Nearly 84% of B2Bs and 62% of B2Cs outsource at least one part of their marketing. This shows that more and more businesses are seeing the advantages of outsourcing to digital marketing agencies, especially during this time of worldwide slowdown because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Aside from the 70% savings of employee costs, outsourcing to digital marketing agencies can bring in multiple tangible and intangible benefits.
Hiring the right marketing agency is one of the biggest decisions you need to get right.
Whether you just started a business and are struggling to get your name out in front of your ideal customers or are an established brand looking to maintain your competitive advantage in increasingly competitive marketing, you can’t afford to waste a single cent on a marketing agency that can’t deliver.
Hiring a marketing agency: what to ask
- Ask yourself the following questions first.
Before hiring a marketing agency for your business, it’s important to ask yourself the following questions first:
- What is my goal?
It’s important to determine what your marketing goals are because they serve as a guide for your marketing strategy, they help you communicate your expectations and they help you measure success.
- What is my budget?
How much can you afford to invest in marketing? If your budget is tight, it might not be enough to drive real results. It’s best to look around for options.
- How often do I want to communicate?
It’s important to have a strong relationship with the marketing agency you’re going to hire. So, you want to establish how often you want to communicate with them and the channels to use. Do you prefer emails or in-person meetings? Do you want weekly or monthly reports?
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Next, ask your prospective agency:
- Do you specialize in specific types of projects?
The best marketing agencies specialize. And even the full-service agencies have a niche.
- Do you have any experience in my industry?
The more familiar or experienced they are with your industry, the faster they can provide you results.
- Are you currently working with anyone in my industry?
Ask your agency if they’re currently working with anyone from your industry that might affect your working relationship.
- Who will I be working with directly?
Knowing who you’ll be in constant contact with can help you decide if their communication structure will work for you.
- What is your company culture like?
You want to work with an agency that has the same work ethics and principles as you.
- What are the metrics you use to track results?
The right agency will be able to tell you the key performance indicators related to your goals.
If they focus too much on vanity metrics, it’s a bad sign of poor strategic thinking.
- Do you have any sample client reports?
You want to see a clear, visual report that demonstrates the results the marketing agency was able to accomplish for its client. If you don’t understand the report, maybe you can give them your own template or ask them to talk you through it for better comprehension.
- Do you have a public roster of your clients?
If yes, you can use it to get a recommendation or a go signal that you can trust that agency.
- Can you give me an overview of how my project will be completed?
You want to know what their plan of action is. How will they achieve the results you want?
- What do you expect from us?
Working with a marketing agency is a partnership. To see results as quickly as possible, it’s important that you also cooperate with them. So, ask them what their expectations from you are.
- When can I expect to see results?
They must be able to give you a rough estimate on when you’re supposed to start seeing results. This will help set the right expectations.
Related: Boost Your Customer Retention by Implementing These 5 Digital Marketing Trends
Conclusion
Finding the right marketing agency for your business is not supposed to be a quick process. Take your time in finding different options and filtering out the companies that you feel can best represent your brand.
At the end of the day, you want to work with a marketing agency that shares the same vision as you and that can deliver results.
Another thing you want to keep in mind is that don’t pick an agency based solely on their popularity or big name. It’s not a guarantee that they’re the perfect fit for you.
