How to Choose a Digital Marketing Agency

In this increasingly digital age, your business needs to quickly and effectively navigate the online marketplace if you want to make an impression. If you don't know how to turn today's online marketing strategies to your advantage, your products and services risk getting lost in the Internet's ever-growing range of content.

That said, no one expects you to become an expert in digital marketing overnight. If you're looking for new ways to engage with your audience, you can turn to a digital marketing agency for help. There are several B2B marketing agencies helping businesses in all industries make a better impression on consumers.

It's one thing to determine that you need a digital marketing agency's help, though, and another to find the agency that suits your business best. Let's dive deep into the world of digital marketing agencies and highlight the red flags you want to avoid in a long-term partner. At the same time, we can help you determine how to find a digital marketing agency by highlighting the professional qualities that can take your upcoming marketing campaigns to the next level.

What is a Digital Marketing Agency?

A digital marketing agency is a business that focuses on the online elements that help businesses like yours better connect with interested clients. You can turn to a digital marketing agency for help with services such as website design, search engine optimization (SEO) and content creation.

Digital marketing agencies can also help you take advantage of social media algorithms as well as the content evaluation tools that can help you target your marketing campaigns to your desired audience. For example, Belt Creative can specifically help you with website design, branding, and much more.

In other words, digital marketing teams work alongside search engine crawlers and related platforming bots to help your content reach as many people as possible.

Moreover, digital marketing agencies help you personalize the marketing materials you put out into the world. Whether you want to optimize a landing page or target a specific demographic with your next carousel of ads, a digital marketing agency can help you get the job done.

Learn more about the services a digital marketing team can offer your business by checking out our online portfolio.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Digital Marketing Agency

When it comes time for you to choose a digital agency to work with, you have to consider which of the many agencies on the market best suit your individual purposes. Likewise, you want to make sure that you're working with a team of people whose strategies you understand and whose attitudes you appreciate.

With that in mind, keep the following factors in mind while you're browsing today's array of digital marketing firms:

Reputation

There are dozens of digital platforms today that can help you determine the scope of a business's reputation. How do you pick a marketing agency, then, when your options are so plentiful? It's best to start by considering a firm's reputation.

Google Reviews, Facebook, and LinkedIn alike allow you to learn more about your fellow clients' experiences with a particular marketing agency. With that in mind, take the time to research a firm's reputation before committing to its service. If a business's reviews say that its team consistently fails to meet its deadlines, has poor communication, and doesn't use the most up-to-date SEO tools, you might want to consider partnering with a different firm.

Experience

It is easier than ever for teams of hardworking marketers to start their own businesses. As such, there are many digital marketing firms in operation today that may only have a year or two of experience helping businesses like yours with marketing.

That limited experience doesn't diminish its marketers' expertise in their field, but it can pose a risk to you and your business. It's often in your best interest to work with a digital marketing agency that's been operating either on a broad scale or in a specific industry for several years. That kind of experience lets a firm build up its reputation. As such, you'll have a better idea of what the team can deliver than you might while working with a team that's still finding its feet.

Agency Size

Next comes the age-old question: what's the right agency team size? Should you go big or go home? Or should you stick to a lean, mean, focused agency? Honestly, it depends on your needs and goals. 

A bigger team can offer more expertise and resources, but it also comes with a bigger price tag and often a lack of personalization that you would get working with a smaller, boutique agency. On the other hand, a smaller team may be more agile and adaptable, but may not have the full range of expertise that your business requires. 

It's all about finding the Goldilocks zone - not too big, not too small, but just right for your business. So, take some time to evaluate your needs and budget, and don't be afraid to ask potential agencies about their team size and structure. After all, this isn’t a fairy tale - it's your digital marketing strategy we're talking about.

Industry Fit

Some digital marketing agencies take pride in serving clients operating in a wide range of fields. Working with an agency that specializes in diversity isn't a bad thing. That said, if you work with a digital marketing agency that has an intimate understanding of your field, your newly-produced content might forge a more effective connection with your audience.

