An online digital marketing agency is defined as a company that provides services related to website design and analysis, search engine optimization, paid advertising, email marketing, and social media management.

Although the definitions vary by industry, any reasonable person in the digital marketing world would acknowledge that the above list contains the core competencies of a digital marketing agency.

Since its inception in the early 2000s, HubSpot has been one of the leading players in the industry. What is HubSpot? At its most basic level, HubSpot is a software platform that helps businesses become more efficient and effective at communicating with their customers.

In addition to being a popular digital marketing agency, HubSpot also functions as a conventional marketing agency offering strategy, planning, and execution for brand campaigns. What is more, HubSpot provides much more than software; it provides an all-encompassing suite of marketing services, which include marketing research, analytics and measurement, and public relations.

Therefore, if you’re looking to form a partnership with a digital marketing agency, consider reviewing the following checklist before the first meeting:

Technical Expertise

As the name implies, a digital marketing agency typically deals with digital marketing concepts and tools. This includes everything from website design, to SEO strategy, social media marketing, and email marketing.

Due to the nature of the work, technical expertise ranges from basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and basic webdesign, to a complete knowledge of digital marketing and the various platforms on which it can be executed (i.e., SEO, PPC).

If you’re looking for a technical partner to help your website become more SEO friendly, the perfect fit would be an agency that is a certified SEO specialist. This way, you can be sure that you’ll be provided with the best SEO services possible.

Strategic Thinking

A marketing strategy is simply a formal plan outlining the direction that a business will take to achieve its goals. Formulating a digital marketing strategy entails looking at the following four major areas:

• Goals: What do you want to achieve?
• Key Performance Indicators: What will you measure to determine if you’re successful?
• Objectives: How will you go about achieving your goals?
• Key Performance Indicators: What will you measure to determine if you’re successful?

Since a marketing strategy is a formal plan, it needs to be concise yet comprehensive. A well-executed strategy allows you to clearly communicate with your employees, your customers, and your board about the direction that the business is taking.

For example, if you want to establish a London office, you would include the following in your strategy document:

• Why are you establishing a London office?
• What is your goal?
• How will you measure your success (KPIs)?
• What are the advantages of having a London office?
• Who will you engage with to make this happen?

A good digital marketing agency will have a team of experienced strategists, who are able to think creatively, provide new ideas, and work through complex problems. An efficient and flexible strategy is essential if you want to be able to roll with the changes that the digital world throws at you.

Creativity

A creative director is typically the person within an agency who is responsible for developing marketing campaigns. This includes the following:

• Strategizing
• Research
• Developing ideas
• Proposing concepts
• Riding herd on budget

To bring an agency creativity to your business, it’s essential to understand what you’re hiring them to do. As a client, you would typically provide the agency with basic requirements such as a logo, color scheme, and general marketing objectives. In return, you would get a finished product that you are able to launch.

The main difference between a creative director and other members of the agency is that the former is primarily responsible for concept development, while the latter are responsible for executing those concepts. To put it differently, a creative director is responsible for coming up with innovative ideas that can be used by the agency to grow your business.

If you’re looking for a partner to help you develop new products, a good fit for your needs would be an agency that is specialized in product development. At the end of the day, you’re paying the agency to develop new products that you can then sell.

Analytics

In a nutshell, analytics are the tools and the people who use them to analyze the data. If you’re looking for someone to help track the results of your marketing efforts, you would hire an analytics agency.

As a consumer of analytics, you would typically have access to a variety of information gathered from different sources. This includes search engine traffic, lead generation, and sales. You would also have access to comparative information that allows you to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts over time.

A certified analytics agency would be the perfect choice for helping you track the results of your digital marketing efforts. This way, you can determine if your campaign is delivering as anticipated.

Data Management

Data management is simply the process of storing and organizing information so that it can be easily accessed and analyzed. This is probably the most important aspect of working with a data management agency. Without clean, well-organized data, it’s difficult to track the success of your campaign.

A data management agency would be responsible for entering and updating the following information:

• Marketing databases (e.g., Excel)
• CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce)
• Web analytics systems (e.g., Google Analytics)
• Budget (e.g., Infortis)
• Meeting minutes

The above lists just a small fraction of the services that a digital marketing agency would provide. To give you an idea of the scope of the work, here’s a short list of some of the major services provided by a top-rated agency:

• Marketing strategy
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Social Media Management
• PPC (Pay-per-click Advertising)
• Email Marketing
• Content Writing

To get an idea of the fees that a digital marketing agency might charge, here’s a quick summary of what to expect in your first meeting:

• Bid: The initial fee that you’ll need to pay the agency (typically paid in advance)
• Term: The length of the contract (typically one year)
• Billable hours: How many hours do you think the agency will work in a month?
• Cost per month: How much does it cost to maintain the agency?

A Look At The Major Players In The Online Marketing Industry

Now that you have a general idea of what a reputable digital marketing agency looks like, let’s examine the major players in the industry.

To start with, let’s examine HubSpot. As mentioned previously, HubSpot is a marketing agency that provides a suite of inbound marketing services, including website design, SEO, email marketing, and social media management.

According to HubSpot, they have more than 500,000 active users, which generate approximately 70 million business leads per year. In addition, HubSpot states that they have saved businesses approximately $15,000,000 per year through reduced marketing costs and an increase in qualified leads.

Next, we will discuss Convio, a provider of digital marketing services with its headquarters in San Francisco, California. Convio provides search engine optimization, email marketing, social media management, and web design for businesses. Additionally, Convio offers a pay-per-click advertising program for businesses and provides performance-based marketing analytics for media and digital marketing agencies.

Last but not least, we’ll examine BlueKai, which provides sales optimization, marketing analytics, and reporting for digital marketing and sales professionals.

As you can see, the above three businesses are reputable online marketing agencies that provide a variety of services to their customers. The following sections will examine how to choose an agency that provides what you’re looking for based on your needs.