What to Look for When Hiring a Social Media Marketing Agency

Social media marketing is more important than ever in our modern economy. But if you run your own business, chances are you don’t have the time to both create and run complex social media marketing campaigns by yourself in addition to your other responsibilities. The solution? Social media marketing agencies can help you create, edit, and tailor marketing campaigns specifically for your target consumers, plus manage those campaigns as they work to draw in new traffic and convert customers.But how do you know what separates a great social media marketing agency from a mediocre one? Let’s break down what you should look for in a top-tier social media marketing agency now.

Does the Agency Have Specialists?

Here’s the truth: No matter how ostensibly skilled someone might claim to be, they can’t master every aspect of social media marketing. There are simply too many diverse niches to manage, ranging from graphic design to writing to search engine optimization to analytics and more.Therefore, any social media marketing agency worth your time and money will have multiple specialists on hand who can tackle the various aspects of a successful campaign. In other words, make sure that any marketing agency has the staff necessary to do a great job. Check out their website’s staff list to see their talent for yourself.

Does the Agency Have Experience Marketing in Your Industry?

You’ll also want to consider whether a social media marketing agency has adequate experience in your industry. Social media marketing isn’t the same across industries or sectors at all; you wouldn’t want to hire a social media marketing agency specializing in IT technology to market for a baking company, right?Similarly, you don’t want to hire an agency specializing in top-tier digital ads when you need social media posts. It’s all about matching the right agency to your job.To this end, you can ask the agency directly about their prior experience or check out their portfolio for examples of previous jobs. Most agencies worth your attention will be upfront about what industries they specialize in.

An Excellent Website/Portfolio

Speaking of portfolios, a good social media marketing agency will have a fantastic website and demonstrative portfolio of their previous successful results. Navigate through their website and see if it has engaging copy, attractive graphic design elements, and more; this can serve as an unofficial test of their skills before speaking to anyone in the agency.See if the website has a dedicated portfolio page. A portfolio page will advertise previous work and let you see what a marketing agency can do before you hire them. Newer agencies might have less successful work to showcase, but they should still have something. More experienced agencies ought to have plenty of work to show off.

Fast and Efficient Communication

In the modern, rapid-fire business environment, you can’t afford to do business with a company that gets back to you three or four days after you’ve emailed them initially. This is especially true given that social media marketing may require rapid adjustments or shifts in marketing strategydaily.Therefore, if you write an email or otherwise contact a social media marketing agency, you should pay attention to how quickly they respond. Everyone gets busy, so don’t worry too much if the agency doesn't respond in an hour or two. But if you contact them in the morning, they should respond to you by the end of the same business day.You might think this is a petty thing to look for in a social media marketing agency. But it’s not— it’s a test to show how dedicated the agency is to new clients and allows you to gauge how efficient future communication will be with them should you decide to hire them.Check an

Agency’s Social Media Page

Social media marketing agencies specialize in generating traffic and converting customers through social media. So it stands to reason that you should check out any prospective agency’s social media page!Navigate to their Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms and see how they have designed their own business profiles. Ask yourself whether you would be interested in doing business with them based purely on the social media pages they have set up.A good social media marketing agency will make these pages top-tier in every respect: they'll have engaging and connecting copy, witty or informative text, links that are optimized for search engine results, and fantastic graphic design so you flow to different pages and your eye is drawn to their imagery.In a way, a marketing agency’s social media page(s) can serve as another kind of test. If their social media pages seem a bit disappointing, then you’ll probably be more satisfied working with another agency.

When in Doubt, Ask for a Consultation

Once you’ve narrowed down a bunch of different marketing agencies and want to contact at least one of them, speak with whoever you’re connected to about what they can provide to your business.A free consultation can help you get an idea of the people who work for the agency, plus give you the chance to ask specific questions about how the agency works and what it can deliver.

Does the Agency Promise Results Relevant to Your Needs?

All social media marketing agencies will promise generally optimistic results, like improved traffic, more conversions, and more. But you need to dive deep into what an agency can truly provide, especially when it comes to your brand’s unique needs. Ask whether a marketing agency can:

• Drive traffic from a particular demographic or consumer base
• Boost conversion rates by a certain amount by a certain time – this is tricky, as no social media marketing agency should promise extremely positive results in a super short timeframe, like one week
• Start and maintain a high-quality social media marketing campaign over a set timeframe, like several weeks, months, or even up to a year

Be frank about what you’re expecting. A good social media marketing agency will also be frank about what they can deliver. If it’s a bad match, there’s no problem if both parties are on the same page.Also, be wary of social media marketing agencies that promise the world. Every agency wants to deliver great results for their client. Trustworthy marketing agencies won’t promise impossible results, like doubling the traffic to your website in 24 hours.

What Exactly Does the Agency Do?

Social media marketing is a pretty broad field. It involves multiple types of content creation and management, ranging from video ad creation, text ad creation, ad scheduling and analytics, and more.Not every agency does every aspect of social media marketing. That’s okay! But be sure that a marketing agency you want to partner with actually does the stuff you need to do.For instance, do you need a high-quality digital video ad campaign pumped out ASAP? In that case, you’ll want a dedicated digital marketing agency like VisCap Media. In some cases, you may need to combine the services of multiple advertising and marketing agencies, such as by taking the video ads made by a digital marketing agency and providing them to a social media marketing agency.

Is the Agency Using Industry-Leading Tools?

During your initial interview with an agency, be sure to ask specific questions about the kinds of tools that the agency uses. Any good agency should be using the right tools to make your partnership worth your time and money and ensure that they’ll deliver acceptable results within set time frames.For example, if you need a social media marketing agency to also do some email marketing, they have to be using industry-leading tools such as MailChimp. Or, if the marketing agency focuses on SEO (which they should), they have to be using tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs, both of which help to track keywords and monitor search trends.Ask about all the tools in marketing agency uses, and you’ll get a better idea of whether they can actually deliver what they promise.

Does the Agency Use KPIs?

Inquire about the KPIs or key performance indicators that an agency uses. Your business probably already uses several KPIs to track and measure your progress, both in terms of profits and in terms of marketing success.As you exchange information with a prospective social media marketing agency, ask about the kinds of KPIs they use or what they might use for your business. A good agency should have several ideas about how to measure success for your brand or what KPIs to target to make sure they are addressing pain points and objectives.

Budget Considerations

Lastly, don’t forget to consider any budget limitations that may or may not exist. Marketing campaigns cost money, and it’ll take some time for even the most successful campaigns to generate a return on your investment.Be upfront about the budget limitations you have and try to find the most affordable marketing agency for your needs without skimping on quality. Remember: overly cheap social media marketing agencies aren’t worth your time. You get what you pay for!All in all, keep each of the above factors in mind in your search for the best social media marketing agency for your needs. You might hit a few duds here and there, and that’s all right. Even if it takes time for you to find the perfect social media marketing partner, keep at it, and you’ll eventually find success!SourcesWhat is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)? | KPI.orgThe Importance Of Social Media Marketing | DigitalMarketing.org10 Marketing Strategies to Fuel Your Business Growth | Entrepreneur