What to Look For When Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency

As a business owner, deciding on the best digital marketing agency for you can be tough. In this post, we’re discussing what to look for when hiring a digital marketing agency.

What is a digital marketing agency?

A digital marketing agency is a business which offers services aiming to reach out and build customer relationships online. They target various broad channels in order to create conversions and build brand loyalty.

A few examples of how digital marketing agencies do this are:

• Content marketing
• SEO
• PPC
• Social media
• Local SEO
• Email Marketing
• Online advertising

Digital marketing agencies provide online strategies and tools to develop a business online presence to result in achieving business goals. They can assist you in planning and executing successful digital marketing campaigns. It will take the weight off of solopreneurs and smaller more inexperienced marketing departments.

A digital marketing agency outsources your marketing efforts and provides analytics tracking and reports results back to you, it’s a great way of promoting your business on new levels.

Teaming up with a digital marketing agency can have various benefits for your business. So, it’s no surprise that 72% of overall marketing budgets get put towards digital marketing channels.

How to find the right agency for your business

Hiring the right digital marketing agency is crucial as they have to be the right fit for your company. Digital marketing agencies come in all shapes and sizes and specialise in a variety of areas within digital marketing so finding the right fit that can support your business is key. They should fit with your business like a glove whilst creating the results that your business is after.

Do an extensive amount of research. Take into account your budget and do some national and local research to create a list of prospective businesses. Take a deep look into reviews of the company including client feedback and who they have worked with in the past. Set up calls with a few businesses in order to not limit your contacts.

What to look for when hiring a digital marketing agency

Adaptability. A great digital marketing agency has the ability to adapt to different business needs whilst expecting them to fluctuate a little. It’s common that your needs and strategies will change throughout working together.

But, an agency that supports your business goals will adjust your strategy and marketing package accordingly. They will aim to test out the best techniques needed to maximise your results. So ultimately adapting to your needs should never be too much of a problem for your agency.

Willingness. Any good agency or partner has to show they have your business’s best interest at the forefront of their mind. Communication should be regularly to keep an open and approachable relationship. This allows them to fully understand the goals of your business and how you hope to achieve them.

They can then provide their knowledge and expertise to assist in achieving them. They need to understand your expectations as a business whilst vowing to be honest and realistic when tackling your digital goals.

Teamwork. It’s likely that you and your digital marketing agency of choice will have a mostly remote working relationship. However, it’s still important they appear as an extension of your team. They should share common goals and have good working communication with your employees.

The agency should be reachable at all times and dates you’ve agreed. This is so you can discuss any challenges or concerns that both parties may be facing at any time.

Outcomes can’t be guaranteed. A large area of digital marketing presents a wide number of unknowns. Top marketers on the planet will likely admit that they can’t guarantee where your site will rank in a timeframe. However, they can make educated and informed guesses.

The majority of more experienced marketers will make educated guesses that will be somewhat accurate. As a client, you should differentiate between the output vs the outcomes. Ensure that you understand the guaranteed aspects vs the speculated ones. Ask them to use real numbers to abolish unknowns so you have something to compare as your campaigns begin.

Transparency: Discuss the transparency and reporting aspects of their digital marketing ideas.  The tactics and services you are looking for should be discussed with an agency ahead of signing any contracts. It’s important both parties understand why certain tactics are being used and what outcomes to expect and achieve.

These results should be communicated between both sides accurately and often to understand how tactics are working and where. If your chosen digital agency can’t seem to produce any results, they’re probably hiding something from you.

Expect that answers to your questions and queries are in plain English and are understandable by all members of the team. This is essential when choosing the right digital marketing agency for you. The agency should know how to fully explain its tactics in a way anyone can understand. This is so you are fully aware of exactly what your company is getting and paying for.

Questions to ask your digital marketing agency

When considering hiring a digital marketing agency you may need to ask your prospective agency various questions to see if they are the best fit for you. Don’t feel ashamed if you are asking the agency questions upon questions. This is your business, you must be clear and confident in any third parties you work with.

Here are 15 of our top questions to ask an agency before you work with them:

1. Who will we be working with directly from your team?
2. How will you ensure you are committed to helping us achieve our goals?
3. What software and project management tools do you use within your process?
4. What is included in our contract and how regularly?
5. How does / how will your agency ensure it keeps on top of industry changes? In relation to both digital marketing and our chosen industry?
6. What areas of digital marketing will we be solely responsible for?
7. Which metrics will you monitor for us and how will they be communicated to us?
8. In terms of content creation, how regularly is it and who is in charge of producing content?
9. How do you determine which areas or channels you target?
10. What should we expect from the different processes? Including the onboard process, the first completed month and in the future?
11. Can you demonstrate previous success with case studies?
12.  Do you have prior experience in X industry?
13. Given our budget and current level of SEO, what strategy would you suggest?
14.  What costs are involved to make your strategy a success?
15.  How do you define success?
16.  What return on investment (ROI) can I expect?

ROAR Digital Marketing is a full-service agency that provides an honest, straightforward approach to digital marketing.

We would love to support you on your digital marketing journey, speak to one of our specialists today!