Maintaining your online presence can be hard, that's why many companies decide to hire a digital marketing agency. But if marketing isn't your strength, or you're not too sure what all the terms mean, how can you be sure you're using the right agency for your business?
To help you navigate this minefield, we've compiled a few questions you can ask to make sure you and your agency are on the same page. We've divided these into 2 sections, the good and the bad. Hopefully you've always been asking good questions, but let's go through them just in case.
The Good:
"What sort of clients do you work with?"
As opening questions go, this is a strong one. It's likely you won't find an agency that works in the exact industry that you do, however, you may find one who works with similar industries or situations. For example, you might want to work with an agency that manages property developments, however, you might find one that has worked with construction companies.
Even if the industry is different, the approaches can be similar, and recognising that processes can apply across industries can make your search easier.
"What is your approach for marketing in my industry?"
This can be a good question to ask as a follow up to the first question. If the agency really does know what they're doing in your industry, they should be able to easily answer this one and provide clear answers without any ambiguity.
"Describe your mission and your team. What are your strengths?"
This can be a good way to scope out what the team is capable of. If you're looking for SEO support and there's no one on the team capable of it, you're probably looking at the wrong agency for your needs.
Remember, you want an agency that is going to be able to play to their strengths, so identifying any weaknesses here is a good place to start.
"What marketing is your agency carrying out?"
This is a simple question that is often overlooked. At the core of it is practice what you preach. If the agency is running their own campaigns and seeing results, you know they can run similar for you.
The Bad:
"I was wondering how much it would cost to market my business"
As a starting point, this is just really weak and likely to garner you some blank stares. If this is the first contact you're having with your agency, they won't know you, they don't know your business and they don't know what you're currently doing to know whether it's working or not.
You're also telling them that you're not interested in results, only the price. This can mark you as a difficult client that's always going to be negotiating over price.
Coming in to it angry
This isn't a question, more of a way of thinking. You might be feeling let down and disappointed by your old agency, but you shouldn't take this out on your new one. If you feel as though the new agency is not what you're looking for when you first speak to them, then cut the conversation short and move on. There's no use getting angry with them.
"I need to know what this campaign will look like, tell me the keywords you'll use, what the emails will look like and what posts you'll be putting out on social media before I sign up"
Again, this isn't a question, more of a demand. But what you're essentially doing is asking the agency to carry out work for you without being paid for it.
If you have vetted the agency and started to build a relationship, you should know the quality of their work and that they will provide you with results without demanding to see it upfront.
That's all Folks!
This list is brief, but it should set you in the right direction when it comes to starting the conversation with a new digital marketing agency.
If you want to start the conversation with us, don't be afraid to get in touch and put some of these questions to good use.
