First, why work with a digital marketing team?
Digital marketing companies:
- create strategy
- design
- develop
- optimize
- train
- measure
Do any of those sound like processes that could help your marketing efforts?
The Alternative
Yes, of course you could have your brother’s nephew design your website in Front Page. You can also create your own fan page and spam it to bits, post asking for more fans and end every sentence with three !’s. Run your own pay per click campaigns without landing pages and bid management. Want to simply use the same copy from your brochure online? No problem.
Forgive me for sounding jaded, but I’m, well, jaded. I’ve talked to many companies that use that type of rationale I explained above to not hire a digital marketing company.
The fact is, you can run your own digital marketing from the ground up. However, you can also build a car from parts, but why would you do a job that others have years of experience in doing?
By hiring a digital marketing company you can expect efficiency, experience, and in-the-trenches knowledge. You can also expect to be asked to communicate and participate.
The Relationship
Entering into any relationship, whether it be work or personal, requires several things to be successful. Beginning a digital marketing project is no different; people will often enter into a contract not knowing what exactly is expected of them in order to achieve success. Even when entering with eyes wide open, there are still potential pitfalls that can derail your project.
Understanding that digital marketing is important to your company is half the battle. If you and your company don’t buy into the process, you’re setting yourself up to fail.
Once the contract is signed is when the real work begins. It’s important to realize that signing the contract marks the beginning of your work, not the end. View it as an investment; you will reap what you sow.
The Communication
It is always important to make sure everyone is clear on how the project will run and how (and where) communication lines will operate. The time to communicate your hopes, wants, expectations is at the onset, not mid-way.
Establish preferred methods of communication, and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone. Email and Instant Messages offer a great opportunity for quick, concise communication. However, it does not convey tone, sarcasm, and poor attempts at humor.
Provide direction, and still let your team “do their thing”. Give ideas about the design you have in mind. Help brainstorm keyword seed lists. However, let your designer design, let your SEO do the keyword research.
The Participation
Digital marketing projects are processes, not events.
In order to reach the finish line, milestones must be passed and completed. Almost always, you will be asked to provide some form of feedback and approval for those milestones to be met, and for progress to be continued toward project completion.
Providing quality, timely feedback is important to the workflow of your project. When presented with design ideas, a reply of “I don’t like it” helps no one, and serves simply to continue spinning your wheels instead of making progress.
When you participate, you are part of the process. In today’s world, there really is no “completion” when it comes to marketing online. You need to continue to publish, to monitor, measure, and modify. Participating in the planning, the building and the implementation will keep your marketing efforts worth your money and time.
Tags: Digital Marketing, getting started in social media, partnerships, Pat Strader, project management