Something tells us that if you’re browsing our site, you have something in mind! You’re probably looking to surround yourself with specialists to push your business forward online. Today there are many digital marketing agencies, and finding your way among them isn’t always easy. How do you make sure you find the rare gem that can make your brand shine? Understanding how an agency works will certainly help you make a more informed choice. So let’s get started, here’s everything you need to know!
What is a digital marketing agency?
A digital marketing agency advises and guides its clients in building their web strategy.
The rise of the web has deeply changed our habits, both in life and in how we shop. In just a few clicks, users now have access to a huge range of products and services. Faced with growing consumer demand for online shopping, businesses have had no choice but to adapt, rethinking both their business models and how they communicate.
Digital marketing grew out of this need for businesses to carve out a place for themselves online and gain visibility with the right users.
Finding what you’re looking for on the web has never been easier. Consumers have become pickier and quicker to move on. Digital strategies need to help businesses stand out. Most of the time, the goals are to promote the brand, generate new leads, and keep existing customers loyal, since the pull of the web is strong!
Digital marketing agencies build different practices to carry out their strategies as the web keeps changing. They rely on tools like websites, social media, search engine optimization (SEO), paid search (SEM), local marketing, and email marketing.
Big-budget print campaigns are slowly fading away in favor of social media ads, and our mailboxes are happier now that email marketing has taken over from direct mail.
How does an agency work?
Depending on its size and the services it offers, a digital marketing agency can have several departments that work together day to day. Some projects only need one team, while others call on all of them at once.
Strategy
Strategy is the foundation of any marketing project. It defines the target audience, the deliverables expected, the tactics to focus on, the timeline, and the results expected. Strategy is built around goals set by the client and/or found during the audit done beforehand. This audit should uncover openings by looking at the market and the competition.
Content creation
As the saying goes, content is king online. It’s what presents your business and sells your services. Content marketing acts as your brand’s voice, strengthening its image and boosting how well known and visible it is.
It covers SEO, social media management, and the content on your website’s pages. Blog posts, in particular, hold a top spot in content strategies for bringing in traffic.
Web design
This is the department in charge of building and developing showcase or e-commerce websites for the agency’s clients. Web design has to meet needs around conversion, performance, user experience, and SEO all at once.
Developers build the site based on mockups made to fit the client’s needs. The sites the agency delivers should turn visitors into customers through a smooth user journey.
Graphic designers, meanwhile, bring ideas to life visually, drawing on their artistic eye. They work on many kinds of visuals, from website design to ad banners to social media posts. Graphic designers are also often brought in from the strategy stage onward, especially to shape and design a new visual identity for the agency’s clients, through the well-known logo and, more broadly, the brand’s visual guidelines.
Digital media
Most agencies have a team dedicated to digital media, and some even make it their specialty. This covers everything to do with advertising on social media or search engines, paid search (SEM), and programmatic display ads.
Marketers build campaigns based on data gathered over the course of previous ad projects, along with information shared by the client. This way, they make sure they’re reaching the right audiences for each campaign and its goals.
Project managers
Agency life and the range of projects call for a lot of flexibility and organization across all the teams.
Project managers act as the conductor, bringing in the right people at the right time. Often, they’re the main point of contact for the agency’s clients, keeping all communication in one place so nothing gets lost. They track projects and put together reports on the results achieved.
Agency work
Agency projects vary widely. Depending on the goals set by the client and the scope laid out in the contract, the agency guides its client through building their digital strategy, whether that covers everything or just part of it.
Among the main things agencies handle:
- Analyzing the client’s market
- Identifying key targets and new openings
- Clarifying short, medium, and long-term goals
- Setting the strategy, the communication actions to take, and the KPIs
- Rolling out the communication plan
- Tracking results and putting improved measures in place
Why work with a digital agency?
There are several reasons you might turn to an agency. These include:
- Refreshing or building your brand image and visual identity
- Improving your visibility
- Growing your audience or reaching a new one
- Increasing your sales
- Promoting the launch of a new product or event
The advantages of working with an agency
Working with an agency mainly means getting the expertise of qualified specialists.
First, the agency looks at your current communication and gives you a fresh set of eyes. Well versed in the best practices in the market, your agency should be able to advise you on a strategy that fits today’s realities and bring you the latest ideas to help you stand out.
Beyond saving you time and letting you focus on your core business, your advisors give you a new way of looking at your operations. Working closely with many different businesses, these specialists have a broad view of what works and what doesn’t. So they can point you toward openings you can act on to grow your business!
Your working relationship is set out in a contract. Your agency then commits to certain deliverables and some guarantees around the results expected over time. It promises ongoing support so it can put better measures in place if needed.
Tracking data is, in fact, very easy to gather online. With print campaigns, once a poster is printed at scale and put up on ad spaces everywhere, there’s no easy way to pull it all down if the campaign flops or gets bad press.
Online, everything is different. Your marketing agency can track your digital tools in real time. At any point, it can adjust the content, the target audience, or even the budget set aside. So you can easily keep your costs in check while running actions that pay off and make more of an impact.
That said, this kind of working relationship still takes some of your time, if only to put together briefs, sign off on plans, and share your timelines. No need to worry! Your business stays the priority. Your agency should be able to work at your pace and around your needs.
How to choose your digital marketing agency?
Your digital agency will quickly become someone you can count on.
If things go well and you keep coming back to the same agency year after year, you build a smooth, lasting partnership. Over time, your account manager gets to know your company’s values and identity inside and out. That makes it easier for them to communicate your messages in a way that stays true to your brand. Briefing and sign-off time will get much shorter!
Before you decide, take the time to pick a few agencies that fit what you’re looking for. Look at what they offer, their pricing if it’s listed, and their reputation.
Most agencies have a “Project” section on their site showing off their projects. Taking a look will tell you more about the kind of projects they usually handle, their clients, and the creative direction of their team. You can also check the reviews and feedback shared on their Google Business Profile.
We’d suggest setting up an initial meeting with the agencies that caught your eye, so you can compare what they offer, their rates, and how well you click. Word of mouth also works really well in this field! Don’t hesitate to ask the businesses around you who they work with on marketing.
