Is the firm you are hiring to do your company's marketing able to identify where their own clients are coming from? Do they have processes in place to keep their pipelines full? How many clients do they bring on every month and how do they get them?
I know the answer to this, do you? In the past 30 days we've brought on 4 new clients. One came from a referral, two came through our website and one came as a result of an article I was quoted in. So I pose this question to you: Is the firm you are hiring to do your company's marketing able to identify where their own clients are coming from? Do they have processes in place to keep their pipelines full? How many clients do they bring on every month and how do they get them? Those might be some questions I would ask before I hire a marketing company because after all, if they can do it for themselves, they can probably do it for you.
Those might be some questions I would ask before I hire a marketing company because after all, if they can do it for themselves, they can probably do it for you.
Here are some other questions I would ask before hiring someone to help you with your marketing:
How does your background relate to my business? There are many self-anointed marketing people out there. Many of them have come from the corporate world and have no idea what kinds of struggles a business owner has. These people tend to speak in corporate marketing language and words like "engagement" riddle their vernacular. We can argue the merits of engagement all day long, but I'm more concerned about meaningful impressions to my client's target market and how many people actually buy.
Do you have an offline and online strategy to grow my business through marketing? So many people today are singularly focused on social media. While I think social media is an important piece of the puzzle it certainly is no panacea. Any company worth their salt has an online and offline strategy to stay in front of their target audience on a consistent basis. Both strategies should be multi-dimensional, inclusive of different platforms, outlets and methods. For instance, we have a formula for our dentist clients that is inclusive of direct mail to a very specific audience, social media reach (and not in the conventional way, as truly anyone can post interesting thoughts and photos on your Facebook page), Search Engine Optimization, Google AdWords, Public Relations, Events, Conventional Ads and Community Involvement that allows our dentists to stay in front of their target markets via different avenues on a consistent basis. It's no wonder their patient counts are growing by 30% plus each year.
Do you handle everything in house? This is an important one, because when a marketing person has to sub out work, you pay a markup while important information about your brand can be lost in translation. A marketing company should have design, copywriting, public relations, branding, web design, and experts on SEO and Social in house. This creates efficiencies while providing an expert in each discipline which will benefit your company and allow you to out market your competition. It might be tempting to shy away from hiring a company with these resources because of price, but you truly get what you pay for. No one person can be the expert in all of these areas and a marketing company will have specialists on staff that bring valuable expertise to their clients.