Hiring an inbound marketing agency can be a stressful business decision. You have the risk of hiring the wrong agency which can set your business or digital marketing objectives months or perhaps even years.
If you’re a company that lacks the in-house talent or simply lacks the time to get your digital marketing initiative complete, hiring an inbound marketing agency will benefit your marketing team and your business.
In this article, we’re going to discuss some of the things you should consider when hiring an inbound marketing agency.
Why Hire an Inbound Marketing Agency?
If you are a business or a part of a digital marketing team, you know the importance of having a website that works for you . You want your website to introduce potential customers to the solutions you have to the problems, also known as your product or service.
However, getting inbound marketing set up for your business is highly time-consuming and requires knowledge and skills that you may not have the resources in-house. In this case, it may be appropriate to test the waters in hiring an inbound marketing agency to take over some of the workloads of you or your team.
Take Your Time Finding an Inbound Marketing Agency
One mistake that businesses make when hiring an agency is not taking the time to analyze and make the right decision. They are so anxious to get their tasks accomplished that they rush into hiring the wrong agency.
Typically, it takes several months to get the results you want to see from an outside marketing agency. There needs to be time dedicated for the agency to become acquainted with the industry and its own business. It doesn’t make sense to expect results right away and rush the hiring process.
Be sure to have meetings and get multiple proposals from several agencies. The overall hiring process should take at least a month. You need to be comfortable with the work the agency will provide to you and the people that will be working on your account. You can essentially think that the agency will be an extension of your marketing team. If you don’t want to rush the hiring of a new member to your in-house team, why rush the decision to work with an outside agency.
Look for Case Studies
An important vetting tool to determine if a marketing agency can perform is to look at their case studies. If your business is in a specific niche like senior healthcare, you want to work with an agency that has experience working in that niche.
An agency that specializes in SEO should probably mention using content marketing to help their clients boost website traffic. Content marketing should be their bread and butter. A social media marketing agency should showcase how they increased follower counts and brought in more conversions for their clients through strategies they implemented.
Unfortunately, many inbound marketing agencies will take advantage of the fact that you are desperate for help and will always say they can do whatever you need because they need the business. Oftentimes, you will be left with poor results because the agency has no experience in the niche you’re in and won’t put in the time to get to know the industry or business.
Asking for case studies is a great way to avoid this. Case studies demonstrate the experience the agency has, the problem they faced, how they solved the problem, and the final results of their solutions. You can take a look at their case studies, find some that align with your business needs, and determine the strategies the agency used to anticipate the results you may receive.
Find Customer Testimonials
Another great way to determine whether an inbound marketing agency is right for your business is to take a look at their customer testimonials. Marketing agencies tend to feature their best customer interactions on their websites which can give you more insight into their expertise and previous work experience.
A more true tell as to the experience of working with the agency is checking their Google My Business , Facebook , and Yelp reviews. The company has no control over the quality of the comments, as they will get flagged for trying to remove bad comments or negative reviews.
A big tell to how well a inbound marketing company works is to look at the type of customers they are getting endorsements from. If an agency works with blue-chip companies, like Forbes or Microsoft you know they must do a great job. But the bigger names the agencies work with, the more expensive they will be to work with. Find an agency that works with companies similar in your size and you should be golden.
Another great measuring stick is to see if the marketing agency is listed on Better Business Bureau , Manta , or another trusted Digital Marketing directory. This lets you know the marketing agency is a legitimate business and not a scam.
Analyze Their Website and Marketing Strategy
It is a big red flag if the inbound marketing agency you are planning to work with aren’t implementing marketing strategy they claim to be experts in.
For example, if you are looking for a website management agency that specializes in Search Engine Optimization and notice that the website does have an XML sitemap or the website loads slow, you might not want to work with that agency because they are not following the best marketing tactics for SEO.
This is not to say that if a marketing agency doesn’t have 10,000 followers and isn’t ranking in the top 10 of Google that they are a bad agency. It’s more along the lines that if they claim to be experts in a certain niche of digital marketing and they are not practicing what they are preaching, that is a major issue and you should avoid those types of agencies at all costs. If you are using a social media marketing agency, their own marketing strategy has to reflect the best practices being used on social media.
Ask The Right Questions
If you narrow your choices and jump on an introduction call with the agency, you must ask the right questions. Don’t hold back either! You need to ask anything and everything that’ll help you gain trust in investing and working with that agency.
Below is a list of questions you can potentially ask an agency during your introduction call.
- What is your agency’s expertise?
- How big is the team at the agency?
- What timezone does your agency function in?
- How does reporting work? Are you doing weekly or monthly check-ins?
- How long should I expect to see results?
- Describe the onboarding process?
- What tools do you need to accomplish the task outlined in front of you?
- Do you have experience in working “enter your niche industry here”?
- Do you have case studies to support your working in “enter your niche industry here”?
- What are the payment terms? Do you work on a retainer? Are you charging one upfront charge month by month?
- What does the off-boarding process look like? Do you have a minimum work period? Can I cancel whenever I want?
- What is the minimum ad spend or budget you work with?
Also, analyze the questions the agency is asking you about your business and the tasks needed to be completed. The agency should sound like they have a vested interest and confidence that they can get the job done properly. They should take the time to get to know your business and industry like it was their own business.
Conclusion
Hiring an inbound marketing agency can take a lot of pressure off of you and your marketing team. Remember that you are the customer and need to have your needs met. You need to take your time and ask all the right questions. Vet the agency’s expertise by looking at its website, customer testimonials, and case studies.
If you do everything right, you’ll have a resource that will generate tremendous success for your business’s digital marketing initiatives.
This article was updated on January 25th, 2022
