How to Hire a Marketing Agency: A Guide for Small Business Owners
Over half of all new businesses fail before their first birthday. One of the most common reasons for this is marketing failure. They struggle to gain the attention of their target audience.
If you feel like your company is on the fast track toward becoming part of the statistic, it might be time for you to hire a marketing agency.
Putting professionals in charge of your marketing campaign will allow you to modernize your strategy, and it will save you time. Instead of focusing on how many views your website is getting, you can pour all your attention into running your business.
The question is, how do you choose the right agency for the job? Check out this guide to learn the ins and outs of hiring a marketer.
Have a Goal in Mind
Before you hire a marketer, it helps to know why you need their services. To this end, create a list of goals. It can be something as simple as making more sales or increasing the number of visits to your online store.
Once you know what you want to accomplish, you can start looking around for a digital marketing agency that can help you meet your goals. You can choose a company that provides a general list of services or find someone that specializes in the one or two areas you need.
Look at Previous Client Types
You want the marketing business you choose to have some knowledge of your industry. For example, if you run a painting business, you wouldn’t hire a marketer that’s only had retail store clients. While they might be able to provide general services, if they don’t know the ins and outs of your industry, they won’t be able to help you develop a proper marketing strategy.
Most marketing firms have a section on their website that contains a list of their past clients. If this information isn’t on their website, you can find it by performing a quick Google search.
Check Pricing
The last thing you want to do is waste your time and someone else’s time by selecting a firm that’s out of your budget. That being said, do some quick math to determine how much money you can afford to spend on your marketing each month after paying your bills.
One thing you should be on the lookout for when you’re comparing prices is transparency. If a firm requests that you call them to get a quote on their services, that’s a red flag. Most legit companies provide information about their prices and packages on their site.
Ask for Samples
Hiring a marketing agency before seeing samples of their work is a huge mistake. Many companies have a portfolio posted online that shows off their past work, but it might not be relevant to your needs.
For example, if you want an agency’s help building your HVAC site, you’ll want to see what they’ve done for their other HVAC clients.
Learn Who You’ll Be Working With
You’re going to be working with your marketing agency about as much as you work with your regular full-time employees. You want anyone you hire to be able to fit seamlessly into your work culture.
Ask potential agencies who you’ll be working with and arrange to meet with them personally. They may come highly recommended, but if you get a bad feeling from them during this initial meeting, that doesn’t bode well for your contract.
Check Out Their Marketing
A marketing agency that can’t market its own company effectively isn’t going to be able to do much for you. To review their marketing efforts, take a look at their social media pages and website.
If their website is professional, and they seem to have plenty of traction on social media, it’s safe to say that you can trust them. On the flip side of this, if their website is cluttered and difficult to navigate, chances are, they’re going to do the same thing to yours.
Read the Contract
Before a company does any kind of work for you, they’ll request that you sign a contract. Be sure to read it in full.
Once you sign your name on the dotted line, there’s no going back. If the contract is good for a year, and you decide to cancel after a few months, you may not be able to because you’re locked into their services. They could also force you to pay for the remaining months even after you cancel.
Look at Customer Reviews
The last step in finding a marketing company is looking up customer reviews. No one can tell you what it’s like to work with someone quite like a previous client.
You can get a list of reviews by simply Googling a company. Some agencies also have testimonials on their site that you can check out.
If you can’t find any reviews for a company, and they don’t provide testimonials, you should think twice about hiring them.
Hire a Marketing Agency to Help You Get Your Name Out There
Many new businesses struggle to gain any traction with their target audience when they’re first starting out. If your website isn’t getting the traffic that you were hoping for, hire a marketing agency to help you.
As long as you do your homework and hire the right company for the job, you’ll see an uptick in sales in no time!
For more tips that will help you grow your business with the help of technology, explore the rest of our blog.
