The fundamental activity carried out by Web Design Agencies, such as the positioning of websites on search engines, advertising on Social Media, an Email Marketing plan, and more, are topics that, with the explosion of Digital Marketing, are becoming more and more current but, for many, still unclear. Knowing how to choose a web design agency is crucial for the success of your online presence.
Contacting a Web Agency is an almost obligatory step for many entrepreneurs who are bringing their businesses online. Collaborating with a web agency or with a freelancer, however, requires a basis of digital culture also on the part of the clients.
On the other hand, those who work in web design agencies must demonstrate a marked ability to understand the market and the various business contexts, which are always different, with which they interface. Research the reputation and client testimonials to guide your decision on how to choose a web design agency.
Understanding the quality of the services offered by Web Design Agencies, and knowing how to relate to this partner is a fundamental step for the transition to digital transformation, and as an entrepreneur, the Digital Marketing Specialist course will allow you to collaborate profitably with professionals in the sector and more easily reach the set objectives, keeping the activity of the agency to which you have chosen to entrust the task under control.
In this video, I will introduce you to the professional figures of a web design agency and a methodology to choose the right one for you.
In the video, and later in the article, I wanted to answer frequently asked questions such as:
- What does a Digital Agency do?
- What are the best web design agencies?
- What specializations and services do they offer?
- How to Choose a Web Design Agency?
- How do you have to interface with digital professionals?
What does a web design agency mean and what does it do?
The term Web Design Agency refers to a company made up of digital professionals, who work to promote every company determined to lend a hand to Web Marketing. For this purpose, they use all the possibilities offered by the internet, in terms of digital tools. communication channels or advertising platforms. Assess the expertise and skills of the team members when figuring out how to choose a web design agency.
Given that each company will have specific needs, the main services of web design agencies are:
- Creating professional websites;
- Creation of E-commerce platforms;
- SEO optimization (improvement of the site’s positioning on the search pages of Google or Firefox or others);
- Digital PR activities;
- Web design development;
- Implementation of activities concerning Email Marketing;
- Inbound Marketing and Lead generation services;
- SEM and PPC activities with Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Facebook Ads advertising campaigns (in this case we are also talking about online advertising agencies);
- Mobile advertising;
- Management of company profiles on the main social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube (Social Media Agency).
And this is precisely what can be achieved with the best Web Design Agencies: a set of services and digital professionals (we will see which ones later) made available to large companies or SMEs, to achieve a pre-established result through all the channels provided available digitally. Seek recommendations from peers and industry experts to gather insights on how to choose a web design agency.
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6 Types of a Web Design Agency
Having defined what a web design agency is, let’s now see how to establish a win-win collaboration between the company and the agency. Wanting to introduce their history and evolution a little, web design agencies were created to respond to the common need of many companies: to have an online stage capable of making their services known to a wider audience, through the creation of websites and marketing activities on internet marketing.
Deepening:
- Websites. The first step will be a consultation with the Web Designer who has the task of designing, together with the entrepreneur, the skeleton of the site. Once the idea has been sketched, he moves on to the actual design with his team of experts. You can choose to make sites with preset templates or create ad hoc for the institutional website or an Ecommerce site. The most used platforms for creating websites are WordPress and Magento for e-commerce, both highly appreciated CMSs.
- Web Marketing Services. Once done, how to launch a website? It is necessary to apply a series of useful actions to maximize results and very specific objectives: the sale of products or services, bringing traffic to the site, advertising the brand, and much more. Some tools used in the services offered by Web Design Agencies are Email Marketing, Content Marketing, Management, and the creation of Google Ads or Pay per Click campaigns with the advertising platforms of the new Social Media.
The evolution of web design agencies has contributed to the various specializations in some areas of digital marketing, managing to offer increasingly vertical services. Consider the agency’s understanding of your target audience and their ability to create engaging designs when determining how to choose your web design agency.
1. Performance Marketing Agency
The main objective of the Performance marketing agency is to work according to performance, i.e. demonstrate that it can achieve its objectives through Web Marketing tools and channels.
Only when there will be feedback and results in economic terms, will it be remunerated. It is usually preferred by those who still have a slight distrust of digital marketing or an undefined initial budget.
2. Social Media Agencies
Social Media Agencies take care of creating and managing company social profiles on the most suitable platforms for your target audience, to do this:
- Brand awareness;
- Increase visibility;
- Number of followers;
- Leads.
A strategy established together with the company will follow to strengthen the digital identity of the brand, through the most used social channels (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn Advertising, Twitter) and in line with your sector. Creating engagement, and bringing the brand closer to its audience are the result of planned actions, an editorial plan, and considerations that only expert professionals can make, even if very often one is led to think that one can improvise.
