The purpose of this article is to help you make the right decision when choosing a digital marketing agency. So we will start with discussing digital marketing agency options available in Pune, various services offered by the agencies and points to consider while appointing one.
Since you are reading this article, we assume that you already know the benefits of digital marketing and the advantages it provides over traditional marketing.
Agencies in Pune and what do they offer
Pune city has emerged as the hub for digital marketing. The reason for this has been the overall enabling business environment that has resulted in business growth and expansion of the city. Pune being an education hub, availability of talent, in form of creative designers, developers, content writers and digital marketers is also not a problem for the agencies.
Xenia Consulting is a full service Creative Digital Marketing agency in Pune that is a one-stop solution for your every digital marketing need.
In Pune, many agencies have popped up over the years. Pune, today, offers plenty of agencies for you to choose from- be it the small or big firms offering specific services to complete 360 degree solution.
It becomes imperative that you choose an agency which will suit your needs, fulfill your expectations and fit your service and budget expectations.
Typically, Digital Marketing agencies offer following services:
- Website design and Development
- Content creation & Promotion
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Email Marketing campaigns
- Paid Ads – Pay per click Management (PPC)
- Social Media Marketing
- LinkedIn Marketing
- Mobile Marketing
- Reputation Management
- Affiliate Marketing
The assortment of choices can spin anyone’s head and that is why, it is essential to choose a digital marketing agency that will help you promote your business and get you the visibility and business leads that you are looking for.
So let us drill this bit by bit. Before appointing an agency, you need to consider.
1) Email Marketing: Email marketing is the most neglected part of the digital marketing, though it is the most effective digital marketing strategy. Email marketing is a very effective and efficient way in getting your message in front of your target market. But the base of a successful email strategy is quality content.
Also, email lists that you use can make it or break it for you.
2) Website & Marketing: A user friendly website with information that your customers seek, is a base for any digital marketing action plan.
- How are you going to maintain the website? If it is going to be in house, will it be your present website developer or the newly appointed digital marketing agency?
- If you choose to keep it separate, ensure a proper communication plan and also make sure that responsibilities are clearly agreed between the website developer and the digital marketing agency.
- If you are creating a new website, please involve the digital marketing agency right from the development stage. This way, you will get vital inputs that will help you improve your web presence
3) Social Media Marketing (SMM): Choose social channels carefully, It is important to find where your audience is and then maintain a consistent presence on social media, so that you have the highest chance of reaching your target audience. It is seen that SMM is most effective in B2C space. A good communication strategy can create a WOW factor for your product, nothing will do better than the word of mouth, customers telling customers about your product/service.
4) LinkedIn: LinkedIn is one of the most effective platforms for the B2B Space. LinkedIn provides opportunity to connect with right audience, understand their needs and publish content that matters to them. The pulse blogging platform provides an opportunity to reach your connections consistently with thoughtfully crafted posts. Groups and shares help you keep your content alive in front of your connections and also helps your content go viral, as people share or like it.
5) Content: Doing Search Engine Optimization requires updating the website content and constant development of new content. Quality of the content will have recursions on the image of your company. You will need to decide if you will provide the content or would want the agency to do it for you. If you are a company dealing in technology, engineering or Sciences check if the agency has people who can do research on your topics and develop the relevant content.
6) Creatives: Each piece of content that you put together whether it is a blog, social media post or a website update will require a creative design and graphic. It is essential that the graphic team works on innovative creatives as soon as content is ready so you publish and promote on time. If you have a design team who does in- house graphic design work, you may consider using them for some of the work but as you generate loads of content it will be better this activity is outsourced.
Tip: Consider using the past creatives that already exists within the company.
After you consider the above points and start meeting different agencies, observe the following while interacting with the agency and observe if the agency tries to understand the same while they are pitching.
A good digital marketing agency will try to understand your products & services, their relevance to your potential target customer and work with you to devise a plan to effectively reach your target market most effectively using various marketing channels and with optimum budgets.
Always consider signing a Non-Disclosure agreement with the agency. Clarify with the agency about the copyright over the work that is done for you.
Also, try to determine your compatibility with the agency. Try to know
- The team you’ll be working with,
- Past work done by the agency,
- Their in-house ability and the work that is going to be outsourced
- The reports you could be expecting from them and at what frequency
- The number of times communication between you and the agency will typically occur in a month
- Data the agency will require from your end
- Typically the work you’ll be expecting each month from the agency- service level
Digital marketing is different from your traditional marketing in the sense that it is focused on results. Measuring the marketing effectiveness is the name of the game.
Regards – Atul Dhakappa