Mistakes To Avoid When Working With A Digital Marketing Agency

What are the warning signs that you shouldn't work with a digital agency?

If you’re working with an agency, it’s important to know what the warning signs are that you shouldn’t work with them. If an agency isn’t showing you work, they might not be doing any work. If an agency has more than five people, they probably can’t give you one-on-one attention. 

If an agency keeps you waiting until your 30-minute turn is up, they probably can’t give you high-quality work as a freelancer. None of these characteristics are deal breakers, but they should encourage you to run further tests and check with more agencies before signing on with any group.

If an agency is unwilling to adjust its pricing to match the needs and costs of your business, it probably isn’t set up for success. Worst of all, if an agency is only looking for clients within certain comfort zones, it likely won’t be able to offer you the work you need.

What is an agency good for? Best friends? Trickster agencies? well-curated sites for big names? An agency exists to provide customized, quality work to clients who need it. 

A digital marketing agency will not be there to throw you nebulous leads you’ve heard about, no matter how good those leads are. An agency will be there to provide search marketing services and recommendations for purely digital businesses.

Transparency in query data is a vital part of an effective search marketing agency. Query data can be a pain to find if an agency isn’t transparent in its methodology and production processes. 

The foundation of an effective digital marketing agency is producing great work to help its clients, so if you’ve worked with an agency that doesn’t have this foundation, its best bet for keeping the work you need will be to find another one!

Certain keywords are going to command a particular commission for an agency to generate search traffic.

Finding the right agency for your business can be challenging, but it's worth it in the end.

To find good agencies to work with, look at the work they’ve done for other companies in your industry. If they’ve worked with companies you respect, then you’ll probably be happy with their work too. 

You can also ask other small businesses for recommendations.

Alternatively, ask a friend or colleague who they work with. Having someone you trust to work with is a good indicator of whether an agency will make you look good. Become as familiar with an agency as possible (i.e., start reading blogs and following them on social media); you can always expect some good ideas from them.

Agencies follow a client through the entire purchase of all stages of a website from website development to SEO. They typically have a long list of fees associated with that, which can be intimidating. Agencies rarely show all the fees upfront, but it doesn’t matter if it is low because these negotiations will take place after you build the website. You can either choose your preferred provider based on your profit, the amount of spending by the client, or both. Do your research on the provider and try to determine whether all fees are in line with your budget. This saves you the risk of finding an agency that charges an outrageous amount.

When it comes to the payment, it’s important to see an online listing of all the fees that an agency charges. Your website should always be under budget, but if not, this doesn't mean everything was poorly designed or the text won’t be correct. Take a look at the website (before buying) to see how it looks and to ask questions.

Apart from submitting custom reports in Google Docs and sending emails, it’s important to follow up with your chosen website. Sometimes the website is busy and in a rush to launch a project. Agencies usually try to rush you too.

There are many risks when working with a new partner digital agency, so it's important to know where to turn when you need advice or help a good digital marketing agency will go out of their way to show value and build transparency.