Top 3 Tips When Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency

Or have you just appointed one and things are not working out as planned? If so, you must have gone through one of the most difficult decision-making processes for a company.

Appointing a digital marketing agency is an important and critical step in growing your business. And you want to get it right.

But the hiring process could be hit and miss at times, which is when it becomes expensive, distracting and unproductive.

In this post you will get some practical tips and ideas on how to select the right digital marketing agency in Australia that will be the best fit for your team and your business as a whole. While we’re not experts in the technical details of the recruitment process, we have seen many cases of successful and not so successful appointments of digital marketing agencies.

In each case, there are lessons to be learned so that you can avoid the pitfalls and turn them into opportunities to hire the best digital marketing agency that you need.

Similar to hiring a key member of your internal team, you want to appoint an agency that:

• Has a proven expertise and track record in your industry or sector
• Can do the job efficiently and effectively
• Takes initiative and can generate ideas

Let’s look at a few case studies that highlight the tips you should be looking for when appointing a new digital marketing agency.

Tip 1: Expertise and Track Record Required When Hiring  a Digital Marketing Agency

One of the challenges being faced by marketers nowadays is how to manage the myriad of external agencies, freelancers and consultants that bring in different levels of expertise and skillsets. For example, it is quite common for companies to use one agency for SEO, another agency for online advertising, a freelance writer for articles, reports and white papers and a design agency for all graphics and creative materials.

While managing the various agencies and external consultants is a big task on its own, the bigger challenge for marketing managers is how to deal with the disparity of expertise and skillset being delivered, or in some instances not being delivered by the supposed to be ‘experts’ in their fields.

For example, an online broking firm recently came to us (Profile Booster) asking for help with their SEO and digital marketing. We later found out that the company had gone through a number of freelancers and agencies that claimed to have expertise in the financial services industry, but were not able to deliver the right messages about the client’s products and services.

The result was that the client ended up spending thousands of dollars with ineffective ad campaigns placed in the wrong channels. The client was also left with outdated and irrelevant materials and contents that did not reach nor attract any new leads or accounts.

While it may look like a good idea (on the face of it) to tap into different expertise and skillsets, it is critical that you look for an agency or agencies that:

• Have the expertise required in your line of business
• Have solid track record of previous and current work/projects similar or related to your business
• Know your business, your products and services and your industry
• Know your target audience and can speak the language of your target clients

“Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he’s hired to do.”
Malcolm Forbes

Tip 2: Your Digital Marketing Agency Must be Efficient and Effectivene

An online derivatives broking company approached Profile Booster after they had a few frustrating years dealing with another marketing agency. The client’s main complaint was that the agency they were using at that time was not efficient or effective enough to deliver on projects and campaigns.

For example, it took the previous agency at least 12 months to design and develop a landing page. And when the landing page was finally built, it did not work with the client’s CRM platform. So, in the end, the landing page that took a year to finish ended up not being used at all.

In this age of digital technology when products and services need to be delivered with speed and accuracy, digital marketing agencies must be efficient and effective in all aspects of their service.

If you want to be ahead or even just stay competitive in your industry, you need an efficient and effective digital marketing agency that can:

• Deliver actual content (e.g. lead generation assets, print or online materials, video and audio content) on time and despite tight deadlines
• Design, develop and implement campaigns for multiple channels using different metrics

Just because you are hiring an agency- which is an external entity – does not mean you would have to settle for something less than what your internal marketing team can deliver.

In fact, your external digital marketing agency should be totally and closely aligned to you and your business that they should be a seamless and integral part of your internal team. Ideally, your digital marketing agency should really be an extension of your internal team.

This means they should be across, on top and around what’s happening or being implemented by your company. You want your digital agency to be a top performer and to deliver what you expect from each of your existing staff or team members.

“As a business owner or manager, you know that hiring the wrong person is the most costly mistake you can make.”
Brian Tracy

Tip 3: Make Sure Your Digital Marketing Agency is An Ideas Machine

One of the reasons for appointing an external digital marketing agency (or any consultant for that matter) is to inject new ways of thinking or doing things or to tap into a different source of ideas and strategies. While you could be looking for an agency to implement projects and campaigns, it is critical that you appoint an agency that is constantly coming up with fresh ideas for your business.

At Profile Booster, we make sure and we take it upon ourselves to come up with several ideas for each of our clients every week.

Our ideas can range from topics for:

• articles
• blog posts and other materials;
• lead generation ideas;
• video and audio materials;
• landing pages ideas;
• SEO strategies;
• backlink building ideas; as well as
• product or service specific ideas.

While each marketer and every marketing team could be teeming with ideas, most of the time they are so focused and pre-occupied with project implementation. This is when you need an agency that can come up with fresh, innovative, practical and useful ideas.

So, if you’re in the process of appointing a new digital marketing agency, make sure you ask the right questions and find out if they can deliver on these fronts. Remember, your (next) digital marketing agency must:

• Have the expertise and track record in your industry
• Be efficient and effective in delivery and implementation
• Have initiative and can generate new, fresh and practical ideas

“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.”
David Ogilvy