How To Select The Right Digital Marketing Agency For Your Business

Published by Femi Olajiga in Agile Marketing

How to Hire the Right Digital Marketing Agency to Support your In-house Marketing Team

The marketing function is often considered a cost-centre, rather than value-adding function due to a general lack of understanding of how marketing contributes to business results by executives outside of the marketing function. This is further complicated by a lack of transparency in how marketing activities actually contribute to revenue growth. 

The wrong decision about which digital marketing agency you should hire can result in the loss of revenue, shrinking of your customer base and tangible damage to your brand reputation. As an in-house CMO, Performance Marketing Director, Head of Search, Marketing Manager, small business owner or entrepreneur, there comes a time when you have to look to engage with a digital marketing agency or review existing agencies on your books. If you often ask yourself the question: ‘What do I do now?’ with regards to your digital marketing activities, read on for some myth-busting clarifications you can start implementing immediately to make a difference to your bottom line.

Broadly speaking, the agency hiring process will flow along the following stages:

1. Research & review: Create a shortlist of agencies and freelance digital marketing consultants who might be able to offer the services you need.
2. Initial introductory phone interview: Reach out via phone or email to introduce your company to the agency and request a virtual demo to help you understand their service offerings. You can also invite them to your office for a presentation tailored to your requirements.
3. Presentation: Request that the presentation be delivered by the agency staff that will be working on your campaigns as opposed to a sales presentation. 
4. Decision: Review the profile of the agency staff with your in-house HR team to confirm the skill levels across the agency. Making the wrong decision about which agency to hire will have a direct negative impact on your bottom line.

Questions to consider:

What services do we need from a digital marketing agency?  

Start by evaluating the cost of hiring a full-time employee with agency experience to build your own internal capability. If you are lucky, you will find candidates with agency backgrounds that are highly skilled and motivated with a salary that will cost you a fraction of what you would pay for hiring an agency. The recruitment and development process of agency staff is more sophisticated and cost effective than in-house teams while some will argue that the motivation level is equally higher. If truth be told, agencies hire inexperienced, young and experience-hungry interns and onboard them via intensive training and mentorship programs to develop the skills required to execute a wide range of client campaign tasks. The absence of in-house subject matter experts in SEO, CRO, web analytics is one of the reasons companies hire digital marketing agencies.

The perception that agency staff have more experience than in-house team is a misconception. The question then arises whether or not you should outsource all the services needed to a digital agency as opposed to building an internal team of your own and keeping everything in-house. Before you hire an agency you might want to explore hiring a freelance digital marketing consultant on a one-off or a rolling contract to support your in-house team. Before deciding to hire an agency its important to clarify the gap in your team that an agency can fulfill.

Waste of marketing budget happens when the agency service is duplicating existing skills within your team as opposed to filling in a gap. There is also the option of a hybrid model that integrates in-house teams and agency staff or freelance digital marketing consultant working as a cross-functional Agile marketing team. 

What services can the digital marketing agency provide?  

You have two options, “Full Service” or “Single Service” digital marketing agency. Agencies provide broad industry experience, innovation, flexibility, highly motivated T-shaped skills due to planned staff development and systematic peer review of campaign performance. The other side of the coin is the fact that agency staff are always multitasking across multiple client work which makes prioritization difficult. This, in turn, reduces the quality of output and outcome. An in-house marketing person focuses on a single client and develops industry-specific expertise to become effective which is not always on offer with agency staff. Furthermore, the siloed structure of internal agency teams can often reduce cross-functional collaboration and further complicate situations that require this kind of collaboration.

Some agency services are too focused on a single stage of the customer journey, like acquisition, and these agencies provide channel-specific services around SEO, PPC, CRO, Web Analytics and Social Media marketing. Some agencies provide PPC or SEO services alone, so if you hire these agencies you will need to hire yet another agency to complement their services if and when the need arises.

Under a single roof, full-service agencies provide consultancy services across a combination of multiple marketing channels like SEO, PPC, UX, CRO, Analytics, Neuromarketing, Content, Web Design, Online reputation management and PR. You need to identify which agency or mix of agencies will help you increase your business revenue, depending on your specific needs.

Are there any alternative providers? Should we consider hiring a digital marketing consultant instead?

You have the option of hiring a freelance digital marketing consultant instead of an agency, as this would be a more cost-effective option. Freelance consultants often have more practical, hands-on experience than the interns agencies widely use to execute client tasks. For example, big agencies can charge in excess of £1000 per day for their SEO services, while a freelance consultant’s fee is much less than this.

Agencies also often subcontract actual campaign work to freelance digital marketing consultants, if and when they dont have the resources required to fully meet all clients expectations, so it’s more than likely a freelancer will be working on your campaign even if you do, in the end, decide to hire an agency.

Who will I communicate with within the agency? 

