Top 10 Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Digital Marketing Agency
When you hire a digital marketing agency, you are hiring a team of experts who are dedicated to helping your business grow. You will be working in a partnership, focusing on your marketing efforts – together. There’s nothing more important that the success of your business, so you want to make sure you’re hiring the best digital marketing agency. Here are the top 6 questions you should ask before hiring a digital marketing agency.
1. Can You Show Me Case Studies and Previous Work Examples?
Looking at past work and success stories from clients is a great way to know if they’re a reputable company. Most digital marketing agencies would be more than happy to share that with you. This will help you determine if the company you’re looking to hire is experienced in your industry, and if they do the type of work you’re looking for.
2. What Services Do You Offer?
If you’re looking for a specific digital marketing service, make sure the company you hire can fulfill your needs. For example, if you’re looking for social media management services, the company you hire should offer it. Other services you might be looking for are SEO, paid search, email marketing, and more. This will allow you to have a better understanding of what digital marketing services they are experts in.
3. How Long Until We See Results?
Every company wants to know when they can begin to see results. One of the most important parts of a relationship with a digital marketing agency is managing expectations. Depending on what marketing strategy you have set in place, results could take longer. It all depends. For example, if you’re investing in paid search marketing, you can usually expect to see results quickly. However, if you are investing in SEO (search engine optimization), that’s a long-term strategy that can take 3-6 months to really see results. Your agency should be able to provide an honest timeline for how long you can expect to start seeing results.
Another question that often gets asked is: can you get me on the first page of Google?
What company doesn’t want to be on the first page of Google? This is a question that is probably at the top of your list. However, be careful of companies that answer “yes” right away to this question. Look for a company that will go into more detail and give you a specific strategy they plan to use to help you get there. It’s important to remember that no matter how good your digital marketing agency is, they can’t guarantee things like this – nor should they. The Google algorithm can be a tricky one, and it’s not something that’ll happen overnight.
You must be patient and trust the process of your digital marketing agency when it comes to seeing results.
4. How Do You Share and Discuss Reporting With Your Clients?
Total transparency is important in any relationship – even one with your digital marketing agency. You want a company that will gladly share and discuss reporting, strategy, success, and more with you. Find out how the company plans to share and discuss this with you. Your success is ultimately their success, so most digital marketing agencies should be happy to go over your account with you on a regular basis.
5. How Do You Measure Success?
You spend a lot of money with digital marketing agencies, so of course you want to know how they plan to make your marketing strategy (and business) successful – and how they will know if your campaigns are considered successful. Success is also measured differently based on what type of campaign you’re running. For example, if you are running an SEO campaign, your success might be measured by your ranking on Google or by keyword authority. If you are running a paid search campaign, your success might be measured by the click-through-rate. Every digital marketing agency has a different way of measuring success, so make sure you’re asking this question.
6. Can You Adapt Your Marketing Strategy If My Business Goals Change?
When choosing a digital marketing agency, it’s important to find a company that’s flexible. Overtime, your business goals may change. While you may have been focused on brand awareness for the last year, maybe now you’re looking to advertise a new product or service and focus more on lead generation. Regardless of what your goals are, your digital marketing agency should be able to adapt and adjust.
7. How Much Will You Communicate With Me?
Will you be expected to show up for client/agency meetings? How often? Will you be talking to the marketing agency and getting updates on your account frequently? Will you hardly hear from them unless something crucial happens to your account? You should know how much communication to expect from the company, so you can plan and also determine if it’s something that aligns with your expectations. Not only that, but it helps to know what is expected of you as the client. While some clients prefer constant communication, other clients might hate the constant phone calls and email exchanges.
8. What Are Your Core Values?
Every digital marketing agency has (or should have) core values. These values show what is important to the company and what drives and motivates the team most. At VitalStorm, for example, we focus on 5 core values: Vision, Innovation, Transparency, Attitude, and Love. Let’s break those down:
- Vision: We value our vision of “growth through driving relationships” with the industry’s best partners and team members.
- Innovation: We are committed to continually learning and applying new practices for the success of our clients.
- Transparency: We communicate with truth, confidence and clarity. We hide nothing because we have nothing to hide.
- Attitude: We lean into everything and do whatever it takes to inspire others to do the same.
- Love: We absolutely love what we do and the people we do it with.
Core values set by the digital marketing agency will directly impact you, so it’s a good idea to know what is important to the company and the values they stand by.
9. Are You Experienced In My Industry?
Most digital marketing agencies have a specific niche. For example, VitalStorm works mainly with home service companies: plumbing, electrical, roofing, HVAC, and more. Does the company you want to hire have experience working in your industry? If they don’t, it doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t still do a great job. However, it really helps to hire someone who has a strong background in your industry so they can build marketing campaigns that will successfully reach your target audience.
10. Who Do I Contact If I Have A Problem?
There’s nothing more frustrating than having an issue with your account and not having a clue who you should contact for help. Well-organized digital marketing agencies will have a point of contact for you – an account representative, if you will. It should be extremely clear who you will be in contact with. If it’s not, then take this as a sign that the company may not be all that organized and detailed.