Digital Marketing Agencies are now staple partners for any business growth. Any profitable business understands that most of their target customers are online and they need to be visible to these prospects.
In this article, we will share to you the things you need to know about digital marketing and how you can hire the right digital marketing agency for your needs.
With the overwhelming process of identifying your marketing goals, outsourcing the right activities and doubting your campaign outcomes, it can really be a handful and stressful responsibility. With this, you will be able to know how you can find the right agencies to work with.
Importance of Digital Marketing (By the Numbers)
Seventy-Two percent of overall marketing budgets are now placed towards digital marketing channel. And it is not a co-incidence.
55% – of marketing is digital. Total digital advertising spend in 2021 was $436 billion versus offline advertising at $196 billion.
$786.2 billion – The global digital advertising and marketing market was estimated by 2026
9% – compound annual growth rate of digital marketing from 2020-2026
14% – growth rate in digital marketing budget spending across businesses (between 2020 to 2021)
$2 for every $1 spent – PPC returns resulting in a 200% ROI rate.
49% – of businesses say that organic search brings them the best marketing ROI.
$36 – Email Marketing returns for every $1 spent.
20% of businesses say that the number of leads generated is the primarily for their success in their marketing channels.
This means, more and more people are now online and more people you can target and convert into leads.
Since, this agency involves every aspect of digital marketing, get to know what are the jobs involved here.
What is a Digital Marketing Agency?
Digital marketing agencies are all-around modern service providers that utilize systematic strategies combined with analytical approach and the use of their newest tools in fulfilling their client’s demands or help them in expanding their brand’s presence online to achieve their marketing objectives.
With a team of well-trained professionals who will work on planning and creating your advertising campaigns online, you can expect quality assurance from every project because you are in good hands!
Their expertise in digital marketing will help you reach your target customers easily from several digital channels in order to attract new leads, build customer loyalty, and boost your sale through strategically
Services of a Digital Marketing Agency
Every digital marketing agency has its own field of expertise which makes them unique from others and become a stand out among a competitive market especially if there is only a specific service that you want to avail. Here are some of the general services that digital marketing agencies offer to the public:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Optimizing your existing content for search engines or create new ones for SEO.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Using paid advertisements to drive traffic from search engines.
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising. Increasing website traffic through paying a search engine for every click in your ad.
- Content Marketing. Creating and publishing content to attract attention of a target audience and generate leads.
- UXO or UX (User Experience Optimization). Boosting your user experience to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction with your service.
- Website Design and Development. Designing a website depending on your brand and existing trends in the industry.
- Email Marketing. Promoting your products or services to potential customers through email.
- Social Media Marketing (SMM). Utilizing social media platforms with built-in data analytics to promote a product and track progress.
- Video Marketing. Making videos to feature a specific brand and market its products or services.
- Inbound Marketing .Strengthening customer relationships to attract specific new leads who can be converted into consumers rather than focusing on a larger audeince where majority have little to know interest at all to what you are selling.
Jobs Inside a 360 Digital Marketing Agency
According to studies, digital marketing jobs is increased by 10% per year by 2026. Customer marketing managers and search marketing managers are both in CNBC’s list of the 10 fastest-growing jobs in the US in 2022.
Aside from these, these are the other hot-cake jobs you can get in any legit digital marketing agency:
1. Digital Marketing Strategist
image source : Campaign CreatorsStudy.com describes the job as the one responsible for “developing the strategy used in marketing a company’s product online, utilizing techniques in the field of social media, web analytics, e-mail marketing and search engine optimization, among others”.
Most of them are expected to be well verse about a wide range of online channels and how to manage them.
If they are already heading a team, they are usually expected to oversee the implementation from management to its execution. More importantly, they needed to be tech savvy.
2. Content Marketing Specialist (Copywriter)
One of the skills and attributes that the National American University requires for their candidates of this job is the editorial skills.
This involves copy editing and proofreading of all contents for your digital marketing materials.
