WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND WHILE HIRING A DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY?

Digital marketing needs no introduction. It is a genie that can help fulfill all your wishes. So are you using it? If you are not convinced about it, do check out our previous blog on Digital Marketing. It might help you understand better why digital marketing is important for your brand.

Now we know digital marketing is important, but do you know that hiring the right Digital Marketing Agency is also very vital in the process. There are numerous marketing agencies out there, but how do you know which one to choose. Don't you worry, I'm here for your rescue.

In this blog, I'll tell you about what points to consider while hiring a digital marketing agency. The major points to keep in check are:

1. Before you even start looking for an agency, your first step is to understand your business goals clearly. Having a clear vision can help you determine what you want from your agency and indeed help you choose the best-suited agency for your business.

2. The basic step to choose an agency is to look out for agencies that have experience in your industry or niche. An agency that has the experience in your required niche can bring out better results for your brand growth.

3. After sorting out your requirements and your interested industry, look out for what the agencies are promising. It does not need to be a lump of sweet talks, but the results that you require and are they capable to offer it.

4. Do thorough research about your shortlisted agencies. Using the best tools in the business is one thing to heed. What different do they offer that others in the market? Effectively using the right tools in marketing is important for it to be successful.

5. Reporting matters a lot when using digital marketing because you do want to know if your digital marketing campaigns are working or not and what changes are required. Your agency must be effective at reporting and take immediate actions on the required points.

6. Every digital marketing has its values or beliefs that they diligently follow. They also set a few norms to build a successful brand, but they practice what they are preaching. If not, then I suggest you check your list again!

7. No matter what people say, the size of the agency matters. An agency should be big enough or have enough manpower to handle many big projects at the same time while providing proper attention to each project.

8. It all comes down to pricing. Your budget and the offered price of the agency should be in sync. Also, look out for the prices offered by all the agencies and compare the best suited to your budget. Remember, the output given by the agency should justify the price paid by you.

9. Before finalizing anything, ask as many questions as you want. Both parties should be clear on all the terms and the contract should be signed after every/any doubt is cleared. Make sure both you and the agency agree on all the terms of working.

If I summaries the above, keep consideration of the following points:

• Pricing

• Experience

• Services

• Connection

• Reputation

• Consistency

• Innovation

• Portfolio

After all this, it must have come to your mind that you can do it yourself so why do you need a digital marketing agency to do it for you? Many businesses prefer in-house digital marketing rather than outsourcing it to any agency. But listen to me my friend, I'm telling you that hiring a digital marketing agency is much more beneficial than doing it yourself and I don't speak without any points to support it. So here are a few to say:

a. Setting up a whole team for digital marketing requires a lot of time and resources. I would suggest you to rather focus on running your business rather than focusing your attention on setting up and training a team for digital marketing.

b. Many people consider agencies to be costly and prefer hiring independent contractors or working with an in-house team. But listen to me when I say that working with agencies helps you cut down on the overall cost. But How's that possible? You don't need to hire full-time employees and provide recurring costs like benefits, health care, and salaries. Many platforms required to run campaigns come with a huge amount of subscription fee whereas agencies already have the required digital marketing tools.

c. Working with experts helps to get it right as they have worked on many similar projects and they can provide a better perspective. Experienced agencies craft out better results than independent workers or in-house teams.

d. I'll say out loud that before launching any campaign, research is the most important stepping stone. You need to know everything from the target audience to the competitors. But honestly, do you have the time to go through all that hassle. That's when agencies come to action. They are equipped and designed to effectively do exclusive research and bring out the best strategies.

e. To be clear from the start, not everything works in digital marketing. Many campaigns come and go, only a few can leave an impact. An agency can provide better input from a consumer's point of view. They can tell you where and how to target your audience and streamline your campaigns using new ideas for better results.

f. If you plan to expand your business and require to reach out to a higher audience, you'll need to expand your team for digital marketing. But that's not the case with the agencies. They are scalable and can assist in anything as your business grows.

g. Now, we all know that you don't want to make any investment that bears no result. Digital marketing agencies provide monthly or quarterly reporting and offer clear insights to help you make sound decisions. Having measurable results in hand helps you better analyze the ROI and plan further.

h. Running a campaign requires access to various tools and most of them are premium, this just adds to the costing. But as I mentioned above, that's not the case with agencies. Agencies already have the required tools and it makes the whole process seamless.

i. The trend for native ads is increasing wildly, but not everyone knows how to place them properly or run them successfully. Well, as we already know that agencies are experts, they help you in properly running the native ads and boost your ROI.

I think these points are more than enough to convince you that hiring a Digital Marketing Agency for your next campaign might be the best decision you can make.

I would just add that, for a Digital Marketing Agency to work effectively, provide them with creative liberty. It will help bring out the best results.

Hope I can be of even a little help to you.

That's all for now folks!

Happy Marketing!