Need Help Choosing a Digital Agency in Sydney?

Are you confused about the role a digital agency should play in your business?

Are you finding that the internet is becoming overwhelming and you don’t know what course to take and which path you should follow? Do you find that everywhere you look online, your competition has a presence yet you are nowhere to be found?

Do you want your business to be actively playing in the digital space? Then read on as the following are some great tips to help you choose the right digital agency.

Seriously Important Questions To Ask When Choosing A Digital Marketing Agency

Looking to hire or partner with a digital marketing agency is a serious decision and one that needs to be thought out. In the past, all that businesses needed to consider was their website and an SEO campaign. How things have changed and moved on. The online landscape has become so confusing and cluttered that all businesses wanting to be competitive in this space now need the professional help of a digital agency.

Similar to choosing the right SEO agency, choosing the right digital agency will be a great marketing move for your business. Make an error in judgement at this stage and you might as well kiss any chance of online success goodbye. There are far too many SEO scams online that you need to be aware of. Watch out!

What is their strategy for your business?

You might think that hiring a digital agency is a step in the right direction and that is all you need to do to make that call, but the first thing they need to be detailing to you is their digital strategy or online footprint they intend to implement for your company. Many ‘so called’ digital agencies will offer you a cookie-cutter template that describes their services but the issue with this is that they do not have or have not undertaken a full study of your business and come back with a detailed plan.

All they do is throw some facts and figures at you with a few colourful charts without any preconceived idea of what they will do for you and expect you to digest this ‘waffle’. This is the issue with a large percentage of digital agencies. In an attempt to get your business they try to baffle you with industry buzz words, impressive graphs and over-optimistic promises that have little or no substance at all. This is dangerous and this is where your business will fail and fail miserably.

I can honestly say from over 20 years in this industry I have seen businesses absolutely crumble because they have made a really poor decision with their digital, web or SEO partner.

My advice to you is not to be seduced by the garble that comes out of their mouths and really look at the nitty-gritty of what they can do for you. Whatever you do, do not believe their hype and stats unless you can fully verify this. It’s a major con and you do not want to fall victim to scam artists that disguise themselves as digital agencies.

Also read: Four Ways Your SEO Agency is Killing Your Business

What’s their SEO like?

Any decent digital agency will be able to demonstrate its SEO abilities and be able to back this up with real and relevant SEO case studies. One of the most important parts of any campaign is its ability to rank sites on Google. Check their own rankings and if are nowhere to be found online give them the flick. Even worse, if you contacted them through Adwords then this is counterintuitive to the fundamentals of SEO so again delete their name and number. Only partner with a digital agency that has a solid online ranking.

What’s their Social Media Strategy like and what are they going to do for your business?

Social media platforms are now the norm. Your future digital agency should be able to present you with the right platforms that your business should be active on and articulate a cohesive strategy designed to get you more traction online. Remember, in the social media space, posting content randomly is now not enough. There needs to be a strategy to cut through the clutter on platforms like LinkedIn, Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook.

 What are their web design skills like?

This is really important now as customer conversion rate optimisation becomes paramount in getting online viewers on your website to make that purchase. Websites have evolved significantly over the past couple of years to a level where each page needs to be treated as the main landing page. This is where the services of a digital agency with strong web skills can help. Having said that, finding the right balance is difficult and must be taken into account when choosing your agency. I have blogged about this endlessly on other posts, but just to reiterate; it’s useless having a website ranking on Google if it is not performing well. This is how far the digital space has come. Go back 5 years and all that mattered was your Google ranking. This is not the case now. The ranking is only 1 part of the puzzle. Your site now needs to perform as a sales machine, converting all that land on it into loyal paying customers. Make sure whoever you choose understands CRO and can point out issues with your current site and what they would do to fix them.

Related article: Tips to Improve Your Website Conversion Rates

What type of results are they promising?

If you are getting the feeling that the person you are speaking with over the phone is becoming pushy and promising really quick SEO results with guarantees then it’s time to hang up. Any digital strategy takes time. You have to assess and measure results and make changes accordingly. This is a lengthy and time-consuming process, especially when it comes to your SEO rankings. It’s a marathon, not a sprint and the winners are those businesses that are prepared to stick it out for the long term. Forbes reinforces this point by telling us that “SEO & Guarantees Have an Abominable History” – Scams offer guarantees, which by itself means you should be on your guard about any firm offering a guarantee.

Are the proposed strategies sustainable?

Are they saying what you want to hear or are they being honest with their approach to your marketing? A sugar-coated approach followed up by a sudden rise in traffic numbers and Google rankings are not what this is about. Nor should you embrace this type of digital philosophy. Remember, what goes up online quickly., will plummet even harder. Sustainable results backed up by web analytics proving the numbers are what your agency should be presenting. So for example, if you have suddenly materialised on page 1 of Google after years in the wilderness, it’s time to panic.

Who will be managing the account?

Like so many agencies you get allocated an account manager. This is not a bad thing, but make sure you meet with them and see if they have an understanding of your business goals, KPI’s and targets. You need to get on with them as well. Because digital marketing is such a hands-on service, you can expect to be communicating with them frequently. For this reason alone, you have to be on the same page, to begin with.

What determines success & how will you report this?

Success is measured in sales. If your numbers are up at all levels, inquiries, sales and revenue then your digital campaign is working. If you have traffic numbers that are skyrocketing but sales have only improved slightly then something is wrong. If people are coming to your site and not engaging with it then this has to be addressed. Also if you getting heaps of social media traction and this is not translating into sales then again something is amiss. Your digital agency will need to see what’s going on with your website bounce rates as well as conversion rates. Bear in mind that this type of approach is an ongoing process where you need to be continually looking at the performance of your website to make sure it’s converting most people that land on it to actual sales.

Success = More revenue.

This is the best formula and one that needs to be reported on a monthly basis. Your agency needs to have access to your analytics and be able to report on a whole raft of data. Obviously, they need to break this down into a digestible format that is easy to understand.

What sets them apart from their competition?

It’s a very competitive space so as a business owner you have many choices. All I can say is that you really need to pick an agency that can demonstrate strong skills at all levels of web, SEO, social media and design. This is where the team at SEO Sydney Experts can help – see our difference and see why we are the preferred digital partner for many Sydney based businesses.

Being thorough and asking the right questions will help you make the most informed decision possible when hiring someone to assist your business with your digital marketing efforts.