According to a recent survey by the trade fair for digital marketing & advertising - DMEXCO - 70% of all executives expect that the pandemic will accelerate digital change. Before the corona pandemic, companies had more time for planning and preparation.
However, those times are over.
Businesses today need to be able to plan and execute their digital strategy in a matter of days or weeks. Digital change has accelerated and many companies simply can no longer keep up. Does that mean your business is doomed?
Not necessarily, because with the help of a professional agency for digital strategy, you can still turn things around.
An agency will support you with the planning so that you can adapt to the new circumstances more quickly and I will now show you how to find the best digital marketing agencies
You need to set your goals and desired outcomes in advance
Digital strategy is the key to long-term growth.
Here, too, it is primarily about setting firm goals and recording the desired results, because you have to be able to assess your current situation correctly in order to know what you want to achieve as a company and how you can achieve this goal. You need a solid long-term strategy.
To develop such a strategy, you need the following:
Goals and KPIs: You could either focus on getting more leads, customers, or sales. SaaS companies should also aim to reduce churn and increase monthly revenue.
Target group: You should assign your customers to different segments in order to be able to address your target group more precisely. An agency can help you determine the demographic, psychographic, and ethnographic characteristics of your customer segments.
Where potential customers are: You need to find out where your potential customers are in order to identify and exploit opportunities, advertising opportunities and strategic partnerships at an early stage.
Obstacles and challenges: It is best to write down obstacles and challenges that prevent you from achieving your goals.
Competitors and market leaders: You need to know your competitors and their strengths and weaknesses. In this way, you reduce direct competition and can use your own strengths to convince potential customers of your company.
Strengths and Weaknesses: You need to know your own strengths and weaknesses. A professional agency should be able to help you determine your company's strengths and weaknesses. You can then use the knowledge you have gained to gain an advantage over your competitors.
If you can provide a clear answer to all of these questions, your agency can then develop an effective digital strategy for you.
3 characteristics by which you can recognize a professional agency
Professional agencies have a few things in common. They value detail and your company and customers always come first.
1. The agency asks specific questions
Your agency can't create a digital strategy tailored to your business if you can't provide them with answers to very specific questions. A professional agency asks the right questions, which may seem silly or superficial at first glance, but are always justified. The agency needs to ask specific questions to get a detailed overview of your business.
Here are a few examples:
What are your current standards?
What corporate goals have you set yourself? Do you have intermediate goals?
What key performance indicators are you currently tracking?
What do customers expect from your company?
Where do your customers spend most of their time online?
Which marketing channels work best for customer acquisition?
What tactics should we focus on to achieve the desired goals?
These questions form the basis of your digital strategy, show the current state of your business, point to your goals and provide information on how these goals can best be achieved. A professional marketing agency should ask the right questions before starting the cooperation.
2. The agency provides information on the strategy
Your agency should give you at least a little insight into their strategy so you can get an idea. This is important because you need data and evidence to evaluate the agency's performance. I don't mean that the agency should give you the entire strategy for free, but they should at least be willing to provide concrete examples.
These insights may be provided to you over the phone, in a written proposal, or in the form of a case study. You should specifically ask for specific examples and digital strategies from similar companies or companies in the same industry.
Ask the agency or internet marketers for specific performance data.
Use this data to evaluate your strategy.
Pay attention to which elements of the campaign are prioritized.
Look for problems or weaknesses.
Discuss details that you noticed in the next consultation.
Or you could pick an area of your business (e.g. advertising or content marketing) and ask the agency to develop a specific strategy for a specific goal of that area (e.g. “How would you sell the product with the lowest Promote sales in a targeted manner with content marketing?").
3. The agency knows how to implement a strategy in a targeted manner
While a digital strategy is important, targeted execution is even more important . It's not enough to have a great strategy. The agency must also have the experience, expertise, team and tools to execute the strategy and achieve the desired results.
You should pay attention to three things:
The agency must be able to develop a comprehensive digital strategy that fits with your current marketing strategy.
The agency must be able to implement the planned strategy in a targeted and successful manner.
The agency should be able to show a track record of successes that can be demonstrated for other clients using concrete examples.
The agency must be able to provide you with these three things and be able to provide concrete client examples to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise.
