Hiring a marketing agency is a great first step to growing your business and creating a consistent, reputable brand image. Knowing where to start can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve never worked with an agency before. Or, you might have had a bad experience with someone you hired in the past and want to avoid ending up in that situation again.
Here’s a list of questions to help vet your next potential marketing agency that will help you make the best decision for YOUR business.
How do you manage client communication?
Communication with your marketing agency is one of the most important parts of the client-agency relationship. It’s crucial that your agency’s style of communication aligns with yours. If they don’t understand exactly what your goals are, and you don’t understand their feedback, there’s a chance you won’t be happy with your results.
What KPIs do you focus on?
This should be a question that you talk about together with your agency. Their KPIs should be based on the results that you’re looking for, so if they aren’t listening to your goals and input and giving you different, measurable & specific KPIs for different things, they might not be the best choice.
How do you measure success?
This is a question we ask everyone we work with, from partners to clients to interns. Not only is it important that your agency’s definition of success aligns with yours, but it also tells you a lot about their company’s values.
Who are the team members that will be working with me?
This is an important one. Your agency’s team doesn’t necessarily have to have a ton of experience with your exact project or industry, but they need to fit with your company culture. If your business is a high-energy, young, engaging company but the team assigned to your project are quiet and introverted, they might be great employees and marketers but might not deliver the results that you imagine.
When can I expect to see results?
The way your potential agency answers this will tell you much of what you need to know about the way they do business. Different strategies take different amounts of time to see results. An inbound marketing strategy is a long-term strategy, and could take up to a few months to start seeing results. If you’re looking for something more immediate, you make consider running a few paid ad campaigns on social media. Whatever you decide, your agency should be honest with you about when and how you can expect to see results.
If your agency can’t answer one or any of these questions, find one who can. It’s important that your agency is on the same page as you and vice versa, and if one agency doesn’t align with your company’s values, another one will. Contact us to set up a call and find out if we’re the right fit for you!
“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is -- it is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook