Six Things to Think About Before Hiring a Digital Agency
Hiring a digital marketing agency is a big deal for most businesses, both in terms of financial and time commitment. You want to make sure you’re partnering with a firm that fully understands your marketing needs, while at the same time having the business nous and technological know-how to be able to follow through on its promises.
The digital world is an ever-changing landscape, and you’ll want to ensure you’re hiring a firm that can stay ahead of the curve.
Here is a list of our top six recommendations of what to consider before signing up with a digital marketing firm.
1. Understand Your Marketing Goals
It’s not so much having a comprehensive list that’s important, but you should have a strong idea of what it is you’re after prior to meeting with an agency. Knowing what your budget is, what outcomes you wish to achieve and exactly what it is that you want them to do is imperative before you meet.
2. Do They Know Your Market?
There’s little point hiring an agency who specialises in the medical sector in Sydney if you’re in the Perth real estate game. Don’t be afraid to ask about their industry experience - if they have any clients on the books that are similar to yours, even better.
3. What A Full-Service Digital Marketing Agency Should Provide
A full-service digital agency should be exactly that - an agency that provides you with a full suite of digital marketing services. These should include:
Website design and development. This should be from creation to implementation, as well as offering ongoing management and maintenance services. The agency should have the ability to customise and refine the new site to reflect exactly who you are, not just rely on a generic template.
SEO. Search Engine Optimisation is where it’s at when it comes to where you business ranks in search engine results. A good agency should be able to not only drive a decent quantity of visitors to your website, but ensure those numbers convert into quality leads or sales.
Digital Marketing. There are a whole raft of ways to sell your business online, including SEM, email marketing and social media. Make sure your prospective digital agency is across the latest and greatest in digital marketing.
4. Is their team in-house or outsourced?
Why is this important? Because a digital marketing agency with an in-house team is more consistent. You want to ensure that everybody you deal with at the agency - from your digital manager to your copywriter - is going to remain the same. This will give your marketing efforts a voice, and ensure your website’s design and content flows and is easy to change.
5. Do they have any awards?
Don’t take their word for it that they’re great - ask if they have any awards to back up their claims. This will showcase any independent recognition they have received from external industry sectors.
6. Are you speaking the same language? Finally, you’ll want an agency that you can actually get along with. If you’re not hip to the digital world, can they explain analytical reports and other relevant data in a way that you can understand? And if you don’t understand, can they provide you with the knowledge and training so that you do?
Conducting detailed research and asking the right questions before signing on the dotted line is bound to save you a world of headache later on down the track. Reputable local agencies should always be happy and available to sit down for a chat before you take the next step.