How to Choose a Destin, Florida Digital Marketing Agency

According to Finances Online, Facebook provides a total social media value of 96% to B2C companies, and 30% of their time spent online is on social media. These statistics demonstrate how important it is to focus on your digital marketing.

Many businesses, when thinking about how to proceed with their marketing strategy, consider hiring a digital marketing agency. After all, digital marketing agencies provide you with expertise, and given that we’re living in an oversaturated digital marketing world now, that expertise matters.

If you’re thinking about hiring a digital marketing agency, how do you know which one is the right one for you? How do you know how to find an agency that will suit your brand? How do you know if an agency is professional? How much can you pay?

There are many different aspects to think about, and it can be confusing, frustrating, and take up too much of your time to find the right match for you. That’s why we’ve put together this guide.

By giving you the information you need, you can choose a Destin digital marketing agency, that will save you time, effort, and money.

Know Your Budget

Before you start setting up meetings with digital marketing agencies to talk about what their take is on SEO and digital marketing strategy, you need to understand what you can afford. Otherwise, you may spend a long time speaking with an agency, only to find they’re too pricey for you.

To start, take a look at how much you’re spending on your business in general. Are there any costs you can cut? Get creative with your business partner and discuss how the business can save money. Then, once you’ve done this, estimate your business’ monthly spending.

How much money do you have left over to spend on new aspects of your business? The answer to this question will be the maximum amount you should spend on paying for a digital marketing expert agency.

Think About Your Goals

It’s important, before you even begin to search for the right digital marketing or SEO agency, to think about what your goals are when it comes to using digital marketing. Do you want more followers on Instagram? More general ROI? Maybe you want to be better-known to a specific ideal consumer you’ve just identified?

Whatever your goals, by identifying them, you’ll be able to find a better fit when looking for the right digital marketing agency. Some agencies will specialize more in some of these areas than others, and you want to go with an agency that’s leading in your desired goals.

Additionally, knowing what your goals are will help you get a clearer idea from digital marketing agencies about what the total cost will be for their services. Just like when you take your care to the repair shop, the fewer surprises there are, the less money you’ll spend.

Ask Your Connections

Once you’ve figured out how much you can afford to pay per month for a digital marketing agency, it’s time to ask your connections if they have any recommendations for you. This works well for two reasons.

The first is that you can actually get real answers on how much a digital marketing agency costs. Many agencies will give you a range of prices or might be willing to negotiate to be paid a lower price for services than those advertised on their website.

When you ask your connections for word-of-mouth recommendations, they’ll know how much you’ll really end up paying, if you go with the digital marketing agency they worked with.

The second reason is that your connections will have much more additional information, such as why the agency was a great fit for them, how long turnaround was with services, and how helpful they were on the customer service end.

Find the Right Niche

You know how, in your industry, you provide a niche product or service? For example, you might be a dentist who specializes in working with a certain age of patients. Well, when it comes to finding the right digital marketing agency, it works the same way.

When you’re selecting a digital marketing agency for you, find one that specializes in your industry. That way, they’ll already know what type of client you service to and whether there are any industry-specific topics to cover in social media and on your website.

Ask for Samples

Once you’ve started narrowing down your list of digital marketing agencies a bit, ask them for samples of their work. Many will be able to show you what they have done for other customers, but because some companies have to sign NDA agreements, you may also have to ask in an email for samples.

If the company you’re thinking of working with doesn’t have any samples on their website, and refuses to send anything to you, then this is a red flag that they may not have a lot of experience in the digital marketing field.

Additionally, you can ask a digital marketing company to create specific samples for your business, which will be tailored to the goals you’ve come up with, as well as your company’s brand and style.

When doing this, however, keep in mind that you will likely have to pay for these samples. Many digital marketing agencies will not provide strategy or digital marketing tips for free, since they would be doing what they specialize without payment in that case.

Review Services Offered from the Digital Marketing Agency

A reputable digital marketing agency will offer a variety of services. Let’s review these services, from search engine optimization (SEO) to email marketing, so that you know what to ask digital marketing agencies about when you’re communicating to them.

