Digital Marketing Superstar Rachel Pickles Shares How To Look For A Reliable Marketing Agency

With the right brand management experience and expertise, a savvy marketing agency can position your company in front of the right audience. Your brand’s image can make or break your business. It’s all about giving consumers a solid reason to choose you over the competition. Luckily, there are plenty of tried and tested approaches an agency uses.

Before you can reap the rewards, you need to find a marketing agency that suits your business. This is no easy feat. In this guide, digital marketing superstar and agency founder, Rachel Pickles, shares her tips on how to find the right marketing agency for you.

Understand your brand goals

One of the biggest mistakes you can make — before you choose the marketing agency for you — is to overlook your brand market position. Where do you see your company going in the next five, or even ten, years? What is your long-term plan? So that you can make an informed decision here, you have to have an in-depth understanding of your brand goals.

As a business owner, the main question you should be asking yourself is “Why am I hiring a marketing agency?” What is it that you are hoping to gain out of this contract? You may be looking for ways to increase brand awareness, for instance. On the other hand, you may be trying to improve your Google ranking. Deciding what your brand goals are will help you to propose a marketing agency accurately and get what you need from them.

Choose a team of creators

Creative professionals are the foundation of any marketing agency. When you sign up to work with any business, you are not buying into the name, you are buying into the people. Keep that in mind when you are investigating which agency will work for your needs.

Rather than looking at the portfolio as a whole, take it apart and see which elements were made by which team members. Getting to know the creators will help you determine whether the agency has the right skill-set to support you in your long-term goals.

Consider your company culture

Your company culture matters when you’re choosing a marketing agency. If you’re a fun, approachable brand — like Innocent Smoothies — you don’t want to go with an agency that specializes in working with governmental bodies. Similarly, if you have a legal business, you might want to steer clear of agencies that create “off the wall” campaigns. Rather than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, find an agency that aligns with you.

Now, you will need to do your research here. You should already have a solid grasp on your brand. Take a look at agency portfolios and the types of companies they have previously worked with. Does your business work within that sector? Do you have a similar brand and ethos? You can learn a great deal about an agency based on its clients.

Look for credibility and trust

It goes without saying that you need to be able to trust any marketing agency that you work with. You are parting with large sums of money to make this working relationship a success. Before you sign on the dotted line, you need to be sure that the agency is reliable. It’s worth looking into the business’ track records and reading reviews to do this.

Check out their online presence

Marketing agencies don’t simply have to promote the brands with which they work — they also need to promote themselves. That is where their online presence comes into play. Ahead of deciding to work with a particular marketing agency, you need to check them out online. Their website and social media channels are their shop windows. That is to say that they have the opportunity to showcase their best work and reputation there.

Your first port of call needs to be the agency website where you will find their portfolio. Take the time to dive deep into the work that the business has formerly completed. Is this the level of expertise you are looking for? Can you envision your brand working with them? When you have scoped out that side of things, you should move onto their social media channels (such as LinkedIn and Instagram) and Google and TrustPilot reviews to boot.

Have them pitch you ideas 

If you think that you’ve found the right marketing agency, there’s one last thing that you should undertake. Ask the marketing agency to pitch you some ideas. This approach will help you understand whether the creatives are on the same page as you. You may want to hold a meeting where you review the pitches that the team brings to the figurative table.

Keep in mind that you may have to pay extra for this service. However, having this initial meeting with the team will give you a clear view of what you can expect. You will better understand the type of work they will produce and how the relationship will unfold.

Investigate their contract terms

Now that you are confident in choosing a particular marketing agency, you need to take a look at their contract terms. There are various payment systems that agencies tend to use. One of the most common is a retainer setup. That means that you pay a certain amount each month and get a list of services from the business. However, you may prefer to opt for a pay-per-project system that allows a one-off fee for each brief that is completed.

Conclusion

Finding the perfect marketing agency doesn’t have to be a trial. So long as you’re willing to put the effort and energy into this task, you should have no problem establishing a relationship with the right creatives for you. While I have covered a variety of tips here, the most important thing to keep in mind is that you have to do your research.

About Rachel Pickles & Rachel Pickles Marketing & Design

Rachel Pickles is a freelance marketing specialist and founder of Rachel Pickles Marketing & Design. After graduating from Warwick University in 2014, she has held a variety of positions within the marketing sector before taking the leap to become an entrepreneur.

Her expertise spans widely from search engine optimisation (SEO) to graphic design and copywriting. In addition, she is an expert when it comes to email marketing, outbound marketing, remarketing, and social media marketing. Her track record includes the ability to help clients increase their web traffic by more than 150% and triple conversion rates.

Rachel Pickles Marketing & Design specializes in medical and legal marketing. Since launching the now-successful agency, she has worked alongside well-known medical product brands across the United Kingdom. Aside from supporting clients in improving their search engine ranking, she is a professional at overseeing project management. As such, she has helped clients launch successful websites and rebranding projects. 

Rachel Pickles currently resides in London with her husband and two children. She is working on a book that is set to release in the autumnof next year and will cover important marketing techniques. The publication will touch on voice search, long-form content, keyword density, keyphrase selection, and additional marketing-centric subjects.