Insider Tips on How to Choose the Best Digital Marketing Company

Optimizing your online presence has never been more crucial. As more small businesses pivot to eCommerce, you need the best digital marketing company by your side.

Digital marketers aren’t just responsible for crafting high-converting marketing campaigns. They also harness big data to fine-tune campaigns for best results.

Digital marketing agencies understand every online marketing channel’s potential, including social media, email, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and pay-per-click (PPC).

Great marketers refuse to fall behind. Top agencies are always on the lookout for the next big marketing opportunity, like influencer marketing. In fact, more businesses are finding success with smaller influencers as top influencer audiences become less engaged.

Understanding marketing trends is one important benefit of hiring a digital marketing company. Read on to discover more insider tips for finding the right agency.

The Price Is Right

Do you feel limited by your shoestring marketing budget? So many small businesses and startups, especially bootstrapped companies, are in the same boat.

More marketing agencies are catering to the budget needs of small, growing companies. The best digital marketers understand that new small businesses can’t afford exorbitant upfront costs.

Does this story sound familiar?

Tiered Payment Models

Look for agencies that offer monthly tiered payment models. These models typically start with a low-cost base plan and grow higher from there. With each new tier, you enjoy more features.

For example, a third-tier “Bronze” plan may include limited social media management, a set number of monthly blog posts, monthly consultations, or limited keyword research for SEO.

The next step up would be a “silver” plan or something similar. This second tear may include priority support, optimization tools, more frequent consultations, and website redesign.

The first tier, often known as a “Gold” or “Enterprise” plan, would cater to larger companies and enterprises. This plan may include unlimited keyword research, extra customization services, video production, and other services.

Lower-tier plans are ideal for small businesses or even solo entrepreneurs, while larger plans are best for businesses with multiple employees and higher sales.

Tiered plans are ideal for growing companies that want to scale. They’re also designed for autonomy. You don’t have to call a support agent to upgrade or cancel your plan.

These plans are typically billed monthly or annually. Businesses are often given discounts on large annual payments than smaller monthly payments.

Get a Quote

Tiered payment models are great for small businesses, tiny startups, and freelance entrepreneurs. However, when plans are limited to a group of services, you may not receive the type of customized service you need. You may end up with services and tools that you don’t even need.

Furthermore, you could pay more than expected. All those monthly charges add up. Once you start paying for extra services and tools outside of your monthly plan, you can kiss your marketing budget goodbye.

The alternative is full job quotes. This payment model is the most traditional method.

Just like large construction or HVAC projects, you can request a quote for an entire marketing campaign. This quote would include all services and tools needed, including manpower and outsourcing.

There’s a lot of money on the table, so don’t rush into your decision. Research various digital marketing companies and learn more about their payment models.

Request an Audit

Audits are an overlooked hallmark of a great digital marketing agency.

Audits reveal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, also known as SWOT analysis. Digital marketers can perform audits for websites, social media, content marketing, and all marketing efforts.

For example, Infront Webworks uses introductory SEO audits to understand companies’ current search positioning. SEO audits reveal keyword rankings, technical SEO mistakes, competitor rankings, website speed, navigational issues, and more.

If a company doesn’t provide audits, look somewhere else. How can they improve your SEO or content marketing without analyzing what’s there? Digital marketers should also audit past marketing campaign results.

Data-Driven Results

Audits also speak to the importance of data analysis. With so many big data tools on the market, there’s no excuse for digital marketers to not leverage data in campaigns.

Marketers have a treasure trove of data at their disposal. As consumers intertwine with digital experiences, they generate vast amounts of data.

Consumers are generating the following data at any given time:

• Search engine inputs
• Social media behavior
• Past shopping purchases
• Email engagement
• Contact form data
• Website activity
• Web traffic
• Feedback

Marketers break down this activity to discover shared values, approximate annual income, broad locations, gender, age, purchasing power, shared problems, preferred social networks, favorite products, and more.

Digital marketers use this data to develop targeted, data-driven marketing campaigns.

Instead of blasting your campaigns to anyone and everyone, marketers target consumers who are likely to buy your product. This type of targeted marketing converts at a higher rate while saving time and money.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions, especially about processes. Ask about results and past projects. Do they have the data to back up past “successes?”

All data-driven marketing agencies should perform thorough campaign analysis. The best digital marketers don’t move on to the next campaign without dissecting problems with the previous plan.

Stay In the Loop

No one likes being in the dark. Imagine being left in the dark about your own marketing campaign?

Digital marketers should update you every step of the way. This process should include consistent communication, real-time data, budget allocation, search engine position, web traffic changes, PPC campaign process, conversion rates, and much more.

Some agencies have propriety marketing dashboards that let clients log in to view progress. There should also be a primary point of contact, like an account manager, in case you have any urgent questions or concerns.

Discover the Best Digital Marketing Company

Don’t waste your marketing budget on the wrong agency. Follow these tips to find the best digital marketing company for your upcoming campaigns.

Marketing is integral to every business plan. Visit the blog to find more valuable tips for growing businesses.