Digital marketing is about one thing: promoting a business online to potential customers at the right time with the right message.
A few years ago, people’s attention was distributed to radio, newspapers and other offline media. As a result, it was enough for a business to distribute its ads on those platforms to reach potential customers.
Now, however, it’s much more complicated. People’s attention is divided between a considerable number of online platforms, with new ones being added periodically, and the current algorithms used by them are constantly being updated to meet the needs of users.
For example, if you have a business-to-business (B2B) business, the most effective promotion platform for you may be LinkedIn. However, if you are targeting young people, then you will need to focus on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Snapchat.
This specific dynamic of the marketing market makes the job of entrepreneurs even harder. That’s why most entrepreneurs choose to work with an online marketing agency or hire someone in their own company who can stay on top of the latest trends, discover the best ways to use different platforms and master every area of digital marketing.
Why hire an online marketing agency?
Hiring an agency that has a team of experts ready to manage the most technical aspects of your online marketing strategy is a good idea when you, as an entrepreneur:
- you want to focus on other areas of your business.
- you don’t want or have time to waste weeks or months trying to find the right person to hire in-house and train them properly.
That’s why, in this article, agency re7consulting will show you the right way to evaluate a digital marketing agency and the questions you should ask.
What does a digital marketing agency do?
Digital marketing agencies help you reach your ideal customers to generate more sales using various online marketing tactics.
The services offered by digital marketing agencies tend to vary, but in general, you can expect to receive the following types of services:
Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords):
Google Ads is a great way to reach potential customers and draw their attention to your business, just when they realize they have a need.
Most people (potential customers of your business) turn to Google to find solutions to their problems or needs. That’s why implementing an effective PPC (pay-per-click) campaign on Google Ads can be a highly profitable choice for your business.
Facebook & Instagram Advertising:
The potential customer targeting opportunities offered by Facebook and Instagram, combined with a massive user base, make the two platforms the perfect environment for virtually any company to achieve a healthy ROI.
Contact us to learn more about the opportunities Facebook and Instagram offer for promoting your business.
SEO (optimizing your site for Google):
Obtaining good rankings in the top organic results in Google doesn’t just mean that your business will benefit from better visibility or more organic traffic.
SEO strategies are effective in capturing potential customers at the best stage of the buyer journey – just when they realize they have a problem or need and are looking for a solution that your business can provide.
Otherwise, SEO also gives you the opportunity to attract the attention of potential customers with different sections of your website.
For example, let’s say your business is a car dealership; how can you attract the attention of potential customers?
- Through the main pages of the site.
- Through the pages of each car in your stock.
- Through the offer pages.
- Through local contact pages (if you have showrooms in more than one city in the country).
- By means of a blog section, where you will constantly publish relevant and useful content for potential customers, and the examples can go on.
Read if: How do you choose the best SEO agency for your business?
If you’ve come to the conclusion that your business needs professional SEO services, but you’re not yet fully clear on what SEO can really offer you, learn more on our SEO re7consulting page.
Content Marketing:
Content Marketing (content marketing) is the fuel that has created many multi-million dollar companies.
Most companies and entrepreneurs see content marketing as just the activity of writing a few blog posts every week.
But things are never that easy. Why?
Because, whether we’re talking about blog posts, infographics or any other type of content, getting your content in front of potential customers requires an online distribution strategy and a budget.
Want us to help you build an effective content marketing strategy? Find out more about content marketing services from re7consulting.
Before, however, you can choose the right agency for your business, you need to ask both yourself and potential agencies a few questions.
What are the online marketing requirements of your business?
The first and most important step is to figure out what exactly you need from an agency, even before you start looking for an online marketing agency.
Need a website? Do you already have a website and just want Google Ads and Social Media, or do you need a complete package of online marketing services?
If you already have an in-house online marketing team, you need to know very well what the online marketing skills of the people in that team are and are not.
You should also know what online marketing tactics you know you should be doing, but haven’t yet implemented.
These questions will help you get an overview of what you need to outsource to an agency to get better results.
What are the agency KPIs?
Most businesses track vanity stats, numbers that might seem like they matter, but have no real correlation to generating revenue for your business.
For example, the number of “likes/likes” you get on a post can be considered a vanity statistic, as it doesn’t always translate directly into sales.
The one thing no one wants is for an agency to charge premium rates every month and deliver only lots of likes on posts, but no significant increase in sales.
Here are some important stats to monitor:
- Number of unique visitors to the site
- Time spent on the site
- Traffic sources
- Bounce Rate
- Cost Per Click CTR (Click Through Rate)
- and many other metrics that we can explain to you in detail in a preliminary meeting with our specialists.
Have you found the agency that promises you the sea with salt? Watch out
You know that saying: if it sounds too good to be true, you’re most likely to take the bait?
That’s the way it is in online marketing too, because it’s an industry with a low barrier to entry, and inevitably you’re going to deal with people who claim to know what they’re doing, but really have no idea.
There are plenty of agencies that promise clients the moon in the sky just to get them to sign the contract, but those agencies don’t have the staff and skills to deliver the promised results.
You can weed out agencies that are misleading or provide poor quality services by asking about their “secret recipe”. What makes them different? What is their strategy for getting results?
For example, according to Social Media Examiner, a good question to ask at this stage is: “How will you help with content creation?”
Because we like to be transparent and pride ourselves on providing clients with all the information they need to make an informed decision, we always start by creating a publishing schedule, a complete list of titles and keywords, and a framework on which we will create all the content needed to promote your business.
Ideally, the content should come from within your business, but if the necessary resources are not available, the re7consulting agency can call on professional freelancers with experience in your field of activity to create content based on a brief well established by Daniel Puisor, Creative & Art Director re7consulting.
Also, after the content is produced, it is reviewed internally by agency specialists to ensure it meets our quality standards and is optimized according to the needs set out in the brief sent by Daniel.
In addition, echipa re7consulting can help you with reuse of content already produced and even complex content marketing strategies to promote your business across all available online marketing channels.
What are the prices charged by a marketing agency?
You can easily filter out low-quality agencies based on their asking prices.
Many start-up businesses want to save money and price is usually the first thing they ask about.
However, if you find an agency that charges low prices, then there’s a good chance that the results will match the asking price.
Think of it this way: if an agency charges a low price, then they make low profit margins and are less likely to put extra effort into your business because there is not enough incentive.
Also, agencies that charge high prices tend to treat their clients more generously and seriously because they can afford to do so. They have employees with more experience and seniority in online promotion.
At the same time, high-fee agencies are confident in the results they can deliver to a client when they send an offer and are willing to offer a guarantee of results, or, if they don’t achieve their goals, offer the client back a considerable amount of money paid throughout the collaboration.
Important to consider is that the right agency can help you grow your business and generate significant revenue, while also offering you the confidence that they will manage everything for the growth of your business.
An online marketing agency like ours can help you with managing the systems, processes and workflows needed for online marketing campaigns that generate results.
In the end, choosing the best online marketing agency for your business will still be up to you!
