There are millions of businesses providing marketing services. But, in reality, if you perform an Internet search, not only would you find hundreds of seemingly relevant results for what you want, but you’ll start seeing advertisements on websites you visit and on your social media profiles for these marketing firms as well (this is known as remarketing or retargeting).

Is that to say that no firm is ideal for any particular contractor? Perhaps! But you must be able to sort through such results and discover what truly distinguishes a company from the competition. Below are a few tips for determining whether or not a firm is suitable for contractors.

It’s a competitive market, so you’ll need to locate the proper digital marketing company to build on your AMS strategy.

Ultimately it boils down to:

1. What type of work do you want to perform?

2. How much do you want to spend?

3. What are your thoughts on how successful the team you’ve picked will be?

You might not be able to find out how to accomplish this on your own, so you’ll need the assistance of a mix of freelancers and specialist agencies. But how will you organize and manage their work?

At the other end of the spectrum, a ‘full-service’ agency might handle, organize, and coordinate your marketing needs. However, can you be sure that nothing gets lost in translation between your account management staff and a team of specialists such as web or PR? What if you’re being advised to pursue the easiest route for them.

There are some things to consider before making a selection:

1. Begin with a “long list” of potential partners for beginning research. At this stage, use the resources you already have to create a list of prospects. Check construction industry blogs, websites, and previous work or projects you’ve seen. Media organizations deal with a wide range of marketing professionals so that they can give an unbiased opinion.

2. ‘A short list of 3/5 of the above is required to attend an initial meeting and get a full briefing on the standards.

3. After the initial briefing meeting, request thoughts/suggestions from your team.

4. Bring back the 2/3 partners you’d want to work with again to iron out the details of how you might collaborate.

5. Verify their credentials and, if possible, start with a small project to assess how you work together.

Even if you’re meeting with one of the freelancers and an agency for the same activity, you need to score against the same criteria for each meeting.

With the scorecard, you’ll be able to compare both sides. In addition, this scorecard will provide you with a clear picture when you return to evaluate the meetings: With so much going on every day for regular activity, this scorecard will give you a clear image when you revisit the sessions:

Here are five questions to ask a potential marketing partner.

To make things easier and get the most helpful information out of your discussions, consider what would be the most important questions to ask them, and then, this is where it gets tricky, What should I Ask?

1. What combination of methods would you utilize to address the “insert business issue”?

Whether the other person is a full-service or a specialist, this is an essential issue. You’ll need your specialist, such as a PR, to grasp the impact of their work on the rest of the mix. Is there content produced to support website activity for SEO? Is it possible to track effectiveness using UTM tags if PR is

2. What would you focus on if you started a company called “Company Name Here”?

This is a question that will always stump your audience. Remember to ask the question after giving them an overview of the firm, its goals, challenges, and aims. Perhaps your website is well-built but requires thank you pages and forms to be correctly set up. You may need to allocate time or a specification tool to assist with generating

3. What’s the scope of your project, and how are you managing it? Are there specific procedures in place to help your team follow them?

It’s all well and good to invest in the senior team member standing (or sitting) in front of you, but who will be managing your account daily as part of the account management process?

4. What is the best approach to measure marketing success?

This is the most essential. If we don’t know what has worked in the past, all of our briefing preparation and implementation might be useless… Has the six-figure advertising budget been successful in achieving its intended purpose? (that’s assuming it even had one, to begin with!).

 If you’re wondering how many visitors a campaign drives to your website, there’s no need to be concerned. The answer is simple: You can’t tell. It’s possible, but not everything is always as it appears at first impression (or from the outside). However, if a campaign does drive consistent traffic over time and continues to attract new users

5. Is it possible for you to provide me with client testimonials? I want to chat with them on the phone.

It’s also beneficial to learn about the partner you want to collaborate with from someone who knows them well. It’s critical to ensure that their credentials are valid. This is frequently an excellent place to learn more about your creative partners or whether they can handle modest and significant campaigns equally.

Fact:

The primary aim of marketing is to help a company grow. Attracting and retaining new clients is an example of this. Personalization, prediction, and genuinely understanding the right problem to solve are just a few examples of how businesses may use various marketing strategies to meet these objectives.

Five important commercial questions to ask before partnering

As well as asking questions to decipher how you could work alongside a potential marketing partner, it would help if you also considered what commercial questions to ask during the selection process…

1. What is the procedure for charging hours/activity?

It’s critical to determine how hours and activities will be charged. There are several typical choices.

•Hourly/daily rate – the number of hours charged for work completed

• Project rate – The freelance rate is fixed for a given project, with any extra hours requiring further discussion and approval.

• Returned activity – An activity budget is a fixed (usually monthly) charge for work that has been set to a particular set of objectives with service level agreements and agreed-on outcomes.

The resource involved determines each billing activity’s pros and cons. Hourly/daily rates are the most difficult to track because they rely on a timesheet system such as Toggl to record billable hours.

The most straightforward to manage and budget for is a retained service with a monthly cost. To guarantee that your activity is on track, ensure all required measuring devices are accessible for any controlled work.

2. What are your payment terms, and what % of the purchase price do you want to pay upfront? 

The phrase “cost per page” is frequently used in this context. This is because how something is charged affects these terms. For example, when the activity has been completed, you usually get invoices for hourly/daily fees at the end of the month.

For the project, rates are generally divided into phases, with a relevant portion being invoiced in advance; retained fees are frequently paid up front, with a minimum stay and notice period for both sides.

3. Do you have a standard nondisclosure agreement (NDA)?

It’s important when working so closely with a marketing team that NDA’s are put in place. This protects both sides and enables transparency and flow of information, which is critical to the success of the partnership.

4. What additional resources do you have that may be helpful?

Not only would you save yourself a lot of money, but by working with an independent marketing company, you may also save money that isn’t directly associated with the work you’ve requested them to do.

This may result in lower costs and better quality for the company if it can combine all of its activities into one streamlined, organized system. For example, combining media buying and consultancy may save a lot of money, allowing you to take advantage of excellent print or digital providers. These are not the primary reasons for collaboration, but they might offer additional

5. Is there anything else you should know about the situation?

It’s critical to have a clear sense of any potential exclusivity or conflict of interest concerns. It’s safe to assume that most marketing partners with whom you’ll work will have a professional approach to any conflict of interest and that an NDA will be signed (see question 3) to guarantee your information is kept private. That said, it may be preferable to collaborate with a partner who knows the sector in which you operate but lacks direct competition.

Your marketing agency must be concerned with the entire success of your construction business, and their questions should reflect this.

Pro tip:

Make sure the company that you are choosing for your construction company can take over online marketing and also offers SEO services, PPC, email marketing, and more. A firm that provides SEO services or only helps you develop your social media presence is not the right fit. These are both essential elements of your digital marketing efforts, but they can’t make a significant impact on lead generation on their own.

Finally, your marketing agency should demonstrate that they:

• Recognize the industry and your company’s unique requirements, problems, and potential.
• A track record of helping clients achieve industry dominance through search engine optimization.
• Have a high return on investment from the agency’s websites.

Conclusion

You should conduct proper research into alternative agencies and select between them to discover the best match for your firm. Keeping up with the competition is difficult, which is why it’s critical to choose a construction digital marketing firm with an established track record in the construction marketing business because I believe we’ve shown how vital great digital marketing services can be to a growing firm.