Digital marketing has become increasingly important for businesses, big or small. More and more companies have double-downed their efforts to gauge the ever-growing social population through their digital marketing techniques. Even though it’s an area of marketing that shall not be taken for granted, many business owners are doubtful about where to start from? What is the best strategy to find the best digital marketing agency that will help them grow? And if they should hire one at all?
Marketing is all about figuring out your target audience and creating content to keep them invested and help you drive sales. Digital marketing covers a wide expanse when it’s come to targeting your social audience. Apart from promoting content on social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Youtube, and new one’s like TikTok, etc., it’s also about paid advertisements, SEO techniques and creating a brand name.
Deciding to hire a digital marketing agency is easy, choosing the right one is tricky. It’s very important to first understand your own marketing goals and what you expect to get out of digital marketing. Once that aligns, choosing an agency that aligns with your goals and delivers results will help you and your business grow.
There are a few things one should always take into consideration while venturing into uncharted territories. It’s always helpful to have all the information beforehand, it makes the decision-making process easier and the journey ahead smoother.
Let’s start from the beginning, and help you choose the best digital marketing agency for your business.
What does Marketing Agencies do?
Digital marketing agencies help you leverage different marketing techniques to increase your online presence and reputation. Different marketing agencies provide various services, and it varies from agency to agency. But in general, you can expect these agencies providing services ranging from-
1Social Media Marketing and Content Marketing: Leveraging various social media platforms and creating content that is different, relevant, impactful and creates a difference. Content marketing is more than simple blog posts, it is more about understanding your audience and creating content and giving information that sticks. It can vary from blog posts, infographic creations, videos, images, Gifs, content analysis, etc.
2Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Leveraging SEO techniques, helps your websites, pages, blog posts rank higher on search engines. It not only helps in building brand awareness and reputation but also trusts among the existing and potential clients. By ranking higher you’ll be more accessible and be able to solve customer queries.
3Website and App Development: If you’re a business owner, you need to have a website as a landing address. It not only fosters trust among users but also acts as a bucket for all the information one needs to understand your business. And if you’re a business owner that deals in services and products that can be delivered at the doorstep and/or is frequently used like cafes, then having an app helps you to be even more accessible.
4Paid Advertisements: Apart from generating organic traffic through digital marketing techniques, Paid advertisements are a great way to reach your target audience based on their age, demographic, interests, location, etc. Even though it may seem like an investment in the beginning it should not be ignored.
5Email Marketing: Even though we have lots of social media platforms for engagement, email marketing remains a top channel to generate the most ROI. Many agencies provide list building, templates, segmentation and auto-responding optimizations to say a few.
Apart from these services listed above marketing agencies also offer services like branding, video production, CRO goal setting, Google Adwords, and many more. All of these channels are leveraged to generate more sales, boost lead generation and build your brand. Some agencies are more specialised than others in certain areas, while some are full-service branding agencies that cover all aspects of your digital market plan.
Asking the right Questions
Firstly, it’s important to understand your company’s needs and requirements. To know what you require and what your goals are? And to know what you want at the end of the month? Lead generations? Sales? Inquiries?
What are your company’s marketing requirements?
The first step in choosing the best digital marketing agency for your business as an owner you need to figure out your Marketing requirements.
Do you need a website? App? SEO? Social Media Marketing? Would you need blogs? Organic or paid advertisements? Analytics? And others.
What is your end goal? How much should you invest and if you should have an in-house team or hire an agency after-all? If not how well can your team and agency coordinate to get the best results?
Understanding and drawing up your requirements will help you make an informed decision and get the desired results. You must always look for an agency that understands your consumer, your business model, marketing strategies, success strategies, culture and brand motive.
What does Marketing Agencies do?
It can be a tough decision, but some of these qualities shall help in a smooth decision-making process.
How do they run their own Business: One of the first signs to choose the best digital marketing agency is how they run their own business and how successful they have been in generating leads and growth. If you’re thinking of hiring an agency for social media marketing or management, then looking at their metrics will help you make an informed decision. If they can drive traffic to their social media platforms by creating impactful content. If yes then you have your answer.
