How to Ensure You’re Hiring a Trustworthy Marketing Agency

Corey Eridon’s post published on Hubspot raises questions every business should ask itself before hiring a marketing agency. As a business owner, are you ready to place your trust in them? And why should you? Trust is the key to a successful agency-client relationship. Here are a few points that are relevant to consider before signing the contract.

Does the agency practice what it preaches??

One thing you can do is to check if the marketing agency you’d like to hire does to itself what it is supposed to do to its clients. Do they implement their strategy to their own business? Simply check on the website of the company and on their social presence on the Internet. They haven’t been tweeting for a half-a-year or they don’t have a blog?  That’s definitely not a good sign. Don’t hesitate to ask them direct questions like: what kind of content do you use to drive traffic to your website?

See their case studies

Client case studies are one of the best ways to prove success in the industry. It allows you to determine whether or not the company fits your kind of activity. If you are a B2B entrepreneur, do you want to hire a marketing  agency that has worked only for B2C clients? Maybe not. Another thing you can do is to obtain in-depth references just by directly getting in touch with the agency’s clients. This will show you straight away if the company has built strong relationships with them.

Do they understand your goals?

If the answer is yes, they should have a plan for you before you sign any check. Did they identify your opportunities? Or do they keep promising brainstorms? In order to meet your goals, an agency should always do some upfront research.

Are they up-to-date with industry news?

We’re not talking here about marketing industry, but your industry. To find out, ask about their reads and about what you should do to develop your inbound marketing and see if they struggle to answer.

They should focus on the success of your business

It is a significant matter that the agency talks more about strategy and goals to achieve rather than bucks.

The multi-agency approach

Customers have changed, and so have marketing channels. “Web 3.0” has dramatically disrupted traditional ways to do marketing and the way customers interact with brands. According to a BIA/Kelsey study (November 2012), U.S. social media ad revenues will grow from $4.6B in 2012 to $9.2B in 2016. How did the agency you intend to hire handle the fragmentation of the media channels?

In some cases,like a targeted campaign, it can be smarter to outsource slices of the marketing function to agencies specialized in social media, custom content or email marketing. Your benefits will be of three orders:

– accountability: a more targeted approach bring a deeper level of transparency thanks to metrics. Easier to track, easier to perform.

– agility: smaller agencies often offer more flexibility and ability to adapt.

– targeted expertise: vertical agencies may do only one or two things but they do it well.