Other function, depending on the agency he or she is working for, involves planning for strategic content marketing plan.
3. Social Media Marketing Specialist
image source: CareerFoundry The job usually involves how to effectively engage internet users especially on social media sites to respond to your posts, blog links, photos, and videos.
While keeping a content calendar for your postings, they also provide reports with the help of insights and analytics on each channel that you employ for your digital marketing effort.
Since they handle your social media accounts, they also help decide whether to use original or curated content.
More importantly, they understand how important social media is to your digital marketing needs. Read more about 360 Digital Marketing Agency.
This job was recently introduced with the recent spike of social media in the early 2016 to 2017.
In fact, the impact of social media affecting the decision of voters was even recognized in the Philippines when its current President Rodrigo Roa Duterte won in a seemingly landslide victory during the presidential elections in 2016.
Businesses saw the importance of having a social media specialist on board in order to provide them with the knowledge on how this channel can be beneficial to them.
4. Email Marketing Specialist
image source: RiseFuel If a social media marketing specialist uses social media as a primary channel for their promotion, an email marketing specialist uses emails.
Most of them, according to marketingcareeredu.org, possess bachelor’s degree in communication, information technology, marketing, business administration and graphic design.
Yes, gone were the days that anyone can send an email to anybody. However, the rise of mobile marketing has helped revitalize email marketing too.
Even the putting up of ads on emails has also changed while maximizing user experience.
5. SEO Specialist
image source: designmediacenter.comNicole Martin, owner of NR Digital Consulting, wrote on Forbes an article describing the job of an SEO specialist.
She said a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist’s job entails analyzing, developing, and executing strategies and improving search rankings.
Since the landscape is usually changing, Martin said the job also entails being updated with Google’s latest trends and new rules.
6. PPC Specialist
If you talk about Google Ad Words and Bing Ads to a pay per click (PPC) specialist, you’d know that this person is well versed about using these two pillars in building your campaign.
Most of them know that the first thing that appears in a search result is the PPC ads.
Some of the qualities he or she must possess is strong analytical skills and communication skills.
But the most important thing he or she must possess is a growth mindset.
7. Video Editor
image source: PremiumBeat With the rising trend of video marketing in 2019, you know you need a good one for the job.
A video editor is simply the person in charge of editing your video content.
They know the angles to choose to include in the video content.
8. Visual Creatives Specialist (Graphics Designer)
image source: Career GirlsWhen one hears about a visual creative specialist, what comes to mind is a graphic designer. When you say graphic designer, you’d know it entails visuals and they take care of your packaging and logo design. Similar to actual products like food, it needs packaging design to appeal to its customers.
Like traditional collaterals, digital marketing needs digital collaterals too. However, the job is not only limited to designing. One qualification for a graphic artist is their strong sense for branding.
Most of their educational backgrounds are fine arts graduates who has also adapted to the digital evolution. Getting all these people in one team would mean time consuming especially if you want to have an in-house team.
Benefits of Hiring an Outsourced Digital Marketing Company
But which is best decision for your business? Outsource a digital marketing agency or create an in-house one?
Here’s why it is important to outsource your digital marketing needs and employ a full 360-degree digital marketing agencies.
(1) All in one package.
image source: Fifteen Design When you have a full 360-degree digital marketing agency, you are assured that you have an all in one package.
You’ve got the expertise of a group of people that has specialties in all aspects of digital marketing.
Compared to getting an in-house team to work for you, you don’t have to go through the hassle of screening candidates.
When you hire an agency, all you have to think about is choosing the right one then they’ll provide you the people you need.
- Downtime isn’t an issue.
image source: Positive RoutinesAn organic employee may not be as productive as you can expect them to be.
There are times that they get sick and go for a leave for work.
With an agency, you will never have to worry about downtime since they have the people to work for certain tasks.
(2) Save Up Costs on purchasing apps and software for an in-house team.
(4) Experience is their key.
