One of the first conversations most clients will have with a representative from a marketing agency covers online advertising. Most clients will want to know whether they ought to expand their online ad footprint. Here is how you and an advertising agency can determine what your online marketing presence should be.

Marketing Purpose

Foremost, you need to set clear goals for your marketing efforts. Online marketing works well for a wide range of purposes. However, the online footprint for a non-profit organization that's trying to drive cultural and political change is going to be different than the one for an online shoe retailer.

You also need to look at how well your current online presence is hitting the mark. For example, you may need to survey your target audience to see if they're getting the message. Similarly, you can look at conversion figures like sign-ups and sales to see if the online presence is driving interest.

Current Quality

It is challenging to determine whether to expand your online marketing efforts if you're unsure about the quality of your current messaging. Particularly, organizations often don't have sufficient analytics to determine the quality of their marketing. An advertising agency will implement analytics features on your existing online properties to assess the quality of the current efforts. If your efforts are working well, then they might work on drilling down to what works best. In cases where clients are struggling to connect, they may need to reboot the entire effort.

Platforms

Most businesses will want to be on multiple online platforms. Rather than just building a website, you'll want to have a presence on social media, video sites, review sites, and discussion forums. These platforms allow you to meet people where they are. Especially if you're building marketing campaigns for new products, services, or brands, a multiplatform push can increase awareness rapidly.

Budget

Your budget will dictate how expansive your efforts will be. Even on a small budget, though, a creative marketing agency can work to generate earned interest. Using low- or no-cost methods like social media posting, you may be able to connect with audiences. Likewise, you can use targeted advertising on high-interest platforms to speak to the most activated audience members.

Competition

In some industries, online marketing spending is about keeping up. If you have successful competitors that are slamming it with only advertising, you may have to get on the same platforms to make the fight a bit fairer. 

For more information, contact a local marketing agency.