5 Things You Should Know Before Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency in Sacramento
“Digital marketing is an investment and part of doing business. Any surprise here may take up a lot of both your financial commitment and time…”
By Michael Saelee
Are you a business owner, or do you have a website that could use more traffic, leads, and clients? Implementing a strong digital marketing strategy is the one way to do it.
Marketing helps to improve your business presence online, boost its searchability on Google, and the fastest way to improve your sales revenue. According to a survey by MDG Advertising, stats showed 70% of internet users like to learn about products through online content marketing before buying.
But, to get most of your digital marketing, you need to partner with a smart marketing agency. And finding a digital marketing agency in Sacramento, CA is never an easy task. It requires you to learn and analyze a lot of aspects, including a few mentioned below.
Past Performance
you can get a pretty good idea from public reviews, testimonials, and actual results
The success rate is a great way for any digital marketing agency to show its performance capability. And success rate does not necessarily mean their certification, earning, or qualification.
You have to move beyond the obvious and perform your due diligence. Here’s two great ways to pre-qualify a marketing agency:
- Quick method: check their customer’s reviews and testimonials for a good idea of client satisfaction. Satisfaction can mean an agency’s ability to get results.
- Detailed method: schedule a consultation or demo and ask questions. A qualified agency candidate would be able to describe a general marketing plan on-the-spot for your business and industry.
If possible, ask to get in touch with their past clients and hear from them. But, word of caution, some business owners/clients may share, but keep in mind that many will not share because these days a marketing strategy is the business model. Still, you can get a pretty good idea how an agency performs based on public reviews, testimonials, and actual results.
Free CASE STUDY: E-COMMERCE
Marketing Approach
If a Sacramento digital marketing agency does not show a projected return-on-investment (ROI) or sales forecast in their marketing proposal then approach with caution.
Marketing is one of those jobs that never has a set route or cookie-cutter plan. It will keep on changing with the ever-growing marketing trends and public ad fatigue (when people see the same or similar ads often). Your products/services, target audience, marketing activities, and brand credibility will also affect it.
But the approach towards marketing does not change that much. Most Sacramento advertising agencies rely on either a strategic or tactical policy. Both of these approaches come with their pros and cons.
Strategic Approach
In a strategic approach, your marketing agency will spend some time researching and getting to know your perfect customer. It reviews every marketing method you can use and crafts a marketing plan in the form of a marketing proposal/pitch to offer your business.
The strategic approach starts by reviewing data from your business then creates goals, sets metrics (KPIs), and the likely results for using the marketing plan. Metrics and goals may include number of leads to generate, number of leads to create appointments, or projected sales. If a Sacramento digital marketing agency does not show a projected return-on-investment (ROI) or sales forecast in their marketing proposal then approach with caution.
After the digital marketing agency is sure of every aspect of your business then they come up with an organized plan and will provide a marketing proposal of activities to increase your business sales and revenue. Then you review this plan, ensure it aligns with your business goals, make any revisions, and decide to accept the marketing proposal.
It’s a great approach to lower risk and increase success. But the whole strategy forming process looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your business. The process will identify areas in your business to generate more sales, and may uncover business activities that are creating losses that could be mitigated, reduced, or eliminated to boost profits.
Tactical Approach
In the tactical approach, you dive into marketing without focusing much on the strategy. It focuses on your business goal and keeps on changing as needed, to meet it on the way.
It’s suitable for growing and early-stage businesses or startups that don’t have the resources for market research. A tactical approach is preferable if your business has limited customer data/limited sales, has not met product-market fit, or the business is not sure of its target audience. The approach reduces time, enables a test-fast/implement-fast method and helps your business become flexible to future changes.
An example for tactical approach:
A business wants sales leads and wants to know if the market will respond to its products/services. The digital marketing agency will provide a clear tactical plan to achieve the desired outcome, the tools required, and do the implementation.
Getting results is fast using the tactical approach. Good or bad, it will help your business to pivot or double-down on marketing for more results.
You can choose any approach for your business depending on your need. It’s best to go for a Sacramento advertising agency that can do both. This way, you don’t have to find a new agency if you plan to change your marketing approach in the future and a great digital marketing agency partner will be able to adjust your marketing plan to meet different stages as your business grows.
Free CASE STUDY: Lead-Generation
How We Helped A Local Business Get 7 New Clients And Generate A 750% ROI In 6 Days Without Relying on Groupon or Yelp
Scalability
Finding the right Sacramento agency for enhancing your marketing approach is tricky. But shifting from one digital marketing agency to another is even more trickier. You have to go through the whole agency selection process again.
The new agency would also mean new people, new processes, and a whole new way of working. The marketing will need some time to adjust, which can mean delays that are never good for business.
Thus, always check the scalability of the Sacramento marketing agency you are considering. Learn about the systems, processes, or professionals they have. It will give you an idea of their expansion capability and what it means to your business.
It’s best to choose agencies that can scale resources according to your business size. This way, you don’t have to change agency when your business grows.
Organization Size
Marketing firms come in various sizes. You can get these services from individuals or agencies. There are also large-scale companies that can provide these services.
The choice here depends on your business plans and requirements. For instance, if you plan to work on a specific marketing type, individuals are acceptable. The option also comes with some flexibility. You can always hire more individuals, but they may have limited skills or are generalists meaning a graphic designer will not get good results for your Facebook Ads.
The option is also cost-friendly. But, it’s not that scalable. Individuals and solo freelancers often work on many projects and with many companies at a time (including yours). Even if you hire more than one individual, situations may arise from communication gaps, slow turnaround time, and if your business relies on that individual to complete important projects then it could impact your business if they are unable to deliver as needed.
Another thing, getting your individuals to work together may be challenging because they may not enjoy working in teams and that could slow down business operations. It’s an option if you plan to have a dedicated marketing team in the future, an individual working on each part of your business.
If not, partner with a full-scale Sacramento marketing agency. They will have services right from blogs to graphics, to generating website traffic and converting that traffic into leads and sales that you would want for your business in the long term.
Niche Related Experience
Knowing marketing aspects is one thing but understanding your niche audiences’ needs is another. If your digital marketing agency in Sacramento doesn’t have the experience, then marketing suffers.
The lack of knowledge will get reflected in their work. Some aspects they may be able to overcome, but it will take time. Moreover, there is a risk that is bad considering the expenses and their effect on your business. So, try to stick with agencies that have experience in your specific niche or industry.
In case you hire someone inexperienced in the niche, consider getting a demo. It will give you an overview of their skills and whether they can adjust and apply marketing strategies or tactics for your business niche or not. It’s also a good plan to ensure you get the full value of your investment.
Final Words
The pointers you read are the beginning of the digital marketing agency Sacramento selection process. There are some other aspects like finances that you need to understand.
But the aspects above are the rarely talked types. Most websites and videos never speak of them. So, understand them and use them to ensure better impact with low-risk possibilities.
Schedule a consultation today and see how your business can grow with a top Sacramento digital marketing agency like Blitz Front Media.
GET MORE LEADS, SALES, AND PROFIT
Schedule a free consultation to see how your business can use digital marketing and dominate in today's marketplace.