You may have discovered, that growing an in-house marketing team, or trying to do it all on your own, is time-consuming and costly. Knowing how to choose the right marketing agency will not only provide you with a team of expert marketers but also will bring innovative ideas and perspectives to your business.
An expert marketing team can help you attract the right customers, deliver your brand’s voice, and take your business to new heights.
The right marketing agency could be the ticket to your success, but you shouldn’t just partner with the first agency you find. To experience the results you want, it’s crucial to work with an agency that is collaborative, strategic, and has a track record of success.
Below, we’ll dive into what you need to look for (and look out for) when choosing an agency so you can find the best digital marketing agency for your business.
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Why You Should Work with an Agency
If you’re here, you’re probably either beginning to explore your marketing options or you’re aware of your need for agency support. Either way, these reasons can affirm why you may want to work with an agency in the first place.
1. Access to a Full-Service Team of Experts
An expert team of marketers can help you reach your business goals. Partnering with a marketing agency is the most efficient way to gain access to these experts.
When you find the right digital marketing agency, you’ll receive a suite of services that give you access to experts in SEO, branding, paid advertising, website creation, content, and more.
It’s vital that you work with an agency that takes a holistic approach with its marketing strategy, offering an umbrella of services to promote your business from every angle. While there are one-channel agencies out there that specialize in SEO or solely in social media, going with one may result in a disjointed brand. Read this blog post to learn the difference between digital media and social media).
Hint: Look at our team’s page to see who you’ll be working with.
2. Saves You More Time
As a business owner, it’s likely you wear many different hats— but marketing doesn’t need to be one of them.
You can set your entire focus on other important aspects of the business when you outsource your marketing to a skilled agency.
If you have a team of employees who may be able to handle your marketing needs, consider if they have the bandwidth, skillset, or time to bring in your desired result. It’s plausible that they don’t have all three, so it might be worth it to work with a professional agency.
When you learn how to choose the right marketing agency, you can have complete confidence that the job is getting done and getting done expertly.
3. Offers Monetary Value
Every decision as the leader of a business requires a cost-benefit analysis, and hiring a marketing agency is no different.
You can put off the cost of hiring an agency until you reap the benefits, though, when you work with a performance-based, monetary agency.
Agencies with this pricing structure will invest their own resources into your business, offering monetary value from the start, and ensure they don’t profit until you profit. This will help avoid the costs of getting you and your team up to speed on digital marketing strategies.
How to Choose the Right Marketing Agency
There are many benefits to hiring a marketing agency, but hiring the right agency will ensure you see the results you want. However, knowing how to choose the right marketing agency for your business isn’t quite straightforward.
We have come up with a comprehensive list of what makes a good marketing agency to make your decision easier.
Before you begin your search, consider what challenges you currently have and what you want to be fulfilled by an agency. Then, consider if the agencies you find check all of these boxes.
Because some of these factors may be difficult to assess at first glance, we have included questions you can ask any agency you are vetting to determine if they’re the right partner.
They Want to Work Collaboratively
First and foremost, a great marketing agency should work with you to achieve your goals.
Collaboration is key — you don’t want a team that simply takes your orders, but a team that listens to your goals and offers strategies and recommendations to reach them (they are the experts, after all).
Questions to Ask:
- How do you manage communication?
- How will we interface with your agency? Or, what is the structure of your typical account team and who will we work with on a daily basis?
- Who do I bring my ideas to?
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They Think Strategically for Your Success
One of the great things about working with a marketing agency is their ability to look at your business from the outside, review your goals, and develop a long-term strategy for your success.
Not only should an agency offer this long-term strategy, but they should implement a plan on where to start and what will have the biggest impact.
Reviewing your current marketing strategy should be the agency’s top priority. This assessment will allow the agency to identify areas that could be hindering your marketing success.
Questions to Ask the Agency:
- What planning and strategy exercises will be required to get up to speed?
- Where do you typically start with a client to develop a plan?
- How long does the planning process typically take?
They Treasure Value Over the Ordinary
It can be tempting to talk about a marketing agency’s rate right off the bat, but don’t let the price of their services outweigh what they will bring to the table.
Different agencies will offer different pricing models, so it’s important to take a closer look at the value they will provide.
Although you may be on the hunt for a great deal, any amount of money, however small, won’t be worth it if the agency doesn’t deliver the right outcome.
Questions to Ask the Agency:
- How is your pricing structured? (You don’t want to be forced into a cookie-cutter model)
- How will I see a valuable return on my investment?
- Will you be able to provide recommendations for suggested ad spend?
They Utilize a Performance-Based Model
Performance tracking is integral to a successful digital marketing strategy, so it should be a priority for any agency.
Analyzing the performance of different marketing efforts is also the best way to see if your partnership will work and reach your goals.
