by About 80% of the new leads you generate will never translate into sales. Meanwhile, 65% of businesses say generating leads is their biggest marketing challenge. Without help, your marketing efforts could fall flat as well.
Instead of struggling to develop an innovative marketing strategy on your own, consider partnering with a digital marketing agency. The best digital marketing company can set your campaigns up for success. With their help, you can reach more customers, generate fresh leads, and improve your ROI.
Not sure who to hire? Find the best experts for your company’s marketing efforts with these tips today.
Know Your Goals
Before rushing to interview a long list of digital marketing agencies, take a moment to evaluate your company’s needs. Understanding your goals can help you make more informed decisions about your marketing strategy. Then, you can find the best digital marketing agency based on the goals you want to achieve.
Establish goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-Driven, Timely). Then, give each goal a key performance indicator (KPI). Creating KPIs will help you track each goal’s progress.
You can break larger goals into smaller benchmarks with deadlines to make sure you’re on the right track.
When establishing goals for your marketing efforts, consider:
- Generating website traffic
- Improving your bounce rate
- Improving your clickthrough rate
- Ranking higher for specific keywords
- Boosting brand awareness
- Generating more blog content
- Gaining social media followers
- Establishing yourself as a thought leader
- Building brand trust and loyalty
You can use different digital marketing strategies to accomplish each goal.
For example, you can use search engine optimization (SEO) to improve organic search engine rankings. Higher rankings will help you generate brand awareness, website traffic, and leads. It can help improve your cost-per-acquisition and ROI, too.
As you meet with each digital marketing agency, ask how they intend to accomplish your goals. They should develop a customized strategy based on your needs.
If they don’t consider your goals, remove that company from our list. They might use a cookie-cutter approach instead.
Consider Their Services
The top three challenges marketers now face include creating cohesive journeys, innovating, and engaging customers in real-time. The best digital marketing agency will know which marketing services can help you overcome these goals.
Once you’ve established your goals, consider what marketing services you’ll need to accomplish each one.
For example, you can use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to generate brand awareness, traffic, leads, and sales.
You can use email marketing to remain top of mind. You can also direct previous website visitors back to your website.
Content marketing can help you demonstrate your experience and expertise. You might position yourself as a thought leader. Becoming a thought leader can boost your credibility, leading to brand trust.
Don’t hire a different agency for each service you’re considering. Instead, find a full-service marketing agency that offers everything you need. Make sure the agency employs experts that can help with each service, too.
Here are a few innovative marketing strategies you might want to consider using this year.
Branding
A bland brand won’t help your business stand out from the rest within your niche. Instead, you need an eye-catching, engaging brand that communicates your value. Communicating your unique value proposition will help differentiate your business.
It can also help you remain top of mind with customers.
It can take multiple impressions with a customer before they become aware your brand exists. To build brand awareness, you need to maintain brand consistency. Your brand elements should appear the same across all platforms.
Your branding includes you:
- Logo
- Mission statement
- Vision statement
- Color palette
- Imagery styles
- Voice
- Tone
- Personality
- Values
Look for a marketing agency that can help build your brand guidelines. Developing brand guidelines will ensure you maintain consistency. Every member of your team will remain on the same page.
Make sure the agency offers graphic design services, too. They can help design your logo if it looks behind the times.
Refreshing your brand could help you attract new customers to your business.
Web Design and Development
Your website can act as the backbone for all your future marketing efforts. In some cases, it makes the first impression between your brand and new customers, too. Better make sure it’s a good impression with web design services.
After all, 38% of visitors will leave your site if it’s poorly designed. Another 38.5% will judge your business after glancing at your site.
Another 40% will leave if your site is slow. In fact, conversions drop by up to 20% per second of load time.
A poor user experience on your site can cause 50% of visitors to choose your competitors instead. A bad user experience will also impact your search engine rankings. Lower rankings will make it difficult for consumers to find your website.
Web design and development services can improve the look and functionality of your site.
Visitors will have an easier time finding what they’re looking for. They can learn more about your business before converting into a lead.
The best digital marketing agency will update your website with user experience design trends in mind. Make sure they have an understanding of Google’s Core Web Vitals, too. Otherwise, their updates might not benefit your SEO strategy.
Make sure your site is fast, mobile-optimized, and user-friendly.
Ask the agency to add multiple conversion opportunities across your site, too. Otherwise, determine if they’re up-to-date with the latest trends. For example, they might recommend adding a chatbot to your website.
Keeping up with the latest trends will help your brand look relevant and in the know.
Content Creation
A strong content creation marketing strategy can help you demonstrate your experience and expertise. Showcasing your expertise can help you position yourself as a thought leader in the industry. Consumers might feel more inclined to trust your brand as a result.
