To give your business a solid online presence, you need the help of a digital marketing firm. Research shows that in 91% of small businesses, the CEO also serves as the primary marketer. Playing double roles doesn’t come as a surprise, as 96% of these businesses have five or fewer staff.
Qualities of an Effective Online Marketing Company: Guide for Business Owners
Unfortunately, business owners and managers like you lack time to dabble and experiment online. Your core business—a software firm, professional services company, biotech startup, or manufacturing company—needs you. It would be best if you ran operations. Trying to learn the technical aspects of online marketing and sacrificing time for the business is not worth it.
So why burden yourself when you can leave the technical stuff to an agency? Correct! But now, here’s the challenge: how do you find a 'marketing agency near me'? Do you need the right provider for your business? Here’s some helpful advice.
But First, Be Wary of Unrealistic Promises
A consulting company will typically make the same promise to business owners: more traffic, leads, and sales online. What business owner wouldn’t want those results, right? But the question is, can they deliver? Are they telling the truth or merely making promises to peddle their services? Remember, if the promises are too good to be true, they probably are.
It’s easy to plunge into this pitfall as many businesses urgently need services and assign these needs to providers. For instance, one research found that 63% of marketers will spend more on content creation this year. That’s how badly they need new content. Meanwhile, 50% will spend more on search engine optimisation (SEO) and marketing efforts delegated to agencies.
But while you may badly need these services, remember that falling for the “we’ll give you the moon and the stars” type of promise is the biggest pitfall small business owners make when hiring a digital marketing agency. Be careful when choosing your online marketing provider. After all, that company will represent your business online. Your business will bear the brunt if it creates a faulty and spammy website, publishes irresponsible Facebook status posts, or writes articles with terrible grammar.
So, how do you choose the right inbound marketing agency provider for your business? Here are two qualities you need to look for.
Expertise: Testing and Experience Combined
Unlike major corporations, small and medium-sized businesses also have small and medium-sized marketing coffers. As an owner, you want to ensure you will get your money’s worth when entrusting online marketing activities to an agency. And to ensure you get a return on investment, one of the things you should search for in an agency is expertise.
“Expert” level Internet marketing agencies typically possess these characteristics:
- Carry out research and development
- Conduct testing
- Continuously improve services
- Frontliner in the industry
- Have sufficient experience
Agencies that are experts in what they do are always looking for new techniques and strategies to help promote your business online. They do not merely rely on previous experiences. They keep improving services by combining knowledge and the results of new tests they conduct. They stay sharp through research.
That is why they understand what Google Panda and Penguin updates are, what the Hummingbird algorithm is, and what these terms mean to your SEO strategy. They can maximise online maps, local directory listings, check-in sites, and review sites to boost your local online presence. They know sharing social media content is better than building cheap links and spamming. If a provider is a front liner in the industry and has sufficient experience, there’s a good chance it can also handle and steer your business to online marketing success.
Passion: How Bad They Want You to Succeed
They say passion is a subjective quality you cannot measure. But if you ask any entrepreneur, they’ll say that passion is a crucial factor in the success of any venture. For an online marketing agency to be able to help your business succeed online, they must be passionate about helping you achieve your marketing goals. How can you tell if they have this passion? Ask yourself these three questions:
- Does this agency listen to my needs?
- Do they provide in-depth consultations based on these needs?
- Do they align their services with my marketing goals?
Suppose you answered yes to all these questions, and you’ve determined their expertise based on the characteristics we mentioned earlier. In that case, you might just be looking at the online marketing agency you’re looking for. The critical thing to remember here is that passionate agencies do not simply offer specific packages without first listening to you and analysing your business. No one knows your business better than you do!
That’s why the agency must take the time to listen to you and give you an in-depth consultation based on your needs. Knowing your marketing goals and business needs is always the first step to achieving online success. It’s also an excellent indicator of the agency’s expertise and passion in helping your business make the most out of SEO, Local Marketing, Google, Social Media, Facebook, Responsive Web Design and online marketing in general.
References
Alternative reading
- How marketing companies work
- A marketing agency scorecard
- Your free marketing consultation and agency review
We’re not shy to say we’re experts at what we do, and we’re passionate about helping businesses succeed online. Please message us now at info@whitehat-seo.co.uk or call us at +44 20 8834 4795 to find out how we can help you meet your business goals through online marketing today.
