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What it takes to find the perfect marketing agency near me

When it comes to choosing the best marketing agency for your business you should be as selective as possible.

Working with an agency that doesn’t share your values or that you simply don’t get along with can be a huge waste of valuable time and resources. It’s essential to know what to look for and how to ensure their knowledge, skills and experience align with your business’s unique needs and goals. 

Sometimes, finding the perfect marketing agency near you can be challenging – especially if you’ve never worked with one before. That’s why it’s important to know exactly what you look for and which questions to ask. 

Why you should work with a marketing agency

Working with a marketing agency gives you access to a plethora of skills, experience and ideas to grow your business across various touchpoints. 

Agencies are used to working in a fast-paced environment serving multiple clients, which means those running them have a wealth of knowledge spanning different industries and types of businesses. 

Choosing a marketing agency that operates near your business is typically more productive than partnering with one overseas or working in different time zones. This is down to the fact that choosing one in your vicinity, whether it’s the same city or country, ensures the agency has a deep and professional understanding of the market your business is operating in. 

Who needs a marketing agency?

In short, any type of business can benefit from building a strategy with a marketing agency. 

Whether you’re a small and growing startup or a successful and established enterprise, there are countless opportunities to grow your business, engage your audience and increase brand awareness by leveraging the unique skills and insight offered by digital marketing agencies

Of course, the marketing service and strategy you need will vary depending on the size of your company, your specific goals and your budget. 

What can a marketing agency do for me?

If you lack the experience and technical knowledge to execute and manage a marketing campaign, an agency can take some of the load off your shoulders. 

Industry experts can effectively manage your campaigns and enhance your marketing efforts, so you can focus on the other aspects involved in managing your business.

What are the different types of marketing agencies?

Some marketing agencies might be more specialised, such as a dedicated PPC advertising agency, whereas full service digital marketing agencies will cover all the bases. These include:

  • Branding
  • Content marketing
  • Advertising 
  • Social media and influencer marketing
  • Email marketing
  • Growth and performance marketing services
  • Web design and development
  • SEO
  • Public relations
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What are the benefits of hiring a marketing agency?

Once you find the right agency, you will start to recognise the benefits of working with seasoned marketing experts immediately.

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Access specialist knowledge and insight: You can trust that those at an agency know what effective marketing is and how to execute campaigns that get results. 

Leverage expensive marketing tools: Agencies are equipped with all the tools you need to develop and carry out marketing campaigns, so you can benefit from them even if you’re a small business with a more constrained budget. 

Share top quality content: Whether you want to release a powerful video marketing campaign or increase lead generation with Google Ads, a marketing company knows how to produce content that drives engagement and boosts ROI. 

Marketing strategies tailored to your business: When working with an agency, you will first work together to establish your business goals. The marketing strategy they plan will be specifically tailored to your needs and the interests and pain points of your target audience.

How to choose a marketing agency near you

What it all boils down to is choosing the right digital marketing agency that aligns with your unique business needs. So, what should you know before hiring a marketing agency?

Have a clear understanding of your goals

Knowing exactly what you want to achieve with your digital marketing strategy is the first step in finding the right agency for you. To whittle down the competition, outline some SMART goals for outbound and inbound marketing that you want to accomplish.

For instance, if you want to increase your reach and lead generation with Facebook ads, you might consider working with an advertising agency specialising in PPC and Google Analytics. 

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If your goal relates to increasing brand awareness, you might consider working with a social media marketing agency with a team of dedicated specialists who understand the etiquette and know how to measure your brand’s social performance

Or, if you want to develop a strategy that covers everything from web design to content marketing, it will be beneficial to invest in a comprehensive digital marketing service. 

Research the services they provide

Are you in need of a one-stop solution for your digital marketing effort? Or maybe you have more specific goals relating to particular areas of marketing. It’s crucial to know exactly what you want to get out of partnering with an agency. 

What’s more, you should consider whether you’ll require services they offer in the future as your business grows, as this means you won’t have to work with different agencies to cover all your bases. 

For some services, like web design or SEO, you may prefer to work with a specialist agency that’s extremely skilled in planning and executing strategies for these facets of marketing. Or if you really want to focus on growing your audience online, a social media agency might offer more hyper-focused services to achieve your goals. 

With that in mind, it’s important to note that marketing is a holistic process with many agencies offering comprehensive services that embrace all skill sets. 

Check out examples of previous clients

Before making out any checks, be sure to do a thorough investigation of the potential agency’s previous clients. 

Note that most agencies are made up of diverse teams with extremely adaptable skills, so they will most likely work with a wide range of clients. 

Before settling on a decision, take a look at their business profiles on Google, Yelp, LinkedIn and other social pages to see what kind of reviews they receive.

Set clear expectations

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This step benefits both parties involved. Every client will have different needs and expectations, just as every agency will have different methods for how they work. 

It’s important to establish a baseline so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to communication and involvement. This will help the agency to plan out their resourcing and timeframe more effectively, while ensuring they’re accountable. 

Be clear on the contract

Ensure both parties have thoroughly understood and agreed upon a formal contract. This should outline the length of the partnership, scope of work, cancellation policies and any confidentiality agreements. If you’re new to working with agencies, consider sending the contract over to a lawyer to be reviewed.

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Work with a comprehensive marketing agency to grow your business 

If you’ve never worked with a marketing agency before you might be apprehensive about doing so. But rest assured that working with a full service digital agency like Axonn can reduce work and stress levels for your in-house teams while empowering you with expert tools, skills and capabilities to grow your business. 

Whether you want to execute an impressive social media marketing campaign, improve your website SEO to drive traffic to your website, implement an effective PPC strategy or all of the above, Axonn can help.