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This is the time of year when many publications and pundits offer up their predictions for the new year. Today, we’d like to share a few of our own marketing predictions with you for the new year. It’s always fun to see which predictions pan out and which flop, but one thing we know for sure: digital marketing is here to stay. Happy New Year!

5 Marketing Predictions for 2023

1. Who creates your content matters: Google unveiled a plan in which it gives credence to authors for their authority on specific topics, boosting content in those topics to the top of the search engine results. We see many holes in this plan, notably the fact that very few experts actually write their own content (presidential speech writers, for example, are still a thing, and we’re guessing that nearly every CEO in the United States has a ghostwriter or two). However, that doesn’t mean that your website should lack authority in your given topic. We believe that Google will shift its author and authority mapping to site/authority mapping as the algorithm recognizes that it is the site’s focus that counts, not necessarily the individual writer’s focus or expertise.

2. New search shopping features emerge: We’ve known for quite a while that search engines play a major role in directing online searchers to specific shopping destinations. Local search plays a huge role in how customers find local businesses to patronize. For all ecommerce companies, search plays an enormous role directing shoppers to a site just when people are ready to purchase products. Many search engines continue to add features and refine how they match customers with products and ecommerce sites. We predict that Google will launch new products such as shopping assistants to try to dominate this lucrative market. Is your website ready? Be sure to update your ecommerce website. Ask your Dashboard expert for recommendations to ensure it is compatible with the latest search recommendations to ensure it takes advantage of every opportunity to gain valuable website traffic.

3. Short videos continue to be popular: Whether you love it or hate it, TikTok-style short videos continue to gain popularity. For those who eschew the platform, other social media sites encourage short videos too: Instagram Reels, Facebook Stories, and so on all utilize the same short and quick video format that has proven to be so popular. Short messages, short videos…the trend is clear: less is more, so for many messages, if a short format works for your company’s brand and information, then use it.

4. Privacy matters: Privacy concerns remain in the news as companies start to reel in their data collection efforts. These changes in how companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and others collect and share personal data affect both consumers and companies. While consumers applaud the trend, companies find it challenging to target potential buyers with the same ease. No matter where you stand in this debate, know that there are still many good options for digital advertising. With the right guidance, we can match you to the best opportunities for your advertising ROI.

5. Economic conditions impact customer loyalty: As inflation continues to rise and consumers feel the pinch in their pocketbooks, brand loyalty may waver. This can impact both large and small companies alike. When all things are equal, consumers tend to go with the least expensive option. To ensure that your company remains top of mind, look for ways to go the extra mile and stand out. Whether it’s stellar service, beautiful packaging, or a little something extra in every to-go bag, the key to continuing brand loyalty and repeat sales is to remain memorable (in a positive way!) in your customers’ minds. This applies to all companies: brick and mortar businesses, ecommerce stores, big chain stores, local mom and pop shops, and everything in between.

A Marketing Partner Focused on Your ROI

You don’t need fool-proof predictions for the new year to be successful. You need a sound marketing strategy focused on its return on investment.

At Dashboard Interactive Marketing, we predict that the future will be dominated by smart companies who understand the power of good marketing. We’d like to help you achieve your new year goals. If you’d like to discuss your marketing needs, please call us at 763-242-2454.

On behalf of everyone at Dashboard, Happy New Year!

If your website runs on WordPress, you’re not alone. Approximately 35% of all websites globally are powered by WordPress – around 455 million sites in 2022. And, if your digital marketing agency recommends that you transition your current site to WordPress, it’s for a very good reason: WordPress-built sites excel in flexibility and security and there are a large number of WordPress developers available should you choose additional website development support.

But with popularity comes some problems. As WordPress continues to be the go-to content management system for the majority of English-language businesses, cybercriminals continue to find new and innovative ways to exploit the system. Many find their way through the virtual “back door” of a WordPress-hosted site not through any flaw in the site itself or its coding, but through simple human habits that criminals have, since the beginning of time, recognized and leveraged to their advantage.

To prevent your site from being hacked, we’ve put together a simple checklist of WordPress Site Management tips that the average small business owner can do on their own to maintain the security and integrity of their primary virtual real estate: their website.

While we can’t guarantee your site will be hack-proof, taking these simple steps will go a long, long way towards ensuring it remains secure and under your control. And, in the unlikely event you do encounter problems, we are here to help you address them quickly.

