It’s hard to grow a company without digital marketing today. Yes, you can still get customers locally. But now that so many people search online for businesses, you limit your exposure when you don’t have an online presence.
That’s why companies utilize 53% of their marketing budgets on digital channels. But if you don’t have experience, you may want to contact marketing experts for help.
Picking a digital marketing agency isn’t a decision you should take lightly. Follow the guide below to learn what mistakes to avoid when finding a company to help when marketing businesses online.
Table of Contents
1. Not Verifying the Number of Services
Most digital marketing companies don’t focus on a single skill. Sure, it’s nice to be an expert in a niche marketing tactic. But doing so greatly limits the number of customers you can acquire — and may turn away other companies that want more from their digital marketing partners.
Before you sign up with a marketing company, decide what services you need. Explore the different types of marketing and what they can offer your business.
Once you do, you should have a better idea of what you need and if a marketing company has the skill set to meet your requirements.
2. Only Focusing on Price
Marketing isn’t cheap when you hire an expert agency to handle the job. You may not have a large digital marketing budget, so looking for discounts anywhere you can get them is tempting.
But focusing solely on the price doesn’t always deliver the best results. You have to consider the skill of the agency you hire and the corners they cut to get to that price.
You need to make sure you get quality service for what you pay. Get quotes from as many companies as possible, check the value they offer, and pick the company that offers the best value and potential return.
3. Not Reading Case Studies
A great thing about digital marketing is that it’s data-driven. You create ads and campaigns, create a baseline, start the campaign, and see what results you get after. All of these are things you can measure with numbers.
This means it’s easy to show results for companies that do great work. They can create reports and dashboards that show what impact their work has.
Because of that, many marketing agencies create case studies detailing the work they did in the past. Read those case studies to see what a marketing firm is capable of.
4. Hiring a Poor Communicating Team
Depending on the type of advertising you plan to do, you may have an ongoing ad budget for ads. This means that you’ll not only have the cost of hiring the agency but also the cost of running PPC advertising.
You can’t afford to be in the dark about what’s happening in these situations. Digital marketing companies need to be transparent about what’s happening and their work.
Make sure you get regular reports about what’s going on. Ideally, get a report about what’s happening every one or two weeks. Some companies even offer a reporting dashboard that’s automatically updated about what’s going on.
5. Hiring a Company Using Templates
Things aren’t always straightforward with digital marketing. A campaign tactic for one company may not work well for another.
This means it’s hard to use general templates to make progress on the internet. You need a customized campaign tailored to your brand and what it offers customers.
Unfortunately, some digital marketing companies use boilerplate campaigns for every client. Make sure the agency you hire will do custom work for you and create a campaign that fits your unique needs.
6. Expecting Immediate Results
You get immediate results when you pay for results in most cases. You aren’t dealing with a process that convinces people to buy products, so waiting to see results from your purchase is unnecessary.
If you are trying to get organic traffic, you won’t see results immediately. Marketing tactics like SEO can take months to work, so you’ll spend a lot of time doing the work.
Although paid ads will get you immediate traffic, that doesn’t mean your campaigns are optimized and producing profit. It will take time to optimize your ads before that happens.
7. Not Reading Reviews
Feedback from other clients is a big thing to look for when deciding on a marketing agency. You can learn a lot by looking at a marketing agency’s work and speaking with an agency’s representatives, but you won’t learn everything you can about an agency going this route.
Reading online reviews will give you a clearer picture. Search for the agencies you’re considering hiring online and find websites that allow people to leave feedback about their experience.
Check those reviews to see any cons to working with an agency. This can include poor communication, bad results, and other negative factors.
On the other hand, reputable companies like Harris & Ward marketing services will have plenty of positive reviews.
If you want to hear directly from previous clients. Reach out to your network to see if you know anyone who has worked with an
Research When Picking a Digital Marketing Agency
Picking a digital marketing agency is a big decision. You’re committing a lot of cash and time in the hopes that the company you hire will help your business grow. But if you make mistakes when looking at your options for marketing agencies, you may end up wasting money and won’t see results.
Factorial Digital: A results-oriented digital marketing firm that leverages data-driven insights to optimize your online campaigns.
But there are things you can look out for to avoid making common mistakes and find the right marketing agency for your needs. Remember the mistakes you learned about above to make sure you find a marketing company that can optimize your digital marketing strategy.
Do you want to learn more growth tips to help build your business? Learn more about growing companies on the blog.
