Don’t Hire a Digital Marketing Agency that Lacks These 5 Qualities

Sinking your money into the wrong digital marketing company can feel a lot like buying a losing lottery ticket…you just don’t know it’s a loser until you’ve paid your money! But here’s the thing, there are ways to tell that the marketers you’re entrusting your digital branding to are winners. 

If you’re thinking of hiring a digital marketing agency, investigate to see if they have these five essential qualities:

1.   The Right People 

Every business is only as good as the people they hire. When you meet with your potential marketing team, there are certain attributes they should have. First, they should be experts, either collectively or individually, in search engine optimization (SEO), web design, graphic design, programming, social media, analytics, and sales, to name a few!

You should feel like you can trust the team in charge of your marketing. More than having the right skills, they should be honest, professional, and punctual. 

Meeting deadlines is more than a courtesy — it can make or break a marketing campaign! If a product rollout has to be delayed because the graphics aren’t ready, the video hasn’t been uploaded to the website, or they’re constantly late in getting back to you with updates, they’re not the team for you!

2.   Up-to-Date Tech

Digital marketers should be able to produce fresh, relevant content, since they’re in the business of digital marketing! Would you trust a car mechanic that used blacksmith tools? If you wouldn’t, don’t trust a digital marketer that still has Myspace listed on their marketing materials or one that uses Commodore computers. 

Any digital marketing team worth their “ones and zeroes” needs to be on the cutting edge of tools and trends. 

If they’re going to build you websites, take care of graphic design, and create videos for your campaigns, they’ll need powerful, modern hardware and software — perhaps even AI automation for certain functions. 

3.   Analytical Capabilities

As your campaign rolls along, your digital marketing team should be able to process appropriate metrics to guide their strategies. Being able to see the click-through rate (CTR) of site visitors and monitor views, followers, and demographics will help them to know if they need to course-correct along the way.

Being flexible as analytics flood in is a sign that you’ve hired a solid team. Staying on a losing track just because they put in hours writing copy, shooting video, and programming a website isn’t going to turn the ship around. The team needs to have your best interests in mind, finding flaws and fixing them before more money is spent going in the wrong direction.

4.   A Strong Track Record

This almost feels like it should go without saying, but we’re going to say it anyway. If you can’t find satisfied customers or profitable marketing campaigns from a digital marketing agency, don’t hire them! 

You should easily be able to find testimonials from previous clients and determine whether a company has actually helped to make money for you. That’s why it’s best to hire a performance-based digital marketing company!

Look for awards, too. Seeing that they’ve gotten industry recognition for their output tells you that they put in time and effort to craft their branding. It will also show you the breadth of clientele they serve and whether they have worked with someone in your industry before.

5.   Transparency

Every dollar you spend needs to be tracked. Where is your money going? You should have access to all financials.

If your contract has some legal holes in it, that’s where you and your business can fall through. Trust should be able to be documented. Once you sign on the dotted line, you put yourself in their hands, so be careful what you sign.

You also want your agency to be transparent about its failures. Everyone has some, but you should only go with a team that’s learned from its mistakes. If an agency refuses to acknowledge their failures or deflects blame, run.

A Performance-Based Digital Marketing Company

At Insights ABM, we are the experts that will help your brand stand out! We’re the people who were building websites for fun when we were kids. Our team members have had a lifetime of eating, sleeping, and breathing digital marketing — and we want to put that expertise to work for you. 

Contact us today and find out how we can take your brand further than you thought possible.