Handling local marketing is the key to the success of any young business. Sure, in today’s world, when you can easily just ship products across the globe or provide digital services regardless of location, it seems counter-intuitive to focus on your local presence. The problem is that your local business dealings still remain the most productive.
Local customers will get their items quicker, and the cost of shipping them will cost you considerably less than it otherwise would. Even if it’s just digital services and the proximity is not a factor, a local business just seems more legitimate, and it’s easier for your customers to verify your online reputation.
While you can, technically, pick partners from anywhere on the globe to help you out with your local marketing, it’s always better to look for people who understand the local marketing zeitgeist. With that in mind, how do you pick the right local digital marketing agency? Let’s find out!
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Ask about their other partnerships
Look into their other partners and campaigns. If local businesses are involved, you might already know about the businesses in question. If it’s about local campaigns, chances are that you’ve already encountered some of these ads, sites, banners, or offers. If you did, that’s a great recommendation to start with.
The thing is that you don’t even have to look for these that hard. The majority of brands are proud to display all the brands they’ve worked with on their homepage. In other words, the majority of your research here just rests on going to their site and scrolling a bit (it’s usually at the bottom of their page).
Check reviews and testimonials. Sure, these are not the most reliable of them all. First of all, you have no idea who they’re written by. Second, it’s quite likely that the company has cherry-picked reviews that they want to display. Still, a 21st-century internet user has a sixth sense regarding marketing speech, which means that you shouldn’t have too hard time discerning which of these reviews are genuine.
Lastly, during an interview, you can ask them directly about their other partnerships, even directly inquire about brands that you see as similar to your own business. We’re talking about the similarity in size, industry, etc.
Don’t lower criteria
When buying from a local retail business, it’s only natural that you have lower expectations than when buying online. After all, they have limited space and availability, so their offer won’t be unlimited. According to specialists from a prestigious digital marketing agency in Minneapolis, this doesn’t apply to their industry.
You see, digital marketers work online, and the tools are not geo-restricted. Even if they are working with a foreign client, with the help of VPN research, they can circumvent various geo-restrictions, which means that there’s literally zero excuse for a failure to deliver results.
In other words, you shouldn’t expect inferior results just because you’re working with a local agency. In fact, due to their familiarity with all the most effective digital marketing trends and their in-depth understanding of the local market, they should have an easier job of creating a tailor-made campaign. In other words, they’re already familiar with the market and target demographic and now they just need to apply their skills in order to deliver results.
You want someone who’s experienced in digital storytelling and someone who can show you concrete results of their work. Settle for no less!
Assess your needs and budget
Before going into the negotiation process, you need to understand what you’re dealing with. The first thing you need is to assess the needs of your business. What kind of ranking are you expecting to achieve? What kind of traffic and conversion rate increase would you be satisfied with? In other words, what kind of workload increase would you be able to handle?
Next, you need to figure out your budget. The majority of companies set aside roughly 2% of their average annual revenue for a marketing budget. Still, if you’re in a particularly competitive field, you might even have to go for 5-10%. Either way, this is for you to decide, but you also need something to base your assessment on.
Third, even with the budget that you have, you don’t want others to rip you off. You need a reference point, which is why you should do a bit of shopping around (you can start even before you have your budget). Get a quote or two just to get a sense of what you’re dealing with here. It will make budgeting a lot easier.
Talk to them in person
The fact that they’re a local agency means that you have a chance to meet them in person after you’ve done your email correspondence and your Zoom interview. The business world is not strictly data-based. If it were, there would only be one offer out there (the best one).
You should never underestimate one’s ability to make a good first impression, nor should you downplay the significance of a well-executed meeting. This is even more important in the field of marketing. Just think about it: if they can’t persuade you that they’re the right person for the job, how will they persuade others? If they can’t sell you their own services, how are they going to persuade others that it’s worth their while to do business with you?
Remember that these in-person meetings are impractical, and even if you do end up working together, you won’t have them every week. Instead, establish a different communication channel and negotiate a different format of reporting.
Nonetheless, the fact that you have the option of (occasionally) meeting in person will add an extra layer of trustworthiness and accountability to the whole arrangement, which is something you shouldn’t downplay.
Wrap up
Regardless if you’re a local business doing a local marketing campaign or if you want to break into a new market, you can really use a digital marketing agency that’s from that area. The fact that you could, technically, work with anyone from anywhere on the planet creates a fallacy that it doesn’t matter where your marketers come from. This is obviously not the case and the assistance of a local agency is just invaluable.
