What to consider when choosing a digital marketing company

1. Avoid Cookie Cutter marketing services. The minute you’re asked to pick a package, that’s when the losing starts. You’re being told that your business, with all its complexities, nuances, and unique value, is exactly the same as every other business – how could that possibly be true? Winning is not accidental, and it’s not easy. If it were as simple as picking a package, winning and tying would be identically defined. Cookie Cutter Marketing programs are created to make things easier for the agency, not better for you. Typically, these packages are designed around automation and efficiency. Neither Google nor AI rewards efficiency marketing
   
   Marketing is hard, marketing is complex, and marketing that creates winners is always specific and methodical, designed around your offerings, your prospects, and your competitors. Avoid digital marketing services that are not data-inspired, outcome-focused, and not specifically created in lockstep with your goals.
2. Scrutinize Industry-specific marketing agencies. It may sound like a benefit, but don’t be fooled; it’s a detriment disguised as a benefit. Digital marketing companies that only work in one industry, only work with one type of business, your type of business, are dangerous. There are many dangerous elements, but the most insidious hides in plain sight; your digital marketing company knows your goals, your unique values, your targets, capacity, and sales processes. They collect data on what is working and what is not, how many leads you’re getting, and what targets bear fruit. Why would you want someone with intimate knowledge of your customer acquisition strategy speaking to (much less working with) a competitor?
3. Avoid the Fit Your Budget purveyors. The goal of marketing has never been to spend the least, it’s to make the most. Never start out determining what you want to spend first and then backing marketing into an indiscriminate budget. This will fail. Markets determine the budget. Competitive data, market density, and other factors need to be accounted for to determine just how much budget is necessary and which digital marketing services are required to win. 
   
   Think about the digital marketing company that will take whatever budget you give them; what does that say about them? Are they more interested in taking your money than making you money? An experienced and sophisticated digital marketing company will provide you with a budget only when they have done their due diligence and market research, not before, and they rarely ask you what your budget is. The digital marketing company you want is the one willing to walk away if they don’t feel they can help you win. The budget is arithmetic, and it can be adjusted based on targets and the scaling of efforts up to point; that point is where you spend less but derive zero return.

Final Advice: Like anything else, marketing fails; but there are productive and unproductive failures, and learning to identify both pays dividends. Digital marketing, such as search engine optimization, AI overview optimization, and multi-location digital marketing, is complicated, and there will be efforts that fall short. Those unsuccessful efforts are not failures, they inform success as much as anything else.  If you give your digital marketing company the latitude to experiment, be bold, break barriers, and push boundaries, they will surely trip from time to time, but it will absolutely enhance the pace of success.