The main purpose of marketing is to find out where the attention of your target market is focused and then create content to garner that attention.
A digital marketing agency can help a business face this challenge and choose the most effective marketing strategy for the business.
Earlier people’s attention used to be focused on radio, newspapers, etc. hence businesses used to publish advertisements on those platforms to catch their attention.
But today with the advancement in technology and the advent of so many platforms of communication, marketing is no longer a simple process.
People’s attention is divided and their focus is on a variety of different platforms.
In this digital world, there are several ways to market a business online like marketing on social media, PPC, email marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization, etc.
Digital marketing agencies will handle the marketing of the business and let the businesses focus on the work they are best at. However, the big question is how to find the right marketing agency?
What to look for in a marketing agency?
There are tens of thousands of digital agencies that can help you with your marketing and promotion needs. Choosing the best digital marketing agency from the whole lot is no small task.
How to find the right marketing agency?
Follow the below tips for choosing a digital marketing agency:
- Define your MARKETING NEEDS
Before you start searching for the best digital marketing agency to represent you need to first define the marketing needs of your business.
You need to determine what you wish to achieve with the agency and how much budget you have to hire one. Understanding your needs will help you find out what exactly you want without wasting any time or resources.
- FIND A Marketing AGENCY which can meet YOUR requirements
You may be wondering what to look for in a marketing agency before hiring it? The first step is to understand what services the agency is offering and what are their packages?
Go through the packages and determine if they match your marketing needs and the goals which you want to achieve.
If the agency services cannot help you reach your goal or meet your online business marketing needs the marketing agency is not the one for you even if it may be the best agency in the whole city or country.
Another factor to consider is cost. It is not worth spending a huge fortune on a digital marketing package that is not relevant to your needs.
- BACKGROUND RESEARCH
If the packages and services offered by the agency match with your marketing needs, it is important to carry background research of the agency before going ahead.
Try to find out about their working methods. Do they rank well on search engines? If they themselves are not able to rank high on search engines, then they may not be able to do the same for your website or business.
The best way to determine if the marketing agency is right for your company is by asking for recommendations.
Ask your friends and family if they have worked with a marketing agency and were happy with their work and would like to recommend them for your business.
You can also ask your professional contacts on LinkedIn to recommend a good marketing agency.
- Asking THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Below mentioned are five questions you should ask your potential marketing agency:
- Can you show me some campaign examples?
Ask the agency for their portfolio of successful pieces of work like effective campaigns, good content, keywords ranking, etc.
- Who will be responsible for completing the work?
Take time to review the agency and its different teams working on different aspects of marketing. Be sure of who will be working on your project and whether you are comfortable working with them or with their past work.
- How long do clients stay with you?
The longer the clients continue staying with the agency, the better is the sign.
- What results can I expect?
Always remember that it is a very competitive market outside and if a marketing agency is promising you moon and stars, then they surely are only bragging. The agency should not promise “bottom of the funnel” results, as several factors are involved to reach them.
- How will results and ROI be measured?
Ask the agency how they plan to measure the final results and the return on investment (ROI). What is their method and how to determine the values?
- REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
Once you have shortlisted a few digital marketing agencies which you are convinced with you can request them to send you a proposal of their services.
A request for a proposal will help you to collate information from various agencies and select the best which meets your criteria, both with regards to skills and budget.
- SEND THEM A TASK AND REVIEW
If you are unsure about the testimonials and reviews received by the agency, you can determine what the company can achieve by asking them to complete a task for your business.
This would help you actually find out what the agency is capable of and whether their results are consistently good.
- HOLD A MEETING
Once you are satisfied with the pricing and the services being offered by the agency, the next step is to hold a meeting with the marketing agency.
This will help you get to the team and set expectations before signing the contract. A face-to-face meeting helps to know the people you intend to work with, their personalities, and their approaches.
If after meeting the agency you are not comfortable with their behavior and approach you may decide not to go ahead with the contract.
