How to choose an Internet marketing agency and not regret it

At the stage of finding a contractor in the field of Internet marketing, the customer faces the first difficulty: how to choose a reputable agency and not regret it in the future? Years of experience with customers, their problems and tasks allow us to give some good advice.

• Scope
• What should ordinary entrepreneurs do?
• What Internet Marketing Can Give?
• List of Criteria for Evaluating Internet Agency

Scope

It is believed that integrated Internet marketing includes everything related to the creation and promotion of the site:

• Its development,
• SEO
• Contextual advertising
• Using web analytics tools
• Content marketing
• SMM
• Video marketing
• Crowd marketing, etc.

It should be understood that Internet marketing is a very dynamic environment in which new trends are constantly emerging and existing trends are developing.

Now imagine what level the company should be by the number of employees, the material base, experience, and development level to cover all these customer needs. Only large studios, with more than 100 employees and 15 years of experience, can do it. Of course, the price tag of their services tends to infinity: to overpower it in the state of only big business.

What should ordinary entrepreneurs do?

First, to define the goals. Rarely when all these services are needed at once. Usually, people with already working sites come to the promotion, which does not give the desired results. When creating the site, not all owners begin to think about the crowd- or video marketing. The goals will give an understanding of where to go. Not every internet marketing tool can be in demand for a particular segment of the business. How do I determine the best strategy?

If you need everything at once, perhaps it makes sense to hire specialists in your staff? Consider that it is more profitable to invite the studio to outsource or pay its employees? If you need specific services (such as SMM), you should look for highly specialized professionals. More and more studios specialize only in the development or management of reputation in the Internet environment, only on SMM, context, or content. It is worth paying attention to them because they know their sphere of activity thoroughly. You need to be more attentive to SEO: search engine optimization itself does not always work; it needs to be combined with other promotion methods. SEO studios that don’t go beyond working with semantic core and keyword selection are doomed.

What Internet Marketing Can Give?

It should be remembered that Internet marketing is not omniscient: there is still an offline environment, traditional marketing and advertising, which can not be replaced entirely by promotion on the web. The purpose of the agency’s activities is to find new segments of your CA, increase brand awareness and turn the site into an effective sales channel (additional or core – it already depends on the nature of your activity).

It should also be understood that you can choose your own set of solutions for each project: even if the competitor has worked promotion in social networks, it is not a fact that it will become a wand-rescue for you.

In responsible, seriously relevant agencies, the solution to your problem will begin with studying the specifics of the business, the situation in the market, the activity of competitors, and the definition of CA. Next, you will be offered a progress strategy, which will describe ways to achieve goals, combinations of several tools, expected results, timing, and budget.

List of Criteria for Evaluating Internet Agency

To make the most effective assessment, we offer to use:

• The general issues on which the Internet agency should be tested.
• Special ones that work in the field of Internet marketing.

Common criteria

• Experience. This is an important indicator, but only in conjunction with the sphere of activity. Some companies boast a quarter of a century in the market, and then it turns out that the company repeatedly sold and changed the niche. Learn this point: experience in a particular direction of work is essential!
• Awards, certificates, ratings. Examine their weight, scale, and authority of the source. 7th place on Saratov looks doubtful in advance, and Moscow – impressive. The rating can be screwed by providing inaccurate information. An affiliate can issue the certificate. Check the information before you admire the high ratings. Suddenly, the company has more failed projects than successful ones?
• Portfolio. It is necessary to study it carefully and impartially. Click on the links and see how the former client of your potential contractor is doing now. No such references? This is a reason to think.
• The staff. Look at how many employees are in the state, what their qualifications are. The ongoing staff turnover shows that the organization has a problem. Permanent staff is more reliable. Is Vasya’s account manager both SEO, SMM-ear, and content manager? Runaway from this agency: everyone has to do their own thing.

Special criteria

• Communicating with a potential customer. We are not about politeness and respect: this is how we should communicate everywhere. Even if you are not well versed in Internet marketing, you will undoubtedly be able to assess how quickly you answer your questions, how competently, reasoned, and substantive talk about the topic that promise. Ask a few tricky questions and evaluate the reaction. The professional will not answer the difficult question immediately but will take time to “think, count” and explain why it is essential. If you are promised a constant flow of leads and an increase in conversion 80 times per month – this is a blatant lie. Any calculations should be justified: demand them.
• Openness. An excellent contextual advertising specialist will not hide your personal office in Direct. On the contrary, it will tell you exactly where you will see the results of the campaign. And so everywhere: immediately discuss the transparency of processes.
• Specialization. We have already mentioned the orientation to certain Internet marketing tools. It is fine if a full range of services is offered. But what is the price for a comprehensive promotion? If it is high-quality – the cost will be high. And there are not many such players. Sometimes services within the complex are offered “for a tick.” Yes, we can all! Then the quality invariably suffers. Please show the real experience for each of the services. If in doubt, call with those customers, about which the contractor tells, make inquiries. There is nothing to be ashamed of: you risk your time, money, reputation.
• The presence of cases. It would seem that there is a portfolio with projects; what else are the cases, and why is their presence a plus? It is clear that no one will advertise failures. On the one hand, this, on the other hand, the case, its completeness, reliability, and detail, will tell a lot about the approach to work, the attitude to tasks, the methods, tools, in short, about more information. If the portfolio shows only the result, the case is the way to it.
• Scheme of work. There are two common systems. There is streaming when customer tasks are solved consistently or in parallel in the company’s relevant departments. There is a team when a group of diverse specialists is formed for each project. Each scheme has its pros and cons. But to find out the details of who, how, and how much time will deal with you, it is necessary.
• Tracking the results. It is better to talk about the applicable indicators, the means of analytics, your access to them; it is better to talk in advance. Do not be afraid to ask about the meaning of certain values, indicators. You are not an internet marketer and do not have to understand them. How clearly and patiently you will explain these complex things, in many ways, characterizes the attitude of the agency to the client. If professional terms and abysmal phrases respond to a question, it may be worth looking for something that might explain the complex in simple words. Professionals can do it.

Today, there are a lot of Internet marketing agencies. It is essential to find one that will not just deal with the appearance of working out the fee but really will make a significant contribution to your business’s development.