4 steps for managing your relationship with a digital marketing agency

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With digital technologies having a growing influence on the purchase decisions of Southeast Asian consumers, more businesses in the region are quickly realizing the need to ramp up their digital marketing efforts.

In Indonesia, for example, 54 percent of consumers discover brands on the internet, while 61 percent of Vietnamese consumers compare product features and prices online, according to insights from Google.

Meanwhile, the e-Conomy SEA 2018 report by Google and Temasek shows that Southeast Asia’s Internet economy was valued at US$72 billion by the end of 2018. Of that number, online media accounted for US$11 billion.

Source: Google

Unsurprisingly, ad agencies have taken notice of the shift to digital in the region.

In September 2018, Japanese PR firm Hakuhudo acquired shares in two agencies based in the Philippines, seeking to establish a foothold in the country’s growing online consumer market. China’s social media giant Sina Weibo also partnered with Singapore-based agency IH Digital to serve Chinese tourists visiting Southeast Asia.

There’s a reason why agency partnerships are so common. For organizations outside Southeast Asia and even those from within the region, digital marketing agencies represent the fastest and most convenient way to ideate and deploy strategies designed to reach out to digital consumers.

What does a digital marketing agency do?

Digital marketing agencies provide services that not only involve digital technologies and channels, but are also focused on generating and measuring results. An agency’s services can run the gamut from search engine optimization, pay per click marketing, and email marketing, to video marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing.

With so many moving parts involved in a digital marketing campaign, many businesses are choosing to outsource their efforts to an agency. However, there are just as many dangers as there are benefits when doing this. To mitigate these risks, remember the following pointers.

1. Set a budget

There are no hard and fast rules about how much of your budget should be allocated to digital marketing. According to the Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2018-2019, companies, on average, spent 11.2 percent of their revenue on marketing in 2018.

Source: Gartner

2. Communicate your goals

3. Set realistic expectations for success

4. Agree on methods for measuring success

Common problems when working with digital marketing

To sum it up