Is Your Marketing Team Living up to Your Expectations? Grade Them Here!
Teachers are now giving out final grades for the fall semester. Students will find out whether they passed with flying colors, failed to make the grade, or landed somewhere in between.
It’s also time for your business to evaluate your digital marketing agency. As you determine your budget and business strategy for the year ahead, you have to decide if your agency lived up to expectations. Are they only delivering an average performance? Do you need to give them a big F and move on to a better team?
iFOCUS has developed an agency report card to help you determine where you stand with your marketing team. You can evaluate your agency based on important criteria and assign a final grade.
Your Advertising Agency’s Strategy
Start by grading your digital marketing agency’s strategy for your business. Great results start with a great strategy, so it’s important to determine whether your advertising agency for social media, SEO, and other services is hitting the mark.
See how many of these questions you can answer with a “yes”:
- Does your agency provide a specific rationale for your marketing strategy?
- Do they set goals for results based on a particular strategy?
- Is the strategy aligned with your industry?
- Does the strategy find opportunities that competitors will miss?
- Does the strategy rely on an up-to-date marketing approach?
Five yeses? Give them an A. Three yeses? Average. Fewer than three? Fail. Your advertising agency’s strategy should be directly aligned with results, goal-oriented, aligned with your industry’s best practices, dependent on the latest, most effective services, and feel innovative when compared with your competitors’ approach.
Your Relationship With Your Advertising Agency
Your partnership should always have an open channel of communication, so the best work can get done on your behalf. Take a look at these five questions about your partnership, and see how many of them align with your current agency experience.
- Do you enjoy working with your agency?
- Does the team clearly explain their approach and its value?
- Are they transparent about where their campaigns fell short?
- Do they seem engaged with your success and want to celebrate your wins?
- Do they offer meaningful pivots when needed?
Five yeses? Stick with this team! Three yeses? Okay, but maybe not good enough. Fewer than three? Start looking elsewhere. The advertising agency for your Facebook ads, web design, email marketing, or any other service should be a joy to work with. You should feel like you can trust their strategy. You should feel like you can stick with them through the highs and lows of your business success because they communicate transparently, feel like an extension of your team, and always find new ways to help you grow.
How Your Agency Reports Results
Reporting is critical, as you now get a sense of your return on investment. Try five more questions to see where your current agency stands on its reporting tactics:
- Do you get regular face time with your agency?
- Do you have access to highly detailed information about your campaigns?
- Does the team thoughtfully analyze the results of your campaigns?
- Is the digital marketing team committed to making improvements where they’re needed?
- Are you getting results?
Five yeses get the A, three yeses are okay, and any fewer than three gets an F. Whether your campaigns are soaring or require adjustments, you deserve customized reporting, thoughtful analysis, a willingness to revise when needed, and a growth trend that proves you’ve made the right investment.
Your Advertising Agency’s Overall Grade
Take a look at where you landed in each category: strategy, relationship, and reporting results. Did your agency earn an A in each of these categories, or is there room for improvement? An advertising agency for pay-per-click (PPC), content marketing, and other services should meet the following standards to earn your business:
- Relevant, proven strategies that drive results and differentiate you from your competitors.
- A trusting relationship built on mutual respect and a deep desire to help you win.
- Robust reporting that clearly outlines campaign performance, celebrates your wins, and offers data-informed approaches to shore up any area that needs work.
These are the pillars of an extraordinary relationship with a digital marketing agency
You Deserve an A+ Advertising Agency
When you hire an advertising agency for Amazon paid ads, social media, website design, SEO, or any of today’s essential marketing services, you should feel excited and proud of your choice. In a sense, you’re hiring a new team member, and, like all hires, you want to feel that you’ve chosen wisely from the talent pool.
Ultimately, you’re in control of where your business heads next. If you haven’t found a partner that earns your trust across the board, consider a custom growth strategy from a best-in-class digital marketing agency.
Peter Mishler is a senior copywriter. He enjoys learning everything he can about your business to help build your authority and web presence. Peter is the author of three internationally published books, for which he has received critical acclaim and national writing awards. He loves spending time with his wife and two children.
