates optimal results and creates the best client experience.

Here are the main strengths of choosing LION Digital as your partner of choice during the pandemic and why we are the better choice as opposed to our competitors:

Our team is remote

This is a huge advantage when stacking us up against traditional digital marketing agencies; we are not prone to having our office shut down due to a sick team member which happened recently to a digital marketing agency in Melbourne where 40+ people were sent home. Or does your agency have a big offshore team in a European office, let’s say North Macedonia? The same concern applies there, but the risk of infection rate is higher in countries that have lower health regulations.  Our team members are decentralised eCommerce specialists from across the globe hired based on their experience, not location, so this risk does not affect us. We offer you the best of both worlds, Senior local Australian based team members leading the strategy and the client relationship who are supported by a global team that works round the clock. 

Decentralised from the beginning

Our processes and systems were chosen and developed for a remote working force, this is a major benefit to the success of our clients. Imagine you’ve built an agency for almost a decade, one that relies on your team coming into the office on a daily basis to function. This then forms the culture, processes, systems and methodologies that are all developed around a physical office. The team is hired for and accustomed to working and collaborating in a centralised environment. Many office workers do not have self-motivation and rely on the nature of the office-based work environment and their leaders to encourage performance and set the pace. Now, imagine that local element is removed; this is like removing the foundation of a building which causes significant efficiency deficits. This issue is not remedied easily because and the older the agency is the less agile they are and let’s face it, most people dislike change. Unfortunately, the loser is the client as their retainer charges remain the same and the output and results are less. LION Digital strives to hire self-motivated individuals who have clear expectations, responsibilities and result expectations set with them at the beginning of their employment and on each project. We use strategies and incentives like performance-based SEM services that have certain ROAS goals in a place where team members who work on the project are rewarded for performance, creating a win-win situation for the specialist, the agency and the client.

Elite tech stack

Not having the expense of an office has enabled us to invest heavily into the best technology stack in the market. From the best project management, CRM, accounting and marketing tools; we don’t hold back when it comes to investing in technology. Investing in good tech allows us to improve visibility across our entire operations, enabling us to scale up effectively and efficiently while supporting the needs of our growing clients. We spend more than $50,000 per year and have over 5 SEO systems that we subscribe to, and that’s only one digital channel. Our internal infrastructure is adept, allowing us to reduce risk, improve accountability and productivity to provide an unrivalled client service experience to better our rivals.

Agency scalability

Let’s face it, digital marketing is on every businesses lips who are (especially those who are late to the party) are throwing money at solving their customer acquisition problems. Most local agencies rely on the local digital marketing talent pool in Australia, which has all but dried up and now their hiring efforts have come to a grinding halt. Digital marketing resources are now scarce, and the market is screaming for more people; we sometimes have contractors asking for hourly rates in excess of $400 p/h which is ridiculous. LION is a global business and we hire based on talent and experience, not location. We are not affected by the same barriers as traditional agencies which means that we can still select the creme of the digital marketing community but on a global scale. Most traditional, local Australian digital marketing agencies are now at full capacity and cannot find staff, and yet they still continue to take on new clients. We know of situations in agencies where individuals are managing over 50 clients causing significant neglect and loss of investment. 

eCommerce specialisation

If your focus is eCommerce then your business does not have time to work with a generalist agency. Is your agency partner a true specialist? Try navigating to the client list or case studies section of their website and you will discover that most are not. Imagine the lack of efficiency of a digital marketing specialist from a general marketing agency who start the AM working on a client generating some insurance leads, then home loans and new house sales, and maybe some retail and eCommerce focused client in the afternoon. As you can imagine this jack of all trades approach does create hyper-accelerated growth. LION’s eCommerce brains trust and partner support network and industry knowledge is all eCommerce. This is why LION is exceptional at helping clients navigate the murky waters of digital marketing by also providing trusted advisor recommendations alongside our suite of services. 

It is crucial to understand that moving to a remote model from a traditional one would require a massive adaptation of the established processes. With such a challenging time for all of us, we are keen on embracing organisational agility and helping businesses not fall apart, develop eCommerce and bring the best to this world. We hope that the pivots we’re making now — will allow us to build our best ideas and provide better support for our clients, users, communities, partners, and customers. We will build a strong foundation and ensure responsible and sustainable growth in the long run.

Article by

Leonidas Comino – Founder & CEO

Leo is a, Deloitte award winning and Forbes published digital business builder with over a decade of success in the industry working with market-leading brands.

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