Managing a startup is no easy task. Among the myriad priorities that a startup has to juggle daily, building brand awareness and expanding reach are arguably the most important.

Startups are typically digital natives which makes hiring the right digital marketing agency one of the more important investment decisions for the marketing team.

In a business environment that is chasing hyper-growth and scale, you need a digital marketing agency that can match that pace and also bring in innovative solutions that enable growth hacking.

Let’s look into the key parameters while evaluating a digital marketing agency for startups.

The Digital Marketing Agency for Startups Paradigm

Startups have a unique set of requirements from digital marketing agencies. Startups want to get the most bang for their marketing buck and achieve results that can be comparable to a much larger organization.

Because of this unique dynamic, startups usually engage in ‘growth hacks’ or innovative marketing hacks that have a direct and perceptible impact on the company’s bottom line and consumer behavior.

This means that a digital marketing agency will have to craft marketing solutions that not only build an audience, expand reach, generate awareness but also give a major boost to business development.

The agency has to do all this in an environment of constant flux, ambiguity and hyper-growth.

Check Their Depth of Experience and Domain Authority

Hiring a digital marketing agency with in-depth experience is a must-have. A well-experienced agency will be up-to-date with the latest tools and technologies and will also have highly qualified experts in their team.

A well-established agency will also focus on outcome-based or result-oriented services, which is critical for a startup’s growth.

An integrated agency that has deep experience across multiple skillsets such as content creation and marketing, social media marketing, SEO and web design will be suited for a startup’s myriad requirements.

However, you can also look for more specialized agencies that are experts in one area such as an SEO specialist agency that will help you grow organically on the web and capture more leads.

Look at Case Studies and Testimonials

Case studies are one of the most reliable ways to judge a digital marketing agency for startups.

A case study can reveal the industries an agency has worked for and also the kind of work they’ve done before. These can be used as proof points to see whether that agency will be good for your startup.

Case studies and testimonials also show the level of professionalism in an agency. A well-designed case study or a well-produced testimonial can be a sign that the agency is good at creating outcome-based content.

Check whether the agency has worked for a company that is similar to yours and at your stage of development. Case studies will show how successful they’ve been in such engagements.

Also feel free to ask questions basis those case studies or ask for case studies in a specific domain such as content marketing or brand building, both of which are critical for a startup.