Choosing a Digital Marketing Agency is a crucial part of growing your business, but its certainly not an easy decision. With the right agency partner, you can see significant increases in ROI, conversion rates, traffic, time on site, and more…depending on your business goals, of course.
We’re going over tips for hiring a Digital Marketing Agency. But first, lets go over some basics.
What can a Digital Marketing Agency do for your business? Basically, a Digital Marketing Agency handles online marketing campaigns for businesses. This can include search engine optimisation, digital advertising, social media marketing, content marketing, web design, and many other areas. If an agency calls itself full-service, that means its capable of managing all of the areas of digital marketing, plus the many more. Were a full-service agency at Digital D, and we handle everything from the strategy to the implementation of your campaigns. Its pretty convenient having a one-stop-shop for your online growth.
Get familiar with their web presence. You can start by Googling the agency. Search engine optimisation is one of the fundamentals of digital marketing, so if you dont see the agency coming up on any results, especially for their own brand or they dont show up at all, that might be an indicator that they havent quite mastered the art of digital marketing.
Check out their social media presence. Do they post often? Are the posts high-quality? You can definitely make the argument that good agencies dont have time to manage their own web presence since theyre very busy working with clients. So dont only use web presence as a sign of a good or bad agency. Sift through their website for a portfolio or client testimonials. But dont stop there. Read their reviews Dont blindly believe an agencys claims that theyre the best in town.
They might actually be the best, but its better to confirm this with opinions from people whove worked with them. Find reviews from current or past clients to get an understanding of what the agency does well, and what they could improve upon. Its likely that an agency will have reviews and testimonials from clients on their website.
..but dig deeper. Google is your friend here.
Even Facebook can be a source of reviews. Judge their communication I mean it. Be critical. If you fill out a contact form on an agencys website or reach out to them in any other way, how long does it take them to get back to you? Is it a day?
A week? A month? This is a peek at how well the agency will communicate with you after you decide to work with them. The last thing you want is to get a delayed response to something urgent, like your website going down, or your social media accounts getting hacked.
Timeliness is one thing, but also evaluate how professional they are in their responses to you.
Do they use proper grammar, or haphazardly type something that ends up causing confusion? Website good, we have linksSorry…what?
Bottom line…you dont want your agency to create poor experiences for your customers because of a lack of good communication skills. Evaluate their transparency Its not unreasonable for you to want to know what your Digital Marketing Agency is doing to get you results, and if what theyre doing is effective.
First, find out if the agency has processes in place to keep you in the loop on what theyre doing. Maybe you get a dedicated contact who gives you regular updates, or they use a project management tool to lay out the steps of each project. Second, dive into their reporting methods. How do they track the success of each campaign, and what metrics do they use to do that? Any good Internet marketer knows to look past vanity metrics.
These are results that may look good on the surface, but contribute very little to your goals and overall success. Say you have an ecommerce store and youve picked a Digital Marketing Agency to handle your SEO. They tell you that after months of work, your traffic is through the roof. Dont get us wrong..traffic is good, but its very important to track how many of those visitors convert?
A Digital Marketing Agency might have its own reporting software to keep track of these important metrics. Its not enough to just send you a big document with layers of information you dont understand. They should take the time to break down your results and give you actionable insights on a regular basis to help move your digital marketing strategy forward.
And last but not least, ask questions. Just like moving into a new house, or finding a job, you want to make sure your agency is the right fit. An agency should be prepared for tough questions, and if they dont have an immediate answer, they should be honest and follow up with more information later. Ask about their processes, who theyve worked with, their results, and whatever else matters to you when making your decision. Dont be afraid to get the answers that matter to you.
Digital D is here to help your business thrive in the online world. Contact us today and arrange your FREE 1-hour consultation and let’s grow your business together.
