7 vital questions to ask before hiring a marketing company

Nothing frustrates us more than when we see businesses paying out hundreds (or even thousands) of pounds each month to a marketing company that isn’t giving them the level of service that they should be. For example, in marketing attention to detail is vital – a common aspect often overlooked. If you are considering hiring a marketing company, make sure you ask these questions:

1. What do you need to know about my business?

How is a company meant to market your business if they don’t know the ins and outs of it? Many marketing companies have the same marketing strategies for businesses in different industries, which is rarely effective. Marketing strategies and action plans need to be tailored to your business. This is so they can reach out to your target markets in the best way.

We have a 28 Point Discovery Session we go through with you in the initial process. This covers everything we need to know about your company, your products and your services. It includes your background, client demographics, sales processes, current marketing efforts, and more.

2. Do you have the same passion for my company as I do?

Passion is important – how can a company market and promote your business if they don’t love it themselves? Larger marketing companies work for so many different businesses that you might be concerned that their work will be robotic and not personal to your business.

At Bellüber, we work with clients who we believe have the potential for lots more growth, something that we will assist you in achieving through our tailored marketing strategies and implementation.

3. Do you know how important it is for me to get a good return on my investments?

Do they have lots of experience in owning and running businesses? A good marketing company will understand the day to day issues you face with managing your time and resources for marketing as well as how important it is to get a good ROI.

We analyse every aspect of the marketing activities we implement, through to the sales that result from them. We then adapt the strategies and activities to reflect the results.

4. Will you analyse my competitors?

Every company has competitors, and it’s important for marketing companies to get to know these well. They should research how your competitors market their businesses and analyse what is most effective, as part of the extensive research. This is something that marketing companies can overlook!

In part of the initial process, we also put together a very detailed competitive analysis of your competitors, in a table where we can easily compare all of their different marketing efforts. This is summarised with a SWOT analysis, identifying each competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, along with your opportunities to take advantage of and threats to your business. We also provide a list of recommendations as a result.

5. Do you pay attention to detail?

As we said before, attention to detail in marketing is key. Your marketing content (website, social media posts, printed media and so on) is what your audience will see and make a decision on, so it’s vital that it is up to the highest standards, and in particular has no spelling or grammatical errors. When choosing a marketing company, take a good look at their website, social media posts and/or emails, to ensure they pay attention to what they put out there.

6. Will I be kept informed of the actions being taken and the results?

It’s vital that you are aware of what is being done as well with your marketing. You want the marketing company you choose to keep track of (and tell you) what is working and what isn’t, then focus on the activities that get the best results.

We provide regular monthly reports of our activities, with recommendations on what we need to do next, in order to achieve the best results.

7. Will I be in a long term contract?

While contracts are important for protecting both the client and the provider, a good marketing company won’t try to lock you into a contract that doesn’t meet your needs, right from the beginning. A lot of initial contracts last too long or are more restrictive than necessary. A marketing company may start to pick up their efforts at about ten months into a one-year contract in the hope of signing you up for another year.

We provide you with a six-month contract, completely tailored to your specific goals and requirements. During and after the six months, we analyse the results of our activities and the return on investment to you. We then give you these choices:

• To opt out of marketing (this is very rare as our clients realise how vital it is to continue)
• To proceed with a second 6 month contract, tailored to take account of the previous 6 months’ results
• Continue on a monthly rolling term with no commitment
• We train someone in your team who can then take over the activities (with our guidance)

Whether you are considering us or another marketing company, make sure you ask these questions first.

Download our free Content Marketing Calendar

Use this template to create a full schedule of activities for marketing your business over the next 3 months.

Click here for more info and to download.