Maybe it’s month 2 or month 22 and you’ve been wondering, “what should I be expecting each month from my agency?” You’ve gotten reports on activities. You’ve received the highlights of your Google Analytics and AdWords. And maybe you’ve had some meetings on next quarter goals. But honestly, what should you expect from a digital marketing agency?
What DID You Expect?
If your agency set expectations early on, I hope they’re maintaining those expectations. At the very least updating you on how they should be adjusted. If they didn’t, what were your expectations going into digital marketing and SEO? Often times people assume that marketing online should be less expensive than TV advertising or other marketing activities. With marketing and advertising online growing year-over-year that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Perhaps you didn’t have any expectations going in, you weren’t sure what should happen, but you’re certainly not getting a lot more sales or leads through your website. So what should you consider?
You Get Out What You Pay In
If you were expecting big moves in a small amount of time from any digital marketing, you would probably be quite frustrated. If that was your hope, your agency should have steered you toward a large digital ad budget. It will increase traffic quickly, but, like marketing will only net what you put in.
The more you’re able to devote to digital marketing, the more tools that your agency has at its disposal, the more possibility you have of being successful. This doesn’t mean however that you always will. So you need to ensure there’s a strategy for the long-term with them.
Get Bad Reports, Not Just Good Ones
It’s ok to get bad news, it can be a learning opportunity. So if your digital marketing agency isn’t giving you any bad news (which will happen) there’s a good chance there’s more of it than there is of the good stuff. Additionally, you need to be prepared for it and not think that it’s an indicator that your agency is doing bad work. So be prepared, the internet is an ever more competitive space.
If you expected to only get good news, then you should have had your expectations set from the beginning.
Give Up Your Data Too
If you aren’t sharing sales numbers, lead numbers (both online and off) as well as your stumbling blocks from a sales perspective. How does anyone know what goals need to be achieved on a regular basis? We discussed in the onboarding blog that these things should be brought to the table and agreed upon on the onset. But if you’re late to the game, it’s ok, improvement can be made.
Would you not share your sales numbers with your marketing department internally? No, of course not, you operate as a team. So you shouldn’t treat your marketing agency as if they weren’t a part of your team.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DXpDzaS47PA
Don’t row against your marketing agency.
So what should you expect from a digital marketing agency?
You should expect them to want to be a part of your team, to work with you for the same goals.
You should expect them to: ask hard business questions and get insights from you on how you work. They should know your clients, vendors, everything they can possibly know.
You should expect your agency to give you accurate expectations and work with you to refine them as you refine your business goals.
But most importantly you should expect them to want what’s best for you and not necessarily them.