To understand who you communicate with it is important to understand how agencies are structured. From an agency perspective, the client director manages communications with clients while the SEO/PPC executive is responsible for actual work being carried out. Sometimes a client director manages around 10 to 20 clients while an SEO/PPC executive works on a minimum of 4 clients.  Communications sometimes goes through the SEO executive who reports into a manager who reports into an SEO director before the information gets channelled through the client director to the client. From a cost perspective, would you rather work with an agency with multiple communication loops or hire a single freelance digital marketing consultant? 

What should I monitor?  

The location of an agency or freelance digital marketing consultant should not impact on how you manage and monitor expected deliverables. Some agencies provide the option of agency staff or the freelancer hot-desking on-site with the client a few days per month, while some invite clients for regular visits to their office locations. Depending on your budget, you also have the option of requesting to have someone from the agency onsite with your in-house teams for the duration of the campaign.

Request clarification on the collaboration software tools the agency use for existing clients and confirm how this fits with your in-house team’s process and structure. You can explore the option of hiring a freelance digital marketing consultant, which could be a good alternative if you cannot find an agency that will fulfill your requirement for on-site staff to work with your in-house teams.

These freelance digital marketing consultants can provide important cover to fill vacancies when senior members of your in-house team leave. The next step is to clarify whether or not the agency fully understands your business: you would be surprised about the template approach some agencies adopt with their clients.

Clarify how the agency plans to measure performance from a revenue and brand equity perspective: do they have web analytics capabilities which combine both qualitative and qualitative insights? How you monitor the performance of your agency will depend on your in-house team and the mix of subject matter experts available to you. Some agencies prioritise the work of the client that shouts the loudest, which results in reduced time allocations towards less vocal or less demanding clients. 

How long should a contract be? 

Start the conversation by clarifying how long the agency needs before their services start impacting your bottom line. Some organisations make the mistake of signing up to fixed-term agency contracts lasting multiple years, while others engage in 12 months rolling contract with a 3-month termination clause. Freelance digital marketing consultants often offer greater flexibility by working on 1-, 2-, or 3-month rolling contracts, with much shorter termination periods (usually 1 or 2 weeks). The option you choose should depend on your internal team structure and the percentage of employee turnover, as well as how much flexibility you need. 

How will I know they are doing what they are supposed to? 

If you fail to establish clearly defined deliverables and KPIs, there is always the risk that your digital marketing agency will focus on less value-adding activities that make them look dedicated, busy and successful. Metrics that align with increasing revenue are the only way to know your agency are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Ensure your agency provides you with a detailed clarification on how they intend to report on tasks executed and the impact of these on your revenue growth.

How do I protect my investment (time and money)?

In order to protect the time and money you have invested, clarify or re-negotiate the terms with the agency every time there is a change in the team, for example if an A-players working on your account leave the agency, or new members join the team. Understanding how some agencies waste money and time is the first step towards protecting your marketing function from being portrayed as a cost centre by your CFO or accounts department. Agencies sometimes hire fresh graduates and train them up before assigning them to client accounts which is cost-effective from the agency perspective, but might not necessarily in the best interest of the client. Ensuring that the person working on your website or campaign has the relevant experience level.

What industry-relevant certifications and accreditations do people on their team have?

Don’t be afraid to ask how the agency’s internal teams collaborate. Do they have specialists in each marketing channel, or are their skill-sets broader? Fluffy awards like “Best Agency of the Year” sound good, but this does not confirm capabilities and skills required for a specific campaign from the client perspective. Industry recognised training certifications in SEO, PPC and other channels are one way of measuring the level of experience of individuals on the agency team.

Evaluate the experience levels of the agency team responsible for the actual work on your website or marketing campaign. Some agencies allocate majority of the tasks to interns or executives with less than 6-12 months experience, while others offer a stronger supervision and direction to their junior staff. Considering the size of the investment involved with hiring an agency, so it’s always good to be aware of exactly who is working on your account and what experience they have. 

What kind of campaigns has the agency done already focused on B2B, Ecommerce or publication websites? 

The bulk of digital marketing agencies are focussed on top-of-the-funnel activities, as opposed to optimising the entire customer journey. This is evident because of the limited availability of agencies that focus on website conversion optimisation as part of their offering. Some agencies are B2C focused which limits their experience of B2B marketing which has a long purchase decision process and requires alignment with sales teams.

What mix of clients does the agency currently have on their books? 

Not all experiences are applicable to every client. For instance, an SEO agency with a reputable clientele in Ecommerce will not necessarily have the experience needed for a B2B complex sales client. It is also possible for an agency to already be working for your direct and indirect competitors. If this is not the case already, then what is the guarantee that they won’t work with you, gather valuable insights into your business and then use these insights to compete with you in future. The scenario also applies to people working for you in-house which is totally out of your control. 

What budget range do they currently manage? 

