So you’re thinking about hiring a digital marketing agency?
Great! A digital marketing agency can help you develop a website that works for you, as well as create a strategic inbound marketing strategy that will attract and convert the leads you want most.
When you employ a digital marketing agency, you’re partnering with a group of experts who are all dedicated to helping you build your company. That’s a cool partnership, but it’ll take a lot of effort to maintain.
This blog might be helpful if you’re thinking about hiring a digital marketing firm or if you’re in the process of hiring one but aren’t sure how to make a final decision. Before you sign on and hire a digital marketing agency, you should ask them the following questions:
When it comes to digital marketing agencies, the first thing you should do is ask for references, case studies, and examples of previous work. It’s crucial to look at their previous work to discover if they have enough industry knowledge and if their strategy can deliver the results you want.
There are a plethora of digital marketing agencies to choose from, and no two are alike. Some people only make websites. Others concentrate solely on social media or pay-per-click advertising. Others provide a full marketing strategy that includes your website, email marketing, paid advertising, as well as inbound and content marketing tactics.
However, all of these digital marketing companies will promise that they can deliver you the leads you desire for a lower price. Make sure that you’re right by hiring a company that follows through on its promises. Request to see some of their previous work in the form of case studies or a review of some of the projects they’ve completed in the past.
The more information you have, the more confident you will be in your decision to sign a contract with that agency.
The digital marketing industry heavily relied on technology. Even the most experienced marketers rely on third-party optimization tools to optimize campaigns and verify that their plans are achieving the greatest potential outcomes.
Before you employ a digital agency, find out what technologies they currently use and plan to use to further build your digital marketing strategy. Then consider whether such technologies are appropriate for your entire digital marketing objectives.
For example, if your goal in working with a digital marketing agency is to align your sales and marketing teams, and your digital marketing agency doesn’t use a CRM, isn’t familiar with CRMs, or doesn’t plan to teach your team how to use a CRM more effectively, they may not have the best tools to achieve your specific digital marketing goals.
Even if you’re unfamiliar with some of the tools mentioned by the agency, it’s always a good idea to ask. You can always double-check them later to verify they’re real. It’s more vital to know that your digital marketing agency isn’t just winging it than it is to acknowledge that you don’t know everything on their tool list.
This is an essential question to ask since any agency that responds “yes” to this question is one you should avoid.
No matter how amazing your digital marketing agency is, only Google knows how Google’s algorithm works, which means a first-page ranking is impossible to guarantee.
You’re definitely in good hands if they react with something like, “Well, this is what we’re going to do to try and get you on the first page,” and then go on to provide you specific techniques they’ll take to improve your company’s ranking potential.
Although no one can guarantee a first-page ranking, there are a number of reliable digital marketing companies that will make every effort. It’s just nice to know that any agency that guarantees you a first-page ranking is promising something they can’t keep.
What goals are you setting for my project?
Nothing reveals more about a digital marketing agency than their project objectives. SMART goals are what you’re looking for. Systematic, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals are known as SMART goals.
Martexy likes to break down our clients’ goals based on in-depth research we’ve done by studying their website, site traffic, and industry. We look at existing traffic, conversion rates, and other factors to see how much we can improve in a certain amount of time.
These are the types of goals you want to see when talking to digital marketing agencies.
Any company that claims to “increase your traffic and get you qualified leads” may do so, but without SMART goals, it’s difficult to know if they’ll actually produce the amount and quality results you want. You’ll need SMART goals to effectively track your and their progress.
What can I expect to see results?
This is another question where the way an agency answers the question is more important than how they answer it.
If you hire a digital marketing agency to help you with content marketing or SEO to improve your organic position, keep in mind that you won’t notice fast benefits. If you’re working with a digital marketing agency that suggests otherwise, you should review their strategies again.
There’s no way to guarantee quick results because of the way organic search results function. It takes time for search engines to crawl your site and index it based on the information they find. That implies it could take weeks, if not months, for your organic search results to significantly improve.
If you hire a digital marketing agency to manage both organic and paid search, they may use paid search and social media advertising campaigns to rapidly offer you more quality traffic. It’s crucial to note, however, that these are not the same as organic search results.
You’re undoubtedly in excellent hands if your digital marketing agency takes the time to explain how exactly you’ll notice results and why organic search results may take some time to appear.
What KPIs do you track and what reporting will you offer?
A digital marketing agency is a business partner. They’re not a set and forget solution. Since you’re going to keep sending them money for a monthly retainer, you want to know where your money is going, and what it is doing for you.
That’s why you should ask this question: you want to know what KPIs (key performance indicators or metrics) they’re tracking and how frequently they share the data with you.
Most successful digital marketing organizations track a range of KPIs, from site metrics to search engine rankings to the overall performance of your PPC campaign. The metrics they track will be determined by your company’s specific objectives, but you must ensure that they are tracking KPIs that are relevant to those objectives before hiring them.
In most circumstances, a monthly report is the best option. It gives you a clear image of how your plan is functioning without overloading you with a year’s worth of daily traffic statistics. In addition, a good digital marketing agency will give recommendations and insights for the future in your reports.
Who will I be working with?
You’ll need at least one point of contact for your digital marketing project, regardless of which digital marketing agency you’re working with, and it’s unlikely to be the salesperson you’ve been working with so far. Every digital marketing company is different. Some companies employ account managers, project managers, or an all-hands-on-deck model in which you have direct access to the majority of the team members working on your project.
You can request to meet with, or at the very least be introduced to, all of the people who will be working on your project, regardless of which digital marketing agency you’re considering hiring. This question achieves several goals: it provides you with a better understanding of the type of company you’re working with, it establishes a relationship with the team handling your project in the future, and it provides your digital marketing agency’s team with a better understanding of you and your company.
If an agency refuses to let you see the staff or is unclear about who will be working on your project, you might want to look into it further. Hiring an effective digital marketing partner requires transparency.
What will you need from me?
We’ve made it to the final question. “What will you need from me?”
This is without a doubt one of the most crucial questions to ask before hiring a digital marketing company. It gives you and the agency a better idea of what it will be like to work on this project for both of you. Your digital marketing agency is a group of digital marketing experts. Despite the fact that they should have a decent working knowledge of your sector, you are the expert.
A great digital marketing agency will inform you that they will require your feedback. They’ll want to know that they’ve accurately identified your target customers, that the content they write for your website is appropriate for you, and that you’ll participate in the process.
A digital marketing agency, on the whole, wants to partner with your company to help you grow. Their goals are your goals — they want to increase the number of qualified leads you’re getting, so you can increase conversions, make more sales, and increase your revenue.
If you’re having trouble finding an agency who will work with you to achieve these goals, let’s talk. Martexy is a true digital marketing agency — we handle everything from web design, SEO and content marketing to paid advertising, email marketing, and social media. If you’re looking for a partner who will work on your behalf to grow your company strategically, we can help.
