Sure, it’s one thing to hear someone say, “Wow, you need to hire a digital marketing agency like, right now,” but it’s another matter entirely to find out the hard way. There are ways of telling just how badly a website is doing by looking at the following:

• Bounce rate is high, while sales and traffic is down
• Your content hasn’t been updated in years
• Same with your SEO, for that matter
• It’s been over 5 years since you redesigned your website
• Your last post on social media was before 2010
• The business cards you keep handing out keep getting thrown away
• Everyone keeps asking “Who are you again?”

These all contribute to what a digital marketing agency can do for you, but there are some ways of telling how badly your business is in need of one by examining the following. If you’re reading this and nodding your head to any one of these parts, you’re in need of help—dire help.

Your Accountant is Looking Out for Your Marketing (or Lack Thereof)

The number one rule we have about marketing: don’t make your accountant do it. An accountant is great for money, but marketing is not their job. We’ve heard stories of accountants cutting out the marketing budget entirely! Having no money for your marketing is what we call the number one killer of a website’s success.

Advertising is Out—Inbound Marketing is In

If you can afford a commercial, that’s great, but you know what’s better than commercials? Skipping them entirely or being able to skip them.

You know what’s also out of date now? Finding junk mail in your mailbox—physically and virtually in e-mail. Only in an alternate universe will you find people loving to find coupons for a company that they don’t care about.

Newsflash: traditional advertising is out, and honest marketing—inbound, wherein the customer makes the choice—is in. We as customers now don’t have to listen to your “I’m so great” campaigns any longer. Digital marketing is in, meaning if you’re still wasting money on traditional marketing, hire a digital agency stat.

Content is Being Made but it Also Needs to Exist

“I’ve added content and just written a blog post,” you might be saying right now. Well…that’s great, congrats for adding new stuff. But what about tomorrow? Or the week after? Are you going to keep creating content? We hope so, because this is not a one-off strategy we’re talking about. Writing and posting a blog post once is great, but it takes a continuous string of new content that can also beef up your social media and your overall marketing strategy to really get the attention your business needs. Having regularly published, high-quality content will also contribute to our next major point: SEO.

Where’s the SEO?

A website without search engine optimization (SEO) is as good as invisible to the world—and especially to search engines. Not having a NAP (name, address, and phone number) registered on Google+ will render a business completely invisible on Google—and depending on your business and if it relies on local customers, that’s a bad area to neglect.

Who are You Again?

Sometimes the things a digital marketing agency can help you with would involve your company’s branding. By this we don’t just mean prettying up the logo and calling it a day. We’re talking about figuring out your brand’s message, its voice, what makes you unique compared to other similar businesses—the whole nine yards.

Who are you? What do you have to offer that is so different compared to company A and company B? Why should your customers buy your product or receive your services? Do you really know who you’re trying to sell to, or are you guessing? (We really hope you’re not.)

This is not something that can be done in a single day, nor is the logo the only part of what makes an effective, unique brand. If your brand is not being recognized or it’s contributing to a negative reputation, you need to rethink this aspect of your company.

Speaking of a negative reputation…

You’ve Gone and Messed Up Your Online Reputation

First impressions always matter. That’s why it’s so important to keep your online reputation a positive, courteous, kind, and professional one. Responding to negative comments in a negative fashion will not help your reputation, but even worse is to leave negative comments hanging and not responded to for the whole world to see. And when it comes to negative feedback about your business, the whole world will see it. It doesn’t matter where the poor reviews are; they will be visible on review sites such as Yelp and on your social media.

The best way—perhaps the only way—to fix an online reputation is to prevent negative feedback from happening in the first place, or to respond to negative comments immediately using the same sense of professionalism you would use to a customer if you were speaking one-on-one.

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