WordPress Site Management Checklist

1. Secure the Administrator password: WordPress enables multiple levels of access, and the Administrator is at the highest level. Administrator-level rights enable the Administrator to set all other permissions, change anything in the site, and control the site itself. Be sure to change your password and use password best practices: lowercase and capital letters, numbers, and symbols, preferably in a random pattern that is difficult to guess.
2. Set up 2-factor authentication: We know, we know; it’s a pain in the neck. It is, however, the best the cyber world has to offer to prevent someone from figuring out your password and gaining access to your digital world. Two-factor authentication can save you from a lot of grief if anyone guesses your password.
3. Limit login attempts: Limiting login attempts ensures that criminals attempting to use software to guess passwords are immediately locked out. This is a good defense even if a criminal guesses your user name correctly.
4. Update plugins: Plugins are third party applications that provide additional features on a WordPress site. WordPress is an open source platform, meaning that developers can create additional tools like plugins to add functionality to a basic WordPress site. Like any software, however, plugin developers issue frequent updates; these updates close gaps and loopholes or fix problems discovered post-launch. Updates ensure that the latest, most secure plugin release is available and prevents hackers from exploiting the code in older plugins.
5. Remove disabled plugins: It’s easy to install plugins for a one-time use, disable them, and forget about them. But they’re still there, waiting in the background of your site, and a potential security risk. Disable unused plugins and then remove them entirely from the site. You can always add them later if they’re needed again.
6. Shut off comments: Some marketers believe that comments on a blog help its SEO, but most of the time, comments come from random bots that post obnoxious spam. You can either shut off comments or install a plugin to manage comments if you run a content-based site that benefits from user interaction. Plugins that manage comments are good at screening the spammy stuff that can contain malicious code, and enable you to manually approve anything that is published to your website.
7. Check your website frequently: Lastly, there’s no such thing in websites as “set it and forget it.” You should be logging into the back end (the administrative dashboard) of your WordPress website daily, or at least weekly. Logging into the site enables you to check and update plugins, monitor comments, and note any messages that appear in the site console. You should also check the publicly visible pages of your site frequently. Any unauthorized changes to the site’s appearance are a red flag that should be investigated by a competent WordPress developer.

What If Someone Does Break In?

Unfortunately, there’s no virtual police department you can call if someone breaks into your website. Some signs that your site has been hacked include:

• Unauthorized changes to passwords, users, or administrators. You may see strange names and email addresses appear on the User console in WordPress or you may receive warnings that someone is trying to change permissions.
• Your site is receiving a sudden high volume of traffic. Although we always love it when our customers get more search engine traffic, too much of a good thing is a big red flag. Sudden spikes in web traffic unrelated to marketing activities you’re doing or coming from countries you don’t normally conduct business in are signs something is amiss with your site.
• Your site isn’t opening properly, or some pages aren’t working. Sudden 404 errors, redirects, and pop up warnings are all signs of problems.
• Content on your website has changed without your knowledge. Hackers often insert content into a page for their own purposes.
• Google sends you a malware warning notice. Google does indeed send out malware indications if their search engines detect issues in a site. These should be brought to the attention of a competent Google expert immediately who can help you discover the root of the problem, correct it, and rectify the situation with Google.

These are some common signs of a security issue with a site, but not the only signs. If you suspect your site has been hacked, it’s time to call on the professionals immediately. Leaving the site riddled with problems is just making a situation move from bad to worse. You need to take action and fast before it impacts your business.

Your WordPress Security Check Starts Here

Dashboard Interactive Marketing can help you with your WordPress security, development, or update needs. We are a full service digital marketing agency with a team of content developers, designers, Google, and WordPress experts who can take your site to new levels of traffic and sales. We are happy to help. Please call us at 763-242-2454 for a consultation.

Social media is in the news. Okay, it’s always been in the news, for good or for ill. But lately, with Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, pundits and advertisers alike are tweeting about Twitter.

And then there’s Tik-Tok, the short-form video platform that continues to soar in popularity despite misgivings from some analysts concerned about unethical tracking and data mining of its users.

Don’t forget Facebook, or Meta as it is now called, and its quest to dominate your daily newsfeed with news and ads along with updates from your Great-Aunt Ethel.

