7 Things To Look For When Choosing A Digital Marketing Agency
- Written by Business Daily Media
Digital marketing has become essential to business growth. It’s an effective way of promoting your products and services because it's more cost-effective than traditional marketing and can target customers based on their interests. However, if you lack internal resources and want to get the best return on your investment, outsourcing this function to a digital marketing agency is smart decision.
If you're unsure whether you require the services of a digital marketing agency, consider the following:
- You have a dedicated marketing budget that you want to maximise.
- You’re interested in experimenting with different platforms to reach your intended audience.
- You don’t have the resources or skills to handle your marketing in-house.
- Your business growth has stalled.
- You want to launch a new product or service to the market.
7 considerations for selecting a digital marketing agency for your business
Here are a few tips to keep in mind to help you identify the ideal digital marketing agency for your business.
1. Understand and define your objectives
Before searching for a digital marketing agency, you be clear about your business objectives and requirements. List your goals, key performance indicators, and expectations. What services do you require? What are your expectations from a digital marketing strategy? Once you identify, establish, and clearly define your objectives, it’s easier to create and communicate a your brief to an agency.
2. Carry out research
It's essential to carry out research when selecting a digital marketing agency. Take some time to explore the agencies' websites and read about their team, the services they provide, and their experience with similar projects. Once you have a good understanding of their abilities and success with previous projects, it's easier to compare each agency’s offerings. You should aim for a shortlist of 2-3 agencies.
3. Ask for recommendations
It’s always wise to start with a couple of recommendations for agencies, especially from like-minded peers. For example, when I started my business, many colleagues recommended a digital marketing agency on the Central Coast, which is highly rated. If your business peers have had a good experience with the agency, it’s likely you will too.
4. Visit them
When you partner with a digital marketing agency, their team becomes and extension of your business. Therefore, it’s a good idea to visit your shortlisted digital marketing agencies to get to know them. If this is not possible, arrange a video call. Meeting with the agency’s key team members will help you understand their communication and working style, business values, and approach to determine if they’re a good fit for your business.
5. See success stories
When evaluating an agency, ask to see case studies about their past campaigns and success rates. You should also ask about their experience with similar businesses or industries. While this isn’t always a factor for success, it means that the agency can leverage previous experience and testing for better outcomes.
6. Be clear about capabilities and approach
Every agency is different and has strengths that you can benefit from. In addition to looking at the services they offer on their website, ask about the businesses that they’ve worked with, the sizes of these companies, and the budgets they’ve managed. Also enquire about the digital marketing agency's methods and processes. How do they approach digital marketing campaigns? What steps do they take to ensure success? How do they plan on connecting and engaging with your target audience?
7. Read reviews
Before you hire a digital marketing agency, ensure that you read their reviews on Google and Facebook. This will give you an idea about their previous projects and what clients have to say about their experiences working with the team. What stands out? What are they best known for?
Don’t forget to bring the digital agency on your journey
Now that you know what you look for in your tender process for a digital agency, don’t forget that the agency is also assessing you and your business. They equally want to know if they can work with you and your team, if you will trust and respect them, and if your team will provide the information, access, and scope that they need to be successful. Ensure that you share your vision with them, be honest about the challenges, but also help them to be excited about the opportunity.
