Hiring a digital marketing agency for online business needs is a no-brainer. I mean, there may be too few (if any) companies who even think of building an in-house digital marketing team to meet the SEO needs of the business.
Now, while going with a professional digital marketing agency is a no-brainer, choosing the right agency with the right expertise is certainly a challenge in itself.
You see, with high market demands and a low entry barrier, new digital marketing agencies keep opening and closing over the internet; each pumping their chest for the best SEO expert in Karachi or any other place for that matter.
So, how do you choose the best digital marketing agency?
Well, don’t fret as we have brought you four simple steps guide to choose the right digital marketing agency, as per your needs and business bottom lines.
Four Steps to choose the best digital marketing agency!
1. Identify your business needs
I mean, how could you hope to find the right company when you don’t yourself know your marketing needs?
Here are some questions that you should ask yourself before even screening SEO experts or digital marketing agencies:
- What do you want to achieve with a professional marketing agency?
- How much time can you take out to work on your marketing task?
- How much budget you are able to take-out for marketing?
Your business needs can be anything from increasing brand awareness to getting more traffic and more creating a loyal clientele to increasing revenues. And each of these goals requires a customized digital marketing strategy.
So, by answering these questions, you will be able to narrow down your search targets and save valuable time and resources.
2. Look out for an agency that has the expertise to meet your needs
Now that you have a clear mind about your marketing objectives, it’s time to start hunting for the right agency.
The first aspect you should look for is the expertise offered by the agency. Remember, digital marketing is an expansive field with various sub-fields falling into it (SEO, SMM, Google PPC, etc.), thereby, in line with your business objective, you will need to screen agencies that offer expertise in those areas of digital marketing.
Furthermore, you also need to compare the cost offered by different companies; that’s more important than you would think.
While you may be hesitant to choose an agency that’s situated in the other part of the world like a digital marketing agency in Karachi, it may be the right choice keeping in view the expertise and cost offered by the agency.
This is important because you don’t really need to spend an arm and a leg necessarily and that it can be achieved within your budget.
3. Complete your background research
Once you have shortlisted few companies, it’s always recommended to conduct some background research for the expertise and level of services offered by the company.
In an ideal situation, you may get a recommendation for an SEO expert or a digital marketing agency from a friend or peer. However, in case you don’t get any personal recommendation you should check out the online reviews and ratings for the company, to have a fair idea about the professionalism and reliability of the company.
ZainulHaq’s tip: Never trust the review/testimonials found on the agency’s website, rather search out the reviews and ratings offered by third-party sites like Yellow Pages and others. Also if possible, try to talk to the past customers of the agency to get a firsthand review of the agency.
4. Ask the right questions
It’s really important to ask an SEO expert or a digital marketing agency with the right questions, to assess their credibility and expertise.
Here are some questions you may ask:
i. Can you show me some of your previous projects?
Any professional digital marketing agency will be more than happy to show you their completed projects. If not, you can search your way out.
ii. Who will be working on my project?
This is yet another important question to ask, as many companies throw the projects to the young staff, once they have the project. Make sure your project is handled by a professional and experienced team.
iii. What’s your client retention rate?
To be precise, the higher the client retention rate, the better.
4. Hold a one on one Meeting Your last step in choosing the best digital marketing agency would be to hold a one-on-one meeting with the agency. It’s important for various reasons like it gives you an opportunity to meet and know the team, assess if they are great people to work with and discuss any specific issue you want them to know before officially getting onboard.