What You Should Expect from Your Digital Marketing Agency

As times change, it’s even more crucial for enterprises to keep up with changes to avoid becoming obsolete. The COVID-19 pandemic made Digital Transformation inside corporations even more urgent. We’re witnessing this across all industries, and it appears the phenomenon is here to stay. A Dell Technologies study pulling data from 18 countries worldwide found that eight out of ten companies have accelerated some of their Digital Transformation programs by 2020, and 79% are rethinking their business model. Digital marketing agencies know this, and that’s why they’re trying to revamp their service offerings and adapt to industry needs. After all, no one wants to get left behind. 

Many businesses need to outsource their digital marketing tasks due to a lack of specific knowledge or the lack of in-house human capital to develop effective 360º Marketing tactics. In this context and a need, there comes the solution: digital marketing companies that offer a range of services.

When choosing, we don’t recommend sticking with the first digital agency you find instead of carrying out a thorough search. Don’t trust the first recommendation from a friend or that low-cost digital marketing and advertising agency that promises good quality. Run a market study, get to know the results that come up for a “digital marketing agency near me” query, analyze what they offer, the resources they employ, and determine if they fit your needs. 

Digital marketing is an investment for now and the future. An eMarketer study found that the return on investment (ROI) reaches 122%, and a content marketing strategy using blogs increases your likelihood of a positive ROI figure by 13%. These figures prove that digital marketing is a safe bet for all kinds of projects. The question is, what are the factors to consider when choosing a digital agency company? Here’s our recommendation. 

What is a digital marketing agency that meets my needs? Here’s what to consider 

Define your priorities

You first need to sit down and think about what you need from this agency: Is it SEO? SEM? Social Media? Know what you want to promote and for what purpose, so you can establish a first criterion to exclude those agencies that are not specialized enough in the fields you are looking for. 

Don’t only rely on Google

Yes, Google is useful, but so are industry-specific professional websites or forums. These resources are more likely to find answers concerning digital marketing agency services that best fit your niche, gain references and insights into other entities’ experiences working with them, and more. 

Research their website and social media accounts

Visit their website before making any firm decision. Their site is a cover letter to the world as well as a critical customer acquisition technique. Suppose they’re a full-service digital marketing agency. In that case, we need to see proof of everything they claim to offer, ranging from responsive design, correctly-used links, usability, and positioning, among other aspects.

• Blog: You want to serve content that brings added value to your readers instead of merely “self-promoting” your products or services. If a digital communication agency publishes content regularly and continuously updates existing articles, they’re points that work in their favor. 

• Social Media: While the number of followers is essential, the quality of the content they publish is even more crucial. 

• Visual Branding: Ultimately, we’re talking about digital marketing. If a web marketing digital agency doesn’t captivate you with all the resources it has in-house, do you think the strategy they’ll create for your organization will delight your potential customers? If you decide to compare them with other entities after looking at their website, something’s not right.

You should also look at their portfolio and look at the websites on their client roster. The more references, the better. If the details don’t cut it, you better keep looking! 

It’s not only quantity but also quality

Don’t trust agencies that promise to place your firm at the top of the SERPs or rapidly increase the number of your social media followers on your accounts. If you carry out these tasks rigorously and organically through a content marketing strategy, the results won’t come cheap nor quickly. 

The importance of technology

We can no longer separate digital marketing tactics from the tech resources we need to execute them. A full-service digital agency that deploys scaling technology through web development services, e-commerce, UX, app design, CRM, or data management platforms (DMPs) has a significant competitive advantage. Why? They offer end-to-end solutions that guide you throughout the entire process and let you centralize all your needs with one vendor instead of working with multiple providers at once. Discover the potential of the strong bond between marketing and technology for tremendous success. 

Are you just one more client, or does that agency make you feel special? 

No matter how many years of experience it has in the space, a digital marketing agency must treat every client’s project uniquely while providing customized solutions as much as possible. If a digital marketing agency limits itself to apply a predetermined model, they won’t unleash all your organization’s potential, and this mistake is one you can’t afford. 

