For most business owners with little time, navigating the world of digital marketing is a daunting task. Many businesses require a dependable and capable digital partner to handle their internet marketing needs.
There has been a tremendous increase in online investment and the availability of advertising platforms in this era of digital marketing. Online retail sales in the UK climbed by £100 billion in 2014, while digital advertising expenditure increased by 800 percent to £7.2 billion between 2004 and 2014.
All types of businesses are responding positively to consumer demand and investing heavily in an online presence. Digital marketing companies are in high demand, and they play a multi-faceted and sophisticated role in delivering digital campaigns and projects intelligently and rapidly.
With the rise in the number of digital firms in recent years, finding the correct one has become tough. It doesn’t help that many of these organizations are inexperienced and learning on the job. In recent years, there has been an explosion in the number of digital marketing businesses in Canada that are assisting clients in their quest for success.
Where in Canada is the digital marketing business booming?
The three primary marketing centers in Canada, like the banking, finance, and accounting sectors, are located in the country’s three largest cities: Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. These three cities are home to some of the country’s most prestigious marketing agencies and companies, with a variety of marketing opportunities available to the appropriate individual.
So, whether you’re seeking for a job as a marketing manager, a social media expert, or a search engine optimization (SEO) professional, you’ll almost surely find a variety of opportunities in Canada.
That’s fantastic news for Canadian marketing experts and young graduates. That’s equally good news for businesses of all sorts and sizes who get to choose the best firms out of a vast selection of some of the most advanced marketing solutions providers in the country.
How To Choose The Right Digital Marketing Agency?
It’s not easy to pick the proper digital agency from a growing number of identical solution suppliers. As firms’ marketing priorities continue to shift toward the digital marketing mix, the market is becoming increasingly crowded.
You must consider the following factors in order to identify the suitable agency that can deliver on its promises and accomplish your marketing objectives:
Understand your needs and your budget
Understanding your requirements is the first stage in the process. The more you can articulate your company’s demands in terms of website, SEO, advertising, social media, and graphic design, the better your interactions with potential digital agencies will go.
You should also be aware of your budget and the amount of money you are willing to spend. You are not purchasing a radiator for your car, so there is no set pricing. A smart marketer should be able to work within any reasonable budget and help you set realistic objectives.
Do your homework
Prior to choosing a digital marketing agency, you must conduct extensive research. It says a lot about a candidate’s reputation, experience, and skill. Remember to visit a company’s blog to assess the quality of its posts before engaging them for content marketing. Check the agency’s Google rating if you want to improve your SEO.
Personal recommendations, especially those from trusted friends, colleagues, or family members, are extremely useful when selecting digital marketers. Furthermore, each agency must present you with references, which serve as evidence of its previous work. By providing you with a list of previous clients’ contact information, you will be able to contact them.
Check the skills and credibility of the agency
Maintain the same selection criteria as if you were selecting a permanent employee for your organization. It is critical to check that the agency employs experienced and skilled personnel that will produce high-quality results for your company. The agency should be able to meet deadlines and manage their responsibilities effectively, just like the rest of the company’s employees.
When selecting an agency, it is critical to ask probing questions about their staff abilities and competence, as well as a list of former clients with whom they have worked and their comments. Inquire about the costs you’ll have to pay and how your relationship with them will work out in the long run.
Negotiate to get the best quote
It is advisable that you compare quotations with other prospective competitors of that agency when picking the proper agency because you want to make the best investment of your money and not regret it later. Negotiation is key here because if you do it correctly, you can get the best deals within your budget without sacrificing the quality of the work.
By including a break clause in your contract, you offer your agency a deadline to complete their deliverables within the agreed-upon time frame of 3-6 months, and if this does not happen, you can decide whether or not to continue working with them.
Compose a list of questions
After you’ve narrowed down your list of potential digital marketers, prepare a list of pertinent questions to ask them in person or over the phone. Most agencies bring potential clients into their offices for interviews, while others prefer to answer customer queries over the phone. Schedule a face-to-face interview with each candidate, if possible, to evaluate both their knowledge and their attitude toward clients.
A reputable firm will also supply you with a portfolio so you may look at some of its previous work. You should strongly consider inquiring about the project’s professionals, as well as the results they promise to deliver. It’s critical for the firm to make reasonable promises rather than making hollow claims.
Questions To Ask Your Digital Marketing Agency
When choosing a digital marketing agency, “How much do you charge?” isn’t the most critical question to ask. While there’s no doubting that the pricing must meet your budget, the agency must also be able to justify their fee and much more.
They must not just claim, but also demonstrate, that they can provide value to your company. Here are some things to ask to ensure that your prospective agency can back up their claims of accomplishment!
Who will manage my account and who will do the work?
When you ask these questions, you’re guaranteeing that your account won’t be totally outsourced to another firm. Many digital marketing firms outsource some of their services, such as development or graphic design, but the majority of what they do for you should be handled in-house.
This is due to the fact that excessive outsourcing nearly invariably equates to lower quality. You’re also paying them for little more than administrative and management chores if they’re outsourcing everything from creative to analytics.
How long will it take to see results?
Is it really a week? Is it really a month? A year? If you don’t know, you could end up stuck with an agency while waiting for results. On the other hand, you don’t want to hire a digital marketing agency expecting your conversions to jump overnight if that isn’t the case.
Set clear expectations for when you’ll see benefits and be aware that it may take some time to get started. However, be aware of organizations who provide extremely ambiguous timelines.
How does our business compare to the rest of your clients?
Being the biggest customer of an agency isn’t a bad thing, but it’s all about degrees. If you’re a multinational corporation with millions of dollars in annual revenue, and all of their other clients are locally owned small enterprises, you might want to inquire about their ability to satisfy your – unquestionably much greater – requirements.
If, on the other hand, the agency mostly serves worldwide firms with millions of dollars in revenue and you’re a smaller company, you’ll want to ensure that your account is treated equally to their other clients. Will your company have a dedicated account manager? Is the firm willing to operate within your budget? Are they as experienced with running local campaigns as they are with national or global initiatives?
How do you keep up to date with industry changes?
It’s fantastic if your agency’s crew has been with you for a long period. It demonstrates that they have prior experience. However, in the realm of digital marketing, things move quickly. Inquire about how they manage these rapid changes and how much time they commit to training.
In addition to our regular training, we provide our employees with two days per year for self-learning and professional growth. It’s the most effective strategy to ensure that we provide industry-leading service.
How will you work with us day-to-day?
Who will you be in contact with? What software do they use for project management? Will you be able to see how much money you spent on ads in the relevant interface?
Service and transparency should be just as important as the work itself, and a successful agency will have the structures and processes in place to guarantee that these values are included into their interactions with you.
How will you measure results and ROI?
A marketing campaign’s success can appear to be difficult to assess. How do you gauge brand recognition, people’s perceptions of your brand, and how much they enjoy your content?
What is the solution? Using data analytics. A competent digital marketing agency will have the resources and expertise to track KPIs such as unique visitors to your site, bounce rate, and so on. A good one, on the other hand, will collaborate with you to find the KPIs that are most relevant to your marketing objectives. They’ll then utilize that data to track progress and influence future initiative.