After reviewing your marketing goals, you realize you’re not meeting them. You have a great marketing team, but something is missing. You realize you need the help of an inbound marketing agency. But where do you start your search for your partner?
The problem is, not all agencies are the same. Even the BEST agencies may not be the best fit for your company’s needs. So how do you narrow them down to determine the best partnership?
Aligning Your Goals
Make a list of all your goals, priorities, and values. When creating a partnership, it’s important to make sure both partners have the same beliefs and goals in mind.
Bringing up these things in your first interaction can lead to a strong partnership with transparency and clear objectives. Consider why your goals are important. What will happen to your business if you don’t meet them? Keeping the big picture in mind when hiring an agency will help keep you on track to achieve, or even exceed, your goals.
Accountability
How accountable is your agency willing to be? When we talk about accountability, we mean how transparent will their process be? It’s easy to hand over a project to an agency and let them run with it, but will they keep you updated?
Ask questions like, “what does your planning and execution process look like,” or, “what reports can I expect weekly/monthly/etc?” Having these conversations will give you insight to how the agency runs and will help you set and manage expectations.
Track Record
Instead of worrying about what other companies the agency has worked with in your industry, focus on how they have helped other clients. Ask them for case studies, testimonials, etc. to get a firm grasp of what the agency is achieving for their clients.
What you need to know is that they know how to get results and prove it. Ask them what their key performance indicators (KPIs) are, what kind of growth and success they’ve seen, and how they report on it.
When you come to an agency, you have a problem or set of problems you need to solve. You need to make sure they know exactly how to overcome them.
Finding the “glass slipper” inbound agency can be tricky and can take time and work. When you’re choosing your new partner, take into consideration these things to make sure you land the best fit so you can achieve and surpass your goals this year, and in the years to come.
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