Should I hire a digital marketing company?
Thinking about hiring anyone to market your business is a BIG deal for an business. Do they understand our culture, will they articulate our branding correctly, how will they know what we do without working here? These are all valid questions you should be asking.
The Top 4 reasons to not hire a digital marketing company
- Digital marketing companies may not be local/onsite
If the digital marketing company you work with, or are thinking about hiring does not have a physical presence in your local market, it can be difficult for them to really know your business.
One big concern is how will they take pictures, create relevant content, and know our employees.
Good questions to ask to uncover their plan:
- How will you get/create content that is unique to my business?
- Who will be the point of contact at our business to ensure content is accurate?
- When will we meet to review information regarding my specific business?
2. A Return on Investment is not being tracked
If the digital marketing company has not discussed how they will track their progress of their marketing efforts for your business, this is a big red flag. Some companies have a cookie cutter “one-size fits all” approach to marketing, this too is a big concern. Not tracking an ROI (return on investment) is on reason for a low cost.
As a business owner, we want our investment into marketing to yield some sort of return. Aside from strictly leads or financial ROI here are some soft benefits that are not quantifiable:
- Reputation management – someone searches for your business online, do you have relevant information
- User experience – when people interact with your company digitally is it professional and easy to do so
- Resale Value – (this is a BIG ONE) should you chose to sell your business having a digital presence that is clean and professional is a huge value add
3. Who should you hold accountable
Maybe you pay a company to provide a specific service for you such as managing your website. You want to make an update to your website, who do you contact. Do they give you a support email address that you email a request into and they respond in 3-5 days with the completion?
Unfortunately, this fairly typical in the digital marketing space. Interaction is nonexistent and your business becomes just another website they host and manage. Not only does this seem disingenuous but there is also opportunity for bouncing ideas off of “the professionals” to see if maybe they could take your idea and turn it into something better based on their expertise.
4. How will I know if they are actually doing a good job
If you currently work with a digital marketing company and want to see how they are doing or want to see where you stand currently you can get a free local search audit here. This is the audit we use on a monthly basis for our clients.
When you are trusting professionals, it is important to know they are doing a great job. One way to do this is to google them and see if they actually have reviews on their google my business account. If they do not have reviews or they are not good, they probably are just starting out or do not have a solid reputation.
At Phlash Consulting, we work with local service businesses to help them gain exposure online and acquire new customers through digital marketing. We take a consultative approach to marketing and work directly with business owners to ensure we are a revenue producing part of the business, not another expense.