How to identify a good digital marketing agency

With the advent of Digital Marketing tools & techniques – I’m seeing plethora of ‘digital marketing’ agencies mushrooming across verticals, geographies and platforms.

Some call themselves ‘digital agencies’ and a few have fancier names ranging from ‘content marketing agency’ or ‘performance marketing agency’ or ‘ROI driven agency’. But overall, everyone is eyeing pie of the advertising budgets designated as ‘digital marketing budget’ of any brand!

The digital marketing boom has sparked plenty of startups in this domain and quite obviously, there is everyone in rat race – ‘the good’, ‘the bad’ and ‘the ugly’! Question is, how to identify them?

I thought it would be a good idea to share few observations, which will help you identify a good agency for your brand! Here’s what you should look for:

• Digital marketing is no more a specialized field. It’s ‘integrated’. It has to be part of 360 degree marketing & if your agency doesn’t offer integrated approach – it’s time you think about another agency. Digital – without conventional will fail.

Each click, every impression should link to a tangible benefit in offline world.

• Digital marketing is not about tools. It’s about ideas. An agency striving on its expertise over certain marketing tools or platforms may be good at technical part of it. However, real marketing happens through ‘ideas’.

Smart agencies will put more focus on ideas & treat tools as just means to achieve marketing goals.

• Agencies succeed because of ‘people’. It’s their team’s ability to think which puts them ahead of competition. These days, when agency sizes are shrinking, you must look for a team that is small, diverse, agile, performance driven & has multifaceted talents.  It matters & matters a lot!
• Ask for credentials, seek opinions & if possible – hire them for a pilot project. If agency can exhibit success stories from their clientele, nothing like it. But, it would always be advisable to enroll them for a pilot project instead of a year long assignment.

A paid pilot project is perfect way to begin assessment of any team. It keeps both parties happy and sets strong foundation for a fulfilling ‘client-agency’ relationship.

• Last, but very important point is – go for experience! Nothing beats it. You must trust agencies, which have spent years in building their clients’ brands.

Their experience is their currency. Their failures are guardians of your brand. Their knowledge will become your power!

There can be many other factors apart from the ones I mentioned above. What else would you look for in a ‘digital marketing agency’? Share it in comments below.

Would you like MeDigit to craft digital marketing strategy for your brand? Contact us here.