Any competent marketing agency’s job is to help create unified and effective brands, bring them closer to their consumers and audiences, and drive sales through awareness. While many agencies claim to be able to do so, there are 5 key things to look for in a digital marketing agency or partner. After all, when it comes to hiring a marketing agency to represent and promote your brand, businesses have a lot of options. A great marketing agency will set you apart from other competitors. Let’s dive into 5 key things you should look for in an agency.
Mission-Focused Team
A great marketing agency has a team that is focused on the core mission. After 10 years of working at marketing agencies, i have seen team members who are not bought in on the company culture, or who just show up to get a paycheck. These type of team members can be a virus that destroys customer experience.
It is of most importance to hire passionate people who are bought in on the mission of the company. At Imprint Digital we are focused on family first and helping small to medium size businesses serve their family. We have a heart to help small businesses thrive and succeed in their markets with a holistic comprehensive strategy of inbound marketing. Learn more about what to look for in a digital agency.
Clear concise communication
Without strong communication, you can’t execute a successful marketing campaign. This refers to effective communication within the marketing team as well as with the clients that we serve. Having a present and personal relationship with your staff and clients is a key part of creating successful communication. While much contact is done online, it is critical that those digital routes serve to strengthen rather than define existing connections.
When choosing a digital agency do diligence and go through multiple layers and levels of communication so that you have an expectation of the standard of how the team operates. Thie sales communication should be a reflection of what you experience as a client.
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
I love getting audits and critical thinking required reports from potential partners I work with. A great digital marketing agency needs to have skills in the realm of critical thinking and problem-solving.
The day-to-day of working as a marketing expert involves analytics and large sets of data. A great marketer and agency can take that data and tell a story as to what is going on. This data should be able to be turned into something actionable that creates results for the business.
Without the skillset of parsing and understanding data and turning that into an actionable marketing plan, your marketing agency may be operating on intuition and guessing on what to do. Make sure your partner operates with intention and actionable insights.
Holistic Digital Strategy
A successful marketing agency will cater to a client’s diverse marketing demands, including paid, video, social, content, email and more. All of these things, of course, have a digital connection, therefore digital diversity fluency is a must. You should be able to master the most recent technology while also anticipating and adapting to future technological advances. If your marketing partner is scurrying every time Google updates its search algorithm, instead of predicting what’s next, you should consider if they are the best partners for your brand.
In my experience, I always aimed to forecast the best decision-making based on what is going on now, while speaking to my clients forecasting what may come in the future. Gray hat and black hat tactics are never good. Always operate and make decisions based on a white hat and future-focused thinking. What got you here yesterday won’t get you to where you want to be tomorrow.
True Value and Transparency
Your marketing agency partner should bring value to the brand monthly. Not only with communication and deliverables but also with transparency in billing. You do not want to be caught off guard with unexpected bills, or random expenses that were not discussed. Be sure to talk about costs upfront.
I have had a few partners in the past where I get a bill at the end of the month with no discussion of it prior! That lights me up with frustration, all I want is courtesy and transparency as far as what costs will be for certain services. Most importantly, transparency in the sales process before joining a service provider as a client. A great partner will want to give this transparency and build trust from day one.
Now you have it
I hope this helps with your decision-making when choosing a marketing partner. With proper diligence and approach, you will find a trustworthy partner who can deliver and execute your needs. If you would like to get a free consultation or learn more about Imprint Digital and how we can help your brand, fill out our form below. We would love to help!