As strange as it may sound, not every website development agency is focused on their client’s needs. Quite often, they focus on web marketing “results” alone. In doing so, they forsake the core messaging that makes the digital marketing campaign more than a superficial success.
In order to align the digital marketing strategy with a company’s core principles and strengths, it’s important for them to get some deeper client knowledge before going full-steam into setting a strategy or executing a digital marketing campaign.
The questions below are just a few of the key questions we ask our clients to ensure that we move in the right direction with keywords, content and website messaging. It ensures that we develop the highest quality content that is a match for visitor intent and expectations.
Your digital marketing agency should ask you these 13 questions:
1. Who is your target audience?
The more we know about the user we are trying to reach, the more we are able to align both the marketing tactics as well as the communication style to their expectations. We will want to know who makes your best customer and why.
2. What are your corporate core values, and how do you express them to your customers?
Your core values should determine how you go to market and how you deliver and support the products or services you provide. Digital marketing is about more than just "revenue generation." Yes, leads and sales matter, but lifetime value comes out of us understanding and helping you communicate your core values. That's critical to helping you generate the right kind of business.
3 & 4. What common objections do customers raise? How do you address those objections?
Overcoming objections is certainly part of your sales team's job. However, building content that answers the most common questions and concerns of your clients is a great way to support your sales team while also building great thought leadership with your content. Don't fall for the notion that holding back your "secret sauce" will cause people to call or email your business. Answer their questions in an honest way and they are more likely to rely on your brand.
5 & 6. What “hot points” help your customers take action? What information do your customers need in order to make an informed buying decision?
The more we can understand buying motivators for your current customers, the more we are able to craft content, messaging and tools that enable them to work their way through the sales funnel. If our team understands those key buying signals for your customers, we can be significantly more effective.
7. What problems does your product or service solve?
We need to understand why someone would purchase your product or service. Whether that "problem" is providing entertainment like our friends over at Slick Woody's Cornhole, or expanding loan underwriting capacity like our friends over at Young & Associates, our understanding of the challenges you meet will generate countless content ideas.
8 &9. What sales approaches have worked in the past? What hasn’t worked?
Of course, we want to hear both what has and has not worked. That doesn't mean a good agency won't recommend a refreshed approach to a tactic you have tried in the past. In general, we want to understand where the low-hanging fruit is as well as how our digital marketing efforts will complement your sales team.
10. What are your other online and offline marketing efforts?
A good agency will want to understand the full picture. A digital strategy should enhance and support a traditional marketing strategy so your company gleans as much value out of every dollar you invest as possible. A great example is leveraging programmatic advertising in the area of a trade show, then marketing automation and social content before, during and after the show to nurture relationships initiated there.
11. What voice and tone best resonates with your customers?
You've likely got an established voice and tone if you've ever been through a branding process. As a digital agency is executing content creation, it's a must that your digital efforts reflect your brand accurately.
12. Who are your major competitors, and what do you feel are their stronger points over yours?
It's not at all uncommon for your digital competition to differ from your physical competition. That can be a result of many factors. The reality is that your digital agency needs to understand both. From a product or service performance standpoint, your physical competitors will educate your agency on what the market is demanding. Your digital competitors, whether they actually compete with you are not, are those that are currently occupying the digital real estate that your brand should. We need to understand the full picture and how you fit into it to be able to best position your brand, with integrity, in the right places.
13. What metrics matter most to your leadership?
What matters to you, your leadership and your bottom line. There are some key indicators of success that any good digital strategy should measure. Organic traffic, cost per lead, return on ad spend, etc. Any digital agency is going to help you measure those core numbers. Designing an ROI report that takes those as well as lead quality, lifetime value and brand advocacy into account will help you gain a true understanding of the value of your efforts.
Is Your Digital Marketing Agency Asking the Right Questions?
Not every digital agency will ask these exact questions, but they should ask ones that demonstrate a clear understanding of your audience, brand values and business goals. If your current agency isn’t digging deeper or tailoring your strategy based on real insights, that’s a red flag.
Some of these questions may sound like something you'd expect from a traditional ad agency. And that’s fair. But today, your digital presence is often the first — and most frequent — brand interaction your customers have. That’s why thoughtful discovery isn’t optional. It's essential.
At TKG, we use these questions to craft custom digital marketing strategies that reflect who you are and where you want to go. Ready for a strategy that’s built on substance, not assumptions? Let’s talk.
