What to Look for in Your Marketing Agency Search
When it comes to searching for a marketing agency, everyone has a different set of criteria. It can be difficult to narrow it all down and to identify the agencies that are the most suitable for taking on the job, and then there are other criteria to consider such as pricing and their proven experience.
The good news is that we specialise in helping people to find the perfect agency, and so we have plenty of experience when it comes to hiring and firing them. We also know exactly what you should look for and how you can tell whether any one agency is better than another.
And so with all of that in mind, let’s go ahead and take a look at what you should think about in your marketing agency search.
What to Look for in a Marketing Agency
Before you even get started with looking for a marketing agency, you need to set some goals and parameters. In other words, you need to ask yourself what you’re looking for from an agency and how your company and the agency can work together in collaboration.
This means asking questions like:
- What’s our goal?
- How much is our budget?
- Are we looking for someone strategic or someone to execute?
- If we’re looking for someone strategic, do we want them to guide the process for us?
- What kind of business personality are we looking for?
You can think of finding an agency as being a little bit like dating, because at the end of the day, you need to build a relationship. Bear in mind that just like dating, you need to know who you are and what you want so that you can find a partner that you can communicate with and where you’re on the same page. The agency might also want to vet you as a potential customer before they agree to work with you.
Unless you like to work with agile agencies, you’re probably going to want to look for an agency that already has processes in place so that they can hit the ground running and guide you through the process for whatever project you’re working on.
Other things to look out for include:
- Agencies with a strong track record
- Agencies with a strong culture within their teams
- Agencies with great communication
- Agencies with a low staff turnover
- Agencies where they won’t put juniors on your account
- Agencies where they regularly meet with your team
Of these, strong communication is perhaps the most important thing because it’s needed both when times are good and when times are bad. When everything’s going great, strong communication skills are needed to share ideas and to pitch new concepts. When things go wrong, it’s important for conflict resolution.
Types of Marketing
1. Digital Marketing
Using digital outlets like pay-per-click advertisements and programmatic advertising to reach customers as they use the internet.
2. Offline Marketing
Here, we’re talking about the old school approach to marketing in which we attempt to reach people through direct mail, billboards, TV ads and other offline mediums.
3. Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a catch-all term that’s used to refer to a new type of marketing in which we bring potential customers to us through the creation of quality content.
4. Outbound Marketing
Outbound marketing is the opposite of inbound marketing and is used to refer to the old style of marketing in which we interrupt people with advertisements in an attempt to catch their attention.
5. Content Marketing
This goes hand-in-hand with inbound marketing and is all about creating high quality content that people will go out of their way to consume. Thought leader Jay Baer says that your marketing needs to be so useful that people would pay you for it.
6. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing encompasses both search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) and aims to use search engines to bring potential customers into your business.
7. Growth Marketing
Growth marketing builds on traditional marketing and uses data science and other advanced techniques. These techniques typically include A/B testing, technical analyses and data-driven campaigns.
8. B2B Marketing
B2B (business-to-business) marketing is a form of marketing that’s specifically all about selling to other companies. It typically has a greater focus on lead generation as well as higher average order values when leads convert into customers.
9. B2C Marketing
B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing is a form of marketing in which companies sell their products or services to the general public. These sales are generally for a lower order value, but this can often be offset by focusing on repeat customers instead of one time purchases.
10. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a form of marketing in which a company builds a network of affiliates who sell their products or services on the company’s behalf. They usually reimburse their affiliates with cash rewards for each sale that they make.
11. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is the process of using social networking sites to promote your company and its services. It often goes hand in hand with community building and providing customer service.
12. Brand Marketing
This is the term that’s used to refer to a marketing approach in which you promote products or services by emphasising the brand as a whole, rather than any individual products.
13. Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is the term that’s used for sending out marketing communications directly to specific, individual consumers, rather than using a mass media like television ads. Most people think of direct mail through the postal system when they talk about direct marketing.
14. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is the process of working with influencers across blogs and social networking sites to get them to promote your business on your behalf. This can vary from working with niche influencers on a small scale to paying one of the Kardashians to post about your products on Instagram.
15. Email Marketing
Email marketing is the process of sending out emails to a list of potential customers in the hopes of converting them from prospects to paying customers. It often includes advanced techniques such as automation and segmentation
16. Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM)
Word of mouth marketing is a form of marketing that revolves around turning customers and employees into brand advocates who spread the word about the company and its products/services on its behalf. It’s notable for allowing companies to harness the power of social proof.
17. Event Marketing
Event marketing is a type of marketing in which companies organise either real world or online events in an attempt to reach potential customers. It’s often called experiential marketing because it relies on companies providing people with an experience.
18. Guerrilla Marketin
: Inspired by guerrilla warfare in which smaller groups overpower larger groups by taking advantage of unorthodox tactics, guerrilla marketing is the art of making barely any resources go a long way. Examples include promoting your product in Facebook groups or posting cryptic teasers that create a buzz.
19. Amazon Marketing
Primarily used by B2C brands, Amazon marketing is all about using Amazon search optimisation and Amazon’s self-service ads platform to market your products within Amazon’s ecosystem.
20. Co-marketing
Co-marketing is when two or more brands team up to cross-promote each other’s products and to carry out marketing campaigns together, combining resources in a situation in which everyone wins.
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What’s next?
Now that you know a little more about the different types of marketing agency that are available, it’s time for you to figure out which marketing agencies make the most sense for you and your company.
Of course, we’re more than happy to help and can hook you up with the perfect marketing agency for you, and so it falls to you to identify your goals and to reach out to us today so that we can get the ball rolling.
As always, we’d love to keep the discussion going, so be sure to drop us a comment with your thoughts or to give us a follow on your favorite social networking site. We’ll see you soon for more marketing tips and advice.
