Digital marketing is playing a much larger role in our daily lives. With the rise of connected devices, coupled with digital ecosystems and an emphasis on digital media campaigns, the global digital advertising and marketing market is projected to reach over $780 billion by 2026.
Businesses of all sizes are leveraging the reach and benefits of digital marketing.
In a survey, small business owners and managers reported that social media (25%), their company website (20%), and online advertising (18%) were the most successful digital marketing tools.
Through the use of digital channels, businesses can connect with and engage their audience, build brand awareness, and drive conversions.
Effective digital marketing also allows you to craft and execute highly targeted campaigns. For example, you can use social media to target a specific audience segment based on their demographics and behavior.
What Is a Digital Marketing Agency?
A digital marketing agency provides a range of specialized services to help a business achieve its marketing and sales goals.
Depending on the type of digital marketing agency you’ll be working with, they can either provide end-to-end digital marketing solutions or specialized digital marketing services.
When it comes to digital marketing agencies, there are several options:
Advertising agencies:
Advertising agencies provide services that focus on implementing and managing advertising campaigns.
They may specialize in paid search to help generate traffic to your websites and allow your ads to appear on SERPs and social media channels.
Digital agencies:
A digital agency can either be a specialized digital marketing agency or a full-service one. This type of digital marketing agency may provide a variety of omnichannel marketing or digital marketing services.
For the former, the focus is on providing customers with a seamless experience across multiple channels, while the latter, especially if it’s a full-service digital marketing agency, focuses on using digital marketing methods to help a business optimize its strategies and campaigns and obtain measurable returns.
Social media agencies:
This agency type helps businesses build and deploy an effective social media marketing strategy.
Their services may include creating and managing your social media content, setting up advertisements on various social media platforms, and interacting with your followers.
PR agencies:
This agency type helps clients get positive coverage from the press and build a good relationship with their audience.
They can provide a range of services, including reputation management, crisis management, market research, and outreach campaigns.
SEO agencies:
These agencies help clients improve their visibility online through services like content creation, keyword research, technical SEO, and link acquisition.
Through improved visibility, businesses can drive more organic traffic to their website, which can help generate more leads and conversions.
Web design agencies:
These agencies build customized and optimized websites for clients. Their services can cover the entire design process from ideation and designs to website launch and testing.
What Services Should an Effective Digital Marketing Agency Provide?
Digital marketing comes in many forms, from search engine optimization (SEO) to email marketing.
Working with a digital marketing agency can help you craft a solid digital marketing strategy that allows you to leverage digital technology, emerging digital marketing trends, and industry best practices to optimize your marketing efforts.
An effective digital marketing agency should be able to provide a wide range of services to help clients achieve their marketing goals and reach their target audience.
Some of the most important ones to look out for include:
Search Engine Optimization
SEO involves optimizing your website and its content using techniques like on-page, technical, and local SEO, so it ranks higher in SERPs for searches using relevant keywords.
When done well, SEO can enhance your online visibility and drive more organic traffic to your website, which can help generate more leads and revenue growth.
According to HubSpot, some of the KPIs that will help you measure your SEO strategy’s success include keyword rankings, organic traffic, time spent on a page, click-through rate, and bounce rate.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising gives you better control over your ad spend and targeting. PPC is cost-effective, allowing you to have a wide reach while targeting the right people.
You can get fast, measurable results. Plus, PPC ads can be easily tested and adjusted to help you get more optimized ads.
Social Media Marketing
Digital marketing professionals have extensive knowledge and expertise in different social media platforms.
They can help you take full advantage of these social media networks to reach out to and engage with your target audiences, build brand awareness, and create relevant content.
They can help you have a more in-depth understanding of your followers and create compelling campaigns that drive engagement, conversions, and revenue.
Content Marketing
Content marketing can give your digital marketing strategy a big boost. It can establish your authority, nurture customer trust, and improve your website’s visibility.
Effective content marketing also allows you to communicate your brand’s value to potential and existing customers.
Email Marketing
By 2027, it’s estimated that global email marketing revenue will reach $17.9 billion.
It’s an indispensable tactic that allows businesses to create and deliver personalized content, drive traffic to their website, increase leads, and reach the right customers with the right message at the right time.
When done well, email marketing can help increase sales and revenue.
Digital Marketing Training
Some agencies may offer digital marketing training for clients, helping them have a better understanding of digital marketing and how they can use it to grow their business.
Branding
Branding services can help you develop a unique brand identity, allowing you to convey your brand’s value proposition, message, and values to your customers.
Digital marketing agencies offering this service can create consistency across all your touchpoints and marketing assets, from logo design to visual identity.
Why Should You Partner with a Digital Marketing Agency?
Digital marketing fuels growth and helps you stay ahead of the competition. With over 5 billion internet users globally, digital marketing allows you to reach a potentially wider audience and attract new customers.
Working with digital marketing agencies can be a great way to boost your online visibility and reach your target audience.