How to Choose the Best Digital Marketing Agency for You
Finding the right digital marketing agency is not an easy thing to do because the success of your business is all on the line. It is important to look for an agency that is somehow related to your brand or familiar to what you are selling to have an efficient transaction because both parties can understand each other.
However, if you are still unsure about the most appropriate way of choosing the digital marketing agency that will surely help you fulfill your demands, here are some of the crucial factors that you need to consider:
(1) Needed Service
Ask yourself first, “What service do I need and want for my business? Do I want to focus more on SEO?Do I need someone to track my analytics?”
It is highly important for you to already know what you are looking for even before outsourcing an agency because if not, you will only get lost in the void trying to understand everything all at once.
(2) Agency Credibility & Expertise
As the client, you should never be afraid to test an agency’s capability to help you fulfill your business objectives.
Always ask for their plans, methods, or even tools being used because a legitimate marketing agency will never refuse to show their recent work and other proofs of their competencies.
(3) Honesty & Transparency
Always go for the agencies that are very much willing to be scrutinized or open up about their background and previous projects rather than hiding some negative practices that they are utilizing.
Honesty is a vital element in working with agencies, we don’t want to work with someone who will only give us false guarantees right? Instead, choose an agency that will provide a clear vision of the campaign and marketing plan and will work with you hands-on.
(4) Client Reviews & Case Studies
Agencies who don’t mention customer reviews on their websites should already be remove in your list of choices because these testimonials from previous clients will depict if they can be trusted with your business or not.
Case studies are also helpful tools in justifying an agency’s expertise wherein you can get to perceive their effective processes or methodologies that have helped other brands grow in its maximum potential that can work for your business too!
(5) Skills & Industry Experience
Agency’s relevant experience in the same field as yours from previous clients is already a point in the board if you’re currently weighing all your choices.
Similarities in the background is beneficial for you because they already know what will works best for your business and what to prevent in order to boost its growth.
(6) Budget
Ofcourse, budget is also an important factor. As a smart businessman, only look for services that are fit to your financial capability instead of exceeding your limit because profit is our target not additional loss in asset.
There are still other competent agencies that can give you same results or much better even for a lower price that will surely satisfy your budget – you only need to be smart in outsourcing.
(7) Relationship Fit
As your marketing team’s extended component, always try to look for an marketing agency that will suit your business’ core values and goals. How?
Make sure to communicate with them well. Ask questions just like you’re having an interview in order to get to know them more and create a connection between the two parties to assess if you are fit to work with each other for a long-term.
Benefits of Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency
If you’re aiming for an increase in your leads and sales or simply expand your business, hiring a digital marketing agency is the right path to take where you can get to enjoy the following benefits that they can offer to you and your brand:
(1) Cost-Effective
Having a team of digital marketers to work with you will help you decrease your advertising costs which is a lot cheaper than paying for full-time employees on your team especially if you need a variety of services and/or multiple strategies to market your business with people who are really interested online.
(2) Be Updated with the Latest Trends
Being a standout in a fierce competition is challenging but still possible. Marketing agencies will allow you to keep track of latest trends among several digital channels for you to remain relevant and put you on the top of the digital sphere by doing all the research tasks needed. See? A load has already been lifted from your back.
(3) Acquire New Insights
A fresher perspective will not harm your brand right? Marketing agencies can even provide you with modern techniques and tools in gaining essential information about your customers and executing your marketing campaigns more effectively without being biased to your business – something that might have prevented you from improving.
(4) More Focus on your Business
Receiving expert guidance from a team of experts will give you so much time to focus on other important components of your business because you can already trust them in handling almost everything in the marketing field for you with their competitive expertise and experience.
(5) Obtain Measurable Results
Are you having a hard time tracking your progress? Well, digital agencies can really be a helpful tool in determining your key performance indicators (KPIs) and analyzing your metrics to assess the effectiveness of your campaigns in line to your set marketing objectives.
Digital Marketing Agency vs Creative Advertising Agency
Both marketing and advertising agencies have the possibility to work together in a single project depending on your business demands and the goals that you want to achieve.
