To find the best digital marketing agency, we must first understand “what is digital marketing”, “will digital marketing benefit your business” and answer the question “how do I get more leads for my business?” – what should be the purpose of any marketing.

What is a Digital Marketing Agency?
The dictionary definition of digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, primarily on the Internet, but also includes mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital media. So simple to sum up in one sentence, yet it can be a complicated process to get right and ensure that all of your digital marketing works together, not as isolated activities. This is where the expertise and experience of the best digital marketing agencies can be hugely beneficial.

Traditional advertising, paper newspapers and directories, such as Yellow Pages, are less and less effective for companies. Whereas a few years ago people went to a computer to search for a product or service, today people are connected to the Internet all day, every day and “live online”. Searching for information, a product or service is as quick and easy as searching on your laptop or computer at work or picking up your mobile or tablet. Digital marketing focuses on putting your information, products, and services in front of people when they search online. The best digital agencies understand the process of buying your products and services and make sure your information is highlighted to the potential customer at the right time. In the world of digital marketing, the various stages of the buying process, i.e. research, consideration and purchase, are called “micro-moments” and the best digital marketing agency will present the relevant information, service or product at the specific moment. of the purchase process. .

While some digital marketing agencies will also create and manage traditional advertising or business marketing, such as newspaper advertising, specialized digital marketing agencies will focus on online marketing rather than the “marketing firms” that are commonly referred to. concentrate on television, radio and print marketing.

Regardless of whether your business is business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), digital marketing can be a fast, often instant, and reliable way to get leads into your business and increase revenue. The best digital marketing agencies will manage all digital advertising based on return on investment (ROI), ensuring that the leads generated are at a cost that makes business sense and increases profit levels. Digital marketing will benefit your business and answers the question “how do I get more leads for my business”?

Digital marketing, sometimes referred to as website marketing, can be broken down into a number of important features and services:

SEO services
Search engine optimization, more commonly abbreviated as “SEO”, is the process of getting your website found on search engines like Google when people conduct a relevant search for your business, services, or products.

Regardless of whether your website is for e-commerce or for the sale of services, it will generate leads and sales for your business if you find the search terms that people use (often referred to as “keywords”) to search for them on Google.

SEO requires experience and understanding of how Google reads your website. What messages and information you want Google to read for a web page or website and knowing where to put that information so search engines can find it. A good SEO company will have a proven track record of ranking websites at the top of search results.

SEO works best when proven methods of getting rankings are applied alongside the latest traffic-generating trends. An example of this is the “near me” phenomenon, which has seen 150% growth in the last 12 months, where mobile phone users add “near me” to their search query, i.e. “Company of SEO near me”. These customers are looking to shop and buy from a local provider of services or products.

Although SEO can be a stand-alone service, it is most effective when combined with PPC, social media, and reputation marketing. SEO is also the cornerstone of effective PPC, social media, and reputation management campaigns.

pay per click
Pay per click (PPC), often referred to as “Google Advertising” or “online advertising”, is when you place ads at the top of search results for specific search terms. These search terms can be the words people use when they are in the “research” phase of making a purchase, or they can be targeted to “buy keywords” when potential customers are looking to buy.

Although your ad, depending on your budget, may show every time a search is made, you only pay when an internet user clicks on your ad and is taken to your website or calls you directly from the search results page, meaning you only pay when you get a click from a potential customer, hence the name of this form of pay-per-click marketing (often shortened to PPC).

The amount you pay for each click is determined by a few factors. “Cost per click” (CPC for short) is determined by the quality and relevance of the ad to the search term being used and the relevance of the page on your website that the potential customer lands on. These factors contribute to your overall “quality score.” The higher your quality score, the less you pay per click and the less you pay per lead on your business.

In the UK, Google has the vast majority of search traffic and most of your budget needs to be placed there; however, you don’t want to miss out on the smaller, but still considerable, potential for search engine customers like Microsoft’s Bing platform, and a small portion of the budget should go to other search engines. Additionally, the best PPC management companies will also look at spreading your PPC budget across a series of campaigns targeting different parts of the customer journey. A small part of the budget should be allocated to the research stage of the buying process when people use broad search terms to find information, a small part of the budget when people search for the name of your company, your competitors or the market leaders. Most of the budget when potential customers use search terms directly related to making a purchase, and finally a small part of the budget for remarketing (showing your advertising to people who have shown interest in your services or products visiting your website) to capture and increase conversions from previously advertised customers as well.

The best PPC agency will be a Google Premier Partner. A Google Premier Partner status indicates that the company has a proven track record of delivering high-quality campaigns, generating good competitive/low CPCs, and offering a high and positive ROI. The best PPC agency will have a strong PPC management process in place to react quickly and capitalize on changes in your competitors’ PPC campaigns.

Unlike SEO, which can take some time to be fully effective, Pay Per Click is instant in that as soon as your campaigns are live, they can generate leads for your business.

PPC is highly effective when done in unison with SEO. A well-optimized website will improve the quality score of your Google ad campaigns, resulting in a reduced “cost per click” which means you get more leads for your budget.

social media marketing
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are now legitimate places for a business to attract potential customers. Facebook has over 38 MILLION active and regular users in the UK and the number is predicted to rise to over 42 MILLION by 2020. Regardless of whether your business sells to consumers or other businesses, your potential customers are on Facebook and they love it. they use frequently.

Facebook is great for building awareness during the “research” stage of customers, reminding them of your services or products during the “consideration” stage, and putting your specific products in front of potential customers at the “purchase” stage. With such a large audience and the flexibility to target customers throughout the buying process, Facebook can be a good avenue for generating leads and sales and delivering a great return on investment.

A good digital marketing agency will have a proven track record of delivering highly effective Facebook ad campaigns. The best digital marketing agencies will be able to demonstrate the conversion rate and cost per lead of your social media marketing.

Again, social media marketing and specifically Facebook marketing can be carried out as a stand-alone activity, however it works much better when combined with SEO and/or PPC. When a potential customer visits your website, their computer is marked as visited. This allows you to target the user of that computer, who has shown an interest in your products or services.

reputation management
When considering making a purchase, a potential customer will search the Internet to find comments and reviews from previous customers. Your online marketing and sales can live or die based on reviews of your business, services, or products. Making sure that positive reviews are easy to find and that any negative comments are managed well can be a huge benefit to your conversion rate.

Digital marketing companies call this “reputation management” or “online reputation management.”

Many companies are concerned about allowing the public the ability to openly provide feedback. You can’t please everyone all the time, and companies worry that a bad review will have a negative impact on their business. First of all, if someone is determined to leave a bad review for your business, they will find a platform to do so and there are thousands of platforms to choose from. It’s better to be in control of where customers are encouraged to leave a review. Second, a bad or bad review, if handled well, can be a positive for your business. Committing to a bad review highlights that you care about the feedback and therefore care about your customers. One bad review handled well can be as good for your business as ten good reviews.

A good digital marketing company will use one of the few recognized review platforms and provide the tools and means that allow you to capture, manage and respond to customer reviews.