1. Do you know what you want?! 

Are you wanting a lower cost per sale? Are you wanting to scale? Are you wanting to increase brand engagement? Are you wanting to raise awareness about a brand new product/service no one has heard of? These are the kind of basic questions you should be hearing from a prospective agency. Digital marketing isn't a single cookie cutter solution. There's many different tools you can use, each designed to achieve many different things. If an agency doesn't have a deep understanding of what your objectives are, then they're literally guessing what will work for you. Not good. The better you can describe your business objectives, the better your conversations will be with prospective digital agencies.

Are you wanting a lower cost per sale? Are you wanting to scale? Are you wanting to increase brand engagement? Are you wanting to raise awareness about a brand new product/service no one has heard of? These are the kind of basic questions you should be hearing from a prospective agency. Digital marketing isn't a single cookie cutter solution. There's many different tools you can use, each designed to achieve many different things. If an agency doesn't have a deep understanding of what your objectives are, then they're literally guessing what will work for you. Not good. The better you can describe your business objectives, the better your conversations will be with prospective digital agencies.

2. Reviews Please

You wouldn't pay £100 per night to stay at a hotel with no reviews on TripAdvisor would you? Yet for some reason so many prospects I speak to have burned tens of thousands of pounds worth of poorly managed marketing without having bothered to even just check the agencies Google reviews. Many times they were swindled into it by the perception of a 'great deal'. Which brings me to my next point..

3. Don’t be a tight arse.

Let me explain: Let's say Agency A recommends you a £3000 per month Google Ad spend. The moment agency B catches wind of that, there's a fair to strong chance they will sculpt their offer to sound far more attractive. And if they're like a lot of agencies out there, they'll instantly drop their pants and offer to do it for half the price. Your ears perk up because who wouldn't want a deal that great right?? Red flag. The majority of how online marketing is charged (with the exception of SEO and web design) is by click. Which goes straight into Googles/Yahoos/Bings pockets. If a company offers to do it cheaper, more often than not it's coming off your bottom line. Not theirs. To add to that, I'd also advise not to let management fees impact your decision. You will always find someone who will drop their management charges to win your business, however the reality is, campaigns take time and skill to be able to successfully optimise. And if you put your business hat on for a minute; If an agency takes 20% from a £2000 spend, then £400 has to cover everything from paying the relevant staff members, the agencies revenue, to outgoings such as the company power bill! Moral of the story, you get what you pay for.

4. They talk the talk, but do they walk the walk?

A builder once told me not to judge a builders skill on how their own home looks. Which I never understood. So I still do. Run a quick search for their own key words/service areas. If they're not pumping money into the same things they're recommending you to, then that speaks volumes on not only their belief in what they sell, but also their skill. You think it's hard ranking your website against your competitors on the front page of Google for 'Interior Decorators Brent'? Try 'Digital Marketing London'.

5. And lastly, 'The Pub Test'. 

This has been irrelevant until this coming Saturday and this may contradict this entire article) Although it may seem complicated trying to navigate your way through the noise we call 'The Digital Marketing Industry', realistically there is only 2 important factors you need to tick off before working with an agency: 1) can they do the job, and 2) do you like working with them? In the end, that’s all that matters. So once you've narrowed down the agencies you believe could actually run your digital strategy well, go for a beer with them. Whoever you enjoyed absorbing a pint with most, there's your guy!

If this sounds like you, please call the office and ask for Sam!