No matter where you look, social media is in the news, and it’s here to stay. For small business owners, social media can still be confusing. Where should you maintain a profile? How frequently should you post? Should you be concerned about the ethics of the platform and pull your ads when something controversial arises or should you ignore the politics behind the scenes and focus on your core audience and where they like to gather online?

Here’s our take on social media and the trends impacting small businesses.

Social Media Is Here to Stay

First, let’s be clear: social media is here to stay.

Despite many saying they are leaving this platform or that one, here’s the latest statistics on the usage of the popular platforms:

Social media remains wildly popular among all ages and demographics. Users access social media via their smartphones, tablets, computers, and with video sites, even through their television sets. YouTube, for example, has a Roku app which enables Roku users to watch YouTube as a channel the way they can watch the movie channel or any of the other content streaming through the device.

Many adults are also now getting their news from social media. In a recent Pew Research study, 31% of American adults say they get their news from Facebook. Considering that Facebook users self-post whatever strikes their fancy, that’s a sobering statistic and a far cry from just a few years ago when people relied on major news outlets for curated, researched journalism.

But it does prove one thing: social media platforms are here to stay and are very much part of the average person’s daily life. The question, then, for small business owners, is how should they leverage this fact to remain visible to their customers?

Small Businesses: Do Not Build Your “House” on Rented Land!

Given the popularity and prevalence of social media platforms, many small businesses open a profile on a given platform and then make it their promotional ‘hub.’ Some even choose to leverage their social media pages as their dominant website presence.

This is a big mistake. We would like to caution all small business owners to avoid setting up their digital ‘house’ on ‘rented’ land.

What does that mean? It means that if you use a social media platform as your only digital presence, you are risking losing everything you’ve built overnight!

Social media platforms can choose, without warning, to:

• Remove your page
• Charge for your page
• Change the algorithm to hide your page
• Remove any features you are using

Although maintaining social media profiles is an important tactic for many small businesses, they should never be used as your primary digital presence. A website, no matter how small or plain, remains your property. You own and control a website and can choose what and how to display your company’s information on it without fear that at a moment’s notice the content can be taken down.

Stay Visible Through Organic Posts

So while we do not recommend using only social media platforms for your web presence, we do recommend that most businesses maintain one or more social media profiles. No matter which platforms you choose, you can leverage their organic reach to remain visible to your customers.

A few best practices:

• Complete your basic profile information
• Update the platforms of your choice at least a few times a week
• Include links to your social media platforms on your website
• Interact with others on the platform – social media is, after all, social.

You do not have to be everywhere – you can choose just one or two platforms that fit your business needs. It’s better to be active on one platform than to have five or six inactive profiles scattered across multiple social media sites. The more active you are posting and interacting, the better chance you have of remaining visible to your customers.

Remember to keep your posts strategic and aligned to your business brand and objectives. It is always wise to steer clear of controversial political, religious, and social topics (unless you’re promoting politics, religion, or a social movement!). Focus on what your customers are interested in whether it is thermometers for the process industry or dog training hints.Customers also like to see behind-the-scenes happenings with their favorite small businesses, so consider infusing your posts with a bit of personality, like sharing pictures of an employee’s birthday cake during lunch hour or congratulating an employee on achieving a certificate in the industry.

Consider Paid Advertising

Organic reach, or the free posts that you make every day, only reaches a portion of the entire target audience, including your followers and friends. The companies controlling the social media platforms are of course seeking to make a profit from their users and do charge for advertising. Social media advertising can help you:

• Promote special offers to a specific target audience
• Reach a highly targeted, segmented group of viewers
• Find and reach people who do not yet know your business

Social media advertising can be complex, so we recommend working with a professional to set up and maintain your advertisements and budget. Dashboard Interactive Marketing provides this service and we would be happy to provide you with a consultation. It is recommended that any social media plan be a part of a larger digital marketing initiative to ensure that it is a strategically sound choice for your marketing dollars.

Ready for Social Media Marketing?

Contact Dashboard Interactive Marketing at 763-242-2454 for a consultation. We look forward to helping you achieve your marketing goals and promoting your small business effectively on social media platforms and beyond.

Have you ever been in the middle of a DIY project and needed a specific tool, but found you didn’t have it in your toolbox? What did you do next? Some people would head out to the hardware store to purchase the exact tool they need. Others, however, would grab whatever is handy, and try to make do.

Which camp do you fall into? The “use the right tool for the job” person or the “use whatever is handy to finish the project” person?

