Sure, we know that online marketing is important as it is. It's the year 2021, and you're obviously aware that your current/future customers are looking for you on the internet. In fact, consumers often turn to web searching even before they call your company for phone inquiries.

Rather than trying to do it all on your own, consider signing up with an agency to promote your business. Let's face it - digital marketing is complicated. It takes years of experience across many different disciplines just to be successful in it. It's for that reason that many people often reach out to digital marketing agencies for help.

Do you know if the people you trust with your business's marketing are experts in their field? Or are they just fast-talking imitators trying to dazzle you with jargon?

Questions are the difference between success and failure. If you want your marketing strategy to be successful, ask yourself and your agency these questions:

1 - Does The Agency Understand My Business Goals?

Marketing is the process of driving potential customers to convert or buy. It takes anywhere from one to three steps. The process usually begins with awareness, then moves to interest, and concludes with the customer taking action.

In the new era, marketers have to be mindful of their budgets and business goals. For example, spending all your marketing budget on getting people to buy may give you great short term results, but those sales will dry up if you're not making a long-term pipeline.

A marketing agency should ask you a lot of questions. One of the first ones should be what are your goals for the business. Once they understand your goals, they should take that information and break it down into smaller, more achievable goals that a marketing strategy can help to achieve.

Understanding your business comes with the understanding of who your customers are, what your product does for them, who your competitors are, and what the industry is doing. Without this knowledge, you'll struggle to create successful marketing materials and digital marketing campaigns for your business.

Now, you may be thinking that this is a lot of detail, some of which you may not know or may not feel is helpful. But the truth is, the details are what make up your digital marketing strategy. And it's your digital marketing agency's responsibility to help you understand them and identify how they can be useful to your business.

2 - Are My Expectations And Budgets Realistic?

When you first brief an agency, it's important to have goals in mind. For example, one goal that nearly every business has is ranking higher on search engines like Google, which can be very competitive and require a lot of time and effort.

It's important to work with an excellent digital marketing agency that has realistic goals. They should be able to help you assess the resources you have and how to fit them into your timeline.

For example, if you're a small independent clothes store, it is highly unlikely you'll rank above such giants as Nike or Asos. However, many digital marketing agencies can still help. There are other solutions that target getting customers from search engines; for example, you could undertake a PPC Google Ads campaign to compete with bigger names, or look at ranking for easier, competitive search terms such as "clothes store in Lincoln".

3 - Do You Understand The Agency?

You need an experienced digital marketing agency because they know how to market to your audience. Digital marketing is a very complex industry, which requires certain skills to make it successful. Make your company's digital marketing easier to understand by working with a talented company that can explain things simply.

One of the core values of CC Digital is to make sure clients are truly understanding what they are getting for their money. To do this, we want to make sure that you feel comfortable with asking us more about our strategies and plans.

Data is everywhere in business today. In this new digital world, businesses need to make sure they have the right tools. Some companies may prefer a detailed spreadsheet or data dashboard, while others want a combination of the two. A good agency should never just spew jargon. They should always be able to provide data, then explain it in a way that makes sense to you.

4 - What Exactly Will The Agency Do For You?

Digital marketing has many interconnected moving parts, all of which need to be in sync in order to succeed. An excellent search ad can generate more email signups, which can then drive more blog readers. This sounds great, but if you're not using a plan your marketing efforts will be futile.

Marketing strategy is rarely black and white. Statements like "Facebook is only for older people" or "TikTok is the next big thing" are a problem. Those statements make a sweeping assumption about an entire industry without an understanding of the nuances.

TikTok is a new social media platform based on short videos. It has 500 million monthly users, which provides a good opportunity to reach customers. But 41% of the users are teenagers. If you have a product aimed at teens, TikTok is a great platform to use. But if you're a B2B telecommunications company, maybe LinkedIn would be a better place to invest your money.

Finding the right marketing strategy starts with your goals and budget. An agency should research the industry to find opportunities to reach your target customer base and provide a return on investment. Digital marketing strategies can use many different channels, including SEO, PPC, and social media marketing.

The marketing strategy should clearly outline how the company plans to use each of these marketing channels. It should detail when it will pursue goals, milestones, and KPI for each objective. The plan should also include the steps necessary to continue to refine and improve this marketing activity.

5 - What Isn't Working? Can I Have An Audit?

In an ideal world, a digital marketer could have strategy, ads, and targets perfected from day one, but it's not that simple. Understanding this, digital marketers must test and optimise campaigns and strategies. This might mean results don't come as hoped for, but sometimes they work better than anticipated.

It's no secret that in any industry, an ongoing process of testing and optimisation is key to success. We call this process A/B testing, which is the process of comparing two versions of something to see which performs better.

All agencies will tell you that they are doing well, but an excellent agency should be transparent about what doesn't seem to be working as well. They should be adapting to make it work.

When you are talking to your digital marketing agency, it is also important to discuss your tolerance for risk. A risk is a risk, no matter how big or small. These conversations are crucial for success with your digital marketing agency. Investing in innovation and testing new trends is an excellent way to find new opportunities and stay ahead of competitors, but it's important not to take too much of a risk.

A good marketing agency should always have a plan. They should be focused on testing new ideas, while not forgetting the tried and tested methods. An important trait of a good marketing agency is being able to demonstrate that they are well-informed about what works and why they are running tests.

CC Digital offers a free audit that can help you identify what you're doing well and what needs to be improved. Our audits include technical aspects, usability, social media, and more. All you have to do is fill out the form here or give us a call!

Alternatively, we can set up a time for you to chat with one of our experts. We can go over your goals and see if we may be able to help you further.