The key to every successful business lies within great marketing. Even if you sell a wonderful product, or offer a top notch service, you won't succeed if no one knows about it. 

Traditionally, businesses have been constrained to traditional forms of marketing. They include advertisements published in the newspapers, TV adverts, or even the distribution of flyers. They are traditionally more expensive, putting them out of reach for most small businesses, especially if they are just starting out.

That's where hiring an online marketing agency comes into play. Content marketing is a much cheaper than conventional forms of advertising. For example, blogging on a particular subject topic can make you an established expert in your field, boosting your credibility among potential customers. This will help you to build your brand name, and is critical for your long term success.

If you choose to go with paid forms of advertising, you can easily track your Return on Investment (ROI) on your advertising campaigns with established services such as Google Adwords. This will allow you to generate quality leads at a much cheaper rate.

Hiring a digital marketing agency does not necessarily mean that you have to choose one form of advertising over another. In truth, you should combine both of them to give you the best results. 

Let's say you own a dental clinic. You can advertise your services in your local newspaper to draw in customers, and give out flyers to attract customers within the area. 

At the same time, you should establish a presence on the web, creating your own website so that potential customers can learn more about your clinic at the convenience of their own homes. You can hire an online marketing agency to help promote your clinic through social media. For example, they can create and run a Facebook page for you so that your patients can keep in touch with you. You can even offer your patients special discounts or deals to reward them for their loyalty. 

You can also establish yourself as the expert in a particular treatment to by writing guests posts on blogs in that field or by starting you own website to teach people about a certain topic. 

The possibilities are truly endless. 

So, don't be drawn into the debate about whether online marketing or traditional forms of marketing are better. You should instead leverage on both to help take your business to the next level.