Looking to hire a full-service marketing agency? You’ve made a great decision. It will help you get results faster without having to learn it all yourself. Moreover, hiring an agency means you have more time to work on other parts of your business.

But that freedom can only happen if you work with the right agency, one that can truly work toward seeing you realize your business goals. Here are 7 critical questions you should ask before hiring a digital marketing agency.

1. What’s Your Process To Help My Business Reach Our Marketing Goals?

You want to know the process that the full-service internet marketing firm uses to produce results for you. Regardless if it’s a lead generation, sales, or brand awareness campaign, you want to know how they plan to do it.

A critical part of their process is how they develop strategy, and to do this well, they must understand your industry and your business model. When you talk to them, do they ask you relevant questions that make sense to you as a business owner? Or are they overly reliant on industry buzz-words, without unpacking specifically how their work would help a company such as yours?

You want an agency that’s confident in what they do. The strategy that they explained has to make sense to you.

Avoid agencies that give you vague answers or who don’t take the time to discuss the connection between your business goals and how digital marketing specifically will help attain these goals.

Caution around agency business experience. If they haven’t worked with a range of industries then they might not know how to handle campaign challenges that arise. You don’t want an agent who is still trying to figure things out unless you’re comfortable being used as a guinea pig.

2. How Do You Handle Client Communication?

Although a full-service marketing agency is an expert at marketing, you are the expert in your industry. To get the best outcome, it takes both parties to work together.

You may have some input on the marketing messages or the creatives they’re using. So you want to be able to make suggestions and revisions.

Having proper channels will also reduce precious time wasted on back and forth communication. Both you and the agency can focus more time on getting work done, helping you achieve your goals faster.

Find out who your point of contact is and the preferred method of communication. The ideal scenario is if they can use your team’s internal communication system. That way, they can seamlessly communicate with your team members.

3. What’s Your Full-Service Internet Marketing Firm’s Month-To-Month Report Like?

On top of regular communication, you also need to have monthly progress reports. This will give you an indication of how well your campaign is working. And it’s satisfying to see a return on your marketing investment.

You’ll want to know what metrics they will report to you. Request a sample report so you’ll know what to expect.

There may be a lot of jargon. Make sure they explain it clearly and how it will help accomplish your marketing goals.

4. How Long Will It Take To See Results?

However, when looking at the monthly progress reports, keep in mind that some strategies may take more time. You’ll want to have a clear expectation of an ideal time frame.

For example, search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns are a long-term strategy. It takes longer to see traffic increase from search engines. It would be unreasonable to expect a significant change in one month.

5. How Do You Measure Success?

This is an important one. The measurement of success has to align with your overall business goals. For most companies, it usually comes down to increasing revenue.

But for companies with a long sales cycle, you may need to break it down into smaller goals. For instance, increasing leads, demo calls, and event registrations are reasonable goals.

Look out for full-service marketing agencies that focus on vanity metrics. Things like the number of likes on a post and the number of keywords ranked on Google may look good at first glance. But they don’t mean anything if it doesn’t lead to more revenue for you.

6. Do You Have Any Case Studies For Businesses Like Mine?

While past successes don’t guarantee future success, it’s essential to know the agency knows what they’re doing. Case studies, especially those with businesses similar to yours, give you confidence that they have a proven process.

Some agencies have them published on their website. If you don’t find it there, you can simply ask them for it.

Another thing to look for is social proof. Just like running your own business, you know how hard it is to get social proof.

There are many review sites online that provide unbiased opinions. Do a quick google search to see if the prospective agency is reputable.

7. What Types Of Clients Do You Like To Work With? And What Makes A Nightmare Client?

For any business, there are always good and bad clients. When considering an agency, ask them what kind of traits they look for in their dream clients. And what types of clients they want to avoid.

When both of you enjoy working together, it will be an enjoyable and profitable relationship.

Bonus Question To Ask Yourself: Do I Like This Full-Service Marketing Agency Team?

Hiring a full-service digital marketing agency in Canada is just like interviewing a potential new hire. You want to be able to communicate well with them. And they need to fit your organization’s culture.

At the end of the day, what really matters is if you like working with them.

Ready to hire a full-service marketing agency? Book a call with us and see if we’re a good match to work together.