Not every small business has the financial resources to hire a team that’s solely dedicated to digital marketing. But if you find that your company is ready for this next step, there are still certain questions and considerations you need to take into account before you hire a firm or an agency.
If your small business is ready to take the next step of hiring a digital marketing firm to help you gain an advantage online, here are some things you need to know and consider before partnering with a specific team.
Their previous clients
One of the first things you need to know is if the team has an impressive roster of happy clients they could serve for the past few years. Check if they have a track record of working with other businesses in your industry, as well as a wide array of other companies and brands from various sectors. Versatility and flexibility are marks of a good digital marketing firm. However, you must ensure that they are not working with your competitors since that might present a major conflict of interest.
Their list of skills
Here are the set of skills and qualifications you need to look for specifically when deciding on a digital marketing team to hire:
- Needs to be able to boast of a nexus of capabilities and disciplines, from excellent designing skills to laser-sharp ability to understand metrics that help businesses generate revenue. The firm must have a general grasp of everything that comes with digital marketing. While some agencies will have specialties, they need to be well-rounded and assist your brand in every facet of the digital marketing process.
- Has a clear grasp of what is relevant, up-to-the-minute, and what will gain engagement and numbers. For example, if your business has to do with health or life insurance, your brand’s social media accounts need to have content that will engage and not offend your audience in a time like 2021, when health is a point of heavy debate and discussion. Your insurance company’s website design must also be easy to navigate and contain all the reasons your clients will benefit greatly from doing business with you.
Their plan to help you achieve your company’s goals
When meeting with certain digital marketing teams, you also need to watch out for their strategy. You can hear this from the way they explain how they will help you expand—a process that takes so much more than just generating leads and turning them into sales or customers. Check if their proposed plan or strategy will circle back to your company’s goals. Listen for signs that their plan of action always underscores your company’s vision.
From the very beginning, you need to ensure that you are working with a firm that is on the same page as you, lest you want to risk conflicts and differences in fundamentals.
Their measure for success
As a business owner or CEO, one of the first things you need to accept is that an external agency is not always the cure for every single issue in your business model. It will also not give your company an overnight success story.
Digital marketing—and all marketing in general—is a long, hard process. It will take a lot of hard work, time, and commitment before you even see hints of success—whichever way your company may define it. It might entail months, and in some cases, even years, before your company even finds out what strategies are working and what dead weight you need to cut from the process.
Nevertheless, an excellent digital marketing agency must be able to:
- Work with you in defining what success means to your company, and
- Deliver actual results, no matter how minuscule or marginal, along the way.
Their understanding of the landscape
And lastly, the firm you work with needs to have keen insight into how the landscape changed for the past five years and how it will continue to evolve in the years to come. For example, Google is working hard to cut down on its algorithm’s loopholes. That means marketers across the world need to keep working hard and step up their game if they want their brands and clients to gain a foothold.
Don’t let anything slip through the cracks. Ask the hard questions, request to see their body of work, and see if there is chemistry and alignment of goals before you choose a specific marketing team to help you step up your company’s online game.