So, you’re taking the leap and looking for someone to handle your digital marketing services.
Do you know what questions to ask before settling on a candidate? After all, not all digital marketers are created equal. Failure to select an agency that aligns with your needs can result in your business not getting the visibility and conversions you’re after. There are several crucial questions you should keep in mind, using them as benchmarks for the vetting process. Here’s what to ask a digital marketing agency if you want to find out whether or not they’ll have your back.
General Questions
How can you grow my business?
It’s important to get an overall view of what a digital marketing agency can do for you. This question should serve as the launching pad for the conversation, paving the way to more in-depth questions.
Do you understand my industry?
Obviously, you’re going to be more of an expert in your industry than most digital marketers. But this question is important in determining whether or not prospective marketers have done their homework on you.
How do I beat my competitors?
Be specific here. Come prepared with a list of several competitors that you’d eventually like to overtake, and point out what elements of their digital presence you’d like to emulate and eventually outdo.
What areas of marketing do you handle?
You’re looking for the scope of the strategy here. The more facets of digital marketing handled by your agency, the better. Wouldn’t you rather have a full-service, holistic marketing agency backing you up, rather than an agency that only handles SEO? See how many boxes (PPC, SEO, web design, social media, etc.) they can check for you.
Operations
How do you decide on what actions to take?
You should get a good idea of what informs the day-to-day decisions of your marketing team. Find out what data they use to arrive at the action items implemented on your business.
Who is my point of contact?
If you need to initiate communication between yourself and your marketing team, who will you be speaking to? Is it more likely that you’ll be talking to the head of the agency, or a dedicated manager assigned to your business? How difficult will it be to get in touch in case of emergencies? These are all important questions, and you shouldn’t be neglecting them.
How do you track performance?
Once you find out how a marketing team arrives at a course of action, you should also be wondering how they measure success. It’s crucial to ask questions about the analytics used to track the well-being of campaigns and strategies.
Results
What will my results look like?
It’s a good idea to keep your expectations managed as you enter into a relationship with a digital marketing team. See if you can get data-driven estimates on what positive changes they can drive.
How long will my results take?
Success in the digital marketing world doesn’t really play by anyone’s strict timetable. This is especially true in the realm of SEO, where healthy, organic improvement sometimes takes months. An educated estimate is the best you’ll get here, but you can closely scrutinize the answers you get and determine whether or not they’re based on prior experience and research.
What are your recent success stories?
Speaking of prior experience, ask about positive results achieved in the recent past. Some of the best evidence of a good marketing team will be instances of clients that display encouraging turnaround.
Proper Planning, Peak Performance
Carefully vetting your candidates for a digital marketing agency will greatly affect your business for years to come. Think of yourself as a musician holding auditions for bandmates – if you’re not confident in the selection you make right now, there’s no guarantee that a new round of auditions won’t happen a few years down the road.
Take the time and effort to knock it out of the park the first time around, and you’ll enjoy the benefits for a long, long time.
