8 Important Tips: Working With a Digital/Marketing Agency

To the uninitiated, working with a digital marketing agency can be a daunting idea. Some of us have been burnt by digital/marketing agencies that promise the world but seem to fall short when it comes time to deliver. Read some tips on what to expect and how to get the best outcomes...

On the agency side - in some ways - it's an unregulated battlefield where only the strongest survive.

Working agency-side for over 16 years, we've seen the best and the worst.

Here are some tips on what to expect when you're working with a digital or marketing agency and importantly - how to get the best outcomes.

Know What to Expect:
​Working Together for the Best Outcomes

If things go well - you and your digital agency should form a long term, highly productive relationship. Like any relationship, this one requires consistent communication, collaboration and (sometimes) a bit of compromise.

1. Build From a Foundation of Trust
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The digital/marketing agency should be viewed as part of your team. Like any staff/team member, this relationship should be built on TRUST which ultimately equals transparency, sharing the bad news along with the good and ideally a 'no BS' attitude. 

​It's important to question when questions are due. However, if the relationship is built on a foundation of 'trying to catch them out not doing the right thing', then - much like a relationship in real life - it's unlikely that things will work out well (or perhaps there was a bigger problem to start with?).

If you're really in serious doubt, consider speaking to an independent consultant to get unbiased advice.

What's Expected from the Agency?

2. Transparency, transparency, transparency.

It's a complicated industry....
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Rather than trying to understand everything, trust for your digital/marketing agency will certainly be required at some point. The key to that critical trust is a foundation built on honesty and transparency.

The digital agency should ideally be able to:
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• Itemise the hours for any estimate or quote and explain how the hours were estimated or used (one small caveat: things do sometimes take much longer that you might expect in web development. For example, adding that 'one little box' on a form could actually take several hours of work!).
  
  
• In search marketing / SEO - it is important to note that 'the sun doesn't always shine'. Both you and your agency are at Google's mercy (this Moz page shows how many times Google updates it's algorithm or 'changes it's mind on how it will prioritise and rank sites'). Sometimes everything is 'technically' done right but it takes longer to have effect, or doesn't have the desired outcome.
  
  ​At very least the agency should be able to show 'we did this many hours and carried out these tasks with X results' (and explain the rationale behind WHY they did those things).
  
  
• Provide meaningful reporting and be able to explain the results (good or bad). Event tracking should be set up to record 'conversions' on your site - events that have value for your business (such as a quote form submit, a document download, a video play, a purchase etc.)
  
  

** Note: Beware of distraction metrics in reports (i.e. agencies should not be reporting on 'hits' these days)

3. Ask Questions If You're Really Unsure 

​For example:

• What do these visits mean?
• Why haven't the visits converted into leads?
• Are these visits the right type of traffic?
• Is there an issue with your website form or landing page? Are we targeting correctly in the first place? OR is there some other internal reason that leads aren't converting? (i.e. Your advertised price is too high? Customers are getting turned off for some other reason)

A good digital agency should be able to answer all of your questions.
If they don't have the answers on the spot, they should do the research/check the data and find the answer for you.

What's Expected from You?

4. Be Clear on Expectations (from Both Sides)

This is a partnership, remember? You will only get the most out of the partnership if both sides are willing to participate.
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• In short: Your input is important.
• 'But aren't they the experts?'
• Yes, agencies can provide expert advice on the points above, but nobody understands your business, industry, goals and challenges as much as YOU.

Be prepared to give your agency the information and input they need to market your uniqueness effectively, accurately target your campaigns and ultimately deliver the best ROI for your business.

A few key points:

5. Provide Timely Feedback

One of the biggest delays to digital projects lies in feedback stages. Aim to respond quickly with feedback, proactively review any milestone stages, provide missing assets promptly (images, content) and ask questions early, 'what resources will they need from you to carry out a successful campaign?'.  

6. Provide Clear Feedback

Nominate one internal stakeholder to act as a liaison between your business and the agency. That person should act as a filter for any internal conflict and only relay the final decision and comments to the agency.

Internal indecisiveness (also read 'changing your mind') delays projects, costs more and gives everyone grey hair in the process. 

Would you build a house then decide you want to change the colour of bricks? No? Try to think of digital projects in a similar way - it's not always a matter of hitting 'undo' and going back can be difficult.

7. Act As a Conduit 

​Collaboration with your internal team members, vendors or departments will usually be crucial. Often (for security reasons), vendors won't provide sensitive information to a third party/agency.

​So do what you can to facilitate things from your end and keep things moving along.

8. Be Realistic 

When can you expect to start seeing results?

This is an important question that can help to set the right expectations. Depending on the size of the project, the number of projects being worked on by the agency at that point in time and the resources available, things can take time.

On SEO... results don’t happen overnight - it can take several weeks for a website to be crawled and fully re-indexed, or to see the flow-through effect of off-site changes
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​ All of these points will ultimately assist with faster and more effective delivery of your project.

In Conclusion

With a bit of shared knowledge, preparation and setting the right expectations on both sides, a strong agency partnership can be a real benefit to any business. ​

Adapted (with permission) from 11 Insider Tips: How to Get Best Results from Your Digital Agency