Shopping for a digital marketing agency can be difficult. How do you evaluate companies that offer a service when the service that they offer isn’t something you are familiar with?
Evaluating a digital marketing agency in Charlotte requires that you have at least some basic knowledge in digital marketing strategies and requirements so that you can ask the right questions and filter your list of potential suitors to only those that would make a great fit for your business.
The reality is that you can either hire in-house or outsource to a company that can help you to design and execute a digital marketing operation that will grow your reach and influence within your industry.
Either way, you’ll have to familiarize yourself with some of the core concepts of effective digital marketing to ensure that you are asking the right questions. Often, when new clients come to me, I find that they don’t know the right questions to ask.
With more than 120,000 marketing agencies in the United States alone, you may have a pretty big list of potential partners to sift through and it’s important that you can differentiate between your options reliably.
As you look for the perfect digital marketing agency in Charlotte, consider asking these questions as an initial indicator of whether they will be a good fit:
What Results Have You Been Able to Deliver to Companies In My Industry?
Having an understanding of your industry is critical. At RiseFuel, we typically work with companies in the dental and medical, manufacturing, and technology industries.
While I have worked with many companies that operate within other industries, honing in on a few key industries has served my business well for a few different reasons:
- I am able to develop connections with publishers in those industries, making it easier for me to land placements that generate a measurable return for my clients.
- I have a deep understanding of the customers within these industries, making each piece of content and marketing campaign that much more focused on their needs.
- I know the competition and can help my clients to duplicate their results.
On top of this, we publish many of the results that we have been able to achieve on our Case Studies and Testimonials pages, making it easy for prospective clients to learn about the results that we are capable of delivering to companies within their industry.
Do You Offer Full-Service Inbound Marketing?
The internet is a big place. Far too many agencies fail to realize that establishing a true, reliable presence for a client requires that you take a multi-channel approach that encompasses search engines, social media, email marketing, and other channels, while tying them all together with smart marketing automation practices.
At RiseFuel, I always encourage new clients to take a broader approach to their digital presence, rather than focusing on one specific channel.
Inbound marketing as a strategy revolves around the idea that if you are helpful to your ideal customers, they will come to you when they need your products or services over the competition.
By giving, we receive. To do that, you have to meet your clients on the digital platforms and channels that they frequent. You don’t want to pigeonhole yourself to a specific channel, which is what you will find many SEO and PPC agencies do.
You want to make sure that you have a broad presence that can be leveraged to expand to new platforms as the internet changes shape and new channels arise.
Where Do Your Specialties Lie?
Even though we encourage Charlotte businesses to find a digital marketing agency that is able to provide a broad and complete service, all agencies still have their specialties. Knowing where those specialties lie is important for a few different reasons:
- You can increase your budget in the areas where the agency is likely to produce the best results.
- You can reduce the agency’s workload in areas where they don’t specialize and work with an agency that focuses on that discipline.
- You can align the services that you invest in with your business goals.
Knowing where an agency has most of their experience is important because it helps you to get the most out of your partnership.
If an agency that is really stellar at PPC but offers a range of services, you may choose to push a larger portion of your budget toward pay-per-click ads instead, or hire a consultant to handle channels that you have less confidence in them handling.
Source: Unspun
What KPIs Do You Use to Measure Success?
This is critical for alignment. Both you and your agency want your engagement to be a successful one for both companies. But what “success” is can mean different things to different people.
Understanding what your goals are and what metrics you will use to define success is important for a fruitful long-term partnership.
How Do Approvals and Revisions Work?
You can’t overstate how important it is to ensure that you have the approval and revision process nailed down before you start a new engagement with a digital marketing agency in Charlotte.
As a business owner (at least in the first few months of your engagement until you have built some trust), you’ll probably want to have a look at any content or marketing materials that are posted under your brand.
How will those materials be delivered to your team? Who will evaluate them? Will this be handled through email, or do they use a software solution to help them manage the process?
This process is critical because many marketing tasks can get bogged down by having to reach out to stakeholders, incorporate feedback, and launch campaigns after that feedback is received.
Until you trust that they have an understanding of your brand, you’ll want to have a look at what they are publishing under your name and a slow approval process can doom what would be an otherwise beneficial partnership.
How Do You Handle Reporting?
Do they report daily? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? The frequency in which they deliver reports will depend on the services that they offer.
More importantly, you should ask to see some example reports that they have delivered to clients. This will help you to evaluate how thorough their reporting is and what you can expect to learn about their effectiveness each reporting period.
Need a Digital Marketing Agency in Charlotte?
I help Charlotte-based companies develop well-rounded digital marketing, sales enablement, and automation strategies that grow their presence in their industry and close more sales.
Want to learn more? Reach out today to schedule your risk-free consultation.
