If you own a contract service company you will probably eventually have to ask yourself the big question: to hire or not to hire a digital marketing company.

Depending on your preference, you may decide to hire an in-house marketing manager or outsource the work to a marketing agency.

At Blue Trade Media, we have seen the most success from in-house marketing methods. However, we think that regardless of which strategy a home service business owner chooses to go with, they should be armed with the proper information to make the best decision for their needs.

That’s why we are going to cover what you should know before hiring a digital marketing agency and the key questions you should ask to find the best marketing company for your contract service business.

What You Should Know Before Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency

Before we get into the questions you should ask each digital marketing agency you talk to, we want to provide you with a brief overview of marketing agencies and what you should be aware of if you plan on hiring one.

Marketing agencies are a great resource for companies that do not have the time to perform their own marketing. However, if you want to scale your business strategically, not all of them will be able to provide you with sustainable, long-lasting results.

Most agencies will find a method that works and then scale that for each of their clients. This means that companies within your same industry may be getting the same ideas and sometimes the same content for their site and social media profiles.

We have unfortunately seen this first-hand for some of our clients. We analyzed our client’s content and found that the content they had on their site was being flagged as plagiarized content and could be found on multiple home service business sites.

This means that the agency that was creating their website content previously had either provided the same content to multiple clients or had directly copied and pasted paragraphs from the internet instead of writing original content…

Fortunately, this is not the case with every marketing agency, but it is the type of thing you have to keep an eye out for. In some cases, you can find a marketing agency that provides you with stellar content that enables your business to grow and your leads to fly in.

However, in order to find the best marketing agency, you have to be sure to ask the right questions.

Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Digital Marketing Company

1. What Methods Will You Use to Market My Home Service Business?

The methods a marketing agency can use to market your business will fall under a few categories, such as:

• Print marketing

• Radio marketing

• Social media marketing

• Email marketing

• Content marketing

• Online advertising

However, if you are specifically looking at digital agencies, they will usually focus on content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, or online advertising. Sometimes they will focus on a combination of all or a few of these methods, instead of just one.

The best digital marketing strategies start with content marketing first and foremost and then sometimes add in other methods like social media marketing and email marketing.

If a marketing agency says they use “SEO methods” to market your business, you should ask them what specific SEO methods they plan on using since “SEO” is not a method, it is a category of methods.

If they cannot explain what they do to optimize your search engine optimization (SEO), they will not be able to optimize it well. Someone who will be able to optimize your SEO is someone knows how to break it down into activities they do, like:

• Service based website content

• Location based website city pages

• Blogs addressing customer questions

• Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs)

The more unique content they add to your website and blog the better because that is what truly helps you begin to establish your website presence.

2. What Are Your Agency’s Thoughts on Using Paid Versus Organic Strategies?

Just as we mentioned above, you will want a digital marketing agency that helps you build your website content so you can establish a solid web presence. If your marketing agency uses organic strategies, that is the main way you will be able to achieve this.

If they are using paid marketing strategies, they will perform keyword research and pay an ad host like Google to rank your business for this keyword.

The problem with this is that you have to pay to rank and you have to pay each time someone sees your ad (an impression) or each time someone clicks your ad.

So if an agency suggests a paid strategy, not only will you have to pay them, you may also have to pay for the ads they recommend you launch.

While paid strategies can provide quick results, they are an easy cop-out for marketing companies to put the cost on you rather than helping you organically grow your website by creating original content for you.

For more information on the differences between paid and organic strategies, read our article “Organic Versus Paid Website Traffic For Home Service Businesses.”

3. How Long Does the Ramp-up Phase Usually Take?

The ramp-up phase will take different amounts of time depending on whether you are getting a website built, new website content created, etc.

The marketing agency you are interviewing should be able to speak to their ramp-up timeline to let you know what will happen at each stage. Some agencies charge a retainer (a monthly rate for their services) and others will charge on a per-project basis.

If you are being charged on a monthly basis, you could end up receiving your new website content months after you started making monthly payments to the marketing agency. That is why it is crucial that you lay out expectations from the beginning.

Now, this is not to say that you should want your marketing agency to create your new website or new website content in less than a week, cause that can be unrealistic and decrease the quality of your content.

In an ideal situation, you would pay for new content/ marketing on a project basis since it will take time to create. If the agency is creating blogs, regularly writing new website pages, or managing your social media, then a monthly fee can be reasonable.

When determining the lengths of projects, ask multiple marketing agencies how long it would take them to:

• Build a new website for you

• Create new website content for you

• Manage your social media

• Write blogs for your website

• Write additional pages for your website

You should ask them to lay out why each of these takes as long as they do and then compare the answers of those multiple agencies to see which you would feel most comfortable with as your agency.

4. How Quickly Will I Usually Be Able To See Results on My Marketing?

On average, it will take around six months to a year to see a dramatic climb in your organic traffic from content marketing efforts.

If you encounter a marketing agency that says they will get you immediate results, they are lying or they plan on using paid ad strategies to increase the likelihood that your website content ranks quickly.

This means not only will you need to pay for content marketing, you will also need to pay for the paid ads they run.

While this is a method to get quick results, it shows that the marketing agency lacks confidence in the ability of the organic content they create for you to rank on its own.

While you might want immediate results, you should be cautious about being swayed by someone who promises you quick results.

In the end, the quality of the content your marketing agency creates for you will be worth more than the initial spike in views that a paid ad strategy can get you.