Big agencies will only work with multinational clients with huge budgets, while small- to medium-sized agencies work with mid-tier clients and SMEs. The budget size does not necessarily reflect the quality of services or value delivered by the agency and bigger agencies will normally require larger budgets, so even for multinational companies they might not be the most cost-effective option, both in terms of their cost structure and in terms of the level of bureaucracy in the decision-making process, which can delay the implementation of campaigns. Small agencies or freelance digital marketing consultants can provide speed, flexibility and agility required to get fast results from your digital marketing activities. 

What is the composition of their Martech stack? 

Some agencies whitelabel existing generic digital marketing tools with their own branding and charge clients extortionate prices for using these in their campaigns. Beta access to new features and functionalities is another scheme agencies often use to discourage clients for subscribing to these tools directly. The cost-effective solution to clients is to understand the right mix of marketing technology tools they need with a clear appreciation that a ‘a fool with a tool is still a fool’.

You cannot replace people with tools, so you will still need expert marketing technologists on your team to help you harness the full potential of all the tools you choose to have in your martech stack. It is, therefore, useful to understand the skill set of the team, in addition to the martech stack they are proposing to use. 

Does the agency’s fee structure link to results? 

The short answer is – shockingly – not usually! Agencies can charge fees of up to 15-20% of a client’s overall ad spend for Google ads, regardless of results and this is not always in the best interest of the clients. In other words, whether or not you see any return from your digital advertising spend, the agency will still collect their fee at the end of each month. To protect your investment, you must negotiate with your agency a requirement (contractual or otherwise) to provide a clear link between the ad spend and your revenue growth in order to ensure fiscal responsibility, accountability and avoid wastage. 

Wrong questions to ask a digital marketing agency:

1. Do you have an official partnership with top search engines?
2. Do you work with freelance contractors?
3. Have you won any awards?
4. Have you got any case studies we can review?
5. Can we have a long-term contract? Make sure your contractual break clause is a maximum of 30-90 days. 

Pros and cons of hiring a digital marketing agency or a freelance digital marketing consultant:

• Hiring a marketing agency can help save costs – but not necessarily…

Agency pricing model is structured on an hourly, daily, monthly, project or retainer basis. It is sometimes cost-effective to hire and pay agencies on a project-by-project basis to support in-house team’s workload or to bring in specialist skills that you do not otherwise need in your marketing activities. The skill requirements for agency and in-house teams are exactly the same, despite the long-held misconception that agency staff have broader experience across industries. The downside is that agency staff are often over-worked, with frequent switching between different clients’ campaigns, which can reduce the quality of work delivered to clients. 

• Outside help means an outside perspective 

Agencies and freelance digital marketing consultants with T-shaped skills across multiple marketing channels can help your business grow because they can provide an outside-in perspective. Your in-house teams have the tendency of developing blind spots from a strategy planning and execution perspective and a fresh look on the existing situation – however short- or long-term it might be – will always add value. 

• Marketing agencies know the latest technology: 

Marketing technology tools are easily available to both agencies and in-house teams.

• Agency provides you a dedicated team, but… 

Agencies create dedicated teams to work across multiple clients, which means it’s not cost-effective for agency staff to work on a single dedicated client. This means less time spent on your campaigns than you might expect or feel appropriate.

• Skill Diversification

Agencies are often considered experts across the board, eliminating your need for internal training and upskilling. However, although full-service agencies foster diversified skill sets across marketing channels, internal agency teams are often siloed with limited interactions. Eliminates the need for training.

• You can keep up with the latest marketing trends 

Latest marketing trends are often published on industry websites and are accessible to both agency staff and your in-house teams. You don’t need to have a formalised relationship with an agency in order to keep on top of what is going on in the industry. 

So what should you do? 

Hiring a digital marketing agency doesn’t have to be expensive or lead to wasted marketing budget if the selection and review process are detailed and well-structured. Hiring a T-shaped freelance digital marketing consultant with skills and experience across digital marketing channels is often a more cost-effective and flexible option. By doing so you avoid indirectly paying for agency overheads because freelance consultants can work on-site with your in-house team.

If you do decide to work with an agency, I recommend also working with a digital marketing consultant as a neutral third party on an ad hoc basis to get their expert advice during the agency selection process. This will give you access to an unbiased opinion of how suitable the agency you are considering to hire is likely to fit with your organisational structure, culture and direction. 

You always also have the option of developing your in-house skills and capabilities to eliminate reliance on an agency, which is a sensible long-term strategy. This, however, requires more time and some strategic marketing expertise in order to identify the skill sets you should recruit for. This is again something an  Agile Marketing Coach can advise on for a fraction of the standard agency fee. Another option is adopting a hybrid model where agency staff are merely an extension of your in-house team in a complementary capacity, supplementing the skills of your staff with specialisms needed for a specific campaign.

Whatever your digital marketing needs, there is more than one choice out there and there are people who can help you decide which direction is most suited for your business needs.

To learn more about Agile marketing, contact me., If you need assistance developing a hybrid model, or ad hoc consultancy to support your specialist digital marketing agency selection efforts, kindly contact me via email on femi@cxconversion.com or phone on  +447568091722.