What to look for when hiring an online marketing Agency
When looking to hire an online marketing agency, there are key considerations to bear in mind. Here’s our list of factors as an easy-to-follow guide:
It is not just about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
To the uninitiated, online marketing agencies are all about SEO – this is not the case, and if you find yourself being pitched for new business by an online marketing agency which highlights only Search Engine Optimisation, beware. There are many inter-related facets to online marketing, none of which should be taken in isolation. For us, these facets ideally come together to drive conversion. It’s conversion that counts.
At AlphaQuad, SEO forms one part of our activities online for clients, and in reality a small part at that. Of far more significance, in terms of delivering consistent results for our clients, we base our Search techniques around a far more detailed and involved set of techniques, better described as Search Engine Marketing.
This gets to grips with what the Search Engines and more importantly visitors want, what they look for, how a client can gain long-term credible wins, and with inputs into all other areas of online marketing. It’s the preferred methodology of professional online marketers.
One of the most difficult parts of the relationship between a client and an online marketing agency can arise from the client attempting to understand what the agency is actually talking about.
Tech-speak is a highly-involved, incredibly-specialised language is usually a complete mystery to those outside of the online arena.
If you are being given huge amounts of tech-speak at presentation level, walk away or ask for complete clarification. An online marketing agency hiding behind complicated terminology is not demonstrating the levels of transparency which must be afforded any non-tech based client.
One of the best ways to get to grips with the results delivered by an online marketing agency is to speak to their current and previous clients. And we don’t mean being pointed to a series of testimonials on the agency’s website (which, in all likelihood, were written by the agencies and signed off anyway), but rather actually talking to the agency’s clients. On the phone. Marketer to marketer.
At AlphaQuad, for example, we are proud of our client relationships. We are proud of the results our clients have seen delivered. Many of our clients have been doing business with us for the full 10 years we’ve been in business.
And we’re always happy for potential clients to chat with current clients – our transparent approach to online marketing is a key reason we keep - and delight – clients, year after year.
One of the most disappointing conversations we have with potential clients is when they have been promised the earth from other online marketing agencies or SEO providers.
It is worth considering the fact that you’re not going to get 1,000,000 visits to your website in the first month of engagement with an online marketing agency if you have a niche product in a specialised area. Results – and by this, we mean tangible results which impact positively on your bottom line – take time.
We have seen clients gaining more than a million visits per month to their website, as a result of our online marketing for them. Of greater significance for us, however, are the ongoing results and sales from this sort of focused, professional, delivery-based search engine marketing.
One of the biggest myths regarding online search marketing is that it is fast, cheap and automated. Not so. True, there are elements of low-level SEO activities which can be delivered solely by automated inputs, but the results are also low-level, in our experience.
Of far greater relevance, certainly for us, are the inputs and insights delivered by key online marketers, web developers and copywriters on behalf of clients here at AlphaQuad. The automated processes form a considerably smaller part than any other online marketing activities for our clients.
It is the human interaction which makes for long-term, successful and powerful online marketing results for our clients. One of the main elements of our Search Engine Marketing programmes for clients rests solely upon integrating human inputs to ensure the most powerful client results.
It is similar to the 2-starred Michelin Chef who goes home to eat baked beans – is the agency pitching you actually walking their talk? Can they demonstrate across all areas of their business services, they are on top form for each? If they can’t, how can they do it for you?
It is an obvious point, but we remain surprised by the number of potential clients we’ve spoken to over the years who don’t ask to see online evidence from an online marketing agency that they are as good as they claim to be.
If you can’t see impartial proof across the Internet, why would there be any reason to believe you can expect to see any tangible results of any kind? Insist on seeing the talk being walked online.
This is the biggest intangible in the whole list – trust. Defining trust when hiring an online marketing agency is a tough call. There are no set rules, but the above basics will guide you forward in making a final decision.
Aside from what you hear around the boardroom table when being pitched, which is bound to be positive if the agency are used to selling themselves, how do you define trust?
Trust comes from transparency, openness and objectively-gained credibility. If you can see evidence of delivery, hear glowing results-based reports from clients, and you don’t have to think your way around any unexplained jargon, you may well have found an online marketing agency you can work with in the future.
Can we help?
inter-related facets to online marketing, none of which should be taken in isolation.