Business Owners Need the Correct Marketing Tools for the “Job” of Increasing Sales

Often as small business owners, we take shortcuts to try to finish a task quickly. Most of us wear many hats and juggle diverse responsibilities at work and at home. There always seems to be more tasks than hours in the day!

But if you’re grabbing any old marketing tool to accomplish the job of increasing leads or sales, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Like using a screwdriver to hammer in a nail, you may get the job done, or you may ruin the screwdriver and the piece of wood in the process.

A few examples of small business owners choosing the wrong tool for the project of generating leads and sales:

• Focusing on a website’s visual appeal but not incorporating the appropriate organic SEO methods to encourage high rankings in search engines and the potential traffic and leads high ranking gives them
• Paying for link building services without understanding the place of link building in a larger marketing scheme
• Spending hours each day on social media liking and commenting on posts without a clear strategy for using each channel

In each case, the marketing tool is a useful one. An appealing website is an integral part of all digital marketing strategies. Inbound links are a vital part of improving organic SEO. Social media is a useful marketing amplification tool for brand building and site traffic. Yet, if business owners focus solely on a single tool as a means to an end, they can easily waste time and money on unproductive activity and unprofitable marketing channels.

A Comprehensive Digital Marketing Plan Is Essential

How do you avoid the single-tool focus so common when small business owners try to DIY their marketing? By working with a digital marketing agency who has the experience needed to create a comprehensive digital marketing plan to accomplish your goals.

Each digital marketing plan is crafted based on multiple factors:

• The business itself: What does your business do?
• The products or services: What do you sell?
• The customer: Who is your customer? Where do they live, work, and shop?
• The goal: What are your goals?
  • Analytics: Measuring current state and ongoing future performance, against goals.

From these four integral questions, your digital marketing agency will examine every facet of your business. They’ll dive deeply into your industry, geographic market, ideal customers, and products or services that you sell, creating a plan that should focus on measurable marketing goals or key performance indicators (KPIs).

Measurable, Accountable Marketing

After an initial period of research, questions, and potential meetings between your company and the digital marketing agency team, if you choose to hire the agency, they will create your business’ unique digital marketing plan.

From the onset, the goals of the plan should be clearly defined. And, once the goals are defined, the agency should provide specifics about which channel or tactic they are suggesting to reach the goals and why.

Digital marketing is highly measurable, meaning the return on marketing investment can be quantified. Therefore, the agency should also have a plan in place to report back to you, the business owner, how your marketing dollars will be spent, how they will be tracked, and what constitutes success.

But I Thought I Should…

Fill in the blank: I thought I should do _________ to promote my business and get more sales.

• Post to Facebook each day
• Run an ad in the local paper
• Pay someone to get me backlinks
• Write a blog
• Send out press releases each month
• Run Google ads
• Run LinkedIn ads
• Make YouTube videos
• Have a Pinterest account
• Post an Instagram story each day

Set aside your preconceived notions about how your industry (plumbers, doctors, HVAC contractors, printers, restaurants, auto body shops) should promote their business.

Often, business owners choose tactics because of something they’ve heard at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, or read in an article online, or heard from their uncle’s brother’s cousin. We’re not dismissing the helpfulness of presentations at Chamber meetings, online articles, or your uncle’s brother’s cousin.

We are, however, suggesting that someone focused specifically on your business’ unique needs may provide better guidance than a one-size-fits all approach.

Marketing Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All: A Custom Digital Marketing Plan Awaits

As you can tell, we believe that there’s never a one-size-fits-all digital marketing plan. No two businesses are the same, even if they operate in the same industry and in the same town. Their marketing plans shouldn’t be the same, either.

We’ve all been in the position of grabbing a screwdriver, flipping it over, and using the handle to hammer in a nail (haven’t we or is it just me?) when we realize we haven’t got the right tool handy to finish building that put-it-together yourself bookcase. If we’re lucky, the bookcase stands up. If we’re unlucky, we wreck the screwdriver handle and have a mess when the bookcase collapses because the nail wasn’t driven in straight.

Don’t leave your digital marketing success to luck. Speak with the experts at Dashboard Internet Marketing today. We have the right tools for the job, and will craft a unique marketing strategy and plan just for you. Call 763-242-2454 for a consultation.

