Last updated on September 24th, 2024 at 04:05 pm
Are you searching for a digital marketing agency in Singapore to assist with your company’s digital marketing strategy and campaigns, or are you considering changing your current agency? If your answer is “yes” to either question, keep reading.
As someone who has worked in the corporate world for more than 20 years, including as a client, I’ve had experience working with various digital marketing agencies – both good and bad. In this mini guide, I’ll share what I’ve learned from my own experiences to help you choose the right digital marketing agency in Singapore. By the end, you’ll know what to look out for when making your decision.
What are the Red Flags When Selecting a Digital Marketing Agency?
(1) Poor Communication
This is probably the number 1 red flag you need to be aware of when you are looking for a digital marketing agency. I have encountered this situation with local agencies multiple times. Often, digital marketing agencies failed to communicate their processes properly – this can lead to the client having to spend more time and effort working on things such as last minute and/or ad hoc requests for content, images, briefs or reports. Sometimes, different members of their team also provided different messages, proving that there was a lack of communication even within their own organisation.
If your prospective Singapore digital marketing agency exhibits these signs, be careful. It might not be easy to work with them later on, which may affect your results.
(2) Skipping the Initial Research Process
Ask your prospective agency whether they would be conducting market or competitive research of your industry, and whether they have a process because without this step, future campaigns might not be properly optimised. Ask for this step, and be on the red alert if they hesitated.
(3) All-In-One Digital Marketing Agency
Some agencies may say that they can do everything or is a one-stop agency that can help you with all your marketing strategy and elements. If your prospective agency said that, start to worry because nobody can be great at everything.
Some agencies might just be outsourcing their work to independent marketers or freelancers as they might not have the capacity or budget to hire a full team or increase their headcount.
(4) No Customised Packages
Some digital marketing agencies will not bother to probe deeper or ask you in-depth questions about your business before sending you a proposal or quotation. Choose a digital marketing agency that attempts to find out more about your business before developing a strategy according to your needs and then providing you with a customised solution and package.
(5) Everything Positive? Be Wary
Even with a very experienced digital marketing agency, results would not be great every month. If your agency is showing you only positive results monthly, you should check that they are submitting genuine results and not just covering up the actual ROI or presenting the statistics differently.
Your digital marketing agency should be happy to share and analyse any data with you – be it your Google analytics, Google Ads, Facebook ads, SEO results, etc. Ask for results and reports, and always ask questions if you do not understand their data. Beware of any digital marketing agency who is unwilling to be upfront with you on these data and analytics.
(6) Focusing on the Wrong ROI
Most of the time, most agencies focus on the wrong ROI. For instance, they might set their report to focus on only unique clicks on your website, or even impressions, when what really matters to you are leads.
If your website traffic is increasing, but most of the time, there are no leads, or even the wrong kinds of leads, you are leaving a lot of money on the table because your new traffic is coming from the wrong visitors. You would probably find that your website bounce rate has increased too.
Find an agency that understands these problems, and can set up the correct ROI for your business, one that can effectively measure your success. If your website traffic numbers are increasing, as are the number of qualified leads, your digital marketing agency is doing something right because they are helping you to attract more of the right visitors and convert them into engaged potential clients, which is the most important goal of all.
(7) ‘Guaranteed Results’
Beware if the prospective digital marketing agency promises you specific results, such as page one ranking on Google, or a cost per lead of $1 for your ads. If they do make such guarantee, ask them how they are going to do it. Make sure they do not resort to bad hat marketing in an attempt to churn out fast results. An SEO campaign, for instance, can take up to six months or even a year to show results, depending on the competitiveness of your industry.
There is definitely no such things as ‘guaranteed results’, because even with an experienced agency or team, every business or industry is unique and you have to do many A/B testings before you know what works best for your client and his business.
(8) Ridiculously Low Prices
This is a serious red flag, and in fact, the most important red flag of all, because if your prospective agency offers you very low prices, it can mean many things, such as:
- it will be saddled with many projects and would not have much time allocated to each individual project, thus resulting in poor work quality and results;
- there would not be customised solutions, obviously and without customisation, chances are you would not see much results and eventually, you will be just wasting your investment;
- it might be outsourcing the work to an unskilled or relatively low-cost, inexperienced vendor or freelancer, who might not understand what you need.
If these happens, you might just end up damaging your brand and online profile, as well as any SEO rankings that you might have achieved previously, and might have to spend time, efforts and money to restore everything back.
In conclusion, check out all the above eight pointers before you engage a digital marketing agency. Have a good discussion with your team or management, trust your instincts, and everything will work out just fine. Happy searching!
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Are you tired of ineffective marketing strategies or disappointed with the results from your current digital agency? As an experienced marketer, I can help you achieve your marketing goals with a tailored approach that delivers measurable results. With a background that combines both traditional and digital marketing, I bring a unique perspective and skill set to the table. My focus is on reducing your marketing costs while driving high-quality leads and conversions.
So if you’re ready to take your marketing to the next level, get in touch with me today at +65-9622-8824 or bei@beithoven.com. Let’s work together to develop a customised marketing strategy that delivers results for your business.
Bei, a bilingual (English/Chinese) Singapore content strategist, has over 20 years of experience in marketing for small businesses. She mostly writes about China marketing (Chinese market marketing), content marketing, SEO, GenAI, metaverses, and social media.