Due to the popularity of the theme, and the positive response it has also in business, opening a web digital agency specializing in social networks is a consistent business idea.
3. SEM and Media Agencies
The specialization of SEM and Media Agencies mainly consists in using the advertising spaces of the mass media (TV, web magazine, radio) also applying Programmatic Advertising.
The task of the Media Specialist will be to create a clear and interesting corporate message for the identified buyer persona. The defined budget will be used by the SEM Specialist to bring target customers with already metabolized buying ideas to your online showcase.
4. SEO Agency
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the discipline that works specifically on improving the positioning of content on the web. The SEO agency optimizes websites or blogs so that articles and pages rise among the first results of the SERPs of the main search engines, Google above all, without using any paid advertising channel.
The concepts to be expressed via the website will be elaborated through an analysis of the text, and a study of keywords, and key phrases.
The wise use of keywords and a good architectural structure will give the user a fluid view. Even the images chosen, within the graphic project, will be in line with the identity of your brand. The result obtained from the Web SEO agency will help you increase organic traffic to your company’s website.
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5. Digital PR Agency
Increasing the company’s visibility and improving its reputation: these are the primary objectives of a Digital PR Web Agency.
In this field, there is often the right mix between traditional PR skills, such as relational and socializing skills with external companies and professionals (journalists, bloggers, influencers), and digital skills useful for increasing the notoriety or web reputation of your brand.
We work not so much to talk about your brand but above all to get people talking about your brand. As?
- Stimulating curated conversations on the web and exploiting them to expose corporate ideals;
- By collaborating online with authoritative figures in the sector, who can bring quality traffic to your site for their sponsorship
- Via external links.
A good Digital PR Agency must also be able to build relationships with bloggers but above all optimize the frequency and quality of reviews obtained on the web.
6. Mobile Marketing agencies
Mobile Marketing agencies are born as a consequence of the growing presence of smartphones and tablets in our lives. On average, we spend 47.5 days a year on the phone and we have the possibility of being able to do, through apps and tools, everything that was once manageable only from the computer: we read emails, watch videos, listen to podcasts, can scan our documents and much more.
This enormous potential is the field of action of Web Agencies specialized in mobile: allowing you to take advantage of the time that users spend on the web with this device and capture their attention thanks to responsive content, i.e. adaptable to a small screen, through:
- App-based marketing,
- Location-based marketing,
- Mobile Marketing.
What are the professional figures of a web digital agency?
It is important to know which digital professionals work in large web digital agencies. The job market is in turmoil, but the online one has been growing steadily in recent years. Digital professions today play a crucial role in Industry 4.0 and represent an important employment opportunity. The most requested web professionals are:
- SEO Specialist, a recently established figure in the digital job market. It aims to index and position your site in the top 10, therefore first page, of the search engine. It can and must bring new visits to the site by modifying or creating digital content with the aim of generating new leads and increasing company turnover.
- SEM Specialist or PPC Specialist, is the digital professional dedicated to Search Engine Marketing and will manage the company budget aimed at advertising campaigns. Unlike the SEO Specialist, you compete with other competitors through an auction where you can buy and secure one of the best positions (among the top four) in the search results. By doing so, it can ensure greater exposure of its ads to interested users.
- Social Media Specialist deals with the world of social media and will be able to identify the most suitable one for your brand identity. Once your objectives have been defined, together with the Digital Project Manager you will choose the channels to use: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, or Youtube to promote the company and establish a dialogue relationship with the buyer personas.
- Webmaster or WordPress Specialist, the main figure of the Web Agencies and takes care of creating the website. CMS allow you to develop simple blogs or complex portals, they have enormous potential and flexibility to manage using creative and, at the same time, analytical skills.
- Digital Project Manager, director, and the link between all the figures present in a Web Agency. He has the task of supervising the project and coordinating resources using management and digital skills: he must achieve the goal on time and respect the initial budget.
- Developer/programmer works on the server and backend settings: of all digital professions he is the most technical and you will rarely interface directly with him. Writes and understands programming languages such as PHP or Java.
- Web Designer, the most creative of the team: designer and developer of your website. Platforms such as WordPress and Magento are often used and can be customized with the addition of templates and plugins. He has high digital knowledge, thanks to which he assumes total autonomy in the design of the site taking into account the user experience and therefore simplifying the user’s purchase process and the various steps through the funnel.
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By entrusting yourself to a web digital agency, the first person you will meet will be the Digital Project Manager who will try to get as close as possible to your ecosystem to understand precisely which market the company fits into, which is your target audience and what are the business needs.
