How to Choose a Digital Agency?

The selection of an agency that is going to take care of your Facebook page or Instagram profile is not a simple process. While bearing in mind that this profession is experiencing its outbreak in today’s day and age, a lot of quality standards aren’t strictly formed. Taking these things into consideration, the fact that a lot of companies don’t know how to choose an adequate digital agency. The very choosing is also hardened by the fact that a lot of companies added the service of community management in their portfolios.

Before further analyzing, it is recommended that you read the next article: Why does social media marketing costs as much as it costs? It will show you all parts of the process which digital agencies like Kontra have to go through in order to provide the best service possible, bringing in the maximum results.

Before the start

#1 Set your goals

Think about what you want to achieve via social networks. In the later stages, the digital agency will help you set concrete and measurable goals, but in order to even start, you should at least approximately know why are you even starting the communication through social networks and the things you want to achieve with that communication.

#2 Allocate your budget

Hiring the agency itself costs a certain amount of money on a monthly basis. The best digital agencies specialized in communication on social networks charge their community management services from 500€ a month to more. In addition to that, it is important to bear in mind that Facebook ads cost a minimum of 300-500€ a month. These are just basic prices, which are easily enlarged with additional actions such as giveaway programs or when a certain channel has a lot of activity on it…

#3 Choose a person within your company that is going to communicate with the agency

Agency absolutely has to communicate with someone from inside your firm because that communication allows the digital agency to receive all the important information tied to the campaign. The person from your company (most frequently a marketer) will spend a part of its working hours on the communication with a digital agency and also on planning different activities. That is why we recommend you to devote a lot of attention to choosing that person; so that the communication, cooperation, and every other process could develop smoothly.

Set your goals

While choosing…

#1 Research and find out which digital agencies offer community management services

There is a lot of digital agencies and companies on the market which offer community management and Facebook ads control services. To choose a couple of agencies you are going to get in touch with is not an easy task. The number of firms that added a profile management service in their portfolios is getting bigger day by day and you should be very careful while having to come up with a choice of company you are going to collaborate with.

#2 Contact the digital agencies

The next step is to get in contact with the digital agency via e-mail. In your first mail, try to give your agency as much information about you and your goals as you can. Don’t ask for the offer instantly just so you could acknowledge the prices of working with the individual agency but rather serve as many information as you can so that the agency could compile the right offer for you and your needs. There is a big difference between managing a small company with 2.000 Facebook fans and taking care of a community with 100.000 users on multiple channels. Set up a meeting with the digital agency where you will get the important opportunity to present yourself and your company and also meet the people you are going to do business with in person.

#3 Talk with digital agencies

Learn about their references, have they ever worked with clients from your line of business. meet the persons who are going to be the account and community managers for your page… check what else do those people do inside the company; if they are maybe also working on other tasks in their company (Web design, development, AdWords campaigns…), also check how much time could they dedicate to you. Also, check the ways of their education and how much time do they invest in it. This is a crucial step because you surely don’t want to entrust your campaign to the person who is working on 5 different things within the agency and also “writes some Facebook statuses on the side”.

#4 Choose the digital agency

Don’t let the price be the only deciding factor you are considering while choosing the digital agency. Form your decision based on the previous step of choosing the agency. Whose ideas do you like the most? Compare prices and make a decision then.

Talk with digital agencies

After choosing…

#1 Contact all the agencies and let them know the results of your decision

Don’t leave other agencies in the state of ignorance. Tell them there isn’t going to be any cooperation at that time because you’ve chosen another partner. One sincere mail or call won’t take up a lot of your time.

#2 Arrange all technical details with the digital agency you have chosen and sign a cooperation contract.

All agencies should have their own contract proposition, but just to be sure, insist that contract must contain KPIs, minimal activities that need to be done and the disclaimer that all channels remain in your ownership after the contract expiration

#3 Start off with the project!

Things to look after

The process of choosing a digital agency is a process of choosing a partner. The goal is to please both sides so that your cooperation results in a win-win situation. The most important step is a meeting and talking to people from the digital agency you are going to work with. To meet the digital agency is equally important as it is for the agency to meet you. When in doubt about agency selection, ask them a few questions.

Choose your partners

What are your references?

There is certainly a big difference between working with the digital agency that worked on 2 or 3 projects for smaller clients and another one that worked with 20 to 30 of them.

Have you already been working with some clients from our line of work?

This is not a key question, because agencies can easily adapt to every client, but the fact that that individual digital agency knows about your line of work certainly helps.

Who are the people employed in the digital agency and what kind of work do they do, especially, what is the person which is going to be our account and community manager doing?

If the digital agency has only 2 employees and is offering 10 different services (Website creation, SEO optimization, graphic design, Google Advertising…), ask yourselves: “How can they have the adequate knowledge to do all of those things on a top level?”. In truth – they can’t. Inquire about who is going to work with you, individually, ask about what else is that person doing in the company and how much time can (s)he dedicate to you. If that person has a lot of other tasks, then, that person is not going to be able to do a proper work for you and your goals and you will end up in the situation where that person is taking care about your channels when he or she manages. Avoid that kind of digital agency regardless of their (probably) low cost.
We are not trying to say that small digital agencies (or freelancers) are a bad choice. Moreover, there is a couple of great agencies on the market who are relatively small (and quite the amount of freelancers) and they are doing a great job on social networks projects. Still, be very picky while at this step, especially if the digital agency website is offering a lot of different services but its number of employees does not match.

What would you do with our campaign, how would you set your goals and do you have any ideas?

Learn about the way the digital agency you are dealing with is thinking, what does it think about you, how would it set their campaign goals, how would it communicate…
This way, you will find out how creative is the digital agency you are dealing with and is it thinking straight about achieving maximum results. Don’t use this action in order to steal ideas from the digital agency (which agencies hate) and then later implement them, because in that way, you are closing the doors to the later cooperation with that digital agency. And you will need new ideas sooner or later.

What are your conditions of cooperation and prices? 

If you are not sure, ask the digital agency for a trial period. That time should last a minimum of three months, in order to see the first results of that cooperation. The price is, of course, a very important factor, but it certainly shouldn’t be a deciding one!

As you can see, the process of choosing the digital agency is a demanding one. With a proper choice of your partner which will bring you concrete and measurable results. Social networks are a very important channel for communication with the consumers and you have to be really careful with the selection of your partners which are going to communicate in your name. You can lose a lot through just one error and get a lot with the right pick.

Or, you can contact us and get First Class Experience from Kontra. 🙂 We don’t like to brag, but we are listed as a leading Digital Marketing Agency on Top Digital Marketing Agencies.