Choosing the right agency is critical to your business success and requires a serious assessment of an agency’s capabilities and results.
Digital marketing is a very competitive industry with many large firms and smaller agencies starting up every day. Without knowing exactly what to look for, you will find difficulty in choosing an agency that is right for your business.
After reading the following criteria, we hope you choose us to represent your business. If your choice is not our agency, we still hope this information is helpful as you make this critical business decision.
1. What is Your Desired Outcome?
Why are you investing in digital marketing and what results do you want?
Because you need people to buy your products and services, book an appointment, call your business or perform any number of other conversions that will increases your revenue.
Today, your web presence is a critical extension of your business, and businesses that fail to take advantage of digital marketing will soon be left behind their competitors.
Take time to discuss your desired outcome with your agency. You need to plan out your marketing goals together and decide on how to measure your success.
Once you know your desired outcomes and understand how you will measure your success, you need to establish what minimum requirements to expect from an agency.
Has been in the industry at least 5 years.
Provides initial advice, strategy, and consultation at no charge.
Has a local office you can visit.
Come up with your own criteria specific to your business and discuss them with potential agencies.
This should narrow your options down to only a few agencies.
3. What Questions Should You Ask?
With your list of potential agencies narrowed down, set up a meeting or phone call. The objective is to develop a good understanding of the capabilities and personality of your marketing partner.
What will they do to help you reach your goals?
What are their specific marketing specialties?
How frequent will they communicate with you?
How do they define success in digital marketing?
If you decide to part ways, what happens?
You will have other questions specific to your business. Ask as many questions as you need.
4. What Does Their Marketing Look Like?
Would you hire a personal trainer who was completely overweight and out of shape? Not likely. The same criteria can be used when hiring your digital marketing agency. Look at the quality of their online presence to see how they compare to others in their industry.
Keywords in page titles and meta descriptions.
Fast page speed loading times.
Accurate NAP local directory listings.
If those elements are properly setup and configured, that's a good sign the agency is following best search engine optimization practices and will do a great job for your business.
5. Who Can You Contact For Proof?
If not already presented to you, ask for case studies and referrals. The best marketing agencies are proud to provide information and testimonials from their previous successes.
Case studies are especially helpful in seeing actual proof of results, but don't underestimate the value of referrals. Reaching out to their current and previous clients will offer you a perspective you cannot get any other way on what it will be like working with the agency.