The new school of digital marketing is here to stay. It’s not only about the best content or targeted advertising strategies, it also includes a lot more than that- like analytics and metrics, email campaigns, and account management. Digital marketing agencies are specialized experts in social media management who can offer you help with your business’ accounts across all channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., depending on what suits each channel the most for maximum impact! With every passing day, some changes come up in digital marketing. As a business, you might have time but lack expertise or resources so there needs to be someone from outside looking out for these things.
A digital marketing agency is the best option when a business lacks time or expertise in these fields. They can handle all of your needs and offer you competitive prices for high-quality work. Digital marketers have mastered SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, social media managing, and other important skills that keep customers coming back again. Digital marketing agencies help you get more sales by leveraging different marketing tactics to attract your ideal customer.
Before choosing a digital marketing agency, you must know what your business needs. For example, which of the following things do you need help with:
- The building or redesigning a website
- Identifying your target audience
- Accessing data analytics and reaching your target market
- Improving local search results
- Employing stronger SEO tactics
- Managing multiple social media accounts
- Improving email advertisement click-through rates
If you are considering signing up with a digital marketing agency, there are a few things you should know. Here are few secrets that your agency would otherwise, never share with you:
Social Media Is Not a Sure Thing –
Having an online presence is essential for small businesses to be seen, and social media platforms are a quick, easy, and cost-effective way to promote your brand. However, simply having social media accounts or sending out several tweets a day will not improve your search engine rankings, as confirmed by Google. Yet, social media does indirectly impact rankings. For example, you can dramatically increase website traffic by sharing high-quality content that links back to your website. Sharing strong content will improve click-through rates and may result in more publically shared links which Google & Bing track all of the time on Facebook or Twitter–which could affect how well your page ranks!
Data Analysis Is Essential For Improvement –
If your digital marketing agency does not offer straightforward data analysis consistently, it’s time to look somewhere else. Some companies are not as familiar with this activity as they should be but still pretend to be experts. Your marketing team should be gathering information, performing data analytics, and providing specific feedback and suggestions for improvement. Otherwise, you could be stuck with an email campaign or newsletter format that regularly misses the mark.
Although data analysis is essential, it doesn’t have to be expensive. Be aware that some companies may inflate the cost of this service since so many entrepreneurs and small business owners are unaware of the readily available technologies. Tracking metrics do not need an expensive dashboard and can even be performed using free analytics platforms such as Google Analytics. Some information and extra data interpretation may be worth the added cost, but only if you trust your consultant and are seeing reliable results and improvements.
Local Search May Be The Best Online Marketing Priority –
If you own a small business such as a healthcare practice, your target audience consists of local customers. Unfortunately, many traditional search engine optimization (SEO) strategies concentrate on national or global rankings. Perhaps your digital marketing agency has implemented a bit of SEO but is more interested in a flashy website redesign or other grand schemes. Either way, you should know that, for small businesses, local search should be the priority.
Ranking a local business can be complicated, so make sure your consultant has experience in this area. Start by building your company’s SEO with citations, which may include the name, address, phone number, and web address. This information should be included in places such as articles, press releases, and local business directories. Next, build high-quality links that include both great content and good SEO. Google will reward both efforts, making it easier for potential clients to see your page when asking a question or searching for a string of keywords. For faster results (and cash flow), think about investing in Facebook Ads or Google AdWords. Your agency should be able to tell you which one is more appropriate for your business, products, services, or target population. Stay tuned for more info on this in an upcoming post.
More Pages Do Not Equal Higher Rankings –
Did your current digital marketing agency promise to increase the number of indexed web pages as a selling point? Sales pitches are designed to tell you what you want to do, but building more pages is not always better. Rather than focusing on the number of pages your website has, Google’s algorithms care about search engine optimization, quality content, mobile accessibility, and relevance. Instead of adding to the number of indexed pages, focus on improving click-through rates, lowering bounce rates, and increasing the amount of time a web visitor spends on a page.
Focus More On Your Clients, Than Your Website –
Know Your Client! Every engagement should start with either a half-day meeting or, in the least, a long meeting lunch to become acclimated with. Often digital minds start getting to know their client by simply reviewing their website or social presence. You have to see the big picture! Purchase or sample their product and talk to those who have partaken in its service for an accurate feel of what you are now working on.
Setting Up Great Expectations –
Avoid incorrect goal setting. It is always a challenge to present your results on what you believed was a successful campaign only to find out that the CEO had different standards for success. When it comes down to it, though, understanding your client’s needs will help educate them on how they are going about reaching their goals and make sure all of those key performance indicators (KPIs) align with what they need.
Set It & Forget It – Just Don’t Do It!
What would happen if you just walked away from your campaign and left it all up to chance? The worst thing that could potentially happen is for another agency or company to take over your project. If this does occur, then I’m sure the outcome will not be favorable as they have no value placed on their work like you do. Time should never stop when running a business, so always think about what’s next instead of dwelling too long with one task at hand.