Asking the right questions is particularly important to understand how the agency will track performance and what information you’ll have access to. Answers to these questions will give you a sense of what to expect in terms of timelines and how projects are managed.
Questions to Ask the Agency:
- Which key performance indicators does your team typically focus on for client work and how will you report on our progress month-over-month?
- How do you ensure a project is managed effectively, efficiently, and kept on track from a timeline perspective?
- How do you measure success?
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They’re Result-Oriented
The foremost want any business owner could hope for is that its marketing agency treats your business as its own. If they do, they will put in the same amount of work as they would if their name was on it.
To find a marketing agency that will do this, you have to determine if they feel confident in your industry or area of expertise.
If the agency has an entrepreneurial drive like yourself, they’ll work with you to find areas of improvement, as well as build on successful aspects of your business to achieve optimal results.
Questions to Ask the Agency:
- What types of companies do you serve, and in what industries or markets?
- Why do you want to work with us?
- What does success look like for our industry?
They Have Credibility & Are Trustworthy
Trust is perhaps the most important factor to have between you and your agency. Finding a business partner you can trust with your marketing needs requires a bit of research and question-asking.
Start by looking into the agency’s reputation by reading reviews and case studies. You can also learn a lot by exploring the agency’s about page to get a feel for their style and experience.
Questions to Ask the Agency:
- Can you connect me with a previous client?
- Who will be my go-to person to bring questions, ideas, or concerns throughout our partnership?
- Can you tell me more about your clients’ experiences, the good and the bad? What went wrong and what went well?
They Want to Create a Long-Term Partnership
Hiring a marketing agency is a big deal because, ideally, you’re finding a long-term partner for your business. Your goals should become their goals, and your business should become their business.
When you sit down to talk about their services, it should be clear that they connect with you and your business and view your relationship as one with long-term potential.
Their strategy shouldn’t be a quick-fix solution, but a layered approach that has your goals at the forefront.
Questions to Ask the Agency:
- What are your vision/goals for us as a partner?
- Given my goals, what is an appropriate timeline to achieve them and where do you see us going from there?
Need to Update Your Marketing Strategy?
Request a FREE Digital Marketing Audit.
They’re Always Transparent
Part of a trusting, long-term relationship with your marketing agency is transparency. They should be forthright with the results of their efforts both good and bad, and never hide things from you.
The best way to learn whether or not an agency is transparent is to be upfront with your own questions, concerns, and hesitations in your initial meetings.
This will allow you to see if they give you direct answers, or try to beat around the bush. You can also get a sense of what they promise and determine if these are realistic for your business or they’re just over-promising to get the sale.
Questions to Ask the Agency
- What is your process for handling conflict?
- How do you approach projects that fail or don’t meet expected results?
5 Red Flags to Look Out For Before Partnering with an Agency
We’ve covered what makes a good marketing agency and the questions you should ask to weed out the ordinary from the exceptional.
But, before you even run a potential agency through your checklist, you can toss it aside if they have any of the following red flags.
1. Communicates Poorly
Communication is vital in all types of relationships, and this includes your marketing agency. If from the get-go, the agency is slow to respond, evasive when you ask questions, or won’t give you specifics, you can expect that you’ll never get quick responses, clear answers, or definitive results.
3. Commits to Too Many Clients
When you hire a marketing agency, you should be guaranteed a point person on your account who also has a supportive team behind them to give your business the attention it needs to succeed.
If an agency has too many clients, they’ll have fewer people and limited time to dedicate to your business and its goals.
3. Undertakes ANY Client
There is no one-size-fits-all method to marketing success. Your business and industry have unique needs and your customers have distinct desires that require a specialized approach.
No single digital marketing agency has the talent to serve every industry and business out there perfectly. Instead, they should have an ideal client in mind. When they are selective with who they choose to work with, it shows they truly care about each of their clients.
4. Zero Proof of Client Success
Does the agency have any proof of prior success? If you can’t find any, odds are that they haven’t had success yet. While you may think it noble to give the new guy a shot, your business could suffer because of it.
Seek out testimonials and case studies, or ask the agency for stats from previous clients, which give credibility to the work they do. It’s also smart to view case studies or testimonials from companies that are in industries similar to yours.
5. Only Cares About Your Money
If an agency takes your inquiry and your money right away, it’s a big red flag. It means they are focused purely on getting a sale instead of finding the right client and nurturing that relationship.
See if a Partnership with Brandetize is Right For You
When it comes time to choose a marketing agency, only you can make the right decision for your business.
When you consider these factors and red flags throughout this guide during your research, you will confidently find a suitable marketing partner.
Remember, the right digital marketing agency for your business could be the next step toward your success. They can save you time, increase your profits, and support your business goals.
To start your search on the right foot, let our team of experts perform a free digital marketing audit for your business. You’ll walk away with key, personalized insights to improve your marketing strategy that can lead you to your next achievements.