Tired of wasting your marketing budget on agencies that don’t deliver? Don’t stay trapped in a stagnant relationship with a marketing agency that isn’t getting you the leads you need. Remember: same inputs = same outputs. When you decide to change marketing agencies, one big question comes to mind:
How do you avoid falling into another bad situation with a different marketing agency? After all, the first one sounded good enough to sign with. We’re going to cover the key strategies to you can use to ensure you pick a marketing agency that meets your needs:
- Define your goals
- Find your target audience
- Look at review and portfolios
- Don’t forget about the data
- Ask questions
- Determine that the marketing agency is legitimate
But before you begin the process of picking a new agency, let’s determine if you actually need a change or need to wait for results that are already on their way with your current partner.
Is it Time to Find a New Marketing Agency?
Change can feel overwhelming, so it’s not uncommon for our minds to try and rationalize our current situation to avoid the unknown. After all, your current marketing efforts have got to be better than nothing, right? Not true. At least with nothing, you’re not wasting your money. With a poor or misaligned marketing agency, you’re paying large sums to get nothing in return. (For the math nerds at home that’s actually 2x waste: you spent the money once to get nothing, and you didn’t have it later to use. Opportunity cost—hurray!) However, marketing can take time to fully work. If you don’t see immediate results, this doesn’t necessarily mean your current marketing agency is a bad fit. How do you know the difference? Look at the data.
An expert marketing agency should always know the exact state of your marketing, i.e. whether your qualified leads are increasing, static, or declining. No matter what the results of their plan are, your marketing agency should be communicating with you on how many leads you’re getting, where they’re coming from, etc. That being said, your business needs to verify that you’re actually getting the leads your agency is reporting. If the data doesn’t match, this could indicate an issue with reporting, phones, or scheduling software. Tracking this data, especially where your leads come from, is vital to ensuring that your marketing tactics are effective. If the data says they’re not, it’s time to adjust your campaigns and strategies.
It’s important to note that some marketing tactics do take time to build momentum. SEO is one such strategy. However, if you have an SEO strategy and your website’s organic traffic hasn’t improved in six months, it could be a sign that the tactic isn’t working. When SEO strategies fail, it’s typically because they lack focus on a target audience, aren’t using the right keywords, or are using outdated technical and on-page SEO tactics.
If you feel like you’re not getting the results you need, ask your marketing team to show you the data so you can verify this gut feeling. If the data proves you right, or the marketing agency doesn’t have any data to show, then it’s time to start looking for a replacement.
How to Pick the Right Marketing Agency
There are countless marketing agencies out there, each with their own unique offerings and niche. This means there is bound to be one that’s right for you. This also means it might take some time to find that perfect fit. However, this doesn’t have to be an overwhelming process. Just follow these steps and pick the perfect marketing agency to meet your needs:
Define Your Goals
Finding the right marketing agency starts with understanding your own business. Mainly, you need to determine what your business goals are and how marketing can help you attain them. Don’t just decide you want X number of leads, though. Carefully look at your revenue, client base, number of techs, or whatever it is you want to grow in your business. Work backwards from there to learn which marketing tactics you need to accomplish these goals. For example, if you want to increase purchases from your website, a new web design, ad campaign, and email nurture campaign could help make this happen.
Don’t just look at your business’ goals though. Be sure to also examine your current marketing efforts that are not meeting your goals. It’s important for you to understand what’s not working for your business and why so you can avoid agencies using the same methods. Budget will also play a vital part in your decision. With an expert marketing agency, the more money you spend on a marketing plan the more tactics can be used to produce leads. A $1,000/month marketing spend is not enough to create a plan that will produce 100+ leads per month. Larger results take more time, expertise, and monetary investment. When looking for a marketing agency that delivers leads, you must be sure to budget accordingly.
Find Your Target Audience
Understanding who your target audience is will greatly help you narrow down your list of potential marketing agencies. How? Well, if you’re a construction company and have a target audience of commercial clients, you might not want to work with a marketing agency who only has experience with residential construction companies. It’s an entirely different market. If you want to increase your leads, you’ll work with an agency that knows your target audience inside and out versus one that will have to wing it.
Look at Reviews and Portfolios
The best way to learn what it’s like to work with a marketing agency without actually working with them is through firsthand accounts. Reading customer reviews is extremely helpful in picking a marketing agency that fits all your needs and isn’t a nightmare to work with. Specifically, look for reviews that mention the following:
- How the marketing agency communicates with its clients
- How involved clients need to be with their marketing
- Pricing, specifically if there were any surprise fees
- How well deadlines were kept
Don’t just look at online customer reviews though. Ask potential agencies for case studies from clients in a similar industry or who used the same tactics you want to implement. This provides you with an even more accurate look at what it could be like to hire a specific marketing agency. Be sure to also ask to see an agency’s portfolio (after all, your clients want to make sure you have a history of success, right?). If possible, ask the marketing agency for references or reach out to clients used in their portfolio to get a better feel for what the entire marketing process was like. Would you rather go through a stressful process to get positive results, or have a seamless, stress-free experience that gets you equally beneficial results?
