Working with the right digital agency can transform your business, which is why making the right choice is so important. So we’ve listed 6 criteria to consider when selecting the right digital agency for you and your business.

1. Set yourself clear goals

The first thing to do before engaging with an agency is to determine what you want to achieve. Not having goals is a recipe for disaster; you won’t be able to measure your campaign results and it will be difficult to hold yourself or your agency accountable.

From an agency perspective, they’ll need to know what your goals are so they have a foundation to work with and to know what is expected of them. It’ll save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

Tip: Try and keep your goals specific and achievable.

2. Find an agency that fits your needs

Refining your goals is a great step to towards narrowing down your choices. There are many great agencies out there, but they aren’t necessarily perfect for you. Do your research and find agencies that have experience in your field and have a good portfolio of successful work (more on testimonials and case studies later).

Being able to do work is one thing, but there are other factors to consider too. Do you have the budget? There can be a huge variance in what digital agencies charge for their work so find agencies within your budget.

Another feature of a successful agency relationship is the relationship you have with your account management team. You’ll be communicating with them on a daily basis so you need to form a strong bond with them.

Tip: Before you commit to an agency, try and get to know the people who will be running your account first.

3. Do your research

It makes sense to do your research before shortlisting. A good way to test a digital agency is to look at their own website. Do they “walk the walk” when it comes to their own digital marketing? What are they ranking for? How good is their own content marketing? Do they even have a blog. You don’t want to be trusting a company to build your website if their own is lacklustre and full of errors. Similarly, a social media agency should have a stellar social media presence of its own.

Tip: Be thorough and check out their site visibility both organically and on social media (and their paid ads if you’re looking for PPC management services). Ask for recommendations from your network and on LinkedIn as well.

4. Case studies

So you’ve found an agency that fits your needs and has its own digital marketing in order — now it’s time to find out what they’ve done for their clients. A good agency should be falling over itself to provide you with case studies and the successful work they’ve done for other companies.

In our own roundups of the best agencies, we’ve been able to list previous clients for this very reason. If you’ve worked for the biggest companies in the world, why wouldn’t you talk about it?

There are some caveats. If you’re thinking of using a newly founded agency, then case studies probably won’t be available. This isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker as the people who have formed the agency should be able to provide you with a portfolio of work they’ve been involved in previously.

Some companies also want to stay private which means case studies will be anonymous but the results aren’t so keep that in mind.

5. Testimonials

In addition to case studies, digital agencies should provide testimonials from current clients. Most agencies will include client testimonials on their website and in their marketing materials. You can also check sites like Google, Facebook, Capterra, and G2 for reviews.

Tip: The best kinds of testimonials are success stories and we have an article about that very thing so check it out: Success Stories Of Brands Using Digital Agencies

6. Costs

A lot of client/agency relationships come undone due to budgets. As we mentioned earlier, setting a realistic budget is important so you aren’t wasting time talking to agencies that are way out of your price range.

There are other things to consider when it comes to costs too.

• What services are you getting for your money?
• What is included in the price and what isn’t?
• At what rates will additional hours be charged?

Being clear about this at the outset will avoid a lot of frustration later on.

Can Adzooma Marketplace help?

You’ve probably already heard of marketplaces such as People Per Hour, Fiverr and Upwork. If you’re running a small business, on a limited budget, then these marketplaces can seem like a good solution. But the quality isn’t always up to scratch. After all, many of those marketplaces feature freelancers who take on multiple jobs at once. They can’t do everything.

But Adzooma Marketplace doesn’t have that problem. Containing hundreds of agencies covering a variety of areas, Marketplace hosts the most skilled professionals around. Finding the right digital agency works in three easy steps:

1. Search for the type of agency you’re looking for
2. View their details to find out
3. Contact them to see how you can work together

Finding the right digital marketing agency can transform your business and take it to new levels of success. Give yourself the best chance of finding the right one by trying Adzooma Marketplace today.

With that in mind, I wanted to share a bit of background and some information on what a CRM agency does and the 6 top CRM agencies in the UK.

What does a CRM agency do?

A CRM agency focuses on the path-to-market relationship that a business has with its customers or clients. It focuses on criteria such as:

• Collating, qualifying, and managing customer data
• Making sure the customer experience is positive and efficient
• Enabling clients to return and recommend the business through word-of-mouth advertising
• Conversions and understanding customer trends through the use of data

A CRM agency informs your brand acquisition and the onboarding strategy that you may have. Focusing on things such as where and how your customers or leads are generated to the onboarding elements and also the conversion strategies that you may have.

