What is a digital marketing agency?

Chances are that you’re familiar with the work that marketing agencies do. However, a new, modern version of the traditional marketing agency has appeared in recent years: digital marketing agencies. Some business owners aren’t sure why they would need to hire a company for digital marketing, especially if they are used to running their own marketing campaigns in-house. However, those assumptions also frequently come from a place of not knowing exactly what a digital marketing agency is and what they can do to help businesses grow. In reality, working with a digital marketing agency can be an enormously beneficial investment that delivers high levels of returns.

Digital marketing agencies harness the power of the internet for brands.

No matter what kind of business you have, your customers are online. You don’t have to be a modern start-up to understand the importance of connecting with customers on the internet. Today, customers of all ages, backgrounds, and locations turn to the web to look for businesses to provide them with the goods and services they need. If your brand is not there when they are looking, they are going to choose one of your competitors.

Digital marketing agencies use a variety of techniques to make sure the right customers see your brand, whether you’re debuting your new business and need to build awareness, or you want to increase sales of an existing product or service. Some of the services that digital marketing agencies provide include:

  • SEO
  • Web design
  • Digital advertising
  • Social media
  • PPC
  • Email marketing
  • Measuring and optimization

Digital marketers work to do the same thing that traditional marketers do: They want to increase awareness of your brand, generate leads, and convert sales. However, they do so using the networks of consumer awareness that have developed online.

One of the most important tools that digital marketing agencies bring to the table is knowledge.

Many businesses, especially small companies, try to save money by doing digital marketing in-house. However, unless you have employees who have been trained specifically in digital marketing, these efforts are generally not successful. Crafting an effective digital marketing campaign is not the same thing as being an avid user of social media. Instead, it involves a significant amount of specialized knowledge and the ability to keep up with internet trends that are constantly in flux.

For example, would you or your team know how to optimize your website for SEO, so that your company appears at the top of the search engine rankings for specific keywords associated with your brand? Do you know what potential customers who are looking for the kinds of products or services you offer are searching for when they plug a term into a search engine? If Google changed its algorithms, forcing you to change the way you approach SEO, would you know where to begin?

These examples are just a few of the things that are second nature to a digital marketing agency. They have the expertise that is necessary to help your brand stand out in a crowded digital marketplace. Further, because their business is digital marketing, they stay in tune with the trends. When user behaviors shift from one social media platform to another, when search engines change their algorithms for returning results, or when web users begin interacting one form of content over another, they can make the appropriate changes to your campaign so that you continue to achieve results.

Digital marketing agencies work with measurable goals and provide extensive reporting.

Digital marketing efforts are much easier to measure and track than traditional, offline marketing. Each individual component of a digital marketing campaign can be tracked throughout the campaign, so that you always know which things are resonating with your customer base and which are not. Digital marketing agencies use these kinds of measurements as a cornerstone of the work that they do for customers. When you hire an agency, you can be sure that you will receive extensive reporting that helps you not only see your return on investment but also learn more about your target market.

At the start of each campaign, your digital marketing agency will work closely with you to develop concrete, actionable goals and determine how they will be tracked. With these goals in mind, campaigns can be refined so that they more closely align with your needs. Tracking the results of different efforts, such as creating SEO-driven content for a blog or running an ad on social media, gives clear indications of what kinds of efforts are most successful for your brand, so you can concentrate exclusively on those going forward. In this way, the more you work with a digital marketing agency, the more effective your campaigns will become.

Digital marketing agencies don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach.

There is no such thing as a road map that works for every digital marketing effort, which is one more reason that it is so hard to do in-house. When you work with a digital marketing agency, they will listen to your reasons for wanting help with marketing, the kinds of things you want to achieve, and your budget. From there, they will create efforts that match your goals.

This personalized approach is important for digital marketing agencies, because not all web users are found in the same place. Everyone may be online, but not everyone is visiting the same sites or looking for the same kinds of information. Your digital marketing agency’s job is to determine where your customers are online. That includes knowing which social media sites they use and which sites they are likely to see advertising from your brand on, and then to make sure your brand is there. Your campaign can be entirely customized for your needs.

At Salem Surround, that is exactly what we do for our clients. We determine where your customers are online, and then we surround them, so that your brand is always front and center when they’re on the web. We work for companies of all sizes, from national corporations to small local businesses, and we can create a campaign that meets your needs. To find out how we can help you win at digital marketing, call us at (844) 277-5797.

 
Smiling people participate in a standup meeting in an open office
A woman makes a purchase on her laptop

Learn more or receive a free digital presence evaluation. Contact us today.