How to Select the Best Digital Marketing Agency

Transcription

1 How to Select the Best Digital Marketing Agency 9 key selection criteria to live by when choosing a digital marketing partner.

2 Disclaimer The information contained within this whitepaper is the opinion of the author and in no way represents the opinion of The Rand Group, LLC. The information contained within should not be taken as legal or binding, and should be referred to as an opinion piece by a subject-matter expert. All materials within are a copyright of the author and The Rand Group, LLC, respectively. 2

3 Find the Right Partner That Serves Your Needs Recruiting the right digital marketing agency can lead you down the path toward achieving your marketing and sales goals, kick-starting revenue generation, and wiping the floor with your competition. Choosing the wrong partner, however, can be expensive, with no return on your investment and unrealized expectations. As one of the most highly visible departments, it can also result in getting fired or at the very least feeling sheepish. With so many marketing agencies out there, there is a lot riding on finding a partner that shares your vision and can deliver on what they say. Success comes from choosing a partner that makes you look good and helps you achieve your goals efficiently. This whitepaper is designed to give you insight into the digital marketing world and provide simple guidelines for you to follow when choosing a digital marketing partner to work with. 3

4 9 Agency Selection Criteria Clearly Define Your Do Your Preliminary Scope and Expectations Research Evaluate Their Digital Presence The initial planning phase is to help you understand the scope of services you need first. This is where most companies fail before they even begin. If you don t have a clear idea of what you need, it s really easy to get caught up in the glitz and glam of creative agencies. This doesn t necessarily have to be a formal process but make sure you have a discussion with the key stakeholders that will be impacted by this project, from sales staff to department heads. The focus here is on the end results you want to achieve. If lead generation is at the top of your list, then you need to look for an agency with expertise in that area. Once you have gathered intelligence on what your marketing needs are and set expectations, it s time to start searching. It s a fairly common assumption to think that all marketing agencies are built one in the same but don t let yourself be duped. All companies have their strengths and all companies have their weaknesses. If you search for marketing agency and your city, you are bound to generate a search of hundreds of agencies of all sorts. You can guarantee that the first companies to show up offer SEO as a service and clearly, they re doing a good job. If you are looking for help with your SEO and a particular company didn t rank on the first page, then you might want to consider a top performer. After you have identified a short list of agencies to consider, the next step is to make sure they practice what they preach. This really goes without saying but when you hire a marketing agency to design your website or create and implement a content strategy, they should be doing it for their own company. Take some time to check out their website experience, read their content, review their social media channels basically anything you can get your hands on. Consider what makes them stand out amongst their competitors. By learning about how they execute their own marketing program, you will get a sense of how well they can deliver their services. 4

5 9 Agency Selection Criteria Discover What Results Keep Your Services They Have Produced Under One Roof Find Out What Support Options Are Available At the end of the day, results are what you are looking for. During your research stage, you should consider the types of results each company claims to have delivered. Most, if not all, agencies will have a case study or success story page that highlights their biggest achievements to date. These stories and snapshots from clients will be able to give you the big picture of what the problems were, an outline of the solution, and what the big flashy results were. If an agency doesn t have many clients showcased on their website, it is usually for privacy reasons. So, if you don t see a testimonial relevant to your industry or specific pain point, then we suggest you reach out to them directly via phone or . When you hire a digital marketing agency, you want to make sure they have the expertise in-house to handle all of your requirements, including the other technology you use. A vendor who manages your AdWords and a vendor who manages your social media content creation are focused on their own priorities, not on communicating to achieve a common goal. They will look to you and your team to minimize miscommunication and coordinate both projects, essentially creating a new role for you one you might not want. We suggest you save yourself the headache. At every point, remember to ask yourself, Is there any opportunity to consolidate vendors? That way if something goes wrong, you have one vendor responsible for it. Although support usually gets overlooked when it comes to marketing, support is a critical component to any project. What is your contingency plan if something on the website fails? Who will troubleshoot when you can t figure out how to do something in your marketing automation system? How long does an agency retain responsibility for things such as CMS updates before you have to take that over yourself? Most companies don t have a developer or technical marketer on staff so trust us when we say that it s always good to have backup. Some marketing agencies out there now have support programs and monitoring plans to help alleviate any unforeseen issues after Go-Live. 5

6 9 Agency Selection Criteria Get to Know Do a Trial the Team Engagement Check Client References Doing business with people you like makes the job a lot easier. Once you have started the conversation with your top contenders, it s important to take into consideration what they would be like to work with on a regular basis. You need to take the time to understand how their team operates and learn about past projects. We aren t talking about taking every member of their marketing team out for a separate coffee, we just mean you should get a feel for the environment. Marketing projects, like website design or brand strategy, are always collaborative and require an investment in time, not just money. It would also help to hear why they think they would make a good fit and why they want to be involved in your business. Before you jump right into a massive website redesign or a marketing automation project, it might be a good idea to test the waters with a trial engagement. If you have the time to do this, we recommend you start with something that has a time limit and will show you actual results, like a pay per click (PPC) campaign. This way you get an understanding of what it is like to work with this team and how the project management process works. In this trial engagement, pay attention to expectation fulfillment, communication, ability to meet deadlines, and the results achieved. Remember that there will be growing pains because complications always arise when you are trying to build a marketing practice and don t have the right tools in place. The best way to find out if an agency can do what they say they can do is to hear it directly from their clients. If you are permitted to reach out to a client directly, take advantage of this opportunity to ask anything you want, from financial returns to the actual partnership experience. It s easy to take a look at a final product and see the end result but you ll get real value when you hear about what the process was like working with that particular agency. 6

7 Digital Marketing Agency Assessment Scorecard Now that you have some insight in what to look for in a digital marketing agency, you should be closer to choosing a short list of potential partners. Once you have narrowed down your list, it s a good idea to rank them based on the same selection criteria. We have put together some specific requirements for you to consider so just choose what vendor you want to review and answer each statement honestly in the scorecard below. When you are done, add them up and compare it to the other agencies you are considering. 7

8 Agency Name: AGENCY SCORE SELECTION CRITERIA Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree The agency has an established online presence (website, updated blog, social media profiles, etc.) They have a wide variety of experts on staff representing strategy, design, content, analytics, and development All of the clients had positive reviews about the agency, where expectations were met with the services provided The agency has examples of where they demonstrated real value for a business including ROI, revenue generation, conversion optimization and process automation The agency has a clear brand identity with compelling content and user friendly website The agency has worked with similar clients before and has experience in the industry we are in The agency has demonstrated a clear business case and forecasted ROI for my budget The agency offers full-spectrum marketing and sales services, from strategy and design to delivery and reporting We worked well together during the trial engagement and would consider the project a success The agency has demonstrated the skill and authority to diagnose a problem and rebuild those areas into an efficient and ongoing solution The agency was easy to communicate with during the research and selection phase The agency has demonstrated how important our business is to them The agency has experience training and helping Marketing & Sales teams adopt a new system and process The agency has the capabilities to offer website and ongoing support after the engagement has ended The agency has the technical expertise to provide added-value to your core business processes, with the ability to integrate your marketing solution to your financial and CRM systems. TOTAL 8

9 Evaluate Your Current Marketing Performance Before you embark on your selection journey, you need to look at marketing as a whole, not as a separate department. Marketing should impact your entire company and you want to work with a partner who shares your vision. To maximize your digital presence and help grow your business, we offer a complete Business Impact Assessment (BIA) that will lay the foundation of your marketing strategy moving forward. Get in touch with us for more information. Start Your Assessment 9