Choose the right Ride Buddies.
One of the most challenging things about hiring a digital marketing agency is finding the right one. When you connect with an agency that gets your brand, are true experts at what they do, and feel like an extension of your team, the relationship is gold. However, working with the wrong agency can be stressful and costly. It is essential to try and find the right fit for your business. Here are some tips on choosing the right partners for your ride-car and taking your business to new heights.
When it comes to areas of digital marketing, many agencies communicate they do social media, paid advertising, SEO, and more. Although these agencies may offer these services, you need to know where their expertise sits and ask specific questions to understand if they are indeed a company you want to work with.
Let's not forget that social media and many digital platforms are reasonably new in the grand scheme of things. It can be challenging to find partners with multiple years of experience and even more challenging to validate expertise. Many recent graduates in the field are excellent in their ways, but when you need strategic and critical thinking at the forefront of your strategy, companies want more.
Another challenge companies face is that the person interviewing the agencies often is not a digital marketing expert. They don't know what they don't know, leading to misinformation. So how do you find the best marketing agency for your growing business? The basic answer is to ask A LOT of questions and look for a backup of any claims.
Here are some questions to get you started:
Where does <insert tactic here> fit in your business?
If you are looking for a specific tactic and the agency offers many, ask how this tactic works into their expertise. For example, if you are looking for social media management, is this their core service or something on the side? If it is a core service, ask about their experience level.
What is your process?
Let's use social media again as an example. Many elements make up social media management. Does this agency create a content strategy? Do they provide monthly content direction? How much time is spent on community management and engagement? If the agency can't respond to these questions specifically or doesn't have it worked into their process, it could mean that you are missing essential pieces of a successful implementation.
What tools do you use to manage projects?
An experienced agency should be very comfortable talking about the tools they use. If the agency is unfamiliar with tools, even if they don't use all of them, they may lack knowledge in the space and corresponding expertise.
How do you measure performance and provide analytics? Digital marketing is all about data, so your agency should be able to comfortably talk about how they use data to analyze and iterate on their work. One of the great things about digital is that you can learn and optimize for performance, so make sure you do!
How do you support clients with creating a strategy for digital marketing?
Any marketing execution should achieve a goal for your business. Whether you are trying to create awareness or drive sales, your marketing strategy should directly address the area of the buying cycle you want to impact. The best way to do this is to start with a strategy. If your agency doesn't include strategic thinking in its process, it likely means you need to provide that yourself. If you aren't a marketing expert, this leaves your business with a considerable gap.
Other specific questions for your business.
Make sure you ask everything you need to know to feel comfortable and confident in your chosen agency. Ask as many questions as you need to feel secure in your choice. And follow your gut.
Every company wants to work with an agency they enjoy working with, so make sure also to assess the personality fit for your business. One of our core values at Method & Motion is that we care about how the work gets done. We always want to make sure both our clients, and we feel great when we get to work together to bring their marketing tactics to life. We individually come from 10+ years of experience in digital and brand marketing and always work with partners that are experts in their particular area of marketing.
If you are looking to expand your marketing team, say hey! Make sure to ask us these critical questions to understand if we, or any other agency, are the right ride buddies for you!
