Before choosing a digital marketing agency, you should ask these 12 questions
You’re presumably reading this because you’re debating whether or not to work with a digital marketing ecommerce agency. It’s possible that you need assistance with your growing marketing obligations or that you want to expand your business with a digital marketing agency that can take your company to the next level.
Regardless of the details of your scenario, pat yourself on the back! You’re about to embark on a new and exciting phase that has the potential to convert your company into a significant player in your industry—provided you make the right decisions and negotiate a partnership with a marketing agency dedicated to your firm’s long-term objectives.
You’ll see that there are a lot of possibilities at this stage, and you’ll need to filter them down.
When choosing a digital marketing ecommerce agency, what should I look for?
In general, limiting your selections entails determining the most critical reason for hiring a marketing ecommerce agency. Because your brand faces unique obstacles, you should never entrust it to an agency.
If you ask a social media corporation how to solve your problems, they will almost certainly answer greater social media engagement. Similarly, an advertising firm would respond with commercials, but a content marketing agency will respond with additional content.
You get the idea – knowing your brand’s requirements will aid you in determining which firms are capable of developing and implementing the best plan to move your company ahead.
What are some questions I should ask my digital marketing ecommerce agency?
Because there are so many different digital marketing businesses, deciding on the best one may be difficult. Naturally, you’ll want to meet with the team and analyze the agency’s ability to achieve your company’s unique marketing objectives. You are free to ask as many questions as you like. These questions will assist you in evaluating each agency you are considering. But how do you grade the responses you’ll receive?
What criteria do you use to assess a digital marketing ecommerce agency?
It depends on your goals and what you want to gain from the collaboration. The most important thing is that you and your team must agree on using marketing to promote growth and generate revenue. Again, the only way to find out is to ask. As a result, there are a few essential questions you should ask.
So, without further ado, let’s get started with twelve questions to help you choose the ideal marketing partner for your business.
1. Are you affiliated with any of the major search engines?
The Google Partner emblem is one of the first high-level SEO and SEM proficiency indicators. This symbol indicates that a digital marketing agency’s personnel are Google AdWords certified. The agency will have its own Google agency team and be up to speed on the newest developments in that field. It would help if you also looked for Bing Accreditation and Google.
2. Do You Outsource Any Parts of Your Work?
Because trust is the foundation of every successful collaboration, your agency should be open about who is working on your account or projects, developing your content, or running your advertising. If an agency handles your work in-house and assigns a point of contact, that’s a positive indicator. If you hire a white-label digital marketing ecommerce agency, though, this isn’t always the case. This individual should be reachable via phone or email and available to discuss your campaigns and initiatives as needed.
3. What tools do you use in your company?
Now that you know what to anticipate and who you’ll be working with, you must understand how to do it. The tools used in marketing and project marketing are not the same. Depending on the specialty, the correct agency also needs suitable instruments. Tools like Later or Buffer should be used by a social media firm, whereas An email marketing business should use convert Kit or MailChimp. Meanwhile, an SEO firm will need the services of SEMrush or Ahrefs.
4. What are your thoughts about our brief?
With your brief, there will be some back and forth. While the ordinary agency will want to complete your brief as soon as possible, a superb agency may question some aspects of it. When you present an idea to your digital marketing partner, you get a fresh viewpoint. Solicit input from the agency so you can evaluate their strategic approach and ability to deliver value.
5. Can you provide me a list of some of your previous clients?
You should be concerned if any agency can only supply former customers in the B2B sector, yet you are an NGO. Agencies are adaptable. However, working with an agency that has been tried and tested with proven outcomes from past customers in your industry is preferable. However, you must be aware of conflicts of interest from organizations specializing in a specific business.
6. Daily, how can we expect you to work with us?
What you want in a digital ecommerce agency is a strategic partner. Small company marketing businesses, for example, not only carry out your plans but also play an essential part in thinking through and addressing problems by developing strategies that support your marketing objectives. As a result, you’ll need to know how you’ll interact and collaborate with agencies daily to ensure that you’re both on the same page.
7. What are your company’s most significant accomplishments?
This inquiry is meant to help you figure out how an agency adds value and if it can repeat those results in your circumstance. Look for successful blog articles and customer case studies, ideally for firms similar to yours. Look for phrases like “income earned,” “increased sales,” “reduced expenditures,” and “previous client marketing costs saved.” The most successful agencies take pleasure in the earnings they make for their customers.
8. Do you have any marketing software expertise?
Let’s say you’re now utilizing marketing automation software and want to keep using it; your new agency should have familiarity with this product. HubSpot, for example, is an increasingly popular inbound marketing platform. The platform has over 2000 partner agencies. Therefore it’s crucial to know whether yours is HubSpot accredited if you currently utilize it.
9. What are your plans to boost my conversion rate?
Avoid becoming too engrossed in discussions about traffic and visibility. A agency with its web development team can better handle your website’s conversion rate and on-page SEO and make the necessary improvements to get you results quickly. Please inquire how they intend to boost your conversions and sales to maximize your return on investment. If feasible, have them detail the measures they follow in this instance to guarantee you receive the most excellent conversion rates possible.
10. What strategies have you successfully used for your brand?
Switch your attention from your brand’s marketing goals to theirs for a few moments to assess a potential agency’s ability to deliver on promises. Learn how they use marketing methods to generate development for themselves. The goal is to see whether your would-be marketers follow through on their promises. You may feel comfier signing that retainer if you can assure that a digital marketing firm is its most acceptable case study.
11. What are the associated costs?
To properly execute your marketing initiatives, you must first negotiate the budget of your chosen marketing ecommerce agency. An experienced firm will have a decent understanding of how much money you’ll need to put into a marketing campaign to get the desired outcomes. Keep in mind that a marketing budget’s pricing does not necessarily represent its excellence.
After that, find out all you can about the return on investment you may anticipate after signing a contract with a particular agency. What outcomes can they guarantee, and when can you expect to see them after investing in them? What is the contract’s duration? Is there a discount for renewing? Or, if you want to end the relationship, review the terms to see whether there are any penalties.
12. How Do You Determine Success?
Marketing entails a lot of data and analytics and the skill of conducting campaigns. Sure, the finest call-to-actions and landing pages help, but the top agencies go above and beyond to demonstrate how their efforts affect your bottom line. Any statements your potential agency makes should be accompanied by information on how it plans to back them up with statistics. As a result, you should inquire about their analytics, metrics, and benchmarking strategy. Also, keep an eye out for jargon-filled explanations. The most significant marketing firms will take the time to explain everything in detail to understand everything.
In Conclusion
These questions are not in any particular sequence. As a result, it’s up to you to ask the ones who are most important to your brand’s success. Typically, an agency will happily respond to each of these questions suitably. Even if you have an idea that isn’t on this list, go ahead and ask. Because the stakes are so high, it’s easy to ask the wrong questions when assessing a digital marketing agency, particularly when both sides seek a long-term relationship.