Characteristics Of A Good Digital Marketing Strategist

 

Every company involved in e-commerce needs to have a strong presence and visibility in social media marketing platforms. However, with new marketing techniques coming up almost every day, opting for a digital marketing agency seems to be the best solution. However, choosing one from the numerous agencies advertising their digital marketing skills can prove to be a challenge.

Following a systematic approach and keeping the following points in mind when making the selection would help make this task easy. These points include

Determining the company marketing needs: This crucial first step involves understanding the company requirements in terms of website design, PPC, SEO, analytics etc. This helps in understanding whether the digital marketing agency chose will be able to strategize, optimise and implement an effective digital marketing strategy in sync with the company needs.

Conducting extensive background research: This background research will essentially enable the company to understand:

o   If the company practices what it preaches by looking at the leads they have generated for themselves,

o   How they carry out content writing from the way they manage their blogs, posts, articles videos etc.,

o   Their handling of social media accounts held by them and the effectiveness of the social media campaign they are running to increase visibility,

o   What their SEO rank is and how they rank on the first search page of Google etc.

Agencies recommended by business colleagues and those that have already used their services make for better choices. Such recommended agencies are generally true to their word.

KPIs followed by the agency: Most agencies launch brand campaigns and then track vanity metrics to understand the effectiveness of the campaign. While these metrics might make a company feel good, they have no co-relation to boosting web traffic, lead conversions, or revenue generation. Some important KPIs that digital marketing agencies should track are:

o   Number of unique visits: A boost in traffic leads to an increase in conversion. However, if a company is yet unsure of their target audience, they need to generate a huge amount of traffic to figure it out. Conversely, the number of new web visitors the website gets enhances their chances of increasing conversions.

o   Time spent by web visitors: Spending a good amount of time on the website is a clear indication that the web visitors like the content posted and find the website interesting and engaging. Page speed is another factor, which influences the amount of time web visitors spend on a website. Google Analytics is a good way of judging the average visit duration.

o   Channels used by users: This determines two very important things. One is the type of content visitors like and the type of visitors the website is getting. This metric also makes it easy for digital marketing agencies to come up with relevant content to increase web visitors.

o   Bounce rate: This provides statistics on the number of visitors leaving the website immediately after landing on it. A high bounce rate indicates irrelevant or uninteresting content and vice-versa.

o   Cost per Click: This is a purchasing model wherein a company pays every time one clicks its ad. A high CPC is a clear indication of an ill-optimised ad.

o   Click-Through Rate: This measures how many times visitors click on a company ad versus its received impressions. A low CTR shows that the strategy is not effective and made without having an understanding of the targeted audience.

If an agency is not conversant with these metrics then one should not consider such agencies.

Questions to be asked: Some very important questions that need to be asked are:

o   Asking the digital marketing strategists for samples of previous successful work,

o   Seeking the one person who will take on the onus to complete the job,

o   Period of partnership with the clients,

o   Budget and cost to the company,

o   Process of measurement of ROI,

o   Client communication etc.

Only if the concerned company is satisfied with all the above-mentioned points, they should consider giving the responsibility for their social media campaigns to the digital marketing agency. This is how the selection of a result-oriented and successful digital marketing agency is done.