Many companies rely on word-of-mouth when it comes to choosing a digital marketing agency. For large corporations or long-standing businesses that work in the same industry, a trusted partner’s recommendation can be highly valuable. But if you are a small to medium business just getting started with digital marketing, all you have may be a search engine.
To begin with, there are two parts to choosing the right digital marketing agency.
First, you must know about your business goals and the services you need. Then, you will need to select an agency that offers these services.
Understanding your company:
1. How much help you will need
When you have decided you would like the help of a digital marketing agency, the next step is to decide how much help you will need.
For example, are you looking for someone who will work alongside you every step of the way, from planning to execution? Or perhaps you are looking for an agency that will be able to do all the work for you, so that you can focus on developing your products.
2. The kind of help you will need (your goals)
You may not be a marketing agency and it’s natural you will not have expertise in the field, but you should at least have a basic understanding of the kind of help you will need.
Are you looking to optimise your website, or would you like to run advertisements on Google? What kind of search engine is most popular in your country, and do you want to outsource content writing? The kind of help you will need is always related to your goals, but not directly. For example, if your goal is to increase your site visibility, you could do that with PPC or SEO activities.
3. Your budget
You must also consider how much you are willing (or can) set aside for marketing. It does a fair bit of money to get your marketing strategy and campaigns up and running, so you should not be afraid to turn down agencies if their services prove to be out of your budget. This will do both you and the agency a big favour, because slashing budgets down the line will not do your campaigns any good.
Evaluating a digital marketing agency:
After understanding more about your company, it’s time to turn your attention to the digital marketing agency. To choose the right one for you, you should look closely at:
1. The agency’s specialisation
When choosing an agency, you will need to see if you are reaching out to a full-service marketing agency or one that specialises in a specific area of digital marketing.
A full-service agency will typically include PPC (Pay-Per-Click), SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), Content, Display Advertising, social media marketing, and Web Design services. They can be your go-to if you need to overhaul your digital marketing strategy and would prefer to work with one external agency instead of several.
2. The agency’s expertise and experience
Next, you should consider how long the agency’s been around for and whether they have clients that are like your business, as well as their past performance with these clients.
For example, if you are a B2B company, does the agency have a history of coming up with solutions in the B2B space, or are they purely focused on B2C marketing? If you run a luxury resort and an agency has a lot of financial clients, maybe they’re not your best fit.
Your agency should be able to provide success stories of their past work to show they can help your company. It should also give you a good idea of the kind of services they offer. If you are unsure of their expertise, you can also look up reviews from past clients, or testimonials and case studies on their site.
3.The agency’s working style
Understanding your agency’s working style and being able to fit it into your company’s is crucial.
Does the agency prefer to take on every single task or do they prefer collaborating? Is their workflow immediately clear? Do they want to take calls every other week, or do they prefer communicating strictly via email?
Many agencies have flexibility in how they approach their work, depending on their clients’ needs. If you are unsure or would like to modify one aspect of your partnership, you most likely just need to ask.
4. The agency’s approach
Being able to get along with the specialists from your agency is also necessary if you want to deliver successful campaigns. Learn about your agency’s approach, such as their company culture, how they collaborate with their clients beyond work, and their values.
Honesty and transparency are two big factors that you should consider. They should be honest with their proposals and realistic with helping you manage your expectations when it comes to delivering results. Digital marketing can take a lot of work, and if your agency makes huge promises way too early on and claim they can get your page rankings up within weeks, it is best to dodge that bullet.
5. The agency’s pricing
Finally, in line with your budget, you should consider the agency’s pricing of their various services. This will determine whether you can fit external help into your overall strategy.
However, you should not blur the line between the price and value of an agency’s services. Digital marketing can indeed become expensive as it is a long-term investment, and you should not lose sight of the immense value executing your strategy correctly can bring you down the road.