This first contact with the web digital agency is often very critical since the entrepreneur does not always take this cognitive moment seriously. Sometimes the digital professional who falls into the same mistake is inclined to be presumptuous, and considers himself an expert in a sector, perhaps having already approached it in the past and forgetting how each company has its particular reality.
Once the agreement is concluded, the Digital Project Manager passes the assignment to the collaborators involved who will be able to implement all the services decreed to be suitable for achieving the company’s objectives. A typical path immediately foresees the figure of the Web designer intent on designing the website for the company.
At the same time, there will be the intervention of figures specialized in Content Marketing, focused on creating the content of the company website or blog. They will be followed and coordinated by the SEO specialist who will study the keywords to ensure the best positioning of the website on search engines.
The contents, however, will also serve to feed the corporate social networks and kick off online promotion activities through Google Ads or Facebook Ads. Research the company’s experience with e-commerce integration if relevant to your business objectives when considering how to choose a web design agency.
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How to choose a web design agency?
Given the specializations and the different types of Web digital agencies, how to choose the right web design agency for you? To do this you will have to take into account an important factor: the geographical position.
Digital professionals are used to smart working or remote work but the geographical position of a Web Digital Agency usually establishes its size and type of specialization. Seek clarity on ownership rights and intellectual property policies when considering how to choose a web design agency.
The Web Digital Agencies are generally the most structured and manage the largest projects: they will be able to help you in each of the specializations seen previously.
The last solution, for less complexity of the services offered but certainly not for inferior competence, is freelance.
If you have a team capable of producing digital content but are still inexperienced in a single branch of Web Marketing, then perhaps you could make use of a specific Freelance focused on your digital gap. Trust your instincts and intuition when finalizing your decision on how to choose a web design agency that aligns with your vision and goals.
For example, have you concluded that your website needs improvement? Then it might be interesting to take a website creation package from the web agency and ask to implement some services to then achieve autonomy in some functions, such as the tag for Google Analytics or Ads Remarketing.
Or you could choose to rely only on a freelance web graphic designer, side by side with your project.
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6 Questions to Ask a Web Digital Agency
But what questions do you have to ask when you want to choose a web digital agency or a Freelancer? Here are 6 examples:
- Can you provide me with a list of clients you handle?
- What areas do you specialize in?
- Can you show me some online projects you’ve done?
- How do you work with your customers?
- What reports do you provide?
- Can you show me success stories similar to what I’m asking?
In your opinion, what is the adequate level of personal digital culture to be able to collaborate with the best Web Agencies? Higher than you expect: they often ask for a company interlocutor with sufficient digital training to understand the project in progress.
In most cases, entrepreneurs do not fully understand what Web Digital Agencies are about. Often, only some of the services offered are known to the entrepreneur.
He knows, for example, that he could rely on them to have a website created, he is familiar with estimates and very often requests one from several agencies, deluding himself that he can decide based on the price but he does not know the world of the web at all and what can offer him.
He hears about Inbound Marketing, management of advertising campaigns, mobile apps, and creation of dynamic websites but not being familiar with these concepts, he attaches little importance to them. In doing so, however, it is as if he leaves everything to chance, allowing external people to deal with aspects that he considers (mistakenly) secondary to his business.
Instead, it is essential to become aware: being online means making a difficult, burdensome commitment, but, at the same time, capable of giving great satisfaction if managed and coordinated in the right way.
He needs to assume the role of director and therefore direct the work of the web agency, directing it towards the objectives defined by him in the first place and considered to be the main ones for his company and the reference market.
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Mistakes to avoid when choosing a web design company
I think it is right to offer you helpful advice to avoid mistakes on how to choose a web design agency and to immediately establish a profitable relationship.
- Ask for a very detailed estimate of times, actions, and costs;
- Have a Project Manager who is always your interface;
- You claim to have direct access to the Reports;
- Organize a weekly Skype meeting of at least 30 minutes of updating and coordination;
- Supervise what they prepare before it goes online.
Internal training, as in every moment of growth, is essential. If time is what you lack, live exercises are the solution to understanding what your company needs and how to collaborate with web digital agencies. 100% practice sessions, lasting 1 hour, in the discipline of your interest.
Web Agencies always require a person with good digital skills to interface with, capable of understanding the project, and its value and guaranteeing smooth collaboration: he must speak the same language as digital professionals.
Book now a free strategic consultation with one of our digital coaches who will be able to advise you on the way forward. Consider the agency’s ability to provide customized solutions and tailor-made designs when figuring out how to choose a web design agency.
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