Marketing these days have crossed the thresholds of traditional forms of advertising like TV, radio and Print. It has expanded far beyond our imagination and opened areas which never existed before. With the digitization of the world, marketing has itself emerged in its very own unique way and you cannot miss on to that. For the growth of your business, digital marketing has become the tool which you must explore.
Now, there are thousands of techniques and strategies of digital marketing and every single day something new is coming up. Social media platforms are becoming more and more popular, the number of netizens are increasing every day, and online traffic is at its highest. In this scenario, the company has to leverage on the growth of the digital space.
But having said so does not alone solve the problem. The real task is to find the right digital marketing agency for the same. The business owner is too busy to take care of this arena and has to outsource the work but the problem lies in finding the right digital marketing agency. There are many out there but who wants unfulfilled promises, poor results, and over-charged services.
In order to not fall into this trap, the key is to do thorough research before hiring a digital marketing agency. This is the time-investment you are not going to regret and the results will speak for itself.
So, let us discuss how to find the right Digital Marketing agency for your business:
1. How Qualified is the Agency?
So, what is important is not just the experience but the right kind of experience. And with experience comes credibility and acknowledgment. So, check for these qualifications and how well the agency has established itself. For that, you would have to check for certifications, badges, and other qualifications. For example, a Google Partner badge and or verified partnerships with a social media platform featured in business magazines or other trusted publications. This way you will get to know how credible the agency is in the eyes of these different platforms and that speaks a lot about their work.
2. Check for Client’s Testimonials
Well, this includes the task of checking the history of the prospective digital agency’s clients. You can ask for various case studies of their previous clients and pick a few of them for reference and talk to them in person. Now, this includes both satisfied and unsatisfied clients. Talking to the happy clients you will get to know how good the agency was with its work and how they fulfilled the results they promised. On the other hand, through unsatisfied clients, you will get even better information. All agencies have had projects that did not go so well, and it’s important to know what went wrong and where, how did they deal with the situation and how did they manage to provide with the promised result.
3. Check their Portfolio in your Industry Niche
Now, there are hundreds of business and industries out there and it would be great if your marketing is handled by an agency which has got a strong hold in that particular industry. To check for that, go through their previous projects and ask for their insights about the industry.
The same marketing strategy cannot be implemented for every client. So, ask for their pitch and check their level of knowledge, creativity and innovation.
A good digital media agency has a good knowledge of the industry, analyze what the competition is doing and can evaluate the client’s position in the industry and come up with the strategy that is going to work best for it.
4. What is the Agency Pitching to you?
This says a great deal about the agency. Let me explain how.
Imagine there is this agency which is offering fixed plans and pre-defined marketing strategies to each of its client. Would that work for you? There is no element of customization, innovation and creativity being offered.
And there is this agency which is offering you marketing plans and strategy based on your needs and requirements. This gives an idea about their working and how they are going to deal with each of their client’s project in a personalized way. So, the agency which is offering the same strategy to all of its clients is not worth your investment.
5. Expect Full Transparency
Now, while the whole project and marketing campaign is running you should have complete access to observe the performance. This includes weekly or timely performance reports, a track of the milestones achieved and so on.
If the agency refuses to give you access to those analytics, then surely there is something fishy going on. There’s no reason for a digital marketing agency to hide such data. Instead, they should be talking to you about it and asking for your insights to improve the performance. So, make sure your digital marketing agency offers you these basic rights.
6. First, see what it exactly that you need is
Before you start looking for the agency, you should first have a clear idea about your business’s needs and requirements. So, ask yourself these questions that what exactly it is that you need- Website redesign, search engine optimization (SEO), advertising, social media, and graphic design, Marketing campaigns to increase conversions, SMO and SEM, Pay Per Click advertising, social media management, email marketing or content marketing.
Once you have set the list of your requirements you have to check with different agencies that if they can provide you with all these services under one roof. If not, then they, in turn, would be outsourcing the work and that would delay and dilute the whole purpose. So, look for Agencies where different departments can collaborate to provide a package of all these services.
7. Check the Price and the Value on Investment as well.
Now, after your goals defined you should also keep aside a budget for your digital marketing campaign. You can now send a request for proposals to different agencies and check their price quotes and go with the one that best suits your needs. In fact, a good agency would be able to be flexible with its pricing by customizing its services according to the needs of the clients. A good digital marketing agency should be able to work with any reasonable budget and set your expectations accordingly. If you are being offered this sort of flexibility then it is a good sign.
Apart from that what is important is to know what value you will be getting off the price you are paying. Price obviously is an important consideration but it cannot be the only consideration. You have to check what return you will be getting on your investment and that is a more important factor.
So, with the kind of money you are paying, the agency that seems to offer the best value should get a go ahead.
Keep these points in mind, and make sure to find a digital marketing agency that suits all your needs both in terms of budget and requirements and offers complete transparency, flexibility and personalized and result oriented services. This will make sure your business is being handled by the right hands and the project is going to be a success.