Now you have a better idea of what a CRM agency does, let’s look at the top 6 CRM agencies in the UK and a brief overview of what they offer.

1. Juuga Marketing (Adzooma Recommended)

Location: Vancouver, Canada

Visit Jugga Marketing on Adzooma Marketplace

Juuga Marketing describe themselves as an agency that “helps organizations grow by using marketing automation, marketing analytics and insights”. They pride themselves on helping businesses to change the digital landscape with amazing customer relationships.

Their 3 key areas for marketing automation and how it links with CRM are:

• Personalized email marketing
• Powerful marketing automation
• Business CRM

Through the latter, Juuga uses CRM-based email and sales automation to keep their clients’ customer data organised under one platform. They also manage pipelines, update deals, and follow up at the optimal time to maximise profit.

2. ActiveWin Media (Adzooma Recommended)

Location: Manchester

Visit ActiveWin Media on Adzooma Marketplace

ActiveWin Media offer their clients multiple digital options and build strategies that return on investment.

For their CRM strategies, they aim to increase customer retention and lifetime value with a data-driven approach that is “second to none”.

Data drives our CRM strategies, with detailed analysis determining where someone is in their customer lifecycle journey. Then, we’ll send the right message, on the right channel, with the right offer, at the right time.

All campaigns are developed by adhering to applicable laws and regulations including GDPR and compliance to safeguard your business from regulatory fines or penalties.

Previous clients include Wigan Warriors, Betfred, Moneyplus Group, and First Achieve.

3. Tangent

Location: London and Newcastle

Tangent splits itself between agency and consultancy work but that doesn’t hamper their performance in both. From a consultancy perspective, they offer CRM services via customer experience audits while providing customer experience analytics as part of their growth and optimisation services.

Tangent has worked with the likes of UK Power Networks, Reed, Sky, Volvo, and National Geographic to build B2B roadmaps, improve customer relationships, retention, and satisfaction.

4. Enchant

Location: London and Manchester

Enchant is a leading email marketing agency based in London and Manchester. They work with clear and robust strategies to plan transformational CRM using data science. Does your business need CRM platform advice? Enchant has you covered there too.

Alongside their CRM services, Enchant also provides:

• Email marketing strategy
• Campaign and contact strategy deployment
• Lifecycle marketing
• Email design
• Tactical optimisation
• ROI forecasting

Whether you are seeking to select or migrate to the perfect CRM platform for your organisation, or you are seeking to improve how you communicate with prospects and customers across channels, Enchant is at hand to help.

5. The CRM Agency

Location: Old Hatfield

No prizes for guessing what The CRM Agency does. They have a strong belief that organisations that want their customer communications to thrive should demand beautifully-crafted, compelling campaigns that play to the strengths of CRM technology.

The CRM Agency takes an indepth data approach to covering the following areas:

• Data quality
• CRM strategy
• Campaign management
• Analysis
• Customer journey planning
• Audience segmentation
• Delivery assurance
• Email service providers (ESP) selection

With award-winning creative design, and past clients including Adobe, The National Lottery, P&G, and Longines, The CRM Agency is the epitome of a high-performing CRM agency.

6. The SHARP Agency

Location: Huddersfield

The SHARP Agency uses its self-proclaimed “power of transformation” to support clients with integrated services including CRM, strategy, social media, and consultancy. Past clients include Gola, Ovo Energy, and the NHS.

With their CRM services as well as advertising, marketing and social media support, they also understand the need for human connection when it comes to business. They can help you collate and gather the right information and onboarding to improve the path to purchase.

The SHARP Agency also offer:

• Brand development
• Digital marketing
• Response marketing
• Content marketing

Do you need a CRM agency?

Most businesses can benefit from having a CRM agency. They can offer useful data and management through segmentation and improving customer communications where you might not have the time and resources to do so. The best CRM agencies fall under two main categories:

• Hyper-specialised services
• Generalised but high-quality management with proven performance

Depending on what you need, you might want an agency to fill a gap in your CRM and that’s where specialised CRM agencies come in. If your business needs a complete management solution, then a general agency would be suitable but you’d also want an agency with a proven track record to ensure value for money.

If you decide you need a CRM agency, why not check out the Adzooma Marketplace where we have dedicated agency pages for CRM and CRM integration?