How to choose a digital marketing agency?
How to choose a digital marketing agency?
It is challenging to choose a digital marketing agency or provider if you are new to this area.
We hope that our new blog post with tips on how to choose the right digital marketing agency that will help you.
Here are some useful questions to ask yourself before choosing a digital marketing agency:
What kind of work do I think I need?
Digital marketing is a field that contains different channels: SEO, Google Ads, Social media, Website, Email marketing etc.
If you don't have a lot of experience with digital, this whole are will look confusing. Do you know in what are your competitors and people your field investing? Is SEO working for them or social media marketing? If you are not sure then getting the right agency or consultant is even more important, because you will need to rely on their judgement on which areas of digital marketing to focus on.
Do I need a agency or a consultant/freelancer?
This is a tricky question and the answer depends on:
1. the size of the project: do you need more than two digital marketing fields (e.g. social, google, design, content writing). Most consultants can cover two, max three areas while agencies cover more.
2. do you prefer a more personal communication and work with one person more closely or you are comfortable with an agency?
What kind of budget do you have?
Prices vary for different reasons. Some are: location, is the agency specialised in a niche, do they deal with larger or smaller business. Some agency prices are inflated, some are cheap and some are just right.
Try to look at the rough ROI in the LONG TERM. For an example if you invest in SEO and you are ranking well and get traffic, there is a good chance that traffic won't die of in months or years. It is hard to give a price upfront, you will have a better view on the return after 3-6months of work.
Assessing the agency
Who runs the agency and who will do the actual work?
Agencies have their sales people and a sales process. Once you make a inquiry, you will go through their sales process. Usually the owner or an account manager will reply to you and communicate with you during the sales process.
The problem here is that you will make rapport with them and a judgment call, but the real digital marketing work will be carried by others. Make sure the people in digital marketing are experienced enough and how will be working on your account. Check their LinkedIn profiles.
How many clients to they work with now?
The bigger the agency, the more clients they work with. It is up to your preference do you want someone working with many clients or not.
More clients might mean better experience, but can also mean people getting swamped with work. This is a common problem in agencies, with some digital marketing executives having over 15 clients at the same time. If you are not a big paying client you will get less attention.
What have they done with a client in the same niche?
If you are in a specific niche that some specific marketing features you might be better of choosing an agency or consultant that worked with a business in the same niche.
Ask for details about what did they do with them, what was successful and what was not. No one expects a question about what has failed. There is rarely work in digital marketing that success in everything. So look for a honest answer from them.
Are their reviews real?
Welcome to the internet where anyone can claim anything. Fake reviews are nothing new. If you don't have experience in spotting them, try googling the name of the reviewer and see what comes up. Of course you can also contact some of the reviewers to check.
Are their clients on the site still having their website? You would often see agency sites list who they work with, only to find out they worked with them years ago and stopped. If they built a site then check the trademark name on the bottom of the site. There is usually a link to who made the site.
Are their clients on the site still having their website? You would often see agency sites list who they work with, only to find out they worked with them years ago and stopped. If they built a site then check the trademark name on the bottom of the site. There is usually a link to who made the site.
When you google them, what comes up?
This is digital marketing so you would expect the agency or consultant to be featured in some articles or websites online. A search for an agency or freelancer that doesn't return more than their website is a red flag.
Check their LinkedIn page. LinkedIn can be manipulated, but it is the best platform to see someone's previous experience. Have they got a lot of details in their profile, how many people are registered. What kind of experience has each of those people have? If they only have one sentence, no photos in their descriptions, that is a fed flag.
What have they done
with a client in the same niche?
If you are in a specific niche that some specific marketing features you might be better of choosing an agency or consultant that worked with a business in the same niche.
Ask for details about what did they do with them, what was successful and what was not. No one expects a question about what has failed. There is rarely work in digital marketing that success in everything. So look for a honest answer from them.