How to Choose a Digital Marketing Agency

Most businesses will say word of mouth when asked about the best referral source to drive traffic to your business.

The second most effective driver of business is your company website. So the big question is, how are these potential customers finding your website and who is in the driver’s seat to direct them there?

Maybe you’ve been handling your digital marketing in-house and haven’t seen the results you hoped for or you don’t have the time to stay on top of it. You may have worked with digital agencies who have not reached your expectations and you’ve experienced lackluster results.

You might be one of the lucky ones who has partnered with an agency and saw success in your campaigns but they have now grown stagnant because you have been doing the same old thing month after month, year after year.

So now what do you do? To see successful growth in your business, you are now searching for a new Digital Agency partner to help you reach your goals and assist you in driving traffic to your website with the ultimate goal of these consumers becoming your newest customer. Here are six tips to lead you to your business's perfect Digital Marketing partner.

Google Certified Partner

Google is the world’s most popular search engine so to be found, your business must have a strong presence there. 

If you have ever tried to run your own AdWords campaign, then you understand how complex and time-consuming this can be.  This is where the importance of a Google Certified Partner comes in.  The knowledge that is gained through the process of becoming a Google Certified Partner will help guide your business to success.

A Google Certified Partner will be able to create a strategic AdWords campaign to ensure you appear in the correct searches, will attract the right customers for less cost, and will effectively monitor your campaign for continued success and growth.

HIGH–TOUCH Approach

Have you ever reached out to a marketing partner to discuss your campaign or make changes mid-run to no avail?

Have you ever felt that once you signed on the dotted line, you’ve been forgotten about? 

Unfortunately, with numerous marketing companies, this has become the norm – they take the consultative approach for the sale, but you are out of the loop on the actual creation and management of your campaign.

The strategic partner you choose should be an extension of your business for the next several years and you should expect the same of them that you would any employee you would hire.  It’s important to find a Digital Marketing Agency that truly wants to assist you in reaching your goals and not just build your campaign with the set-it-and-forget-it approach.

For your campaign to reach the highest level of success, you need to find a partner who has the capabilities to monitor your campaign and touch it numerous times per week to ensure that you are pacing accurately and that you are actively reaching the correct consumers that you are targeting.

While it is expected that you have a trusted relationship with your Sales Rep, it is also important to build that same trusted relationship with the Account Manager who is creating and optimizing your account so that everyone involved understands your business, your customers, and your goals. 

The perfect strategic partner for your business will always be accessible to you and not leave you feeling like you are on an island.

Expertise & Experience is Key

It’s not the age of a company that always ensures success, it’s the experience of the employees that is key. Just because a company has been around for ages, it doesn’t always mean that they are the best choice for you.

What you need to focus on is the experience of the employees. Does the agency have employees who have a working knowledge of your business? This is extremely important as your account team must have a solid understanding of the challenges that you face each day to provide valuable solutions. 

At the same time, does their experience need to be only in your industry? Definitely not. You don’t want your business to look identical to your competitors. If a Digital Marketing Agency only works in your field, then you can expect the products offered and the targeting of your customers to be almost identical to all other agency clients in your industry.

Working knowledge of a team with numerous backgrounds will allow you the opportunity to have a more strategic targeted individualized approach, not mirror that of all of your competition.

What background do you look for in your employees? You have the same opportunity to investigate the backgrounds of their employees and learn about their diversity in your marketing industries.

Diversity of thought is extremely important in digital marketing and those years of experience ignite innovative ideas.

Advertising Credibility

Be sure to do your homework on the Digital Marketing Agencies you are considering. Have you visited their website? Is it informative on what they offer to your business? Is the page easy to navigate? Do you know more about them after reading through their pages?

If you answered no to any of those questions, then this could be a red flag. If a company can’t take advantage of the opportunity to make a great first impression with you, then why would you consider them to promote your business? Are they certified in a variety of disciplines? Are they willing to give you references? Have they won awards and/or accolades from industry organizations for their work? All of these things help to build credibility.

An agency may not meet all of these standards, but if you notice too many red flags then you might want to reconsider.

StayIng Ahead of the Curve

Most Digital Marketing Agencies will have access to most of the same Products (i.e. SEM, Targeted Display, Digital Direct Email, Geo-Fencing, Hyperlocal Tactics, etc). The success of these products is not in the product itself but in the execution.

While those products are important to any business, you also want to look for an agency that wants to be an innovative leader. 

The best way to stay in front of your competition is to be sure to stay in front of your potential customer wherever they are and on any device. The best Digital Marketing Agency is one that stays ahead of trends and can foresee the immediate future of technology. 

They will be the first Agency to have new targeting capabilities to reach your audience or the newest product capabilities based on trending of where your potential customer is now going.  The old saying goes, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”  The same can be said for Marketing. 

Eventually, there will come a time when the things you have been doing for months or even years on end, will stop working and you will have to find the next latest and greatest opportunity to reach your audience.  

If you are already partnered with a Digital Marketing Agency that is ahead of the curve, this will ensure that your marketing efforts never get stagnant and you will always be ahead of your competition.

Working With Real People

Don’t be afraid to ask the company you are considering to visit their office and meet their team. Take a look around, check out the atmosphere, and talk to the employees.

Have casual conversations to get to know the Account Management team that would be working with your account. Can they effectively communicate with you? Are they friendly and understand your business goals? Do they seem happy in their job and get along with other company employees?  Do you feel a good vibe when you are there?

You want to ensure that the agency and the people that you choose will take a vested interest in your company and are willing to partner with you for success. What you experience in this short visit will give you a clear picture of what it will look like to work with them monthly.

While this is not a complete list of things to consider when searching for a new Digital Marketing Agency, hopefully, it is a good starting place to find the partner that is the perfect fit for your business! The future success of your business is in the hands of the Digital Marketing Agency partner that you choose now.