Digital marketing is no longer a trend only used by the large corporate giants. Any sized company now is using it to promote their business to their target audience. And along with this growth in need, there are many digital marketing companies today, offering their services to business owners like you. But what do you really need to know about digital marketing companies?
Maybe you are exploring your options for the future, looking to find a digital marketing partner soon, or already working with one to build your business. In any case, we’ve gathered the seven most frequently asked questions about digital marketing companies right here. You’ll learn what there is know to confidently hire and collaborate with the perfect digital marketing company for your business’s needs.
What to Know When Searching for a Digital Marketing Company to Help Your Business Grow
1. What is a Digital Marketing Company?
A digital marketing company helps business owners create, execute, deliver, and optimize their digital marketing strategies to grow their businesses. Essentially, they are here to help you deliver effectively on your digital marketing. They do this by leveraging digital channels, like search engines, email, social media, and more to connect with your potential and current customers.
There are plenty of digital marketing companies out there that offer a variety of services and serve a variety of industries. Since digital marketing is a field full of potential, there are more companies every year that are willing to help you grow your business through digital channels.
2. What Do They Do?
While each digital marketing company might offer slightly different services or use a different approach, most of them offer the same core services.
Digital marketing services offered by these companies can include some or all of the following:
Digital Presence
This is creating a well-designed professional website with a great user experience for your business. Your website is the online welcome mat for your business. Hence, good website design and strong copywriting can significantly increase your conversion rate and bring in more leads.
Your digital presence is how easily your target audience can find your business, based on the six subtopics below.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is a highly effective way of getting more organic (aka free) traffic flowing steadily to your website and generating leads for the long term. There are several types of SEO that need to be in place for your website to get the most traffic possible. And a digital marketing company is just right for helping you optimize all of them.
See how we do this at Content First Marketing with this video on SEO blog writing.
Content Marketing
Often this is a part of your overall SEO services package with a digital marketing company. Content marketing brings in visitors and views to your website through content like blogs, white papers, videos, case studies, and more. Many digital marketing services include bloggers with copywriting experience or video production to help you create polished, professional content.
Reaching potential and current customers directly in their inboxes through well-crafted email marketing campaigns is one of the most effective drivers of business growth. As part of your nurture marketing strategy, a digital marketing company can help you design a strategy and write compelling marketing emails.
Social Media Marketing and Management
Creating a strong social media presence and voice for your brand is essential for any business these days. And a digital marketing company can help you do it the right way. This means deciding which platforms to focus on, and creating regular content on those. It also means developing a plan to manage your community and incoming comments.
Digital marketing companies recommend the best way to ignite visibility for your business and generate new leads fast with online ads. Advertising takes place on many platforms online these days, from social media sites to search engines and website ads. A digital marketing company can help you decide which path is right for you, set an effective ad budget, and write ads that really work.
As such, they help balance your unique needs for both SEO and paid ads, like we do here at Content First Marketing.
Online Reputation Management
Keeping the online reputation for your business positive is powerful. However, it’s also a lot of work to manage on your own. A digital marketing agency can help you increase positive reviews properly. And they can help you avoid letting negative ones do too much damage as well.
See why this best online reputation practice is what we use at Content First Marketing.
Not every digital marketing agency will offer every single one of these services. This list is just a starting point. But in general, this is what the top digital marketing agencies like Content First Marketing offer to their clients.
Having many or most of these services offered by one agency is vital to your business success. This is because all these services need to work together seamlessly to be highly effective.
For example, your SEO and content marketing strategies need to be closely aligned to get results. And even your SEO and online advertising strategies are stronger when they work together. Check out our guide to how organic content and paid ads work.
3. What Do Digital Marketing Companies NOT Do?
While digital marketing companies can certainly tackle of lot of ways to grow your business, they don’t do it all. It’s right there in the name – they’re all about digital marketing exclusively.
Looking to run glossy ads in a print magazine, put up a shiny billboard on a busy highway, or another traditional marketing technique that takes place offline? A digital marketing agency usually isn’t set up to be able to help.
Digital marketing agencies also aren’t PR firms most of the time. Looking for someone to get positive press for your business that’s not through creating content or online ads? You should consider bringing in a qualified PR pro to help you.
Ultimately, digital marketing agencies are highly focused on your online presence and marketing, plus SEO services.
