It seems like digital marketing agencies are a dime a dozen in San Diego. They range from huge agencies to one-man operations working out of their homes. However, they all appear to be promising the same thing: increased online visibility, higher sales, and a great return on your investment.
If you are a San Diego business owner and don’t have your own internal marketing department, hiring a San Diego digital marketing agency can be the way to go. A digital marketing company can often give you great results for a price tag that’s much less than hiring a full-time employee (or multiple full-time employees) to run your online marketing campaigns.
How to Choose a San Diego Digital Marketing Agency
First of all, it should be noted that if you own a business in San Diego, you don’t necessarily have to use a digital marketing agency located in San Diego. If you’re OK with never meeting face-to-face with your digital marketing company, you could hire one located anywhere in the world.
There are digital marketing companies in other countries that will advertise digital marketing services for very low rates, which can be tempting for small businesses looking to save money, but there are some downsides to working with overseas digital marketing companies. For example, they are operating in a different time zone than you. This can make it difficult to get on the phone with the people in charge of your digital marketing, or to have your emails answered in a timely fashion. You also want to be sure that the content that is put out on behalf of your business (ad copy, website copy, social media posts, blogs, etc.) represent your business well. Content crafted by people who are not native English speakers can sometimes read poorly, and be a turn-off to your potential customers.
You want to look for a digital marketing company that takes a customized approach. No two businesses are exactly alike, so no two businesses should have the exact same marketing plan. Any digital marketing company should be able to explain to you why they will be implementing certain strategies and not others. For example, if a digital marketing company says that email marketing is unnecessary, they should be able to tell you why. Or if a company tells you all you need is good search engine optimization (SEO) on your website, they should be able to give you some hard evidence to support this.
Some digital marketing companies only specialize in one or two aspects of digital marketing, such as SEO, social media marketing, online advertising, or email marketing. For most businesses, however, a multi-pronged approach is most effective. The digital marketing company you choose should have a plan that will help you get customers or clients in the short term, as well as set your company up for long term success.
Should You Hire a Digital Marketing Company that Specializes in Your Industry?
Hiring a digital marketing agency that specializes in your industry is something that appeals to a lot of business owners. Of course, it makes sense that you would want to work with people who understand your industry. However, there are a few things you should consider. For one, a digital marketing agency that only (or primarily) works with your industry may also work for your direct competitors, and you could be implementing the same marketing strategies as a similar company across town. Since there are only so many positions on page one of Google, this could be a problem (and a potential conflict of interest for your marketing agency).
Matthew Smith of the digital marketing agency Modmacro had this to say,
As the owner of a digital marketing firm, I’m often asked in the initial phone call or email with a potential new client, ‘Do you do marketing for my industry?’ To answer this question, I explain to them that the digital marketing techniques we use work well across pretty much any industry. We have clients that are architects, electricians, residential painters, doctors, nonprofit organizations, and more. Of course, we customize our strategy based on the specific business, industry, and customer base, but for the most part, our content-heavy approach that includes blogging, copy writing for SEO, and link building, combined with the smart use of social media, online advertising, and email marketing has been very successful for our clients across all industries.”
Smith continued,
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend with digital marketing agencies that specialize in certain industries: they tend to recycle content—basically cutting and pasting copy from one website to the next and just changing the company’s name. This is a big no-no with Google. Your website will be heavily penalized by Google and your search rankings will plummet if your website has the same copy as another website. All of the content we put online for each of our clients is unique and crafted specifically for them.”
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency in San Diego, make sure you talk to several different companies. Ask them about their approach and get to know them a little bit. You want to work with people who you are comfortable talking to, who will explain things in terms you can understand, and who will give you regular updates on how your marketing campaigns are performing. The cheapest company is typically not the best when it comes to digital marketing. Make sure you go with a well-respected company that offers all of the services you need to give you a good return on your investment. A good place to start your search is in the MySanDiego business directory.
