Over the past decade or so we’ve experienced an increased demand for digital services. Businesses of all sizes have been gradually shifting their advertising budgets towards building online visibility as opposed to focusing on traditional advertising platforms. 

The pandemic accelerated this process and forced a lot of companies to accept the fact that we are heading into a digital-first era. 

As a result, the online marketing industry has seen an increase in the number of agencies over recent years, making it more difficult to choose a reputable one. 

This is why we have combined a list of characteristics of a reputable and professional digital marketing agency to help you through the selection process. Read on and make an informed decision!

Knowledge and expertise in digital marketing

When you’re looking for a professional agency to take on your project, check if they have the experience and know-how in various fields like SEO, PPC, Social, Content Marketing, etc. 

They don’t necessarily have to offer all of these services but they should always be confident enough to give advice on how all these areas can work together as one system. The most important asset a digital marketing agency can offer its clients is diversity. 

A multi-disciplined team that consists of individuals with unique expertise in various fields will be able to meet any challenge or opportunity facing the industry today.

• Red flag:  The agency says that they only do marketing but outsource design/development (there is no clarity on the quality of service provided by the third party) or they advise against utilising a certain digital marketing strategy, e.g. PPC or Social because they don’t have it in their services portfolio.

Experience in the industry

One of the most important things to look for when hiring an agency is their portfolio. You want someone who has experience working with companies like yours and ideally within your industry. 

This will ensure that they have an understanding of your sector’s challenges, opportunities, industry-specific trends and the most effective strategies. 

Also, a reliable company will have spent time on both small businesses as well large ones, so they should be familiar enough about what challenges arise from running any business nowadays – no matter how big or little it may seem at first glance.

• Red flag: The agency says they’ve been working with various sectors and industries but are very vague about the details and their website lacks authentic case studies or testimonials backing their experience.

Transparency in client relationships

Transparency is the key to a successful relationship. If you don’t see any information on an agency’s website, like their address and client case studies or testimonials then beware because they might be trying to hide something. 

A reputable company should also be transparent about their work but also their processes and be able to provide detailed, regular reports on their marketing efforts, using the industry-renowned software and tools. 

• Red flag: Low-quality agencies are trying to keep the raw data hidden so that they can control how it’s used. They only provide limited reports or dashboards for their clients, which may give an inaccurate perspective of their campaign’s performance.

Honesty in delivering results

A reputable agency understands the extremely competitive nature of digital space and will never overpromise or guarantee unrealistic results.

They won’t promise more than they can deliver because competition is fierce and there are so many factors that come into play in digital marketing and advertising that it’s very hard to predict or even forecast the outcome. 

• Red flag: The agency promises you to make your website rank on position 1 in search results for your desired keywords or guarantees a certain number of leads/sales within a given timeframe.
• When it comes to digital marketing, there’s no such thing as exact results. What they should really say is “we’ll give you the best possible return on your investment.”

We hope this article helped shed some light on the main characteristics of a reputable digital marketing agency and has presented some of the most obvious “red flags”. It’s extremely important to take the above points into consideration in order to make sure that the services offered by your chosen agency are tailored specifically to what your needs are in order to avoid wasting time or money on something that won’t work for your industry’s specific goals. 

Here at atomicboost we take the time to understand your business and we tailor our marketing strategy to help you reach your specific goals. Our experienced, multi-disciplined team is working tirelessly to deliver the best return on investment for you and our expertise, transparency and honesty are at the heart of what we do. Let us help you elevate your business and boost your online presence through our tried and tested techniques! Get in touch today on +44 (0)115 882 0890 or send us an email at hello@atomicboost.co.uk.