Choosing the Right Digital Marketing Agency: Tips and Red Flags

Does this scenario sound familiar? You need to focus more on your company’s digital marketing, but have so much to juggle—from an overflowing inbox and reports to prepare, to meetings with employees, vendors, and more.

You understand that collaborating with a marketing agency is a smart way to save time, money, and frustration, but need to make sure you choose the right one.

Here are three tips to consider and five red flags to note, each of which can be useful whether you interview a potential digital marketing partner in person or communicate via conference calls and screen-sharing technology. First, the tips!

Tips

Tip #1: Determine the differentiators

Many digital agencies have the same basic structure and offer similar services. It’s important, therefore, to listen closely to how an agency would approach your unique situation, meet your specific needs, and solve your particular challenges. If you’re interviewing three agencies, for example, how are they different? How did their sample strategies differ? Which intrigues you the most?

Tip #2: Meet the right people

It might sound impressive and feel good if a company’s president meets directly with you, but how likely is it that he or she will be working on your account regularly? Find out who your day-to-day contact will be. If it isn’t the team on the call, ask to also speak to the people who provide services to make sure there is a good fit and you share the same philosophies. Also ask how available agency leadership will be, should you have issues to discuss with them.

Tip #3: Protect your time

The best digital agencies will collaborate with you, which means that teamwork must exist between the agency and your internal team. But agencies will differ on how much time and attention they will need with your team. Ask how much time is typical and what types of input will be needed. Also make sure what’s being requested is reasonable and a good use of your time.

Red flags

To gain additional perspective on potential red flags, we talked to Catherine Connelly, associate professor of organizational behavior at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She provided these red flags:

Red flag #1: Failure to follow through

“Focus on trustworthiness,” says Connelly. A warning sign would be an agency’s failure to follow through. For example, if an agency fails to keep its promises to email supplemental material, to respond to more complex questions raised on the screening call, or to set up a follow-up meeting call, this is probably a foreshadowing of how you will be treated once you’re a client—or maybe it will get even worse!

Red flag #2: Vague or stock answers

“If you ask a specific question, but get cut-and-paste answers, the agency may not really be paying attention to what you’re asking,” Connelly warns. This also may be an indication that the agency does not really provide customized services, even if they say they do. Conversely, if someone doesn't have an immediate answer to a complex or unusual question, and admits he or she doesn't know (and promises to follow up later), that's a good sign that you're dealing with honest people.

Red flag #3: In a hurry

If an agency team sounds rushed on the screening call, Connelly asks, “Will they have enough time to spend with you as a client? Are you really a priority?”

Red flag #4: Slow response times

Long wait times for a screening call or responses to questions, suggests Connelly, may also signal that you’re not a priority.

Red flag #5: Certain types of disagreement

Many times, more than one person from the digital agency will be on the screening call, and it’s possible they might disagree on their responses to one of your questions. Bad, right? Not necessarily, says Connelly. "If respectful, it’s actually fine," she says. "If they are disagreeing but still listening to one another, that’s actually a very good sign. Complex issues typically have more than one approach, and open and honest dialogue about them is healthy, meaning this agency can think through challenges to come up with the right approach.”

That statement also sets the context for some red flags, which include:

• Someone at the agency seems scared to speak up,
• One person clearly runs the show and you can sense others from the agency rolling their eyes

Next steps

Once you've gotten past the tips and red flags, here are more questions to ask a digital marketing company before you hire them.