Search Engine Optimization

Whenever someone looks something up on an online search engine (usually Google), they put in a string of words having to do with their query. If you’re able to create content related to these words and put together the right way, that content is more likely to appear higher in their search results.

As you can imagine, this strategy, called search engine optimization or SEO, is a boon for your business. You’ll get way more customers. This is a huge part of digital marketing, so when you’re looking at agencies, ensure this is one of their services.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is directly related to the SEO you do for your site and content on it. A good digital marketing agency will know how to find the right keywords for your content, and they’ll also know how to create content so that it’s high quality and of value to readers.

Additionally, content marketing involves setting up a scheduled calendar and ideas for content so that there’s a clear schedule of what you’ll be providing your consumers with, and when. Any digital marketing agency worth its salt will offer content marketing.

Email Marketing

Just like you need to write high-quality blog posts under the umbrella of content marketing, you need to write high-quality emails, directed to your customers specifically, when getting in touch with them with your monthly newsletter or when sending them a receipt.

Email marketing is another area that any digital marketing agency should have a good grasp on.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing, it can be argued, is the heart of a good social media strategy. If you don’t know how to share all the great content you’re making on social media, whether that’s sharing it on the right platform or at the right time, then it’s basically like you aren’t sharing any content at all.

A good digital marketing agency will know all about how to build your brand and get your business known on platforms such as Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and more.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

Pay-per-click advertising is what happens when you create an ad that comes up with your service or product whenever a customer does a Google search. These appear in a different way than usual search results, giving you a better chance of getting viewed.

You also only pay when the advertisement gets clicked on, which saves you money. PPC is an important part of any digital marketing strategy, and the agencies you’re looking at should all offer this as a service.

Visit the Website and Social Media Platforms

Another great way to find out whether the digital marketing agency you’re looking at is a good one is by visiting their website and checking out their social media platforms. After all, if they don’t have much of an online presence, then how good could they really be at providing that service for others?

Additionally, take a look at how far up they show up in search results when you Google their company. If they’re good at SEO, they should show up at the top, or pretty close to it. When on their website, ask yourself if it’s well-designed and user-friendly.

Check Out Reviews and Testimonials

One of the best guarantees that you’ll end up working with a good digital marketing agency is if they have raving reviews on their website. Take a look at the reviews, and if there are only a few negative ones and mostly positive (or amazing) experiences people have had, that’s a good sign.

Some digital marketing agencies may also be able to provide you with actual testimonials from a client, or allow you to speak with them directly, about how the digital marketing agency they’ve used has really made a difference in improving their business’s online presence.

Ask How Long They Work with Clients

Speaking of digital marketing agencies’ clients that aren’t you, you should definitely ask, when narrowing down your list of potential agencies, how long they work with clients. If an agency sticks with their clients long-term, that’s a better choice.

After all, they’ll stay around to ensure the digital marketing strategy they’ve put together works and continues to make your brand shine. While some digital agencies might offer cheaper, short-term services, working with them means your business is more likely to have a chaotic, disorganized feel online.

Think About Customer Service

You can tell a lot about a company based on how well they treat their customers. This is especially the case with a digital marketing agency, since customer service is also often part of digital marketing.

Make sure that they’re responsive to everything you ask them, and fast when they do respond. Additionally, see if they make it easy to get in touch with contact forms, appointment forms, bots, and messages on social media.

If they don’t, then it’s not likely they’re great at reaching out to customers, which means you won’t get much of that as a digital marketing service.

Need More Tips?

Do you need more tips when it comes to finding the right digital marketing agency in the Destin area for you? Maybe you want to understand in a more specific sense how a digital marketing agency can help you in your specific industry, or maybe you want to learn how to best create a digital marketing calendar.

Whatever you need, we’re happy to provide you with tips. At Five Channels, we’re experts in all aspects of digital marketing. Visit our blog page to find all our advice on digital marketing.