For example, say you work in the legal field and want to connect with clients interested in pursuing personal injury claims. If you work with a marketing team that takes a more general approach to its content, the marketing materials that you produce may not be as evergreen. Alternatively, an inexperienced marketing team may create content for your platform that's inaccurate or out of touch with your audience.

Comparatively, working with a digital marketing agency that has a portfolio bursting to the brim with legal marketing content ensures that your content stays both evergreen and accurate. In some cases, you may even be able to rely on an industry-specific digital marketing agency to think of keywords, backlinks, and other relevant outreach tools that you wouldn't have otherwise considered.

What Are Healthy Digital Marketing Agency Behaviors?

You know how to start searching for a digital marketing agency. But what factors distinguish a good digital marketing agency from a mediocre one? You'll know that a digital marketing agency has your best interests at heart when they value:

Transparency and Honesty

Most digital marketing agencies request information about your short- and long-term goals when you first connect with them. A trustworthy digital marketing agency will consider this information and let you know if they can help your business grow and what techniques they can use to help you achieve your goals. Similarly, a digital marketing agency that prioritizes your long-term success will be honest in terms of whether or not they can tackle the scope of your project.

Any digital marketing agency that tries to over-exaggerate its experience in a particular field or promises unrealistic results on an equally-unrealistic deadline doesn't want to help your business grow.

Alignment and Understanding

Just as there are businesses that offer a range of goods and services to consumers, so too are there digital marketing firms that specialize in helping industries in multiple unique fields grow. That diversity isn't a bad thing. However, you want to be sure that a widely-spread digital marketing agency can accurately represent your business's goals and services in your marketing materials.

With that in mind, don't partner with an agency that doesn't understand your industry or refuses to learn. If you find a firm that knows the ins and outs of your field or that has a demonstrable history of accurate industry research, why not see what marketing strategies they can develop for your business?

Full Access to Deliverables

If you find yourself asking how to choose a digital marketing agency, remember why you came to a marketing agency in the first place. You want to trust that an agency will provide you with the marketing materials you need to make an impact on a new audience. Trustworthy digital marketing agencies should give you full access to your deliverables, even after your contract comes to a conclusion.

What Are Unhealthy Digital Marketing Agency Behaviors?

Unfortunately, not every digital marketing agency operating today prioritizes its clients' success. It may be time for you to consider an alternative digital marketing agency if you consistently find yourself contending with a team's:

Secrecy

Whether it comes to their marketing techniques or plans for your business, no digital marketing agency should prevent you from understanding its methods. A marketing agency that tells you that they can improve your SERP rankings but won't tell you how they intend to do so may be hiding something from you.

Refusal to Communicate

When determining how to choose the right marketing agency, make sure you work with a team that prioritizes the opportunity to communicate with you. You should regularly get updates on your campaign's developmental progress. You should also receive regular feedback upon your campaign's launch. If a digital marketing agency refuses to tell you how the material they've created for you performs, they may not be trustworthy.

Lack of Project Access

With that in mind, read any contracts you sign with a digital marketing firm as carefully as possible. If you have the means to do so, have an attorney consider the language that a marketing agency uses when describing the work they intend to do for you. Should an agency use language suggesting that you won't retain control over your post-contract deliverable, find a different business to work with.

Let's See if Belt Creative is the Right Digital Marketing Agency for You

Are you ready to put your growth strategy in a digital marketing agency's hands? Discuss your long-term goals with Belt Creative. Our team offers website design and development, SEO, and marketing campaigns via HubSpot to businesses like yours. You can count on our team to take a personalized approach to the cultivation of your upcoming marketing campaign.

That said, we know that you need to partner with an agency that you can feel confident will suit your needs. With that in mind, we take the time to sit down with you during a zero-obligation consultation, during which we can discuss your goals for digital engagement.

Are you ready to learn more about what our digital marketing agency can do for you? Contact Belt Creative and schedule your consultation with our marketing team today.