Digital marketing is essential for the growth of every business, especially in this digital age. You have to pay attention to the trends in the marketplace and hire the best agency with tons of experiences to offer. Be prepared to be educated about your options and their services that can help your business grow. You have to be prepared mentally, physically and financially because one wrong move will lead to your business’ failure. In today’s world, there’s a thin line separating success and failure. That thin line is whether you take advantage of digital marketing or not. You need to be well-informed and be prepared when you plan to hire an internet marketing company. The big question is “What do I need to know about Digital Marketing?” Here are some pointers before you make your first meeting with the agency.
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Research everything
You need to know everything about the basic concept of Search Engine Optimization or SEO before you hire a Digital Marketing expert or an agency like Augusta GA digital marketing. You can find tutorial manuals, videos or articles that can introduce you to SEO like Search Engine Journal or Think with Google. Knowing the digital world landscape will give you an advantage in knowing what services you need. It also protects your business from being taken advantage by companies looking for easy money. You need to know your website, from top to bottom, your competitor’s site, and your target market. You can use search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo to search terms related to your website or business and see where you at regarding SERP or Search Engine Result Page.
Read online reviews and consider the agency’s reputation
Once you know the basics of Search Engine Optimization and digital marketing, it is time to look for a good company (or companies if you want options) to hire. You can use Google to search for the company’s history, services offered, the location as well as the price of their services. You also need to look at their Yelp rating, the Facebook page as well as their SERP. You also have to read reviews from their past clients to get an unbiased opinion on the company’s services. It is like asking strangers what restaurant they can recommend for a nice meal rather than blindly go inside an unknown dace and hoping their food is excellent. But if you want face time with the company, you need to narrow down your option. If you have 20 potential companies, you can’t meet them all. My advice is, meets with the agency who updates or inform you via phone calls, emails or text messages.
How much are you willing to pay?
Before you decide to hire a digital marketing agency, you need to figure out how much are you willing to pay for a digital marketing campaign. You also have to ask how much will it cost to do SME, SEO, social media marketing, web design or anything that will help your website earn more viewers. Most internet marketing companies tend to work with small, locally-owned businesses and large, established companies. With proper research, you will know whether your business aligns with the company’s vision, mission and specialty. They might bring up these topics early in the conversation, make sure you are on the same page. Don’t get carried away with a company’s lowest price bid. If you want quality work, you have to expect higher price from respectable agencies. It ranges from $1,500 to $10,000 per month. It may sound absurd, but trust me, the return of your investment will be doubled once your business gets a good ranking on every search engine. Imagine this, you are paying, let’s say $2,000 for digital marketing services. If your website starts getting good Search Engine Result Page or SERP, at least 500 people will visit your site per month searching for your services, 100 of them will buy your goods or avail for your services. If you are selling a $100 product, that’s $10,000 worth of sales. You minus the amount you pay for the internet marketing services. You are now looking at $8,000 in sales. Not a bad trade, right?
(You want to know how much ROI an you expect from SEO? Visit https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/05/21/what-roi-can-i-expect-from-seo)
If you are planning to meet with the digital marketing guys, prepare to answer these questions.
What is the status of your business right now? Is it busy, slow or dropping off? Do you have new products or services to offer? Did your competitor open a new branch down the street? If yes, how does it affect your business? Remember to be cooperative and transparent with everything about your business, whatever company you decide to hire. It will make the job easy for you and the marketers, not to mention, you will get the result that you want, faster. It means you need to provide all the data about your business. Every little detail is important. Providing your input about your business will help digital marketing companies tailor your website according to your needs and your target market. It will maximize your traffic and eventually, convert it into sales.
The next step
Now you know the basics of Search Engine Optimization and digital marketing, and you also have a marketing agency in mind, it is time to set up a face-to-face meeting with them. Don’t be afraid to ask any questions. The company you are planning to hire should be enthusiastic and willing to explain about their company and how their services can help your business achieve what you have in mind. Ask anything about their methods, clarify the services and packages they offer and most importantly, ask about the timeline and the contracts. How much time are they going to need to get positive results?
Finally, you should have the answer to these questions before signing any contracts with them. What is the successful campaign you’ve done in the past similar to my company? How do you measure the success of the campaign? How can you improve my business? What are the procedures to be done to have a successful campaign? Do you follow Google’s rules and regulation regarding SEO? Do you have enough experience with local SEO? Will you communicate with me regularly regarding the changes you will make on my website? How many people will be working on my campaign? What happens next after the campaign is over? Do your agency offers site maintenance services? How much will it cost? The marketing agency should answer these questions before you sign any contracts. After you are satisfied with their answers, you have to confirm with them that you will maintain the ownership of your site and lastly, you have to verify the fees and payment.