Every business must have an effective digital marketing strategy in place. Even mom and pop shops in the plumbing or home industry businesses will not survive without one. Just look at the decline in the number of traditional florists against the huge success of online businesses such as Netflorist. The simple ranking your business enjoys with Google will also play a critical role in leads. And your social media and content strategies can help define your success or failure.
Hiring a digital marketing agency is therefore a big decision and needs to be carefully considered.
If you are looking for help with your online presence, here are seven simple and broad guidelines to ensure your partnership is successful and that you get the best return from your agency:
- You need a Change Agent. Not just another digital agency. Ensure that you have good chemistry with the people you assess and that they will both challenge and guide you to be brave and effective. Their attitude and commitment to your business will have the greatest influence on your success. Don't assess agencies just on how big their laundry list of skills is.
- Always include independent, owner-managed agencies in your shortlist. They tend to have a greater vested interest in your (and their) success. The buck always stops with them and their culture has not been diluted.
- If you are an agile and busy brand, ensure your agency has the technical skills to manage all front-end development in-house, with sufficient back-end skills as and when needed.
- Social media and content creation is a must for all brands - ensure this is not outsourced and that the agency has the right team to manage the content tone and degree of campaign complexity required.
- Make a point to verify the aptitude of the agency's strategists and get to meet them in person before making the final appointment. Digital strategy is crucial to your success.
- Have a clearly defined budget for the agency to work with. They need to cut the cloth in the most responsible way possible to ensure you focus on the correct digital properties. This needs to be done properly - not in a piecemeal fashion. If your budget is tight, don't try and do too many things. Great digital agencies would rather guide you to do an effective job on one property as opposed to dabbling in a variety of properties.
- And finally, references. Always ask for references from existing clients and follow up on them.
If you are seeking a new through-the-line marketing agency, it goes without saying that you would be best served by a highly regarded integrated agency with in-house digital capabilities. Promise Digital is part of the Promise Group, an integrated owner-managed agency based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Visit www.promisegroup.co.za.