Content marketing is three times more efficient for lead generation than outbound marketing. Over 70% of businesses say content can help increase leads. Another 92% say content is a valuable business asset.
Determine what type of content each digital marketing agency can help you generate. For example, they might help with:
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- eBooks
- Polls
- Quizzes
- Webinars
- Videos
Make sure the agency will gather keyword and audience research before creating your content. Then, they can personalize your content with your customers in mind. Personalization can make it easier for you to connect with customers on an emotional level.
The content they create can benefit your SEO, email, and social media marketing strategies.
Determine how often the agency will create content for your business. Make sure they’ll brand your content, too. Branded content can help awareness and recognition grow.
Posting content to your website throughout the year will keep your site fresh as well.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) can help your website content rank higher on search engines like Google. When consumers search for related phrases, your content might appear. Then, they can click on the link to visit the post on your site.
Improving your SEO rankings will ensure your site ranks ahead of competing brands. You’ll get the chance to generate brand awareness and website traffic first. Ranking ahead of competitors can help you look more credible than your competitors, too.
The best digital marketing agency will consider different components of your SEO strategy, including:
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Technical SEO
- Local SEO
They should also help by offering link-building services. Link-building with backlinks can help boost your rankings further.
If your rankings aren’t improving, you might lack the brand visibility you need to generate more traffic and leads.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Like SEO, PPC advertising is a form of search engine marketing. You can use PPC ads to appear in front of consumers based on search terms. You can also use Facebook Ads to create PPC ads for Facebook and Instagram.
Other social media platforms have their own digital advertising tools as well.
When someone clicks on your ad (or views it), you’ll pay for that click or impression. Then, they’ll reach a landing page on your website. You can use dedicated landing pages to generate more leads and sales.
PPC advertising can get costly if you lack experience. Having an agency handle your marketing efforts can save you time and money. You can feel confident knowing an experienced agency is handling it for you.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing can help you engage customers in real-time. For example, you can host live Q&A video sessions to engage customers. Answering their questions could help them trust your brand.
You can also use social media to expand your reach. Your digital marketing agency can create a content calendar before scheduling your posts.
They can also respond to comments to ensure customers never have to wait for help.
Look for Experience
If you want to find the best digital marketing agency, make sure to look for a team that has years of experience in the marketing industry.
Think about the specific services you need. Determine how long the agency has offered those services. For example, some agencies are new to offering SEO or social media marketing.
If the team lacks hands-on experience offering those services, they might make costly mistakes when handling your campaigns.
A team with experience, on the other hand, has learned over the years. They won’t waste your time and money with trial and error. Instead, they’ll ensure you’re using the best possible strategies from the start.
Try to find an agency that has experience helping businesses within your niche, too.
These agencies will have a better understanding of your target audience. They’ll know which strategies and platforms to use to reach your customers.
With their help, you can start every campaign off on the right foot from the very beginning.
You can find an experienced Digital Marketing Agency here to streamline your search.
Read Client Reviews
Every agency will try to convince you that they’re the best in the marketing industry. Don’t take their word for it. Instead, ask each agency for client reviews and referrals.
You can also find reviews on the company’s Better Business Bureau and Google My Business listings.
Make sure the agency you choose has a strong reputation in the industry. Look for complaints about professionalism and responsiveness. You won’t want to hire a team you’ll struggle to contact in the future.
Reading reviews can help you learn what to expect as a client, too.
Request Case Studies
Before choosing an agency, ask to see case studies for the services you’re interested in.
For example, perhaps you’re interested in SEO. How did the company help clients improve their search engine rankings? Determine how long it took for the client to see results.
Consider which KPIs the agency tracked, too. For example, perhaps they tracked website visitors or leads.
Reviewing case studies can help you learn about the agency’s abilities. If they don’t track their results, how do they know they’re accomplishing the client’s goals?
Ask About Their Process
Ask at least three agencies on your list about their work process.
They should start by learning as much as possible about your business. Then, they should research your industry, customers, and competitors. This research will help them make informed decisions regarding your campaigns.
If the company doesn’t gather research first, don’t hire them. They’ll make assumptions that might hurt your marketing efforts. For example, they’ll fail to personalize your messaging with your target audience in mind.
Compare Prices
Gather an itemized list of services from three different agencies. Determine how they calculate their pricing, too. Some companies offer a fixed rate while others charge based on time.
Compare your options to gauge the average cost per service. If someone’s pricing is higher than the rest, question why.
Don’t choose the cheapest agency, though. Chances are, you’ll pay more if you hire a more experienced team.
Boost Your Business: Hire the Best Digital Marketing Agency Today
Hiring the best digital marketing agency will help you achieve your goals for the year. With the right marketing efforts, you can reach customers, boost sales, and improve your ROI. Find the best agency around with these tips today.
Then, get ready to watch your ROI rise!
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