Don’t make the mistake of signing a contract with a ‘set and forget’ agency. Not sure what this is? Watch the video below to find out more:
Stay tuned for more marketing tips in episode 10!
Video Transcript [edited]
“Hi, my name’s Joe Fox, and I’m from Studio Culture, a full-service creative and strategic digital marketing agency. Today, I’m going to be speaking with you about the questions that you should be asking an agency before you sign with them, us included.
Now, the first thing that you should always ask about is case studies. Everyone can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk? Have they got proven case studies for whatever service it is that you’re looking for? Whether you’re looking for SEO, getting a website designed or running a social media advertising campaign with an agency, make sure that they have case studies and facts. It may even be worth asking them if you can talk to one of their prior clients.
Now, the second thing you should be asking your agency about before you sign a contract with them or move forward in doing a campaign with them or a project with them is what does their reporting look like? A lot of agencies, and I’m not going to name any names, but there’s a lot of agencies out there who will do set and forget. They will bring a client in, sell them the world, set up a campaign, and just leave it. It’s very important that you’re getting month-to-month or fortnightly reports from your agency that outline the highlights and the lowlights compared to the previous period.
For example, you should be setting in place realistic KPIs with an agency – a good agency will set those KPIs and those expectations with you clearly from the start, but it’s also important to say, “Okay, fantastic. You’re going to give me metrics and data,” but make sure it’s in a way that you can understand. If it’s important for you to generate more engaged users, make sure that you’re getting statistics on that. If it’s important for you to convert sales from traffic, make sure you’re getting reports on that.
Following on from my last point about agencies doing set and forget campaigns, it’s really important to make sure that you have a look at the contract that you’re signing. A lot of agencies, like the set and forget ones that I spoke about, will try and lock you in for a 12-month period of time. Now, as a marketer and as a successful agency owner, I know that it’s not possible for people to be able to do this, because the market changes very quickly. If you’re a relatively small business or you’re relatively new to social media, then you’ll be seeing a lot of quick wins on the board quite quickly, which means that your budgets are going to increase, the amount of content that the agency has to produce for you will increase, and the amount of engagement that the agency will be doing with customers on your behalf is going to increase, therefore it’s really unpractical for both parties to be signing long-term contracts. At Studio Culture, we work on a month-by-month basis because we know it’s important to grow with you and grow with your business.
I’m Joe Fox from Studio Culture, and the whole purpose of these videos is to add value from a digital marketing perspective to your business, so if you have any specific questions about social media marketing, SEO, Google advertising, or anything web, please get at us in the comments below or click the links below to our social media and get at us. Thank you and have a great day.”
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