Don’t Forget About the Data
People may try to embellish or spin stories, but data doesn’t lie. Expert marketing agencies should already be recording data from their clients to ensure their campaigns are performing well. So, when you ask to see success stories backed by real world data, they should have something to show you. If they don’t, then move on.
On the other hand, you don’t want to ask for a pile of data you don’t understand or that isn’t relevant to your business’ goals. For example, if you’re trying to increase your number of leads, you want to work with a marketing agency that has good results in doing so. Ask to see the number of leads their efforts have gotten clients, leads by channel, and cost per lead or acquisition rates. What a successful number looks like will depend on the size of the business, industry, marketing plan, etc. So, when asking for data, be sure to ask for results from businesses similar to yours.
Ask Questions!
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of potential marketing agencies, it’s time to schedule consultations. These meetings are vital as they show you firsthand how a marketing agency communicates and show you what it would be like to work with them. Don’t forget to ask important questions about how the marketing agency operates, bills, reports results, and more. Here are some questions to ask every marketing agency to get you started:
- Have you worked with other businesses like mine? What were the results?
- What marketing tactics do you specialize in?
- What metrics do you monitor and report on?
- How is pricing structured? How do you bill?
- How involved are your clients in the marketing process?
- How soon will I see results?
- Is this a long-term contract?
- How long does it take to get going?
- What if I’ve tried ads before and it didn’t work?
- How much is this going to cost me?
Pay special attention to how marketing agencies answer these questions. Don’t just listen to the answers themselves but also watch to see if they explain common marketing jargon. After all, you want to work with an agency that takes the time to explain things to you and doesn’t talk over your head. These marketing agencies are partners, not just knowledgeable experts.
How to Tell if a Marketing Agency is Legit
The last thing you want is to end up with another poor marketing agency, especially after all the effort you’ve put into finding one. So, how do you tell a shady marketing agency apart from a professional one? First, if you can’t schedule a consultation with them, cut them from your list. Those initial meetings can reveal a lot about an agency and what it’s like to work with them. And you don’t want to sign a contract with someone you haven’t officially met. Second, watch out for the promise of instant results. This isn’t realistic since most marketing tactics take time to build up and produce results. If an agency guarantees results on the first day of your new campaign, they are not being honest with you or are going to provide low-quality leads.
When researching potential marketing agencies, watch out for a pattern of reviews from clients who didn’t get what they wanted and/or had a bad experience working with the agency. Don’t even consider working with these organizations. On the other hand, be skeptical of agencies with no reviews or if they can’t provide case studies and references. All reputable marketing agencies should have a set of clients and projects they’re ready to show off to potential customers. If they don’t, they are either just starting out or don’t have good examples.
Lastly, an expert marketing agency won’t just dole out cookie-cutter strategies. They should be an established and niched agency that knows exactly what tactics will work for your business. And instead of offering everyone the same strategies, they should provide personalized plans and tailored solutions to help you reach your goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
We work with general contractors, home builders, design/build firms, remodelers, and all specialty trades like concrete, plumbing, electricians, HVAC, and roofing companies. We are the marketing agency for contractors and construction companies.
We specialize in PPC, content marketing, and SEO. We also offer web design, development, hosting, and applications for those needing a lead generating site.
We report on the number of leads, leads by channel, conversion rate, cost per lead, web traffic, impressions, and cost per click for our marketing efforts.
We charge monthly for our annual contracts. We also have solutions that fit all budgets and construction company sizes.
After an initial meeting to discuss marketing goals as well as your business in-depth, we will produce your marketing content and send it to you for review. After one round of revisions, additional adjustments are charged hourly before we publish content you are happy with.
Most clients see new leads in 30 days. Sometimes sooner. It depends on your market, competition, offer, guarantee, and marketing plan.
We have month-to-month options as well as annual plans. When you commit to a 12-month plan, a lead generation guarantee protects you. If we don’t deliver, we work for free until you get high-quality leads.
We can have ads in market within 7 days of your discovery call, and the new website will be online within 30 days. This ensures that you’re getting leads within the first 30 days.
Most people who come to us say the same thing. We audit everything – ads, targeting, offers, and landing pages – and find the weak link. Then we fix it. We have a proven track record of producing high-quality leads for construction companies.
Our basic lead generating plan starts at $1,499 per month (including ad spend). Most clients invest $3,000 to $5,000 per month. We have solutions that fit all budgets and construction company sizes.
Manage Your Marketing by Staying Up to Date on the Latest Tactics
Choosing a new marketing agency can feel overwhelming, but if you follow the steps laid out above, you will have the knowledge needed to pick one that’s right for you. Don’t stop learning after you’ve made your decision though. One of the best ways to ensure you’ve picked a strong marketing agency is by staying up to date with the latest marketing trends yourself. This not only tells you if your marketing agency is staying on top of the evolving strategies but also helps you better understand the tactics they’re using. Sign up for our free marketing e-course to get weekly resources on the latest marketing strategies and how you can implement them in your business.
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