How to Get More From Your Digital Agency

With our clients, we get amazing results - achieving and almost always completely obliterating the goals defined at the outset. With others, we don’t even get the chance to set goals, never mind having any chance to achieving them. What is the difference? And how can an organisation make the most of their digital agency?

Firstly, lets define exactly what ‘making the most’ actually means in real life terms: it means success, not just by increasing general traffic (a common misconception of success), but achieving accountable and definable targets, for example;

• Getting the best possible returns for your budget.
• Reducing client team administration.
• Increasing on-site conversions.
• Ensuring all your digital channels are working in tandem.
• Attracting and engaging your core target audiences.

But, in order to achieve all this, there’s more to it than commissioning a digital partner. For starters…

Use ALL of Your Agency

A good agency is made up of many highly skilled individuals who work as a team. tictoc, for example, has team members who live, eat and breathe their specialism - and are exceptionally proficient in their channel - be it online strategy, design, organic search or content marketing.

It’s not uncommon to find that clients have fragmented their digital activity, spreading channel allocation over multiple agencies. Whilst in theory this may seem like a great idea for a number of reasons, the increased administration and project management side often negates any financial or tactical benefit. Ultimately, this approach creates a situation where the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing…and in digital, where channels are becoming increasingly integrated with one and other, opportunities are being missed.

Talk to Them!

Unfortunately, your agency can’t do everything for you. They need your help. Decisions need to be made, information needs to be gathered, feedback on proposals is necessary and meetings need to take place. Without client input, we can only offer the most basic, generic of support. Client insight allows us to craft bespoke strategies - and allow us the foresight to capitalise upon opportunities. 

As an agency, it can be frustrating to not have all the answers needed to proceed - you’d be amazed at how often we are held back by clients not willing to focus their time on the right marketing channels, or even, in some extreme circumstances, failure to acknowledge their channels at all!

Assign time on a weekly (if not daily) basis with your agency, and always remember just how important digital marketing is in relation to everything you do. Did you know, social media can peer influence up to 71% of users when it comes to making a purchase? The impact of this on an e-commerce store is massive.

Love Your Data

Data collection through digital marketing is extremely simple. And powerful. And all informing. But, unfortunately, many clients don’t appreciate the power they have a their fingertips. As reported by eConsultancy, ‘only 21% of businesses track return on digital marketing spend’ and ’62% of companies lack a formalised digital analytics strategy.’

It seems like a scary statistic, but it is all too common, often due to a lack of knowledge or awareness about the capabilities even the most basic of free tools present on the client side. Often a lack of knowledge can prevent clients from reaching out to find out more information, for fear of looking silly. But, any agency will tell you - there are no daft questions - and a quick chat with a Google Analytics specialist would reveal everything you can even track - from scroll tracking to a coffee machine dispensing an espresso. 

Make the most of the data your agency has access to. It is vital, incredibly informative and will enable you ultimately to measure your return to investment and listen to exactly what your users want. 

Data doesn’t lie. It just needs nurtured.

So, what is the moral of this story? To have faith in your agency, to trust them, allow them the resources they need to outperform and do your bit from the client side. It takes two to tango. 

And if you don’t feel like you can have this level of faith in your agency? Get a new one.