The Dos and Don’ts Of Choosing A Digital Marketing Agency

In order to get the most out of your digital marketing campaign, you need to hire the right digital marketing agency. Without doing your research, it’s easy to hire an agency that isn’t right for you or doesn’t meet your needs, which can cause damage to your brand or end up costing you a lot of money over time. To ensure that you pick the best agency possible, make sure to ask yourself and the agency these nine questions before signing any contracts or handing over any money.

Do Your Research

Finding an agency that meets your needs requires extensive research, so start by making a list of must-have services. A good place to start is with digital marketing services: social media advertising, web design and development, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing—the list goes on. Think about which services you need help with now as well as which ones you may want to consider adding down the road.

Ask Questions

A good way to vet a potential agency is to ask questions. If you have never hired an agency before, these questions can help you get up to speed about what it takes for digital marketing agencies to earn your business. Here are some questions you can ask: What services do you offer? (This question will let you know if they have any experience in services that would be useful for your business.) Do you work with small businesses?

Get Recommendations From People You Know

Recommendations from trusted people, like friends or colleagues, are a great way to find an agency that will help your business succeed. Ask around; chances are, someone you know has used a marketing agency before—and they can tell you how good it was. (They might even share some horror stories.) If you don’t know anyone who can recommend an agency, start calling companies in your area to see which ones specialize in digital marketing services. From there, do some digging to get a sense for their reputation.

Understand What ROI Means

If you are working with an agency, make sure they understand what ROI means to you. You wouldn’t be looking for a digital marketing company if you didn’t have business goals. Make sure your partners do too. If they don’t ask any questions regarding ROI, start searching for one that does.

Understand How Agencies Work

Understanding how agencies work will help you find one that fits your needs. First, consider whether you want an agency that offers multiple digital marketing services, or just specializes in one area. Because there are pros and cons to each type of agency, learn more about both to determine which is right for you. The areas most commonly outsourced include

Look At Quality, Not Just Price

It’s easy to get seduced by low bids or promotional offers, but if you choose an agency with dubious credentials or even worse, little experience in your niche, you could end up wasting money on services that aren’t optimized for your business. Keep in mind that bigger agencies usually charge more than smaller ones, but they also deliver higher-quality work; when comparing bids between big and small agencies, look at their portfolios rather than their prices.

Have An Actual Dialogue

In order to feel confident in your decision, you should ask lots of questions. If you're nervous about asking too many questions, remember that as an entrepreneur, you have a say in every part of your business—so make sure it's done right! You'll want to find out what services are offered, how much they cost and when you can expect to see results.

Learn the Digital Words That Are Important to Them

One of the best ways to find out what’s important to your potential partner is by speaking their language. I would recommend learning as much as you can about all things digital marketing, but if you don’t have time for that, take at least 20 minutes to read through two or three articles from Forbes or Entrepreneur magazine. This will not only give you an introduction into SEO, it will also help you understand some of their lingo.

Establish Clear Expectations

Once you begin speaking with potential agencies, make sure you establish clear expectations from the start. In particular, highlight your budget so that you do not get stuck with an agency that is not in line with your needs. Additionally, ensure that they have experience working with businesses similar to yours. It also helps to find out how long they have been in business, as well as what their areas of expertise are.

Check Out Past Work

Before settling on a digital marketing agency, you should check out their past work. Searching through their portfolio will give you an idea of what they have worked on in the past, as well as show how previous clients have felt about their work. Keep an eye out for originality: When reviewing portfolios, don’t just look at what has been created, but also look at whether it was done in a way that is creative and unique.


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