We’re at the end of our five-part series called “Finding the Right Marketing Agency.” We’ve taken you through the steps to find and work with a marketing agency that understands your business and its goals and objectives. And, we’ve talked about the importance of measuring and monitoring the results.

Finding the Right Marketing Agency, a Five-Part Series

• Part 1: Finding the Right Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business
• Part 2: Find Your Perfect Match: Evaluating Digital Marketing Agencies
• Part 3: What to Expect When Working With A Digital Marketing Agency
• Part 4: Assessing Marketing Campaign Results

In today’s last and final piece, we’ll talk about the seven rules of working with a marketing agency that make the work go smoothly and how to show appreciation for the results achieved.

Most agency engagements go smoothly, with the work progressing according to milestones and demonstrable results. The following seven “rules of working together” will also help ensure smooth sailing throughout the marketing agency’s engagement with your company.

1. Be honest and transparent with each other – make sure you update the agency on any business issues affecting your work together. These may include product updates, product recalls, staffing changes, budget changes, and so on. Marketing overlaps many areas of a business, and a change in one area can impact the marketing plan.
2. Be open to marketing suggestions. An agency may make suggestions that feel uncomfortable simply because you haven’t tried to promote your business in that manner yet. Be open to new ideas. While you as the business owner always have the right to overrule any marketing concepts an agency produces, keeping an open mind and trying new things is the best way to increase your chances of success.
3. Don’t hesitate to provide feedback. Agencies expect to receive feedback on the creative content (writing and images, or graphic design). It’s fine to take a ‘red pen’ to draft copy and make changes. The copywriter at the marketing agency expects changes.
4. Be patient while they learn your business. How long does it take a new employee to learn your business, its products, services, history, and more? An agency learns quickly, but you remain the ultimate authority over your business. It is natural that there is a learning curve while the agency gets up to speed on your business. It is also expected that you make changes to ensure accuracy in all marketing materials.
5. Expect to review some aspects of the work, such as design concepts or text for your marketing materials. While you always have the choice to empower your agency with full creative control, you may also be asked to review items to ensure the accuracy of the information. It’s very typical to have some discussion around early drafts of materials, for example.
6. Learn how to provide feedback. Providing feedback to creative teams is an art, but we’ll try to give you a quick snapshot. Be as specific as possible. For example, when viewing an ad, “it doesn’t pop” is extremely vague and unhelpful. Another way to explain the same reaction may be to focus on the image, colors, or placement of the words, explaining how they do not catch the eye. Specific, rather than general feelings about marketing work, help improve the final outcome.
7. Keep your meeting times with the agency. A good agency wants to use focused planning sessions as well as feedback sessions to improve the work, but this requires client participation. Keep your meeting time with the agency sacred and view it as an investment in the future of your business.

If You’re Happy and You Know It, Show It!

By now, if you’ve chosen an agency and worked with them for a while, you’ve seen the outcome of their good work: leads and sales!

As the months pass and more leads and sales accrue, it may be helpful to thank your marketing agency for their good work. While this certainly isn’t a requirement, it is always appreciated. Everyone responds well to positive feedback!. Here’s how to positively and proactively show your appreciation for a job well done.

Send a Thank You Note

It sounds corny, but a good old-fashioned thank you note (or email) is truly appreciated by everyone at the marketing agency.

Most of the time, an agency’s staff only hears about the problems. Rarely do they hear about their successes. Sure, they analyze and prepare the metrics reports before they send them to the clients, but most of the team at a marketing agency is a ‘supporting player’ handling their job but not seeing the big picture.

Your feedback provides them with the big picture view from the most important lens: that of the business owner. By helping them connect their actions to your positive outcomes, you’ll help them understand how their work is impacting a business owner (you!)

Leave a Google Business Review

Google remains the most popular search engine, and organic search traffic from Google comprises the majority of website traffic for the average business. That includes your marketing agency, too.

Part of optimizing a company’s online presence for improved Google visibility is beefing up its Google Business profile. That includes ensuring plenty of honest reviews of the business. Some agencies will not ask for reviews and a review can be a pleasant surprise.

Why not leave a review of the marketing agency on their Google Business profile? An honest and thoughtful review also goes a long way in helping the agency see the fruits of their labor. It takes only a few minutes to leave a review but can make a lasting impact.

Recommend Them to a Colleague

Lastly, take time to recommend the agency to a colleague. Perhaps you can broker an introduction to another business owner in your community looking for good digital marketing assistance.