As a result, your digital marketing team will help you:
4. What’s the Difference Between a Traditional Marketing Company and a Digital One?
We hear this question from clients a lot – why should I work with a digital marketing agency instead of a traditional one? After all, many general marketing agencies offer digital marketing services along with traditional media forms like print and billboards. So, isn’t it better to have everything in one place?
The truth is that while many traditional marketing agencies do offer digital marketing services, it’s not their main focus. That means they’re not typically as up to date on the latest digital marketing trends, best practices, and optimization practices online.
Digital marketing agencies, on the other hand, live and breathe everything about online marketing. Thus, they make it a point to stay on top – or ahead of – the biggest upcoming trends. That’s why they’re your best bet if you’re looking to develop the strongest digital marketing strategy possible. Digital marketing changes all the time. And because of this you need a partner who will stay abreast of those changes so your business is set to thrive no matter what happens.
Also, traditional marketing agencies tend to be much more expensive for their clients. This can be worth it for larger corporations with big marketing budgets who want to get as much reach as possible.
But for small businesses with limited budgets, digital marketing agencies will deliver only the services you really need to grow your business effectively and affordably with no expensive extras thrown in.
5. What Results Will You Get from Working with One?
Now we get to the big question – why will you get more results working with a digital marketing agency than doing it on your own?
After all, one of the reasons for the explosion in the popularity of digital marketing is that it’s possible for many business owners to do it themselves. There are plenty of options out there that offer a self-service way to help you build a website, send email campaigns, set up ad campaigns, and manage your own social media.
But the reality is, most business owners do not have the time to become a digital marketing guru. Digital marketing is a very wide field that’s expanding and changing all the time, and staying on top of current best practices is very time-consuming. Not to mention the time spent actually setting up and tending to all of your digital marketing yourself.
That’s why business owners get much better results when they hire the right digital marketing agency. It means that you have a team of experts who spend their days optimizing and creating for you. This way, you’re left with plenty of time to do more valuable activities that will also help you grow your business.
The results from your digital marketing company should be measurable – no fluffy vanity metrics – and drive right to your business goals.
Analyzing measurable results can lead you to:
6. Who Should Work with a Digital Marketing Company?
Almost any business is a good candidate for working with a digital marketing agency. There are so many different agencies out there in the market. But this means there are options that range from small shops who work with the smallest businesses or brand-new startups all the way to big agencies who work with huge corporations.
And luckily, this means there’s an option out there just right for your business.
Many digital marketing agencies also specialize by industry. Hence, you can find experts who know exactly what works for your business.
For example, at Content First Marketing we work with all kinds of businesses. But, we also work with a lot of healthcare providers and have developed deep expertise in that area. We know what those providers need to grow their practice. Plus, we understand the extra regulations around marketing and advertising in that industry to help our clients gain patients the right way.
Anyone can work with a digital marketing agency – you just need to find the one that’s right for your unique business.
7. How Can You Find the Right Company for Your Business?
Finding the right digital marketing company can seem like an intimidating search. There are so many options out there, and many of them promise very similar things. How can you tell who will really deliver on their promises and get you the results your business needs to grow?
We’ve developed a three-step formula to find if your potential digital marketing partner will give you real results:
High-Quality Content Creation
So, look at what your potential partner has created for other clients. Are you impressed by the beauty and function of the websites, pleased by the high quality of the content writing and copywriting, and compelled by the ad content? If not, keep looking. Your digital marketing is the online face of your business. Therefore, you want to work with someone who is committed to getting it right.
Consistent Follow-Up
Digital marketing is not a field where you can just set it and forget it. Change happens fast in this field, and you want a partner who is consistently following up to create updated content, keep things fresh, and make adjustments on the go for optimal results. Your life as a business owner gets really busy sometimes, and you need a partner who’s going to keep you on the right track in those times too.
Measurable Results
Too many business owners have felt burned by a marketing agency in the past who promises results but doesn’t deliver ones you can measure. And marketing is certainly a modern art. But it’s also a science that does produce real, measurable data so you can track your growth. Your agency partner should be able to show you how they’ve helped you grow your business with real data.
At Content First Marketing, we’re passionate about being your marketing partner and helping you get real, measurable results to grow your business for the long term.
We Have What Your Business Needs for Digital Marketing
Looking for more personalized help on your digital marketing strategy right now?
Schedule a free business review here to find out how we help businesses grow. You can use these insights for inspiration, and let us do the marketing for you.
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