However, they still possess their own differences from the other that would make them distinct in the market such as their central focus in the marketing field.
Digital agencies focus more on establishing and executing an effective marketing strategy that will spread your brand to a targeted audience while creative agencies are more centered on brand design and building your identity to develop a visually appealing message for your business.
If you’re only looking for some help in graphic design or creating an updated logo for your business, creative agencies are the one to look for, but if you need a range of solutions such as in sales and marketing, digital agencies can surely offer a lot more with their strategic methods and technical approach.
In short, a digital marketing agency is already a complete package that can make your business success more reachable.
Top Digital Marketing Agency to Hire
You can start checking on ESTRAT 360 Marketing Company which is one of Cebu, Philippines leading digital marketing agency.
There are also digital marketing agencies which we see as the best in the class on the field. choose from in the industry so make sure that you do your research before closing the deal because we don’t want to waste our time on unproductive services and regret after.
Here are some of the leading marketing agencies that have marked their spot in the top:
(1) Neil Patel Digital. Known to the industry as the Global Award-Winning Performance Marketing Digital agency founded by Neil Patel, known as one of the worlds best digital marketers of our time. Through Neil Patel Digital, NPD brings in the founders “passion, innovation and insights to life for brands around the globe.”
Notable Clients: Champion, LinkedIn, Western Union, Hickory Farms, Adobe
(2) WebFX
WebFX is an award-winning marketing agency that offers advanced search services with SEO and even core web vitals optimization to drive more organic traffic in a business’ website and boost CTR with an ROI-focused ad copy.
With their outstanding expertise in digital marketing and influence in helping over 750 clients worldwide, WebFX has been awarded the PromotionWorld Top Enterprise SEO Company Award & AVA Digital Award.
Notable Clients: Subway, Wrangler, Verizon, Hilton
Disruptive Advertising is one of the world’s leading creative agencies that specializes in video creation and motion ad designing as they have worked with various industries such as B2B, healthcare and education.
They also help brands in increasing their customer engagement and leads through paid search services and retargeting, including Google Ads and Bing Ads, which allows them to be recognized as one of the Best Paid Media Agencies.
Notable Clients: Davinci, Adobe, NASM
(4) Thrive Internet Marketing Agency
Founded in 2015, Thrive Internet Marketing Agency is a full-suite advertising company that offers advanced services in digital marketing with their wide range of clients from United Kingdom to Hongkong to help them increase their active customers.
With their expertise in using content optimization tools like SurferSEO & Clearscope in increasing a brand’s online awareness and generate local SEO leads through their Google Business Profile, it became one of the Top Digital Marketing Agencies in 2021 and National Excellence 2021 Awardee.
(5) TopSpot
With over 900 customers from several areas across the globe, TopSpot has paved its way to the top as a highly reputable Houston-based digital marketing agency that have served B2B and B2C companies with their expertise in conversion optimization and even driving organic traffic.
As the rightful recipient of the American Advertising Awards & BBB Awards of Excellence, TopSpot has been certified by Google and Bing in providing prominent PPC campaign optimization strategies to yield higher value leads to the client and in achieving fresh sales opportunities by keeping in track of the business’ onsite and offsite data.
Hiring Digital Marketing Agency or Hiring Freelancers ?
Small businesses may benefit from hiring freelancers. But it wouldn’t be for a longer time because of these realities:(1) Marketing is a full time job.
image source: Maryville University Online(2) Saving time and money.
As mentioned earlier in this article, you can save time and money when hiring a digital marketing agency. Freelancers are ideal when you want to have a specific project done or to keep your blog active. (3) You learn while you’re working with them.
image source: Search Engine Journal (4) Social media is complex enough. What more on other digital marketing aspects?
Things to Consider before Hiring a Digital Marketing Company
(1) Do I need them?
