When you're getting ready for a website redesign, you need to make sure that you partner with a certain kind of online marketing agency. Anyone can say they design websites nowadays; but not everyone can say they produce websites that look great, are easy to use, and have a real, measurable impact on your revenue stream.
Your website is your most valuable marketing asset. It is your number one salesperson, connecting with people every day of the year. You want to make sure that your marketing budget is going to get a solid return.
When considering a digital marketing agency look for these critical traits. If they can pass this litmus test, you can feel more confident in knowing your marketing is going to be in good hands.
They need to be Results-Oriented
Your website isn't there just to be another pretty face. It's there to answer customer questions; it's there to generate leads; it's there to help close the sale.
When evaluating digital marketing agencies, you want to see what kind of record they have, and what results they produce.
Also, talk directly with the agencies you're considering, during an initial phone call or meeting, ask the agency questions about past results they've achieved and what they did to get those results. Never expect an agency to go into full details of how they did a certain campaign and what campaign they’d suggest you do, that would be doing the job essentially before the contract is signed but make sure they can provide examples.
I would suggest making sure you ask for specific examples and concrete numbers. You might use questions or prompts like:
1. Tell me about a successful lead generation campaign you coordinated
(Are you B2B or B2C? There’s a huge difference in marketing campaigns and website builds depending on this, make sure the agency is experienced in your sector. If an agency has never done a B2B marketing campaign, avoid. B2B is much more difficult and you really need an experienced agency in that area… You will find many agencies avoiding B2B contracts.)
2. What was the increase in leads?
(Make sure this is answered with real results and not just a percentage increase. Anyone can say “Oh, um… Yes we increased traffic by around 10% in a week.”)
3. How many leads converted to sales?
(I repeat, no percentage answers. You want to hear real results. “The brand was making 200 quid before me and now they make more than 20,000 a month.. Basically I saved them and you need me, honest.”)
4. Furthermore, look into how they track and report results.
(This is hugely important, you need to know what results this agency will provide you and how often. If you have specific goals, the agency should be able to provide you with results showing improvements in those areas along with everything else.)
They Are honest with you
It's imperative to have an open and honest relationship with your marketing agency right off the bat. Even before you engage in their services, a good marketing agency should be upfront; they should be able to tell you your problem areas and how they plan to fix it. They should give you all the details you need or want about things like:
Process: What are the steps for each phase of the redesign? How do they handle communication with clients? Will there be an ongoing time commitment (e.g., status phone calls or meetings)?
People: What members of their team will be involved in the project? What are their credentials?
Partners: Is their team completely in-house? Do they use freelancers? Do they partner with other vendors (e.g., a photographer)? Who are these other people who may be involved in the project? What are their credentials? Do they have international partners?
Fees: How will the project be priced? Are there additional costs (e.g., web hosting fees) that we need to account for? I would always expect a complete explained pricing plan.
If an agency is just promise this, promise that and agree to all your needs and requests without any questioning… I’d question their integrity. I have a lot of experience working in and with PR and digital agencies and would regularly see false promises thrown around to secure the deal with the attitude of ‘we’ll worry about that later.’
I would sit in with the founders of one agency in all initial meetings with potential clients. We had a meeting with a founder of a small saturated business with a very generic business name (let’s say it was called Orange, it really was that generic) who asked if we could get them to rank on page one of Google within two months under the searches of “Orange” and “Best coffee shop in London”.
At this point the website wasn’t live and it can take up to four weeks alone just for Google to simply crawl the website and index it. Before I could respond with an honest ‘absolutely not’, the founder of the agency replied to this incredibly impossible request with “Of course we can, Lauren is a guru with all things Google.” After the meeting, I said to the founder close to having a panic attack, “this is impossible… I can’t do that.” Her response? “It’s fine the contract’s signed.”
They can Manage Their Time
A project plan is a website redesign's best friend. Having a clear timeline in place helps manage expectations, gives you goals/deadlines to work toward, and keeps both the client and marketing agency accountable. Ask for a project plan/timeline - in writing. A website will always have problems, it’s just a matter of fact. Coding is an absolute joy. I would always expect an extra week at least included for potential problems. You should always have a 2 week tester week included at the end.
This should help remove the very known and almost expected risk of website build delays.
They Follow Their Own Advice
Have you ever encountered an agency that tries to sell you on digital marketing? You check out their website which runs badly, has a confusing user journey and looks like it hasn’t been updated in over a year… This is an incredibly awkward moment for us if our website isn’t working today.
You have a look at their own social profiles and see LinkedIn hasn't been updated in 6 months and their last Tweet was from 2009? I wouldn’t worry so much about following numbers when it comes to agencies but focus on the content produced.
If the firm's own marketing leaves something to be desired, think about what that says about what they can deliver for you.
They “teach” you
There are a lot of nuances to digital marketing, and a lot of jargon, data, misconceptions and myths to weed through. It's easy to see why business owners get frustrated and how things like SEO get a bad rap in the public eye.
When choosing a digital marketing agency to partner with, you don't want to wind up with someone who takes a "smoke and mirrors" approach. You need to work with someone who not only explains a concept like vanity metrics, but also gives you guidance and advice on metrics your business should track instead. Your marketing agency shouldn't throw jargon at you and be vague when answering your questions. Do they explain technical terms and other jargon? Do they walk you through data and reports and explain what the numbers really mean? Are they available for extra help? Are they easily accessible through email or phone?
You should never feel patronised or confused when discussing digital marketing with an agency, from prior experience… Trust me… Don’t sign that contract if they make you feel clueless by the end.. One time a founder of a brand I worked with told me a story of how they had a leading London based digital marketing agency come in and when he asked a question about PPC, their response to him was “leave it to the experts to worry about that”.
They "Get" You
For me, this is the most important tip. A successful website redesign hinges on your marketing agency gaining a thorough understanding of your business and its unique goals and its challenges. You shouldn't receive a cookie-cutter pitch or generic proposal which has been sent around to 80 other companies. Partner with someone who is inquisitive; look for a marketing agency that understands your brand and goals.
I once worked with a fantastic gym chain who had a website which without being rude, was dreadful. There was zero CTA buttons on the home page just flashy images which slowed down the entire site, finding where to book a day pass or gym class was harder than ‘Where’s Wally’. The way the website was curated produced incredibly bad SEO results meaning incredibly high bounce rate and very little organic traffic, just current members of the gym. The founder just spent £15,000 on this somewhat useless website and wasn’t thrilled by my opinion, he allowed me to “go to town” on it and within six months the website increased it’s organic traffic by 73% (Traffic was averaging around 98300 per month instead of 26500), the website leads increased hugely with most coming from the obvious CTA button placed on the homepage.
This is the difference of results of an agency who understands your brand to who doesn’t.
At Honest London we like to spend a day or two… If you’re a Spa or nice hotel in Bora Bora.. Two weeks… Learning your brand and experiencing it. How can you possibly market or design a functioning website for a brand by your two or three meetings. It takes a new employee on average 3-6 months to feel confident with a brand, you would really feel confident leaving your website in the hands of an agency showing zero interest in trying your product?
If you are currently looking for a website rebuild or marketing services, we would love for you to get in touch. We don’t push heavy sales, we promise. If you just want a chat and need advice, even about considering another agency, do get in touch and we will help you out.