What to look for in a marketing agency
Marketing agencies can span a wide spectrum of talents, specialties and levels of expertise. That’s why it’s important to start your marketing agency search with a good idea of what you are looking for. To narrow it down, it’s helpful to think about what you need from an agency and also what type of relationship you’d like to have with your outsourced team.
When choosing a marketing agency it’s important to know what you need and what services the agency can provide. Here are some questions to ask yourself
What is your budget? Marketing costs vary widely depending on your industry and goals. Smaller businesses may be able to get by with a more a la carte approach, while larger companies might require you to sign up for more extensive services. Read more about budgeting for an agency here.
What is your timeline? Agencies have varying levels of turnaround time when it comes to proposals and delivering results. Some agencies may offer small projects with quick turnaround times while others are better suited for long-term projects that require more extensive planning.
What do you need? There are dozens of types of marketing tasks and strategies that an agency can offer. These include everything from content creation and social media management to SEO advertising campaigns. Make sure that the agency has experience with the type of work you need to be done so they can give you an accurate estimate of how long it will take them to complete the job and how much it will cost.
What kind of marketing agency do you need?
Consider the strengths of each type before choosing.
The first step to choosing a marketing agency is to understand what type of marketing agency you need. There are many different types of agencies, and each specializes in a different area of marketing. Before you embark on a marketing agency search, consider this:
- Who is your target market?
- How do your potential buyers make their decisions?
- Is your product or service an impulse buy that could be influenced by a flashy or emotional ad, or do your prospects prefer to see cold hard data and spend time weighing the pros and cons of your solution?
Next, gain a firm understanding of what differentiates one type of marketing agency from another. Agencies specialize in many different things, but most fall into one of these four categories. Learn what each type of marketing agency does to see if it is the right fit for your goals.
What does a digital marketing agency do?
Digital marketing agencies focus on finding effective ways to market your products and services online. Digital marketing agencies offer expertise in social media, digital advertising, website development, and search engine optimization, among other things. If you are looking to focus most of your efforts on social selling or online advertising, a digital agency is a good choice.
Social media
Digital agencies can help you find and work with influencers and create your own social campaigns.
Online advertising
Digital agencies specialize in creating and running online advertising campaigns.
Website optimization
Digital marketing agencies can help with SEO and website development.
Digital strategy
Digital marketing agencies typically offer strategies for increasing the traffic to and the impact of all digital platforms.
What does a content marketing agency do?
Content marketing agencies create marketing content like videos, whitepapers, eBooks, infographics, blogs and even special tools like calculators and quizzes to engage prospects in learning more about your product or service.
More than ever before, brands must continuously churn out quality content to get noticed and push prospects toward a purchase. If you are looking to build a sustainable content engine backed by a strategy that moves your prospects through the marketing funnel, a content marketing agency is your new best friend. Content marketers create well-researched, well-written, superbly-designed content that engages audiences. They also bring solid strategies for launching content into the marketplace.
Content strategy
Content marketing agencies offer strategies for creating and launching content that moves prospects through the buyer’s journey.
Content creation
Content marketing agencies develop, write, and design content for marketing platforms and sales enablement.
Sales enablement
Content marketing agencies can help sales and marketing align by creating materials that keep them on the same page.
Messaging and personas
Content marketing agencies can help businesses create messaging frameworks and personas for consistency and better targeted content.
What does a public relations agency do?
PR agencies are marketing-adjacent. PR agencies don’t directly advertise your products or services, rather they position your company and its offerings positively in front of journalists and media outlets to get positive news coverage or product placements. If you are looking to get press coverage for your company, launch a newsworthy product or place your products in front of the eyes of an audience that consumes a particular form of media, a PR agency will help get you just what you need.
Media relations
PR agencies develop relationships with media outlets and can pitch stories on your behalf to try to get news coverage of your products or services.
Public affairs
PR agencies can manage the dissemination of information from your organization in order to control the publicity that is generated from it.
Create goodwill
PR agencies can help strategize and execute events and campaigns that build a positive perception of your company with the public.
Manage public image
PR agencies can manage the public image of your company and/or it’s executives by closely monitoring press coverage and social channels.
What does an advertising agency do?
If ad agencies make you conjure images of Don Draper, you aren’t wrong. Advertising agencies are some of the oldest in the marketing mix and still offer many of the same services today, except now they have many more outlets and tools at their disposal. Unlike Mad Men, modern ad agencies are less about three-martini lunches and more about building creative campaigns, purchasing media slots and collecting data to optimize them. An ad agency can help your brand get noticed on TV, radio and streaming services worldwide. If you are ready to make a splash with a catchy media campaign, an advertising agency is the right choice.
Ad campaign strategy
Ad agencies are known for creating unique campaigns and strategies for purchasing and running ads on digital platforms, TV, radio, billboard, and other advertising outlets.
Ad campaign management
Ad agencies know the ins and outs of media buying and can guide their clients on when and where to purchase advertising or how to shift and optimize their ad spend over time.
Develop creative ads
Ad agencies usually have a creative department the includes graphic designers and copywriters who will develop the content that is used in advertising.
Research
Ad agencies do a lot of research. They can advise clients on ad trends, timing, and other factors that will influence their media buys and help them be successful.
Tools for choosing a marketing agency
Once you know what type of marketing agency you need, it is time to conduct some interviews and choose a partner. Here are some tools that can help you choose the right marketing agency:
Choosing an agency checklist
Make sure your prospective partner checks all the right boxes before you hire them.
Transparent pricing
We believe adding a marketing agency to your budget should be easy. That’s why we’ve made our pricing easy and transparent.
Agency Universe Infographic
Still unsure which type of agency is for you? Check out the infographic.