Every business’s website is their online window display for what they do, but don’t forget that the best window display highlights the “most beautiful thing” for its subject. Do your homework and ask the digital agency to disclose the tools they’ll deploy in crafting your digital marketing agency and the scope they cover (and what they don’t). 

Your feelings are also important

As you research the contenders for the best digital marketing agency in Spain, Italy, or the US, some will delight you, others make you ask a lot of questions, and others will make you realize you’re not on the same page regarding their approach.

You should let your feelings matter as well because the client-agency relationship is a pivotal one. If the vibe the agency gives you is right, you have more in common with a digital agency than you think. Trusting your intuition is also an excellent first step to success in developing your strategy.

That said, we also have to point out the elements of a digital marketing agency that can best help you achieve your goals.

The ten key elements for evaluating a digital marketing agency 

1. Personalization

We mean by personalization is a digital marketing agency’s ability to adapt to your industry, niche, or target’s traits and offer your valuable insights beyond generic consulting. Therefore, an agency should give you the option to create custom websites and digital marketing strategies and tactics that fit specific needs at all times. 

2. Data collection and management

The best digital agency knows where and how to manage data and other information from the industry, whether trends or insights. They also know how to convert and interpret the data your organization generates to derive useful conclusions. 

3. Specific platforms and channels to publicize your business.

Not every channel or platform is right for every organization. This approach will help an agency plan campaigns and measure its ROI. Keep in mind that each audience uses specific channels. The first step to drawing those conclusions is identifying your buyer persona and studying the channels to access and consume information to come to your target with an optimized strategy using social media, email marketing, media buying, and more. Also, do not forget the user experience (UX). An omnichannel marketing approach is best as it lets you coordinate all your communications channels to personalize your brand’s interaction with users as much as possible.

4. Technology

Combining marketing actions with branding, web development, an optimized UX, or implementing a CRM system guarantees your organization the best results and a full view of your company’s success. 

5. Qualified human capital 

An agency needs experts in every discipline involved in developing and executing a successful digital marketing strategy, ranging from designers, copywriters, digital marketing experts, SEO analysts, and more. 

6. Creativity

Your business is unique, and so is your project. It needs creative, one-of-a-kind concepts. That’s why you need a creative team that knows how to manage your brand identity and the needs stemming from it to get the most out of an authentic brand. This skill is fundamental for branding and developing a branded content strategy to foster genuine connections between a brand and its customers.

7. Processes

Ensure that the agency’s processes and your organization align while establishing coordination to work productively if an agency employs the Agile Methodology or Scrum to optimize its operations. As its name suggests, this work method lets us work in a more agile way while getting the most out of the resources we have at our disposal. 

8. Look for innovation

If there’s no innovation within an agency, all is lost. Gartner’s Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2021 report noted that omnichannel and connected experiences, privacy enhancements, artificial intelligence, and hyper-automation are the initiatives leading the way. The key to applying innovation to our decision-making criteria for finding the right agency is that the digital agency has a MarTech “end to end” focus that lets us think outside the box and apply innovations to internal processes that create a competitive advantage against their peers. An example of this at We Are Marketing is our partnership with Salesforce. A seal of guarantee in this sense is that the agency has partnerships with companies that are centered on technological solutions, like Salesforce. 

9. Communication

The agency and client teams must have a constant communication flow to ensure both sides are on the same wavelength when defining ideas and goals. Match criteria and establish seamless communication using briefs.

10. Exclusivity

Your agency partner must put all its efforts towards developing a one-of-a-kind campaign in your vertical. It’s hard for them to meet this commitment if it has potential direct competitors on its client roster.  

The specific needs of your company are the most important and relying on a team that takes care of covering these needs is fundamental to achieve common goals. Strategy, technology, and creativity are three key elements to have in mind when choosing your digital agency. 

At We Are Marketing, we are a digital marketing agency and consultancy in Madrid, Valencia, and Milan. We use the best of both worlds, bringing together marketing and technology to transform your business and accompany you from start to finish, helping you the whole time with the complete experience. 

We want to help you jumpstart your business! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.