In today’s busy business landscape, a powerful marketing strategy is essential to make your company stand out from the crowd. Marketing is vital to build brand awareness, create customer loyalty, and increase your sales. Your business may have the most amazing product on the market but if no one knows about it, you won’t make a single sale.
Digital marketing is of vital importance for any modern business approach to connect with your targeted audience. Today’s consumers are also internet users and expect businesses to connect with them in the online world. Nowadays, consumers rely on websites, social media platforms, and mobile apps to get informed about products or services and to make their purchase decisions.
Thus, partnering with a digital marketing agency is now more important than ever to establish a strong online presence. Here are the 5 best tips on how to hire the right one for your company:
1. Understand your business goals
Before you start looking for an agency, you have to determine what goals your business wants to achieve. Determine what is your company lacking and what it needs to achieve the goals you have set.
Do you want to increase your e-commerce sales? Do you want to improve your social media presence? Or maybe you want SEO expertise and high-quality content to publish on your website? You can’t determine which agency is the best choice for your brand unless you know exactly what you expect it to do for you.
However, although you should have an idea of what you need the agency to do, keep in mind that you should stay open to what the agency suggests after digging into your business for a little bit. After all, if you are looking to hire experts to help you increase your leads and improve your outsourcing, you should allow them to use their expertise to help you.
2. Research the agency’s capabilities
The best way to determine whether or not a company can deliver the best possible results is to research its expertise and capabilities before making your decision. Here are the top things that you should consider when doing your research:
- Marketing tools and practices- Whether or not the agency will help your business depends a lot on what marketing tools and practices it uses. If the agency relies on cookie-cutter strategies but doesn’t first dig into your company to determine its specific needs and the best solutions, you should consider it as a red flag. Moreover, using outdated marketing tools most likely won’t bring you a return on your investment. Look for an agency that relies on tools for social media, content and PPC ads, automation and analytics tools.
- Portfolio and references- In order to determine the efficiency of a marketing company, you must dig a little deeper into their previous experience with other clients. Obviously, the easiest way to see if it is worth your time and money is to talk with their other clients. You will be able to find out whether or not the agency was ever late in delivering projects or if there are any pros or cons in working with that agency that you should know about. Also, analyze their portfolio including case studies of conversions relating to social media or blog initiatives the agency has made in the past. Checking online reviews is another great way to determine if an agency can meet your requirements and help your business achieve its goals.
- Take a look at their website- The best way to see how a digital marketing agency can do its work is to analyze its own online presence such as its website or social media accounts. If an inbound marketing agency fails to establish a strong and quality online presence for its own services, that is a huge red flag.
- Experience in your niche- Finding an agency that has plenty of experience in your niche can simplify things for you. If the agency is already familiar with your niche and your industry inside and out, things will go a lot easier and faster. Each industry has different trends when it comes to effective marketing. If the team is already familiarized with yours, it is more likely to provide you with results faster.
3. Do you feel comfortable collaborating?
Working closely with the team is essential to help them understand your requirements and monitor whether or not their work reaches your expectations. Thus, you are most likely going to spend a lot of time working together with the agency’s team. Before you make your decision, you should consider meeting the team at its office and determine how comfortable you feel with their working practices and how open they are to communication.
The team should be friendly and open to hear out all your ideas and give you honest feedback based on their expertise. Moreover, transparency is another vital aspect that you should look for when being personally introduced to the team. You should ensure that you can trust them with your brand’s reputation in the online world because if something goes wrong it could cost your business more than you imagine.
Bad chemistry with the agency’s team can end up in very bad scenarios that will affect your brand such as miscommunications, different visions, or a multitude of other issues.
4. Consider your budget
One important aspect that you shouldn’t neglect is talking money with the agency before making your choice. Your budget is certainly one thing to consider because you are making a decision that involves a long-term investment.
Most businesses, especially startups, are tight on budget when they have just joined the marketplace. Thus, an agency that offers advantageous pricing and top services simultaneously is certainly the deal you should be looking for.
However, cheap often means poor services. Start with excluding all the cheapest agencies you will find because their small pricing is often a red flag. If your budget is tight, you can try to contact a popular agency and renegotiate for a lower fee at the beginning.
5. Start with a small assignment
A small assignment is a great strategy to help you determine whether or not you have made the right choice. It can help you understand the expertise of the team, whether or not you can efficiently work with the team in the future, and if the team completely understands your vision and expectations.
Yet, remember that results can just happen overnight. Be patient and allow the agency to fulfill the assignment before you evaluate it and make your decision.
Digital marketing is vital in today’s modern business landscape. Thus, you can’t afford to invest a lot of money in a marketing strategy that doesn’t bring the results you expected to. Hiring the right inbound marketing agency right from the beginning is key to achieve all your business goals.
