Do you feel the FORCE?
Way before the hunt for a digital marketing agency, you need to think critically about the role a digital marketing agency would play in achieving your business objectives. Defining your “Why” before you begin foraging is super important. Formulate a template and a checklist before you sign up a contract to help you in maybe planning for accelerated growth, redesigning your brand, or branching into new territories.
If you ask marketing agencies why a client engagement failed, they most likely will point fingers at the client. If you ask the client, they’ll invariably blame the agency. However, clients and agencies alike can be at fault. Both can be difficult to deal with, can fail to live up to expectations, and can miscommunicate or insufficiently communicate. Sometimes it’s the agency’s inadequacies, the client’s unrealistic expectations, or flimsy factors that indirectly influence client-agency breakups.
A clear list of services you would like the agency to take up needs to be defined. Your marketing team needs to take a decision on what activities need to be done in-house and what needs to be outsourced. The agency you hire has to understand your vision statement, ideas, give you analysis and measurables, custom construct your campaign with your target customers in mind and make the right decisions for you. It’s important to find ‘the agency’ which will fit well with your business goals and your budget.
Searching for ‘the agency’ is the next step. Once you shortlist your likely agency, check out their website - how they maintain their blogs and UX/UI. Try to figure out if they specialize in your niche. Post studying their portfolio, cross check their service offerings and verify your findings against your reasons. Thoroughly research them.
Once the checklist has been ticked off send in a proposal request to the agency. The realistic scope and direction of your advertising stems from a clear understanding of your business model and your customers demographics.
Later on ask them for a free audit and devise a board strategy. Evaluate their assignments. Look out for these too good to be true signs post connecting with the agency. If it feels too good to be true it most likely is a scam. The right digital marketing agency not only understands and acknowledges that, but also makes it clear that achieving realistic goals takes time.
If you are happy with their PoA, get to know the team. Be very clear with the deliverables and understand the anatomy of the agency you have chosen. Understand their capabilities, working and pricing model. Look out for restrictive contracts and be wary of the same when signing.
Once you have signed on dotted lines, sit back and relax with a cuppa.
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