Digital marketing is the strategy that gets the word out about a product or service through online platforms. These strategies include blogging, social media advertising, and other online services. But what happens if you, as an entrepreneur or business owner, don’t have the time to create your own digital marketing strategy or if you are struggling to see results from your digital marketing efforts? There is a solution, and that is to hire a professional digital marketing agency.
However, when choosing the best digital agency or digital marketing company to handle your marketing needs, there are several factors you need to consider. No two companies or agencies are the same, which makes it important for you to do some research before choosing one particular agency. Learn what the right questions to ask that will help you choose a company that will understand and can meet your company’s needs, while also giving you the highest ROI. Thus, in today’s post, we have compiled some of the essential questions you should ask to ease you find a highly qualified digital marketing agency.
DO YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE IN OUR INDUSTRY?
It’s important to ask whether they have experience in the same industry as yours in order to ease you evaluate their capabilities. You can request to look at their samples of their previous work, portfolio, case studies, and result achieved. This way you will be able to see clearly if their strategies can deliver the great results and goals that you’re looking for.
However, please note that not having experience within the same niche as your company should not be the sole deal-breaker. Some experienced agencies in other industries might bring a fresh idea and creative approach to the table. Just make sure to ask what steps exactly they will take to execute your goals.
WHAT SERVICES AND CHANNELS DO YOU SPECIALISE IN?
It’s appealing to hire agencies who offer full-services of your digital marketing requirements than if you have to hire multiple providers for different things. However, you need to carefully evaluate these agencies because most of the generalists may not be genuinely experts and have in-depth knowledge at some of their services. They tend to only know the basics and not fully expertise on the core tactics. Only the big agencies can really offer comprehensive marketing services with great quality, but usually they charge at a rather expensive rate. Alternatively, find an agency that excels in tactics and proficiencies you truly need to align with your business goal. That’s why you should ask what type of digital marketing they specialize in. Do they focus more on website development and SEO or social media content creation and management?
HOW WILL YOU WORK WITH MY TEAM DAY TO DAY?
The team you’re going to hire and work with should have an open communication system to regularly update their progress. It could be in the form of meetings, phone / video calls, email updates, and daily chatting if necessary. Make sure that you get it scheduled and specifically written within the contract. Moreover, they should be willing to customize the communication process and be flexible enough in order to accommodate your needs.
Other important questions to ask related to this collaboration is do they have project management software that you will have access to? Also find out who will be your dedicated account manager so you can have someone to respond to any of your questions and keep you updated with their progress. Nevertheless establishing a healthy communication is key when it comes to avoiding any misunderstandings and creating smooth collaboration.
WHAT IS YOUR METHOD OF REPORTING AND MEASURING SUCCESS?
If an agency provides monthly digital marketing services, you should ask them about how they specifically measure success and what kind of reports you are expected to see. These data will become a “proof” of their transparency and whether their strategy is effective to be applied on your ultimate goal. You can also request to see their sample reports so you have got the initial idea of how the agency presents the result later on. Besides, don’t forget to ask for access into their analytics portals if allowed. It will give you real time tracking results to fully observe their marketing efforts and results in real time. Nowadays, almost all online marketing efforts can be tracked, measured, and evaluated digitally through analytics dashboards across various channels they’re running for you.
During a report meeting, your agency should be able to articulate and elaborate how exactly your campaigns are performing towards particular goals like brand awareness, the number of conversions, subscribers changes, people’s attitude toward your brand, content’s acceptance, etc, through analytics data. A good team will possess the skill to identify which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are relevant to measure the success of your marketing goals.