5. How Does Your Agency Measure and Show the Results of My Marketing?

In order for you to truly know if marketing efforts are effective, they must be measured. To get an idea of how each marketing agency will prove the effectiveness of their services, you should ask how they measure results.

For instance, they may measure the traffic to your website and tell you that since the traffic has increased, they have proved their value. While increased website traffic is positive, it is not the only end result.

You can get traffic that doesn’t convert 90% of the time. The marketing agency should be able to prove how that increase in traffic has driven more people to contact you for services.

With advanced analytics, you can see how a customer first reached your site, the first page they read, additional information they consumed, and when they clicked your “contact us” button.

By understanding how a marketing agency proves its results, you can see if the success they are measuring is aligned with the success you are aiming to get from the marketing services they provide.

6. What Is Your Experience With Marketing Companies in My Industry?

Asking a marketing company about their experience marketing businesses within your industry allows you to determine if they understand your industry.

When it comes to content marketing, it is very helpful for the marketing agency to know about the type of services you provide.

For instance, this can impact whether your website is helpful and informative to your customer, or confusing. A marketer who has never worked within your industry may not be able to ask you the correct questions about the services you provide in order to make sure that your website covers all that you offer.

Additionally, if they do not understand your business, they will not be able to provide a tailored marketing plan to your company’s individual needs.

7. Who Would Be Working On My Marketing Within Your Agency?

Depending on how the marketing company answers this question, you will be able to determine whether they perform most marketing services in-house, or if they outsource their content.

If they outsource their content writing to freelancers, you may receive content that is not accurate or impactful enough to properly market your business.

As it is, writers that work within the marketing agency may have difficulty understanding what you do and knowing how to properly convey that in writing. However, it is better if the writer is part of the marketing company‘s staff.

If they are, you will have more chances to speak to them directly about what you do and to provide feedback when you receive content drafts from them.

8. Will I Have Rights to My Content When Our Contract Is Over?

One thing that you should look out for is whether the marketing agency you are working for does or does not claim copyright over the content that they create for you while they are working for you.

Some agencies will include this in the fine print of your contract. If you accidentally sign an agreement with an agency that claims copyright over the content, that means that you will need to remove the content after the contract is over. Otherwise, the marketing agency may start repurposing your content for a new client, causing the content on your site to be flagged as duplicate or plagiarized content.

If you own the rights to your content after your contract is complete, then you will be able to keep your content on your site and not face any issues with “duplicate” content.

9. Do You Have Examples of How You Have Helped Other Companies Within My Industry?

It’s one thing to ask if an agency has experience marketing businesses like yours, it’s another thing to have them prove it to you.

By asking for examples of how they have helped other companies in your industry, you’ll be able to see their best success stories.

This will allow you to gauge what types of methods they plan on using to market your business as well as if they are going to tailor the previous strategy they used to fit your business’s needs, or if they are using one catch-all method to market businesses in your industry.

It is not an immediate red flag for them to use a similar strategy to market businesses within the same vertical, however, you will need to be sure that they will create unique content for your company.

For instance, if you have an HVAC company, your company may offer different types of services than another HVAC company. Some HVAC companies may offer water heater services and plumbing, while others may not.

You may have a commercial HVAC company, while others have residential HVAC companies. It is key for you to identify what makes your company different and ask the agency how they plan on communicating that in the content they create for you.

10. Do You Have Present and Past Clients I Could Speak With To Learn More About Your Services?

If a marketing agency has references that they are willing to share with you, you will be able to reach out to those companies and ask them about their experience with the marketing company.

When speaking to a company that has previously used the agency, you can ask them about their experiences, the level of value they received, and whether or not they saw a return on investment from their marketing efforts.

If a marketing agency will not provide you with contact information for references but is willing to share the names of the clients they have worked with, you can check out the websites online.

However, checking out the website of one of their clients will only be valuable if that client is still active with them. If it is a past client, the client may have already gotten someone new to revamp their website and website content.

11. Do You Have Referral Partnerships for Software or Services You Recommend?

Some marketing agencies will partner with software services like website builders, email marketing tools, SEO tools, scheduling software, and ad software.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but you should be aware of the referral partnerships they have. This will allow you to know when they are purely making a recommendation or if they have an incentive motivating them to recommend a product to you.

If you know they have a referral partnership, that does not mean it’s a bad idea to use the software they are recommending just because they have an incentive to recommend it. However, you will want to do your own due diligence on the product and evaluate it to see if it is the right fit for you.

12. How Much Marketing Content Will You Produce for My Company Each Month?

This is a key part of the contract. If you do not know how much content they are promising to provide to you, you may get less than you’re expecting.

If a digital agency is creating blogs for you, they should at least write two for you each week (about 8 total blogs each month). Any less and you will be much less likely to rank on Google as quickly.

Although, that is not to say that you want quantity over quality. When speaking to marketing agencies about the content they will provide, you should also ask what the average length of the content is.

For instance, a blog post that is only 500 words is not nearly as valuable as a blog post that is over 1500 words.

Pick the Right Digital Agency for Your Contract Service Business

Once you discover what methods each agency uses, how much content they provide, how much they charge, and when you should receive results from their services, you will be able to get a sense of what each offer.

In addition to asking a marketing agency the correct questions, you should also take the time to speak with multiple marketing agencies. Speaking to multiple agencies will allow you to get a sense of how the agencies stack against each other.

For more information about increasing your SEO through organic content, read our blog “Top 6 Ways To Build Organic SEO For Your Contract Service Company Website.” To keep learning about building your contract service business website, subscribe to our newsletter below.