Case studies and customer testimonials are essential for any marketing agency worth hiring. They provide a strong history of providing top-notch services to their clients, and clients, in turn, will be happy to discuss it with the agency's prospective clients. A hybrid of case studies with dotted testimonies is the latest trend, as it provides a comprehensive list and a gold mine for companies looking for a useful resource to look for a high-quality online marketing agency. It is also important not to overlook the less obvious signs of a good company.
For example, the quality and organization of the company's own website provides a clear indication of what would be expected from the services they offer. In addition, the blog of a company or CEO can also be very informative, and potential customers should look for this as an additional means of evaluating the suitability of a company. To promote themselves over the past 18 months, agencies have advertised on digital banners on LinkedIn, Facebook and other social platforms, promoted their executives through sponsorship and speaking opportunities at industry events, ran paid search campaigns, placed leadership pieces of opinion in publications and points of sale, bought commercial advertising campaigns and even launched their own podcasts. Never miss an opportunity to promote yourself.
If you have the opportunity to be part of a reputable blog, podcast, interview, article or news item, take advantage of it. The value of your brand depends on the perception of it. Positive perception is built through strong, repeated performance, reference, and ultimately. Do a good job and take every opportunity to make your name known. Make it a top priority to contribute intellectual leadership blog posts to another company's blog that has the same target audience you're trying to reach.
This will position you as an expert in your industry and open your reach to a whole new customer segment, at no cost. It's easy to send emails to publishers or content marketers and come up with a story idea, because today everyone is looking for quality blog content. Another great strategy is to achieve content positioning on a top-tier marketing media site such as Social Media Today, ProBlogger or Moz. These sites have a high volume of traffic, and your post is likely to be shared a lot which will return a good amount of traffic to your business through a placed link. Don't forget that every time you write a guest blog it's a quality backlink to your site that improves SEO. Despite being an old tactic, business cards still work in the digital world.
You never know when you're going to meet someone who starts talking about their business and how they need good marketing advice. Whether it's at dinner or on vacation in the Caribbean, the ability to hand out a business card and give someone a reason to contact you later is never a bad idea. An entrepreneurial friend who owns his own video marketing business once gave me good advice on how to grow a business. Whether it's attending a networking event or reaching out to someone you haven't seen in a long time or never met, these are all great opportunities to talk about your business and how you can collaborate. When someone finds out about your marketing agency they'll likely look for you online and visit your website to research more about you. Because you're in the marketing world the face of your brand is everything.
Take the time to create a well-thought-out brand and a cohesive professional website. You can find top-notch templates for SquareSpace and WordPress that will make your site look like you've spent thousands on developers. If your agency website shines online and presents your best client's work in a portfolio it will be an easy option for potential new clients to sign on the dotted line. Like guest intellectual leadership blogs speaking at conferences makes you stand out as a thought leader in marketing. Thousands of people attend marketing conferences every year to gain knowledge. If you or your agency employees lead a talk at an important marketing conference people will tweet about it expanding the audience that turns to your agency for advice when they need it. To stop putting your company on the back burner start treating it as if you were an AOR (registration agency) client.
Assemble a team of people as you would any client with senior and junior level members and an account manager. Make sure these people feel responsible for taking your agency's branding and marketing efforts to the next level just as they are responsible for billable work with their clients. The & Association published an advertisement on the business pages of a national newspaper promoting its services during this time of turmoil. But why don't more agencies do the same? If the Campaign experience was anything to follow last weekend's Sunday...
