How to select a marketing agency?

13 February

In today’s dynamic marketplace, adding a marketing agency to your team can be a key differentiator for success. Not only because it keeps you up to date with the rapid evolutions in digital marketing, but also because of the vast experience they bring to the table having worked on multiple projects. Agencies offer agility to incorporate key resources and operational flexibility, crucial elements to adapt and scale in today’s competitive environment.

Why add an agency as a supplier?

• Need to Stay Current: Digital marketing is constantly changing. A specialized agency stays on top of trends and updates, ensuring that your strategy does not become obsolete. Achieving this with an in-house team is almost impossible unless you can hire a lot of people at high salaries.

• Leverage Multi-Project Experience: Agencies bring a wealth of knowledge gained from a variety of industries and projects, which can offer unique perspectives and proven strategies for your business. If you try to generate experiences from scratch, you will be losing months, even years that can mean the difference between success and failure in a competitive market. By adding an agency as a partner you will have the essential knowledge base to avoid trying strategies that don’t work.

• Agility to Add Key Resources: With an agency, you can scale your marketing team quickly, bringing in experts in specific areas as needed. Each stage of your business will require you to focus on different skills. And we are not talking about stages as extended periods of time, many times these skills change from one quarter to the next, and they are really different from each other.

• Operational Flexibility: Agencies can adapt to the changing needs of your business, offering customized solutions that a fixed in-house team might not achieve. An agency will not only be able to give you access to human talent, but will also be able to recommend appropriate technologies for your specific market niche. In addition, an agency can provide you with the ability to dynamically add or subtract capabilities depending on the speed of growth your business requires.

What not to delegate to a Growth Marketing Agency

There are some things that Boomit recommends to keep inside “your house”. Although marketing agencies offer numerous advantages, there are aspects that could be better managed in-house. And by this we mean specifically:

• Communication on Real-Time Owned Channels: Direct interactions with your audience, such as comments on social media or direct messages on platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, or TikTok, often require an authentic brand voice and immediate responses that an in-house team is better positioned to provide.

There may be some exceptional cases, but in general we recommend keeping these types of communications inside. What is important is that this OwnMedia team is in close communication with the agency, in order to provide valuable feedback.

How to choose your Growth Marketing agency?

Not every marketing agency will be able to give you what you need. It is important that you validate some critical aspects to ensure success in this strategic alliance:

• Specialization in Your Business Niche: Look for agencies with proven experience in your sector. Your understanding of the market can be invaluable. Not all agencies know about all markets, services or products. In fact if you come across one that claims that, run away! Seek specific knowledge, otherwise you will face the same challenges and inefficiencies that you would face independently.

• Experience and Team: Evaluate the agency’s track record and the team’s experience. Do they have success stories similar to what you are looking to achieve? Do they have validated experience? Did you compare their website with other options? Don’t settle so easily, be demanding.

• Results-Oriented Work Processes: Investigate how the agency measures success and ensure that its processes are designed to achieve concrete results. Nowadays it is very common to find “marketing agencies” everywhere. They seem to sprout from the ground. Be very careful and challenge that sales team that tells you they can do it all. Investigate why they believe they have the ability to drive your business forward and how they make the actions measurable and aligned to your interests and those of your managers.

• Quality of Your Website and Content: The agency’s own digital presence can be a good indicator of its ability to help you. If they do not have a good digital presence, they will hardly be able to help others to have it.

• Quality of Interactions During the Business Process: How the agency handles interactions with you from the beginning can offer clues about their approach and customer service. What is your business process like? Do you feel professional and organized? Or is it imported? Do they use technology?

Pricing models, advantages and disadvantages when choosing a marketing agency

Agencies use different methods to charge for their services. And this is a fundamental factor in ensuring the success of this alliance. If you choose an agency that appears to be very economical, be very careful, they will probably not have the resources you need. No one does magic in this world, and we all have to pay salaries and overhead costs.

When hiring an agency, in terms of pricing you should mainly look for two things:

• Profitability: That is to say that beyond what you are going to pay, it generates measurable results above and beyond what it costs you.
• Results-oriented: The agency’ s efforts should be naturally incentivized so that its objectives are also yours. Never forget this.

Pricing models:

• Fixed Price and Fixed Scope: Ideal for projects with well-defined requirements. It offers predictability in costs, although it may be less flexible in the face of changes. We do not recommend this type of pricing as it will be a headache in the course of your relationship with the agency.

• Variable Price and Flexible Scope: Allows for project adaptability, ideal for evolving needs. However, it can make it more difficult to forecast total spending. This methodology can be challenging for the agency in terms of team sizing, profitability and deadlines, and therefore, if it doesn’t work for the agency, it will hardly work for you. Remember, this must work for both parties.

• Hybrid: Combines elements of both models. It can offer a balance between flexibility and predictability, adjusting according to the phases of the project. An example of this is the fixed + variable billing models. From our point of view, this is the best option since it provides certain security to the agency, which will be able to assure you the resources you will need, and at the same time it provides incentives to generate the growth you need in the business.

Conclusions on how to choose your growth marketing agency

Choosing the right marketing agency is a crucial step towards the success of your digital strategy. By considering factors such as expertise, experience, work processes and pricing models, you can ensure that you find a partner who not only understands your vision but also has the ability to take your business to the next level hand-in-hand with your internal team.

We invite you to test Boomit on the above challenges and let’s see if we have a chance to grow together!