Other than that if you’re looking for blog writing and management it’s good to know how they run theirs. Similarly for SEO. You can verify these metrics on your own as well and ask the concerned agency. If they don’t practice what they preach then that could be a red flag for your business.
What are their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Lot’s of businesses track vanity metrics which have no direct relation to generating revenue. They pay more attention to likes, shares and comments which do not directly affect or translate into sales and revenue. And the last thing you want is to be overcharged for basic services. Always be sure to convey your requirements to the agency while you’re choosing how they measure growth.
Some of the important metrics in digital marketing are-
Unique Visitors: Even though it depends upon your entire marketing strategy, a boost in traffic to your website can boost your conversions. If you’re not so sure about your target audience/market, an increase in overall traffic to your website can be a great way to determine your target market.
Traffic Source: It’s important to find out where your traffic is coming from. What channels are diverting them to your website or webpage. If it’s a particular article that’s driving more traffic and if yes then you might want to create more content related to that. It’s also important to know what is generating traffic? Visitor referral? Classifieds? Is it organic traffic or not?
Time spent on your site: The amount of time a visitor spends on your website determines how interested they are in your content. The longer they spend on your website the more relevant in your content to your users. And if that’s not the case you might want to optimise your content based on your target audience. Google also tracks these metrics and ranks your content based on it. You can track your metrics of average visit duration using Google Analytics.
Bounce Rate: It determines the percentage of visitors that leave your site after they land on it. A higher bounce rate is a red flag and one must optimise their content relevant to their target audience.
Cost Per Click (CPC): It is a purchasing model for paid advertisements where you pay each time your ad gets a click. A high click rate means your ad is not optimised as per your target market.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): CTR means the number of times your ad is clicked v/s the number of impressions it receives. This helps in measuring how targeted your ad is. A low CTR is not a good indication and you must create more relevant content for your ad copies.
If you’re looking for great results out of your investment in digital marketing, it’s wise to know if your agency tracks these metrics or not. There are various tools to track and measure metrics for greater satisfaction in your customer journey.
Do they have an Experienced Team?: Irrespective of the agency you choose they need to have an experienced team of experts in various fields that will service your account. For eg: if you need to develop a website and if they do not have a developer, how well is it going to turn out for your efforts and investment. So it’s wise to research before-hand about the services they provide and what kind of a team they have.
Outlandish Promises v/s Guaranteed Results: Investing in your business is the big step and you do not want to see your money go to waste. It’s good to research the website of the agencies and see what they are promising to deliver. If you see a company promising you to take your website rank higher on search engines in a fast track manner then you might want to slow down. SEO services are a short term and long term process and nothing is achieved instantly.
It’s a continuous process of optimising content to keep it on top. Look for the agencies who are providing guaranteed results even if it takes a little more time.
How much do they Charge: One of the most important questions of all. What are their charges? Do they have packages? If yes, what all is included? How much does an individual service cost? It’s easy to filter out low-quality agencies based on their price. Mostly the agencies that charge way less would usually end up providing not so premium services. Agencies that tend to charge higher, take care of their clients in every step of the way. They are more likely to deliver results that also align with your goal. Even though it may look like a huge investment, try not to cut corners to find the best digital marketing agency for yourself. You’re more likely to get great results in the long run.
Digital Marketing is all about taking it slow, thinking about the bigger picture and building your brand/business the story it deserves.
Final Thoughts!
Choosing the best digital marketing agency for yourself is a daunting task, we agree! It’s a lengthy process of deciding what works best for you. What your requirements are and what your end goal is. It’s also equally important for the agency and your business to have similar cultural morals and if your business goals align.
What we can say, while planning the blueprint of your success in digital marketing, always and always look for the bigger picture. There’s no shortcut to ranking you higher, getting huge traffic, conversions, etc. Every part of strategizing and planning takes time to show results. It’s a continuous process to keep relevant, targeted and on top. Never compromise on great services, even if you have to shell out a few extra bucks.
If you think this blog was informative, we hope you find the best digital marketing agency for your business.
If you still think you need guidance and assistance to navigate your way around digital marketing, we at Triffid are always open as a full-service branding agency to help your business grow.