Is my marketing agency doing a good job?

Great guest blog provided by a client of On Point.

At Cyberwalker Digital, we see time and time again, business owners throwing money at marketing agencies without understanding what they’re really paying them for.They understand the importance of having a marketing agency. And, they can see that the marketing agency is doing some work for them because they see things be printed or put online. But, the problem is, they aren’t really sure if any of the strategies are getting them results. If they are getting results, it’s comment that they are not sure where from.

To help you evaluate your marketing strategy and learn how to talk to your marketing agency so you can better direct them to what you want, we’re answering the question:

1. Are they providing you with regular performance assessments that show results? If your marketing agency is doing a good job, they will be able to provide you with regular statistics reports. They should be tracking everything do. The best agencies are continually evaluating their progress and adjusting the strategy to ensure you continue to improve.

Based on the services you’ve hired them for, you’ll want to ask for the following:

SEO – Analytics reports that show: How many visitors are coming to your site, how long they are staying on each page, what pages they are viewing, and what keywords are effective
Email marketing – They should be showing you: Open rates on emails, percentages of links clicked, and where contacts are entering into your funnels.If they are really good, they will split test emails to help them understand what strategies work best with your target audience.
Social Media – Are they evaluating your social media strategy? If they are sharing information on: Number of links clicked, contacts entering into email funnels from social media posts and likes and shares for posts, this is valuable information. Based on this information they should be suggesting ideas for new social media content. Have they given you your Klout score? Is it going up?
Print marketing – Corporate cards, postcards, flyers and billboards can be more difficult to track than online marketing tactics. However, they should be following up with you to gather the information that will tell them whether a direct mail piece or billboard brought in potential leads.

2. Are they asking you lots of questions? True marketing experts ask a lot of questions, especially when they first start working with your company. It helps them understand: Who your target market is, how to build an effective strategy, and what you are trying to capture with your brand.

If your marketing agency quietly works away without regular communication and then sends you a bill, consider this a red flag.

3. Are they letting you in on their strategies? Do you know what your marketing agency is doing for you and how it all works? It’s okay to ask them question about how they do what they do. If they are reputable, they’ll be willing to share strategies with you and explain how they work. If you ask them how they do something and you get an answer like “it’s too technical for me to describe it”, get rid of this agency.

4. Are they knowledgeable? And are they willing to admit when they don’t know/understand something? Expert marketing agents are highly knowledgeable. If you visit their site and see valuable blog posts and articles, that’s a good sign.

If you find that they are willing to admit to their weaknesses this is also a highly valuable skill. While they are experts, it’s impossible for them to know everything about your business. If they are willing to admit to what they don’t know, and are open to learn, you’ve hired an agency that is committed to producing results.

If you are concerned that you are not getting value for your marketing dollars please email your questions to kay@cyberwalker.com. We’ll answer your questions for free. As a reputable agency, it’s important to us that we help businesses steer clear of the bad guys in our industry.

Kay Svela

VP Business Development at Cyberwalker Digital LLC