Digital Marketing Companies: What Are They?
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- What Is a Digital Marketing Company? What Types of Agencies Exist?
- What Does Digital Marketing Entail and What Problems Does It Solve?
- What Values Should You Seek Out in a Digital Marketing Company?
Digital marketing companies can help you maximize your online presence for better brand recognition and improved customer conversions. If you’re considering working with a digital marketing company, you should know exactly what they do and what to look for in a reputable business.
What Is a Digital Marketing Company and What Types of Agencies Exist?
A digital marketing company manages customer communication and engagement online, often by using a variety of channels and strategies. Common forms of digital marketing include:
- Social media marketing
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Video marketing
- Pay-per-click advertising
- Mobile marketing
Digital marketing companies will often construct strategies for their clients that use multiple digital channels in an overlapping plan to engage potential leads and convert them into customers. Since digital marketing is such a broad landscape, many companies specialize in a particular type of digital marketing.
Full-Service Digital Marketing Company
Full-service digital marketing companies, which include inbound marketing firms, manage all types of digital marketing and often some traditional marketing, too. They’re a great choice for businesses that need assistance with their entire marketing strategy or want to outsource management to someone else.
Digital Marketing Firm
Digital marketing firms manage digital marketing exclusively. They’re often smaller than full-service companies and don’t manage tasks like public relations or handle any traditional marketing.
SEO Company
SEO companies work exclusively with businesses to improve their websites for search engine optimization, or SEO. These companies research and identify keywords to use, audit client websites, and implement effective SEO updates and strategies to improve organic ranking for potential customers’ search engine queries.
Digital Ad Agency
Digital ad agencies often work with pay-per-click advertising or other forms of paid ads. These companies create effective ads, uniquely designed for optimization on all the digital and social media channels the client uses.
Social Media Agency
Social media agencies manage and maintain their clients’ social media presences. Usually, they’ll create content, respond to messages and comments, and engage with influencers to better target potential customers.
Website Company
Website companies design websites for businesses. For companies who want a custom website built from the ground up for maximum security and functionality, a website company can help create the ideal website.
Digital Marketing Consultant
Digital marketing consultants work independently or with a firm to evaluate their client’s current digital marketing structures and advise them on ways to improve. They might suggest other digital marketing companies to handle any revamping or management or manage the oversight themselves.
What Does Digital Marketing Entail and What Problems Does It Solve?
Digital marketing is a broad field that encompasses many strategies and platforms. Unlike traditional marketing, which is relatively static, digital marketing is highly dynamic. Effective digital marketing requires continuous supervision, particularly types like social media marketing, in which you need to respond to comments and questions and build relationships with your potential clientele.
Digital marketing provides solutions to a number of problems companies regularly face in the marketing and advertising realm, including:
Lack of Audience Understanding
You can learn a lot about your customers through digital marketing. Since so much digital marketing and advertising is interactive, you can quickly see whether your strategies are paying off with customer conversions.
Lack of Optimization
If you have a website, it’s not too late to learn about and implement SEO practices. Strong SEO will deliver new customers to your website, leading to more customer conversions, increased brand recognition, and higher profits.
Lack of Social Media Strategy
Social media is an excellent way to engage with your customers and hear what they want and don’t want. Creating an effective strategy that balances educating consumers with digital ads can boost your brand’s reputation and help bring in new customers.
Lack of Internal Communication
Many companies separate their traditional marketing departments, with individual teams working on disparate campaigns. While this can be an effective strategy for print, television, and radio ads, digital marketing requires consistent crossover. Reorganize your marketing department so that everyone can easily discuss overlapping strategies.
Lack of Metrics
Digital marketing makes reviewing metrics simple. Most digital channels are designed for easy tracking so you can quickly evaluate the effectiveness of a given strategy. Some channels, like social media sites, allow you to track engagement in real time.
What Values Should You Seek Out in a Digital Marketing Company?
When selecting a digital marketing company, ensure their values align with your own. Look for these qualities:
- A fantastic website: Since they’ll be helping you optimize your digital media, they should have an outstanding website themselves.
- A strong team: Learn all you can about their team. Look for a diverse group of people the company is proud to share.
- Resources and knowledge: Ask about the tools and resources they use to help their clients achieve success.
- Applicable experience: Go with a marketing company that has experience in your industry or with your goals.
- A welcoming culture: Their company culture should be welcoming and mesh well with your own company culture.
Follow these steps to select the best digital marketing company for your organization:
- Set your budget – Enter any conversation with a potential digital marketing company with an idea of how much you’d like to spend.
- Define your goals – Know what you want to get out of your digital marketing strategy.
- Consider work environment – Decide whether you’d like to manage some aspects of the digital marketing strategy or give full control to the digital marketing company.
- Assess their online presence – Go over potential companies’ websites and online presences to see some of their work.
- Consider the company’s culture – Get to know potential companies and understand how their employees interact and work together.
- Know who you’ll work with – The employee you meet with initially more than likely won’t work with you during the actual marketing process. Know who you’ll be working with.
- Check their references – Ask if you can contact past clients to see how their experience working with the company was.
- Know their process – Ensure you understand how the process will work and what you can expect during your time with the digital marketing company.
- Ensure they’re passionate – You want to hire a company that enjoys what they do and works hard to please their clients.
- Demand transparency – Make it clear that you want to know what’s happening with your account at all times.
- Set clear protocols – Provide guidance for how you’d like to communicate, including who you’ll regularly speak with and how frequently.
- Consider their ideas – Ask the company you’re most interested in working with to provide a pitch for you before signing any paperwork.
Digital marketing companies can help businesses improve their online customer engagement and increase customer conversions and profits.
