There has long been a stigma surrounding digital marketing. Many small business owners ‘don’t believe’ in SEO and are under the impression that it is largely one big con. And then there are those who do believe in SEO, but want to keep everything in-house because they don’t feel as though they can trust a third-party agency.
But why is that? Why are so many small businesses willing to outsource their bookkeeping and accounting needs to the professionals, and yet refuse to do the same when it comes to their online marketing?
Read on and let’s find out…
Why is there so much stigma surrounding SEO and digital marketing?
By and large, search engine optimization and the many other forms of digital marketing have been accepted as necessary pursuits for modern businesses. In fact, Google even recommends that business owners hire SEO experts to assist them in the endeavour.
So, why is it that there are still so many small business owners who are averse to it?
There are several reasons for this:
- Where there is money to be made, naturally there are people looking to take advantage. Unfortunately, some small business owners have been ‘burned’ in the past either by con artists, or inexperienced SEO ‘experts’ who promised the world and failed to deliver.
- Some business owners do believe in SEO, however, they are worried about outsourcing their needs and sharing the more ‘intimate’ business details with a third-party.
What can you do to move beyond the stigma and find your faith?
The important question is, how can you confidently move beyond the stigma, find your faith, and identify a digital marketing agency you can trust?
There’s a fairly simple fix for this and it all comes down to doing your due diligence. If you are thinking about hiring an SEO agency, first you need to consider the following:
- How can they prove their digital marketing potential?
- How can you know whether or not they have a good reputation?
- The process is simple:
- Look for an SEO agency that has plenty of case studies. If you can find an agency with lots of real-life success stories with actual stats and figures from their previous and existing client campaigns, you’ll be able to see the ‘proof in the pudding’.
- Look for an SEO agency that has a wealth of social proof. In other words, if they have dozens and dozens of 5-star reviews from previous and existing clients, then you don’t need to take their word for it. Instead you can listen to what their clients have to say and let that influence your decision.
Conclusion: Do your research and learn to delegate
Of course, we understand if you have your reservations about outsourcing your digital marketing requirements to a third party. After all, it is a very big decision. However, so long as you do your research and make social proof and case studies non-negotiable when you are settling on who to work with, you shouldn’t run into too many problems.
This online marketing agency in particular ticks all of the right boxes so you can invest with total confidence.
If you come across an agency that doesn’t have much of a reputation to speak of, they have no previous case studies, and their prices seem so cheap that it’s almost too good to be true, you should keep on looking elsewhere!