Most agencies gain new business via word of mouth, and a positive recommendation from a fellow business owner is often the clearest indication of success. Share the agency’s business cards at your next Chamber of Commerce meeting or in your networking group. It’s a great way to say thank you.

We’re Here to Help

We welcome your questions about working with Dashboard Interactive Marketing. We work with small to mid-sized companies and help clients generate new sales leads and revenue. We base marketing decisions on data, help you understand what we’re doing at every step of the way, and hold ourselves accountable for the results. We’d love to speak with you about your marketing efforts.

Call Dashboard Interactive at 763-242-2454.

Part 4 of Our 5-Part Series

In our continuing series on Finding the Right Marketing Agency, this month we cover an important topic: how to assess marketing campaign results. Dashboard Interactive Marketing focuses on results-driven digital marketing strategies. We believe that data informs marketing decisions, and we rely on data and experience to form our client recommendations.

Other agencies may take a different approach to assessing marketing campaign results. It is important for business owners to understand basic marketing metrics and why they are important so that they, too, can judge the results of their marketing campaigns.

Part I: Finding the Right Marketing Agency for Your Business
Part 2: Evaluating Marketing Agencies
Part 3: What to Expect When Working with a Marketing Agency

What Are Marketing Metrics?

Marketing metrics is defined as quantitative data used to measure marketing campaigns.

Quantitative data can come from many sources, depending on the type of marketing campaign:

Depending on the type of campaign you are running, your marketing agency should establish benchmarks to key performance indicators (KPIs) which form the baseline to which each month’s campaign metrics are compared.

Let’s say you own a bakery in a small town in the Midwest. You wish to run local search campaigns online to increase custom cake orders – cakes for weddings, birthdays, special events. Your marketing agency suggests running several campaigns: a local Google search campaign with paid advertising, a social media blitz for organic traffic, and social media ads based on local geographic targets. They may suggest running print advertisements in the local newspaper and regional magazine. Additionally, they may suggest some public relations outreach: gaining interviews for the bakery owner and pastry chef, an article in the regional magazine with photos of spectacular cakes, and so on.

How should such a campaign be measured? The bakery owners, of course, want to see cake sales increase. But cake sales could increase due to any number of factors, including word of mouth and seasonal purchase habits.

The key to measuring the success of the specific marketing actions undertaken on behalf of the bakery is to:

• Establish the current sales level (set the baseline measurement)
• Measure activities and sales from the data the campaigns launch
• Measure specific data from the campaign, such as click through rates on ads and social media campaigns
• Track leads through phone orders, online orders, and even foot traffic into the bakery itself

Work with Your Agency to Establish Marketing Metrics

It’s important to work with your marketing agency to establish marketing metrics and track the results of campaigns. For example, as a certified Google Partner, Dashboard can set up key conversion metrics in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), call tracking on digital ad campaigns to accurately determine how many phone calls are coming from digital ads and other items. It’s that kind of attention to quantitative results that helps you as the business owner understand how your marketing budget was spent to generate sales and profits.

Allow Enough Time for Results

One thing to keep in mind: you must allow enough time (and budget) for a marketing campaign to generate measurable results.

Often, small businesses are anxious to generate immediate sales. However, only some marketing tactics can generate sales quickly. Others are long-term investments to build your business’ brand and visibility and support increased revenues overall.

Marketing campaigns often fail because business owners stop them before they’ve had a chance to gain a toehold in the marketplace. It used to be said, many years ago, that consumers had to see an ad three times for it to be remembered. Today, with the proliferation of media and advertising in every aspect of life, that number has ballooned to seven (if not more) times an ad needs to be viewed to be remembered. Sufficient time must elapse for a campaign to gain traction and generate results.

Keep Communication Lines Open with Your Agency

It is vital that you communicate your goals and objectives to the marketing agency from the start of your interaction with them. Don’t leave it to chance or guesswork or assume that the agency understands your business needs. You’re involved in the day-to-day management of your business.

Your agency serves as a valuable consultant and partner but can only do so when they have all the information, including your business goals and needs. Clear, open, and honest communication between agency and client around marketing goals, objectives, and expectations is essential to a successful marketing campaign.

Ready to Get Started with a Digital Marketing Agency?