Here are some more benefits of working with a digital marketing company:
Expertise and Specialization
Digital marketing agencies consist of digital marketing professionals specializing in different aspects of digital marketing, such as email marketing, SEO, and PPC.
This allows agencies to develop and implement a customized digital marketing strategy tailored to your specific needs.
Access to Resources and Tools
Digital marketing agencies have access to an extensive range of specialized resources and tools, such as email marketing software and SEO tools, that can help you achieve your marketing goals.
Time and Cost Savings
Crafting, implementing, and managing digital marketing campaigns can be time-consuming.
It can be challenging, especially if you don’t have access to the right tools or if you’re not familiar with industry best practices and emerging trends.
Partnering with a digital marketing agency allows you to free up your time so you can focus on other aspects of your business.
Furthermore, while hiring an agency may have high upfront costs, doing so can save you money in the long run.
That’s because a digital marketing agency can leverage data, research, and tools to create more effective strategies and avoid potentially costly mistakes.
Partnering with a reputable digital agency also helps you leverage their resources and expertise so you can stay up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies, which you can use to develop more effective marketing campaigns.
Choosing a digital marketing agency that aligns with your goals can help you scale your marketing efforts and bring fresh perspectives when it comes to your marketing strategy.
What to Consider When Choosing a Digital Marketing Agency for 2024
When choosing a digital marketing agency, it’s important to consider your specific needs and select an agency with extensive experience in the services that you need.
To determine if an agency is a good fit, see if they offer a free consultation. This can help you learn more about what they can offer and how they can help you achieve your goals.
However, with the sheer amount of digital marketing agencies on the market, choosing a digital marketing agency that best matches your needs can be tough.
Want to know how to choose a digital marketing agency that’s most suitable for your business? Below are some of the key aspects to consider.
Business Goals and Needs
Start by assessing what your business’s goals and needs are that you want to achieve through digital marketing.
Do you want to increase sales and revenue? Do you want to build brand awareness? Are you looking to promote a new product or service? What about your email marketing and SEO needs?
Do you want to work with a specialist digital agency or would you prefer partnering with a full-service agency? Knowing your goals gives the agency a better idea of what you’re looking to achieve and how they can help.
For companies with different departments, you may have separate goals in mind. While you can have several goals, you need to consider your main goals and keep them distinct and clear.
Doing so also helps you define your KPIs and marketing objectives.
Experience and Reputation
Reviewing the agency’s portfolio of their latest projects helps give you a good understanding of their capabilities.
You can check the case studies they’ve published to see how they approached their client’s pain points and what unique value they were able to provide.
Checking reviews from past clients also gives you an idea of the agency’s reputation and what it’s like to work with them.
Do they have previous experience working with businesses in the same industry or niche as you? Some agencies may also be willing to connect you with their previous clients to serve as references.
Team and Expertise
Find out who is on the agency’s team and what their expertise is when it comes to digital marketing.
The team should have experts specializing in different fields of digital marketing, such as SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and advertising. However, this will still depend on your marketing goals and objectives.
Cost of Services
Review and analyze all the costs involved. Don’t be afraid to ask for proposals from different agencies and review the deliverables listed in the proposals.
This helps ensure that the prices fit your budget and that you avoid any surprises in the future.
It’s worth noting that you shouldn’t just factor in the cost when choosing an agency—it’s also important to consider the quality of their service.
Strategy and Action Plan
Find out how the agency measures success.
What KPIs will they track? Some of the key metrics to pay attention to, depending on your goal, include the number of unique visitors, time spent on your site, cost per click, click-through rate, and social engagement.
Additionally, the agency should be able to explain how they plan to achieve your goals and what marketing channels they’ll be using. You can also request a detailed strategy and action plan from them.
Reporting and Analytics
Aside from knowing what metrics they use, consider how the agency will analyze campaign results and measure your performance. Ask them about the reports and data that they can provide regularly.
Customer Support
Check if the agency can provide reliable customer support. Assess their responsiveness, communication style, and attitude. Find out what communication channels they’re using and if they can provide round-the-clock assistance.
Partnership and Agreement
Before signing any documents, carefully go over the terms and conditions. Make sure that key aspects and the agency’s responsibilities are clearly outlined in your agreement.
Onlinko specializes in different digital marketing aspects, ranging from social media marketing and PPC advertising to branding and community management.
As a leading performance marketing agency, we also have in-depth experience and expertise in helping clients maximize the ROI of their PPC campaigns.
We can help you develop strategic plans that are tailored to your specific goals, pivot or scale your digital marketing efforts, and get expert guidance on all things digital marketing.
Conclusion
Figuring out how to find the right digital marketing agency can be tricky, given the number of agencies on the market and the extensive range of services they offer.
Some of the key aspects to consider when choosing a digital marketing agency include your business goals and needs, your budget and the cost of an agency’s offerings, the agency’s expertise in digital marketing, how they measure performance, and the agency’s track record.
We hope that this guide has given you valuable insights on how to pick a digital marketing agency that can help you achieve your marketing goals.