Why do you need them? What benefits will you get out of hiring them? If you can’t answer these questions, then, probably you still need some more convincing if hiring an agency would be beneficial for you or not. If you do have answers to these questions, then you’ll know what to do at this very moment. Understanding your business needs should come into consideration first. What will come next is to identify which areas you should work on especially for your digital marketing efforts. When you know what are your needs, you’ll know which approach is appropriate in order to address it.(2) How much are you willing to spend?
Venturing into something new like digital marketing will likely entail cost especially if you’re going to outsource a digital marketing agency. The question now is the amount of money you are willing to invest.(3) How credible is the agency that you are going to hire?
How long have they been in operation? Do they really make true of their promises? An agency that has been in operation for years has truly earned the trust of its customers and partners. They wouldn’t stay in business if their claims were not true. Clients stay in partnership with an agency if they see the results and they are satisfied with it. Apart from that, as you work longer with a client, you develop a sense of trust to every word that they say.(4) How transparent are they when it comes to their dealings?
In order for a relationship to prosper, one has to be transparent with the other person. You can see right through them. No hidden agenda of some sort. You know they are legitimate because they have shown you and provided you the information you need to know about them. It’s good to be cautious nowadays with a number of fake websites luring people and small businesses with their false promises.(5) How experienced are they in handling businesses similar to your industry?
Some agencies may have claimed that they work well with several industries. However, when you want to know of their knowledge about the industry you are in, you need to meet them and personally ask questions. You can never be too complacent in choosing the right fit.(6) How are their technical capabilities and skills?
You know digital marketing also entails technical skills and capabilities, right? So why hire one that doesn’t have one? You need to ask early on. You need to know if they are capable. You wouldn’t want to hire an agency that doesn’t know the technicalities of the job. You’ll likely end up hiring another one to fix what the previous one has done. This would mean added cost and burden on your part. You miss out on the time and opportunity lost just so you could recover from the incompetency of one agency.(7) Do I like working with them?
If at first, you feel they don’t seem to fit, why force to keep them? At the end of any working day, you’d have to ask yourself this question. Your productivity is at stake here. Don’t put it on hold just because you hired the agency that you don’t like to work with.Red Flags in Hiring a Digital Agency
Obviously not all marketing agencies are perfect and can really justify their name in the market nor fulfill their promises to clients simply because they still lack of sufficient expertise in the field or they are just not really worth your time.
Here are some of the signs that should already help you decide to retreat your transaction with them.
(1) Promises of Immediate Results
We all know that marketing campaigns are long-term and will not succeed overnight so an immediate result is only a deception that agencies make to attract your attention – but smart leaders know better.
(2) Lack of Detailed Marketing Plan
Will you trust your business to an agency who doesn’t want to disclose their plans and methods in fulfilling your goals? Well, clearly not because this is just a sign that their services are suspicious.
(3) Lack of Face-To-Face Transaction
How can you make sure that you’re working with a credible marketing team if you haven’t seen them nor communicate with them in person about the marketing campaign even for once? Mostly, they are just misleading agencies and definitely not worthy of your trust.
(4) No Website
As simple as it may seems, the availability of an agency’s website speaks volume to its expertise and authority because it can already tell you so much about their values, backgrounds, and nature of work before even communicating with them.
(5) Focus on Short-term Methods
Marketing agencies will focus more on sustainable strategies that will work for a long-term project so short-term methodologies cannot offer you the same exceptional outcomes that legit and reputable agencies can yield – think of it well!
Hiring Digital Marketing, In Summary…
Ready to Hire a Growth Marketing Company?
If you are ready to venture on how you can use growth marketing to create a strong customer base with high lifetime value, don’t hesitate to contact our Business Growth Advisors.
At ESTRAT 360 we use data and tech to address your current marketing growth concerns. ESTRAT 360 will do all the heavy lifting about growth marketing, so that you can focus on growing your business.
If you are ready to invest in growing your business, CONTACT our Business Growth Advisers to know how we can help you.
P.S. Thanks To The Following websites for the insights: Qoura.com, CNN.com, Study.com and Huffingtonposts.com
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