How to get the best out of your Digital Marketing Agency

During my 19 years long career with several leading brands, I have always heard a common question – How to get the best out of your Marketing Agency. A similar issue applies to advertising, PR, and other marketing agencies as well.

Well, agencies existed in various forms over the last several decades. With the evolution of Digital Marketing, a lot has changed in the agency world in the past ten years itself. However, this question (How to get the best out of your Digital Marketing Agency) is still relevant and much more complex today.

What is best for your business is entirely subjective, however, to get the best out of your digital marketing agency, what is most important to get right is AN IDEA. An Idea is critical for your marketing strategy to succeed. A Great Idea, executed brilliantly, can change the fortunes of a company. Please note that there are two elements to it:

1. Great Idea
2. Brilliant Execution

During my career, I have noticed that it is important to get the execution right. Therefore execution has a higher importance in the overall scheme of things.

5 Steps to get the best out of your Digital Marketing Agency

A Brilliant Execution happens when all stakeholders of a program work well together. Therefore to get the best out of your digital marketing agency it is critical that your Digital Marketing Agency can collaboratively work with you to ensure your Brand objectives are achieved. In my experience you need to follow the below five tips to get the best out of your Digital Marketing Agency:

1 Give a clear brief:

You need to make sure that your digital marketing agency understands your business priorities. What you believe will bring success to your business. What is that you want to achieve. If your agency is 100% clear what the digital marketing objective is, it will help them build a better digital marketing plan. I have heard several of my colleagues saying things like we want to gain 100000 new customers, increase online conversions, increase newsletter subscriptions and much more. Yes, all of those are important, and you will measure them. However, it is critical to pinpoint one thing on priority and not to have too many of them.

2 Let them experience your Business:

This is something which is an often forgotten element of the onboarding process of Digital Marketing agency. It will help them to experience your business firsthand. Let them see the point of sale or how the product is used in homes. It is critical that your digital marketing agency gets your business or marketing challenge. This step is often missed in a rush to get to an idea. An aware digital marketing agency will save you much more in the long run.

3 Give enough time:

This is something quite specific to Digital Marketing. Till the time brands decides to go online, everything is hunky dory. However the day a brand decides to have a responsive website or social media presence, everything was required yesterday. You might also come across agencies who will promise you to make you a Google or Facebook star in a day. However please understand that in the digital world testing plays a significant role. If you do not test thoroughly what you have created, you will have a frustrated consumer on the other hand. If you have invested time to select a Digital Marketing Agency, give them enough time, let creative juices flow. As long as your digital marketing agency can connect the dots; keep your calm, collaborate with them and build a great digital presence.

4 Give Clear Feedback:

Several times I have heard feedback such as this is good, or I do not like it, or it could be better etc. However these words are too generic and obscure for a Digital Marketing agency. You should always connect your feedback to your business or marketing strategy/objective. Will your customers like it, and will they buy? That’s what counts here. If the underlying idea makes sense to you, the creative elements such as imagery or copy or other interactive components can always be modified. If you have concerns with the underlying idea, that is what needs to be corrected first.

5 Indicate clear digital marketing budgets:

Digital Marketing in gaining importance globally, however still it is a smaller component of the overall marketing budget. Therefore be upfront with your digital marketing agency what will be your budgets. I have come across several brands, who want the best display marketing channels, however, baulk at investing or experimenting with them. Please note digital advertising is not cheap in absolute terms. However, it is cheaper in terms of targeted conversions as you can measure it.

Partner with your Digital Marketing Agency and follow the above five things. I can assure you that you will be able to find the answer to your question: How to get the best out of my Digital Marketing Agency.