What working with a digital strategy agency looks like
As with any agency, you would expect concrete examples, testimonials, and client reviews that show the digital strategy agency is trustworthy and competent.
The agency will ask you for milestones and desired campaign outcomes so they can work out a schedule and set deadlines. This way you always know when to expect results. The plan should address the following areas:
Advertising: This area includes all classic advertising formats, including television advertising, radio advertising, podcasts and sponsorship. This type of advertising is not suitable for every company, but the agency should be able to advise and support you accordingly.
Public Relations: How does the agency get your company's name out there? What strategy will she use to improve the visibility and reach of your business?
Digital Marketing: This area includes all digital advertising formats, including local search, search engine optimization, content marketing and PPC advertising.
Direct Mail: This area includes tactics like geofencing and local print advertising. It’s a more direct targeting approach that can be built into your overall strategy. This strategy is particularly suitable for local companies that want to address very specific customer segments.
Partnerships: Conceivable partnerships would be, for example, cooperation with certain television stations, strategic alliances or digital platforms.
The agency should explain how it intends to implement the project. Ask them for concrete approaches and let them describe the procedure to you in detail. You should receive a strategy document that includes the campaign history, steps, and planned goals.
In return, you must provide the agency with the following:
Agreements: This point should actually be clear to everyone, but many customers simply don't take it seriously. Take the time to read the contract carefully, address questions, and make changes before signing any legally binding document.
Branded Content: Gather all content, brochures, flyers, instructions, images, promotions, logos and other promotional materials and make them available to the agency.
Photos/images: Provide the agency with relevant photos and images, e.g. B. Photos of your company, employees, products, office space or events.
Awards/Honours: Make a list of all the awards and honors your company has received. This also includes positive customer ratings, praise, testimonials and feedback. You must also make these things available to the agency.
Your agency will provide you with a list of everything they need from you to successfully implement the strategy.
How to find the right digital strategy agency
You can search for advertising agencies in directories like Clutch.co , HubSpot Agency Directory , or Sortlist . I have put together a list of the best agencies for you. You can always request a free consultation or quote.
Six of the best agencies for digital strategy consulting
Here are six of the best online digital strategy agencies.
1. Neil Patel Digital — The Best Content Marketing & Digital Strategy Agency
I've written 4,294 blog posts over the past 10 years and used content marketing to build three successful businesses that generate over 195,013 monthly visitors. I have then done the same for some of the largest and most well-known companies in the world and I am also happy to be of service to you.
2. REQ – The Best Agency for Corporate Strategy
REQ is an award-winning advertising agency with a lot of experience. She is a veteran agency and has many talented employees. They have been featured on the Inc. 500 and the Deloitte Fast 500 lists, making them one of the fastest growing companies in America.
3. Usman Group – The best agency for medium-sized companies
With 80% of this agency's clients being small and medium-sized businesses, Usman Group is best suited for companies with annual sales of between $10 million and $1 billion. This agency also specializes in digital strategy and market research. Her strengths include creative design, data-driven projects, and practical and targeted research.
4. DeSantis Breindel – The best strategic branding agency
The DeSantis Breindel agency specializes in branding and brand strategy. In this space, they cover everything from brand differentiation, brand valuation and brand launches to employee engagement.
If your business relies on a strong brand, DeSantis would certainly be a good choice.
5. Mabbly - The best agency for data analysis and channel strategy
The digital agency Mabbly has specialized in market research and data analysis. Her specialties include turning complex problems into growth opportunities for established and emerging companies. This agency is a bit more expensive, but it's money well spent if you're interested in a data-driven strategy.
6. Ironpaper - The best agency for small businesses
Ironpaper describes itself as a B2B growth agency. This marketing agency is focused on strategic growth. Strategic growth includes anything in the one to three percent range. Anything over three percent is already scaling.
Conclusion
Companies have less and less time to adapt to new circumstances. Customers expect immediate satisfaction of their needs and do not want to wait any longer. In the past, you had up to three years to implement a digital strategy, but today you have to be able to implement it within a few weeks or even days. Digital transformation has accelerated as more and more customers do business online.
Many companies need help to keep up.
With a professional digital strategy agency by your side, however, you will be able to adapt to the new realities without any problems, and with the help of my article you will certainly find the ideal agency for your company.
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