There are never any guarantees when it comes to marketing. This is a tough pill to swallow if you’re a business owner. “You want me to pay you every month, but you can’t tell me exactly what I’m going to get for my money?”

And then there’s digital marketing. It’s confusing. There are so many acronyms, so much jargon, and you’re purchasing something that you oftentimes can’t see in a tangible format. 

So, what can you as a business owner do to ensure that you’re making a sound investment in digital marketing? The following tips will put you in the driver’s seat and allow you to make the most of your digital investment.

Find a digital agency that you fits your style  

This sounds so obvious, but it’s too important not to mention. You don’t have to understand the intricacies of digital marketing, but you do need an advocate who has strong communication skills and a firm grasp on the digital world. 

When you’re selecting an agency to handle your digital marketing, look for a team that is a good personality fit. In general, do you feel comfortable in their presence? Do you feel empowered to ask questions? Are they easily reachable? Do they speak in terms that you understand? Do they follow through on commitments? Do they accept constructive criticism gracefully? 

The interpersonal relationship that you have with your agency is directly related to the success of your digital campaigns. Don’t settle for a poor cultural fit. The right team is out there if you take the time to find them!

Find an agency that makes YOUR goals THEIR goals

Imagine you hire a personal trainer to support you with your goal of running a marathon. And the trainer says, “Forget about the marathon, we’re going to make you into a bodybuilder. By this time next year, you’ll be bigger than Arnold Schwarzenegger. I see six Mr. Universe titles in your future!” 

Suddenly, you’re not focused on your goal at all, and your resources are being used to achieve a goal that doesn’t reflect what you want to achieve. Why shouldn’t your digital marketing goals reflect who you are and what you want to achieve?

No matter who you select to run your digital marketing campaigns, your agency should work with you to support the goals that are important to YOU. 

Here’s an important thing we want you to understand: You don’t have to know a thing about digital marketing to set campaign goals. Want to drive more sales to your e-commerce site? Increase traffic to your blog? Let’s say that you’re a dentist and you want to increase new patients by 20% over the next 12 months. These are all appropriate goals for a digital marketing campaign. 

Find an agency partner that will work with you to understand your goals and will build campaigns to support them. 

Find a digital marketing agency that reports in a way that makes sense to YOU

The world of digital marketing contains a lot of buzzwords, jargon, and technical terms. Sometimes business owners assume that they just won’t understand digital marketing and they resign themselves to taking a position that digital marketing is just something that they need to blindly trust. This is not the case! You deserve to understand the impact that your digital marketing investment is making on your business. 

A good digital marketing agency will report in metrics that make sense to the business owner. They will tie success back to previously agreed upon goals. 

For instance, if you’re working with us at Formada, an end-of-month report for a high-end landscape design client might contain the following language, “We remember that one of your goals for August is to increase leads in Lake Oswego, OR for water features. When we take a look at August, we see that the campaign drove 24 phone calls and 12 form submissions specific to water features, which is an increase of 18 total leads over July”. 

We can dive deeper into the analytics and learn more about how that success occurred, or the business owner might simply be content knowing that the campaign is performing in accordance with the previously established goals. 

Bottom line, you shouldn’t need a dictionary and and digital marketing expertise to determine if your investment is paying off. Your digital marketing agency should make the results easy to decipher and address your progress to goals front and center on all reporting. 

Questions about digital marketing? We can help!

Have questions about digital marketing or maybe you think we’d be a good fit to help you achieve your business goals? Reach out to us! We love to meet new people and help business owners break down walls when it comes to digital marketing.