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What to Look for in a Creative Agency Partner

By Snap Agency July 12, 2022

marketing professionals discuss ideas at a table, post-it notes are scattered about the office wall, a graph on a television shows an upward trend

Partnering with a creative agency for your business shouldn’t be a quick decision. Every brand has unique needs and goals, and it takes a wealth of knowledge to execute them effectively.

Finding the right creative agency means matching your niche with an agency that understands it — and knows how to help you grow in your field. Full-service digital marketing agencies like Snap boost your business with stunning branding, web design, web development, SEO services, copy and content creation, paid advertising, and much more.

Here’s how to find the right creative agency for your business.

Identify Your Company’s Goals & Needs

Before you enter a conversation with a creative marketing agency, you’ll want to get prepared. After all, how can you know if you’re a good match if you don’t really know what you need?

Start by figuring out what your biggest pain points are. Are you trying to grow organic traffic to attract target leads? If so, you know you need SEO services.

If your business is new or your website presence is dated, you might be looking for one-time help with branding, web design, and/or web development. Use your introductory meetings as a learning tool to understand what else you’ll need as your business scales up.

No matter what stage of growth your business is in, it’s important to go in armed with an understanding of digital marketing services.

Check out this table to get a quick and dirty understanding of what you might need.

Pain Point Services to Consider
Low or no traffic SEO services, paid advertising, competitor analysis, website audit
Lots of traffic but few or no conversions SEO, website audit, paid advertising
Slow and/or ugly website Branding services, web design, web development
Need higher-quality leads Paid advertising, e-mail marketing, social media services, SEO
No time to scale as your company grows Full digital marketing services tailored to prioritize your needs and budget

 

Find a Creative Agency Knowledgeable About Your Niche

Because digital marketing is such a necessity across all business sectors, creative agencies have narrowed their focus to support particular niches. We call this niche marketing.

Niche marketing is when a marketing agency identifies a small group of people in your niche who are acutely interested in your services. Niche marketing is beneficial because it’s lean; businesses are able to spend less and still attract high-quality leads who won’t need as much convincing to convert.

In other words, you are allowed to be picky. If your business is specific to your location, find a local agency. For example, Snap Agency offers Minneapolis SEO just for businesses local to us.

But remember: the internet is an international world of commerce. So, if your niche isn’t location-specific, but industry-specific, you have innumerable options. From industrial services to medical, there is a creative agency just for you.

Ultimately, your goal should be to find a creative agency that shares common interests with your business—and has the track record to prove it.

Research & Investigate Each Niche Marketing Agency

Now it’s time to dig in. Armed with your goals and knowledge about how marketing agencies operate, you can start researching and investigating agencies that best match your needs.

Any sensible creative marketing agency will have case studies. Case studies use images, data, and text to showcase the high points of the agency’s work. Take note of what you like about each case study and which agency demonstrates the best results. Later, you can leverage this information to help the agency you pick execute your vision.

What to look for in case studies:

  • Is the website attractive?
  • Does it load quickly?
  • Are pages ranking well in search engines?
  • Does it make navigation easy for users?
  • Is it following branding guidelines?

What Are Branding Guidelines?

Branding guidelines are clear rules around your brand’s look and messaging. During your research, make sure that each case study is following branding guidelines.

For example, does the website have a consistent message, or does it sound like various people wrote different sections? Is the messaging aligned with the mission, or is it a mess of verbal patchwork?

If you haven’t yet decided on your branding guidelines, don’t worry. A premier digital marketing agency can help you identify your company’s unique value proposition and put it into action.

Choosing the Right Creative Agency Partner

It’s true that once you choose a creative agency partner you trust, you’ll be able to hand off challenging and time-consuming marketing tasks to experts. However, that relief will only come if you do your due diligence first. Connect with Snap Agency to see how we can amplify your bottom line.

 

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