We hope that this series on working with a digital marketing agency has been helpful to you. If you would like to discuss your businesses’ marketing needs with us, please call Dashboard Interactive Marketing at 763-242-2454.

Part 3 of Our 5-Part Series

Welcome to Part 3 of our 5-part series on Finding the Right Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business. If you missed Parts I and 2, you can read them here:

Finding the Right Digital Marketing Agency
Evaluating Marketing Agencies

Onboarding With a Digital Marketing Agency

Now that you’ve chosen a digital marketing agency, you want them to get right to work. And they do, too. But before they begin to work directly on your marketing strategy and tactics, they need to complete something called ‘onboarding.’ Like human resources onboarding for new employees, a digital marketing agency needs time to access your current information, evaluate the situation, and prepare the way to roll out your custom-crafted marketing strategy.

Google Analytics, Search Console, and G4 Setup

One of the first things a digital agency should ask for is permission to access your Google platforms: Google Analytics and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) accounts, Search Console, and Google My Business.

Don’t have these set up? Your agency should recommend that this be done at once. It is a simple step that will go a long way towards capturing the metrics needed to evaluate the ROI of your digital marketing campaign. Google data also provides insight into multiple facets of your website traffic, and enables the digital team to create and enact effective campaigns.

A few things to note:

• If you already have these tools setup, you will need to add someone from the agency’s team to the dashboard. They should be able to walk you through this over the phone or a video conference. This does not mean that they take control over the platform. Rather, they are added to your company’s administrative panel so that they can act freely behind the scenes, as needed, to complete what they need to do to help you achieve your digital marketing goals.
• An agency should never ‘hold your platform hostage’ or withhold login data from you. If you are moving your business from one digital agency to another, the primary agency should be prepared to hand over the keys to you, as the business owner. If they refuse to do so, check your contract with them. Unless there is something you signed that says they own your website, you are well within your rights to request full access and move it to another agency.

A Content and Website Inventory

Another step in the onboarding process that an agency may recommend is a content and website inventory.

Just like a retail store conducts annual or quarterly inventory to count the number of items in each category, a web and content inventory lists and tallies the quantity and quality of the types of content available for marketing programs.

Every item counts: web pages, landing pages, blog posts, ebooks, white papers, brochures, slicks, case studies, videos, and graphics.

By evaluating the materials available to work with, an agency can recommend collateral to fill any gaps in the customer journey or messaging strategy and reuse and repurpose existing content.

Access to Company, Product, and Industry Knowledge

We saved the most important for last. Your new digital agency will need full access to key individuals within your company, competitors, products (or services), and industry knowledge. In other words, they need access to you and to your time.

Plan to spend at least one or two meetings with the agency, updating them on important facts that address the background information needed to create a solid marketing strategy and plan for your business. Some things you may wish to discuss and share (or they may ask you) include:

• An explanation or demonstration of your products or services
• Discussion of the sales process, how a product is sold and delivered
• What marketing methods have you tried to date,date–what worked, what didn’t?
• Who are the competitors for your company, products, and services?
• Who buys your products and services?
• The sales cycle – how long does it take, from a customer learning about the product to actually buying it? What information do they need along the way?
• What social media channels do you use, if any, and how often are you posting?
• Do you have a list of email subscribers? If so, how was that list created?
• Do you have any special times of the year when your products are more in demand than others? Is it seasonal or based on the holidays?
• How do you prefer to receive information and review documents?

This is for starters and there may be more questions, of course, and questions vary according to your products, services, company, and marketing needs.

Good Marketing Is Collaborative

Good marketing is highly collaborative, and the relationship between agency and client should be one of mutual trust and support. Although you may wish to simply hand off marketing services to your agency and walk away from it to focus on other things, at the start of the engagement it is important to remain in close contact with your agency to ensure things begin on a sound footing. At some point, you may be able to have the agency run marketing without daily input, but at the beginning, the tighter the collaboration, the better your marketing will be.

If you’ve enjoyed these posts, do drop us a note to let us know. Feel free to share this post and others in this series with colleagues and friends, too.

Dashboard Interactive Marketing welcomes inquiries. If you are looking for a digital marketing partner to help you achieve your marketing goals, call us at (763) 242-2454.

Part 2 of Our 5-Part Series

Welcome to Part 2 of our 5-part series on Finding the Right Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business. If you missed Part I, you can read it here: Finding the Right Digital Marketing Agency.

