Digital marketing has become essential to almost every kind of business. As a result, many digital marketing agencies are popping up to try and fill that need.
It’s a relatively new field, though, and not everyone knows what qualifications to look for in a digital marketing firm. Some of the people you’re considering hiring might not have any experience in the field and could actually harm your digital presence.
We’re going to discuss ways to make sure you choose the best digital marketing company so that you don’t wind up getting burned. Hopefully, the information below can help you identify the right company and wind up with a campaign that brings you more business.
Let’s get started.
How to Find The Best Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business
The first thing you should do to prepare yourself for the searching process is learning enough about digital marketing to have some idea of what you’re looking for.
It’s easy to get sold on big digital marketing dreams by a company that can’t provide them. Digital marketing can be marketed as an abstract thing. For example, you might see claims that different agencies bring “quick business” or “skyrocketing numbers.”
Watch out for agencies that rely on those kinds of claims to market themselves. When you break down those statements, they don’t really mean anything at all. There’s a chance that the marketing agency will be able to get specific with you when you talk to them, but make sure you’re listening for other hollow claims they could throw at you.
SEO and other variations of digital marketing require a lot of specific work to achieve goals. It’s not as if you do one thing and have your “numbers and sales go through the roof!”
There are obvious metrics that have to be monitored and adapted to. Be sure to ask about some of the following subjects when you’re shopping around for agencies.
Keyword Research Strategies
Search engine optimization, PPC, and digital marketing, in general, all have a close connection to keywords. Keyword phrases that come up in Google indicate what users are doing and what they’re interested in.
You then base your marketing strategy and optimization around those terms to ensure that you’re situating yourself in the right parts of the web. Inversely, the keyword phrases that you optimize the place you in a specific niche.
This is a big part of how well you’ll do with your digital marketing campaign. Choosing keywords requires that you take a close look at different target markets and demographics to ensure that you’re reaching out to the correct people.
If you optimize for users that aren’t interested in your product, you might as well not optimize at all. So, ask potential digital marketing agencies how they will choose the keywords for your site.
Probe them about the interfaces they use to research keywords and inquire about what sort of long-term plan they might offer to expand your website’s reach.
Even if you’re not sure about the specifics of those things, it’s important to hear whether or not the agency can speak freely about those topics. You’ll know if someone is filling space with meaningless buzzwords.
Look for someone who has insight and knows what you’re talking about. If they have a good response, they should be able to make killer content in response to the keywords in your niche.
Advertising Methods
Most advertising methods in digital marketing have something to do with PPC ads. These advertisements show up on search engines and social media platforms, allowing you to reach the specific audiences that those websites draw.
There are other ways to advertise a site online, but PPC advertising tends to be the most common for businesses to use. It turns out that this sort of advertising tends to be very closely related to SEO. The use of keywords and optimization strategies are inherent in placement and creation.
Anybody could create a PPC ad and pay for it. The fundamental action of making the ad isn’t hard; what’s hard is optimizing the ad and adjusting it to meet the goals that a business has.
There’s no exact science to doing this, though. That’s why it’s tough to choose the right ad agency; agencies can blather on with meaningless “great results” claims without much to show for it.
Try to look at the history of the agency you’re looking at. See what they’ve done for other individuals like yourself and base your choice off of that. If they don’t have any experience, make sure to account for that in the deal you make with them.
For example, you could work with them on the contingency that they can prove their skills in advertising.
Data Monitoring and Response
Each section of digital marketing contains numerous ways to examine and fine-tune efforts based on data. Most platforms allow individuals to monitor their metrics, and ad agencies should have additional software that helps them look at the specifics of a particular campaign.
For example, you might make a change to your blog strategy. An agency can look at how many users come through a particular link and where those users come from. Further, they can see when those users follow through to the home page and make a purchase.
On the other hand, one can see when users visit a page and leave it right away. Those pieces of information indicate how well the content was created or whether it’s effective.
Based on the feedback through data, agencies should make changes that improve the way something is working.
When you sit down with a potential agency, make sure to ask them how they fine-tune campaigns. See what kind of platforms or software they use to monitor their data.
Then, ask what they do when they notice something is wrong. You could give a hypothetical to them and see how they respond. For example, what would they do if they noticed that users were visiting a page but never following through for a purchase?
Communication Style and Openness
Lack of communication is another way that businesses get burned by shady marketing agencies.
Agencies might not be communicative at all, leaving a business in the dark about whether anything is happening with their site. It’s important that the agency you choose is very open with you and discusses all of the things they’re doing with your money.
Maybe they could give you a monthly report to examine, or they might keep a direct line of communication with you at all times. Whatever the method, there has to be a line of communication about the things they’re doing.
Many of us aren’t SEO experts, so we don’t know what it entails or what is happening on our websites. Some professionals could exploit that, do a poor job, get no results, and chalk it up to a fluke.
A respectful company that has your business in mind will keep you in the loop at all times. You should also be able to have a good rapport with the agency.
Finding a group that you like and can communicate with is important. When you can communicate well with an agency, they’ll have a better feel for who you are and where you want your brand to go.
You’re putting your digital presence in their hands, so it helps a lot when the two of you have a mutual understanding.
Reviews from Past Clients
The best judge of an agency is the business that they’ve already worked with.
Business reviews are an excellent way to get some insight into what you can expect from a particular group. Make sure that the reviews you’re seeing are informative and seem genuine.
It’s always possible for a website to hire individuals to leave positive reviews. If you’re not sure about the reviews you’re seeing, make an account on the business listing site.
If you’re an account holder, there’s a good chance that you can reach out to people who have given reviews. Get some more insight and see what you can find out about the agency.
If there’s a lack of reviews, you can ask the agency about this. Maybe they’re just getting started, or the few clients they have had didn’t leave reviews. If the group is professional, they should have some way to back up their claims about themselves.
Inquire about the experiences that led them to become digital marketers. See if they have any history of digital marketing or if it’s just something they picked up on their own.
There are some digital marketing degree programs out there, but a degree doesn’t always mean that people know what they’re doing. That said, a degree is a good sign that the company is legitimate.
Interested in More Smart Marketing Advice?
The best digital marketing agencies can be hard to find, but your dream team is out there. We’re here to help you with more information on how to find that group.
Explore our site for more ideas on how to find a smart marketer, insight into smart advertising, and where to locate your perfect digital marketing company.
