How To Choose the Best Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business

A question we get asked a lot is: how do I find the best digital marketing agency for my business?

Once you’ve made the decision to hire an agency to help you with website development and/or marketing your business online, the most important step is to find an agency that will truly help you grow.

This question is harder to answer than most people think, because digital marketing covers a vast area, and includes many different strategies that range from social media marketing to SEO, and from paid advertising to content marketing.

So you’ll need to find someone who understands your niche, who can help your business choose the best marketing tactics, and who can implement them effectively. Since we specialize in LinkedIn lead generation services, most of our clients are looking for B2B leads in specific audience segments.

Here are some tips to help you identify the best partner for your digital growth:

Find an agency that understands your business

The first question you need to answer is: which specific strategy (s) will help my business grow the most right now? If you think you have a good answer to that question, you can try to find a digital marketing provider to help you with that strategy specifically.

But if your business is not primarily Internet-based, chances are you don’t know all the marketing channels available to promote it online, let alone which ones are the most effective for your case in particular.

In that case, try to search for agencies that specialise on helping businesses in your Industry, or ask for recommendations from similar business owners. If an agency works a lot with Plumbers, they’ll probably know the most effective strategies to grow a Plumbing business.

Once you talk to someone from an agency, make sure they understand your business, and can explain to you in great detail how specific marketing strategies will help you get more customers.

Decide if you want a fully managed solution

Ask yourself if you (or your team) want to participate in the daily marketing efforts, or if you will leave all of it to the agency.

For example, you could hire an agency to grow your social media following and to post regular engaging content to your profiles. But as soon as someone engages with your brand in a meaningful way, you step in and build the relationship from there. Or you could let the agency handle that all the way to generating a sale.

The best solution depends on both the nature of your service/product, and on how much you want to be involved. But make sure to discuss this question in detail with your agency partner so that you’re on the same page before starting.

Alternatively, you can also hire an agency to train your team. In fact, this is one of the services we offer (for more details, check out our LinkedIn marketing online course).

Ask for analytics tracking and transparent reporting

One thing you should look for in any agency is the willingness to provide regular reporting that covers all relevant KPI metrics.

Take the time to discuss these KPIs with the agency, and make sure you agree on how they will be tracked and reported, and how you can expect them to improve due to the agency’s efforts.

In addition to measuring success, good reporting will help you identify areas that can be improved.

Negotiate the package and the price

When it comes to digital marketing, there are literally infinite options on how you could put together a service package to promote your business.

So there’s no need to settle for a pre-defined package that the agency likes to sell. Look at the details of each service they offer, and negotiate a custom package with custom pricing that suits your needs exactly.

That will require more effort from you and from the agency in the beginning, but it will help you to get the best value for money. In addition, you’ll know exactly what they will do for you, and what outcome you can expect from it.