Social Media Marketing Agencies – Finding the Right Fit for Your Business

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You’ve decided to hire an agency to handle your social media marketing, good choice! Advertising agencies come in all sizes from one-person freelancers to small boutique agencies to mega agencies with offices all over the globe. While this gives you plenty of options, how do you pick the agency that’s right for you?

Here are 4 things you should consider when choosing a social media agency.

  1. Understand Your Business Goals
    No agency will know your business as well as you do. However, a proficient agency should be able to look at your business from an outside perspective, analyze your goals, and develop a unique strategy for your success. They should work with you rather than without you because creating a successful marketing plan not only requires knowledge on social media itself, but knowledge on your business as well.
  2. Take a Customized Approach
    There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all strategy. Your business is unique so your social media strategy should be too. If an agency says they can start advertising within a few days of initiating communication, that’s a red flag. In order to run successful campaigns on social media, it takes at least a couple of weeks to thoroughly research, plan, build, and launch campaigns that are customized to your exact objectives. While getting your brand in the market right away sounds great, it doesn’t always mean the results will be what you want or need.
  3. Set Communication Preferences
    Part of a successful partnership is open, transparent, and timely communication from both parties. Make sure you let the agency know how and when you want to be communicated with early in the partnership so expectations can be met. There are no right or wrong communication preferences in terms of style, method, cadence, etc. However, detailing this at the start is key to developing a healthy and successful partnership.
  4. Expertise is Key to Performance
    The purpose of partnering with an agency on your social media marketing is to gain a competitive advantage. Social is the most effective, measurable, and arguably, the most important channel for your business. While there are full-service agencies that have reputable teams in all areas of marketing, proceed the ‘overpromise and under-deliver’ with caution. The scrappiness and laser-focus of specialty agencies allow you to move and be rewarded quickly. If an agency that specializes in Google/PPC or Community Management mentions they can also handle paid social advertising, ask to see case studies of previous work. Social media marketing is far too important to be handled by anything less than expertise.

Social media marketing continues to be more and more essential to a business’s growth and success. Like any business partnership, it’s vital to do the preliminary work to ensure you’re investing your time and money into the right agency. Are you looking for a committed partner to lead your social media marketing efforts? Let’s talk.