Found the perfect agency partner? Great! Before you roll up your sleeves and get down to work, there are areas to explore together.

What To Do – Evaluation Questions to Ask

Many companies neglect to ask questions that can truly help them understand how their chosen marketing agency works. We’ve narrowed the list down to five key questions that every business owner should ask their marketing agency. More importantly, we’ve explained why you should ask these questions, and potential ‘red flags’ to watch out for during the conversation.

1. How would you approach our marketing?

Come to the meeting with the marketing problem clearly identified and discussed with the agency. Don’t expect them to lay out the full solution in your getting acquainted session, but do ask plenty of questions about their approach to solving marketing problems.

We suggest listening carefully to their approach to problem solving. Do they take time to do their due diligence, investigating not just your company but also the activities you’ve tried to date and the results achieved? Do they ask about the data – Google Analytics and other data that can help inform their marketing choices?

Red flags to listen for include companies that immediately launch into a service pitch, trying to get you to buy into the notion that by doing just one marketing activity, your problems are solved. Chances are good that they excel at that marketing activity (or perhaps only offer one type of marketing solution!) and thus they pitch it at every opportunity. There’s an old saying that to a hammer, the answer is always a nail, and unfortunately, for some agencies, the answer may be solely “paid search” “paid social media” or “Facebook advertising.” Look for a process, an approach, rather than a one-size-fits-all response.

2. Can you describe how you will work with us if we engage you to handle our digital marketing activities?

This is where the agency should describe in detail their working process. It may include deep-dives into analytics, content, website metrics, or multiple meetings to better understand your products and services.

Every digital marketing agency is unique, and there’s really no one-size-fits all model. Some agencies schedule weekly check-in calls, while others prefer to do the work and then meet to present it. Find a method that you are comfortable with and be sure you understand how they work to see if their method aligns with your working style.

Red flags include agencies who can’t describe how they will work with you. If they don’t know, they don’t have a set process for client engagements, and this may lead to a bumpy ride as you onboard with them.

3. How will you evaluate our project results?

A good digital marketing agency focuses on KPIs and ROIs. They want to know whether or not they’ve hit a home run or struck out. They should focus on quantifiable methods of determining campaign successes. They should be able to present to you a list of metrics that provide measurable results.

Red flags include agencies that waffle about how to measure results or who focus solely on marketing output rather than results. Output means they focus on what they produce for you instead of the results they produce for you. If they’re focused on generating 10 blog posts a month and 30 social media posts, but they cannot say how they will evaluate the results of the blog posts or social media posts, you may want to consider another agency. Although output is important, it’s results that count – and the leads and revenue that digital marketing campaigns generate for your business.

What NOT to Ask

There are a few things we would caution you not to ask of your digital agency partners, too.

• Can you share the analytics of other campaigns you have worked on? Although many agencies provide case studies to share results, some cannot. Depending on the industries they work in, they may have strict confidentiality agreements on file that prohibit not just sharing results but even sharing the names of past clients. Ask more questions about process, approach, and solutions in such cases and be respectful of agencies that decline to share results of specific client campaigns. They may not be able to share the data.
• Will you work on a percentage of sales? In any marketing campaign, there are too many variables for any reputable agency to work purely “on spec’ or on a percent of revenue basis. An agency may welcome a bonus if they hit specific revenue or lead targets, but asking them to essentially work free with the promise of potential future revenue isn’t an acceptable practice in the marketing industry.
• Can you copy the campaign/website/social media posts of XYZ? It’s unethical, impractical, and probably not worth the time to copy someone else’s marketing. Why be a pale copy of an original when you can be an original? Besides, you don’t know whether or not their marketing campaign is generating the desired results. Just because you like it doesn’t mean it is a good fit for your business.

Other Questions to Ask

Depending on what’s important to you, you may wish to ask a few other questions:

1. How long have you been in business?
2. Who is the team who will be working on our account? Can you share their credentials and work experience with us?
3. If we need services which your company does not offer, how do you fill this gap?
4. What payment methods do you accept?
5. How do you define a successful client engagement?

We trust that these questions will be helpful to you. In our next article, we’ll share with you what to expect once you hire a digital marketing agency.

If you have any questions for us drop us an email. We’d love to get to know your business and help you determine whether or not we’re the right agency partner for you.

Call Dashboard Interactive Marketing at 763-242-2454 or contact us via email.