Most brands are aware they need digital marketing if they want to stay ahead and remain relevant in today’s digital world with its tech-savvy consumers. However, knowing you need a good digital marketing strategy and finding the right digital marketing agency are two different things. Here’s how to find the right digital marketing agency.

While performing a search for the best digital marketing agencies might land you with several potentially good options, it doesn’t necessarily mean those companies and their strategy are right for your brand. Every company is unique—thus, your digital marketing strategy should also be unique and suit your individual needs. 

This means finding the right agency for your brand will take more than just a simple search. It’s about fully understanding what your business needs and finding an agency that can adequately meet those needs. And this can take some time. It’s not a decision that should be taken lightly. 

If you want your brand to succeed, you’ve got to put the effort into finding the right agency that is committed to you and your unique needs—and not all agencies are willing to do that. Some simply like to take a one-size-fits-all approach because it’s easier for them. And while that might work initially, it’s not likely to produce returns in the long run. 

In this article, we’ll review how to find the right digital marketing agency for your brand, as well as things to avoid when making your decision. 

1. Identify Your Goals and Needs

Before you begin your search, you first need to identify your company’s goals and needs. What do you hope to achieve? What specific services are you looking for? And, what is your budget? These are all important questions to ask yourself to help determine what you will ultimately need from the agency you choose to work with. If you don’t know these things already, how can you expect to know which agency will work best for your business? 

2. Do Your Research

Once you’ve identified your company’s goals and objectives, as well as what your specific needs are, then you can start to look into the various agencies available. Again, however, this is about more than conducting a simple Google search. 

After you’ve identified a few potential agencies, you’ll need to dig further to find out more about them to determine whether or not they are a good fit. This includes looking into their portfolio of work, reaching out to their clients to get their opinion, checking reviews and testimonials, and looking into the general background of the company. 

What you are ultimately looking for here is quality of service and reputation. How good are the examples in their portfolio? Are their previous clients satisfied with their work? How long have they been in business—or rather, how much experience do they have? And, what is their reputation? 

Another great way to find the right digital marketing strategy and agency is to look at their social media accounts, their followers, and even the comments on their posts. If they have a good following, are engaged, and generally seem to have positive comments, they likely have a good reputation, and people are happy with their business. 

3. Core Services, Team, and Tone—Do They Suit Your Brand?

After doing a bit of background digging on potential agencies you want to work with, you’ll want to start looking more closely at the services they offer, their team members, and their tone or style. Generally, the best marketing agencies offer multi-channel strategies, which means they offer a variety of options and can better develop a strategy to suit your brand’s individual needs. 

However, even if a company offers the services you need, it still doesn’t necessarily mean they will be a good fit or that they’ll be able to execute a quality plan for your business. Part of finding a good agency is also about making sure they have friendly, experienced staff and are capable of matching their services to your company’s tone and style. 

If their staff seem inexperienced and don’t know what they are talking about, it’s not a good sign. And if they aren’t able to develop a unique strategy that fits the tone and style of your unique brand, that’s not great either. A good agency needs to have solid experience and be adaptable to each brand they work with. 

4. Check Out Their Website Design

Another key thing to take a closer look at is the quality of their own website. If a digital marketing agency can’t create good design and content for themselves, how can you expect them to create good content for their clients? 

Of course, some agencies do prefer simple, minimalist websites that get to the point and don’t distract you with a lot of fancy design elements. Still, the content they have should be well-written, relevant, and informative. If their website is sloppy and doesn’t have good content, they might not be a good fit. 

5. Questions and Communication

The right agency should also be willing to communicate openly with you and answer your questions. An agency that seems to stick to the same sales pitch and isn’t willing to have a genuine conversation with you is likely hiding something—like bad work or hidden fees. 

So don’t be afraid to reach out and set up a meeting to chat. It’s important to get a good sense of who the company is and how well they communicate by chatting with them in person, rather than relying on emails and messaging only. And make sure you come prepared with the right questions. They should have nothing to hide and willingly and easily answer your questions. 

How to Find the Right Digital Marketing Agency. Good questions to ask can include:

• Can I see some examples of your work?
• Is your strategy flexible and adaptable, or do you provide the same service to everyone?
• Who will we be working with/who will be working on the project?
• How do you communicate throughout the project/how easy is it to communicate with you and your team?
• How long do your clients stay with you on average?
• What results have you delivered? 
• What results can you promise, and who will you measure those results?
• What are your prices, and are there any hidden costs or fees? 

Overall, the idea is to get a good idea of how well they communicate and answer your questions. If they seem hesitant, provide basic, rehearsed answers, and seem like they are just trying to sell you something, then it’s not a good sign. You want to work with an agency willing to be real and authentic with you and can communicate openly with ease. 

What to Avoid When Searching for a Digital Marketing Agency

When searching for the right agency to work with, it’s also a good idea to keep in mind things that you should avoid. In other words, you want to keep an eye out for certain red flags in addition to looking for the things that you do want or need from an agency. Just because a company has a lot of things you need doesn’t mean they don’t have some negatives that could impact your business with them. 

The two main things to avoid with digital marketing agencies are unrealistic promises and spammy sales tactics. This is where you want them to have a “show, don’t tell” mentality. If they talk a lot about what they can do for you but have nothing to back it up, then it’s likely that they are just trying to make a sale and won’t necessarily be able to deliver what you want or need. 

So make sure they provide you with real examples and actual results from previous clients. You can also get a good sense of what they can actually do by not just asking what they do but asking how they do it. For example, how will you help us meet our goals? How will you deliver XYZ results? And, how will you measure results? 

If an agency can only tell you what they do but not how they do it, they might not have the skills and experience needed to deliver on their promises. 

EverEffect: Your Premier Digital Marketing Partner

Finding the right digital marketing agency to partner with is essential. No two brands are the same, so it’s important to find an agency that will get to know your brand and your specific goals to ensure you are getting exactly what you need to achieve success. 

At EverEffect, we’ll do all that and more! We don’t just provide the typical marketing services; we will manage your marketing campaigns and strategies from start to finish and continually check in to ensure everything is working according to plan and make adjustments as needed. If you aren’t satisfied, we aren’t satisfied. 

Contact us for a free site evaluation today! Or give us a call at 888.506.2183.