6 Must-Haves for Small Business Marketing Communications Agencies

Determining that your business needs the help of a marketing agency is easy, but finding a marketing agency that meets all the requirements can be overwhelming.

Finding the Holy Grail of a small business marketing agency is like finding a needle in a haystack. No two digital marketing agencies are the same, and every business has unique needs. That's why it's important to know exactly what you're looking for in an agency before you get started. Items like budget and agency qualifications are certainly important considerations, but they're probably already on your mind.

But what are the elements necessary for a successful partnership with government agencies? As an agency ourselves, we believe commitment, transparency, consistency, desire to learn, adaptability, and fair pricing are important. This article explains the importance of these lesser-known elements of marketing communication agencies for small businesses.

In our opinion, the most important quality is a commitment to business success.

1. Business Initiatives

Marketing agencies are an extension of the business. That's why you need to be 100% committed to the success and growth of your company.

But how can we measure this dedication early in the process? Measure how they're adapting their approach to best suit your unique business needs. If you only want to talk about technical jargon, or if your marketing model feels unconventional, it might be time to re-evaluate its suitability.

Before you begin your partnership, consider the following key questions.

• Who will be in charge?
• Is there one primary point of contact?
• Do they take the time to learn the unique characteristics of your business or customers, or are they just project managers and traffic managers?

Wondering what other questions to ask potential partners to gauge their level of commitment? This article focuses on questions for digital marketing agencies for small businesses. Each time you ask a question, it becomes more clear how you can work to grow your business.

2. Transparency

Be skeptical about B2B marketing communication agencies that promise immediate implementation results. If you focus on quickly anticipating new customers, you won't be able to set realistic expectations or be 100% transparent.

Are you interested in creating your own transparent marketing plan? Download our free e-book on small business marketing strategies and watch step-by-step tutorials.

No matter what type of marketing your business focuses on, marketing rarely pays off right away. Good marketing often takes 6 to 12 months to produce results. Furthermore, the more competitive the industry, the longer it takes to see changes in earnings.

If the promised implementation results seem too good to be true, then they're probably right. What you should look for is an agency that is transparent about the process, especially after tailoring the process to suit your business. This kind of honest communication comes from confidence gained from past success.

Quality marketing agencies track their time so they know their work (and implementation history). Transparency is high and there is accountability. This creates a consistent process for building trust in partnerships.

3. Consistency

Consistency isn't just about tracking implementation results and time. Consistency in agency relationships is also important.

What does this mean? It's common to see that the people you build trust with during the sales process aren't the same people you work with during an engagement. Many agencies may make you play a game of “whack-a-mole” every time you try to get in touch.

This creates an unproductive environment where you talk to someone new every time you have a question. Sometimes communication between team members is limited or out of date. You might end up having the same conversation over and over again.

Having one agency point of contact gives you peace of mind that agency is focused on learning more about you and your business.

4. Do your homework

If an agency says they can get started with little to no onboarding, discovery, and understanding of customers, it should sound an alarm.

You can't have a successful marketing strategy without first understanding your business and buyer personas. You need a foundation to understand your audience's challenges and unique approaches.

An experienced marketing agency will perform due diligence and make sure they understand every point of view of your business and target audience. This initial work is essential to making your marketing strategy successful and easy to understand.

5. Speak in plain language

When interviewing various marketing communication agencies, make a note of whether they use specific marketing terms you're unfamiliar with. If they're constantly speaking with fuzzy marketing terms that don't mean anything to you, they may simply be trying to impress you.

Partner with a marketing agency that focuses on clarifying processes and strategies and works to ensure you understand what's happening every step of the way. This kind of transparency should be true in everything they do, especially when it comes to pricing.

6. Fair Pricing

Just because agency prices are low doesn't necessarily mean you're getting quality work at a fair price. Generally, if you think the pricing is too good, be sure to ask about that price and measure the response.

Similar to freelancer risks, if the agreed budget is extremely low, your business may not be a priority because you aren't paying enough compensation. Also, if you're a small business, you might want to avoid agencies that cost a lot of money. Evaluate your budget and decide if hiring a full-time marketer fits your needs.

The key point is that there should be a balance between pricing and quality of every job offered.

Finding the best marketing communications agency for your small business is no easy feat.

Finding the best digital marketing agency for your small business isn't easy. It can be difficult to find a company that meets all of these factors at the same time.

• commitments
• transparency
• consistency
• Their research is being carried out
• Use plain language
• Fair pricing

If you have determination, you can find an agency that fits your business needs and can acquire prospects.

If finding a marketing communications agency for small businesses with these six elements feels impossible, it doesn't have to be the case. Our fractional marketing department works like an agency (but better than that!) And we'll help you grow your business right now.