What Is A Full-Service Digital Agency?
The best digital agencies in the world combine a group of experts from all areas of:
- Branding.
- Design.
- Technology.
- Marketing.
- Global industries.
Top digital agencies connect technology, design, marketing, and overarching business strategy to capture consumers and promote a brand across many channels.
The services of the best digital advertising agencies in the world range from branding services to web design to digital marketing to social media marketing.
75% of small business owners find Internet marketing to be “effective” or “very effective” in growing their business. Therefore, enlisting the help of a digital agency will likely improve your bottom line.
What Do The Best Digital Companies Do?
Top Digital Agencies Invest In Meaningful Partnerships
For many top-tier digital agencies, a key differentiating factor is the agency’s willingness and ability to partner closely with their clients.
These agencies promise that by taking the time to immerse themselves in the client’s industry, culture, and business practices, they’ll become more than a replaceable vendor.
This type of relationship enables the agency to develop greater insights into the needs of the client and to plan more effective projects and digital marketing campaigns as a result.
Deep partnerships also better position the agency to act autonomously and proactively. It also eliminates a heavy reliance on internal client resources for oversight.
Top digital agencies have teams of experts working on each project to ensure its success. A combination of the talents and skill sets of many different team members ensures a higher quality of work that makes each project more likely to stand out from the competition.
A collaborative environment that encourages the comingling of ideas and opinions results in the most effective digital projects, with the promise of business growth on the horizon.
Collaboration also includes the team on the client side. As the client, your relationship with the digital agency you select should feel more like a partnership and less like a business deal.
The Best Marketing Firms Promote A Global Presence & Attract Passionate Talent
In today’s hyper-connected world, many businesses need to work with a digital agency that has a global presence.
Having offices around the country and around the globe means that, by definition, top digital agencies have a diverse range of talent in their employ.
These employees bring a range of skills and perspectives to the table. They can contribute unique ideas to clients’ digital campaigns.
A global presence also means that an agency is able to work closely even with clients that aren’t based out of major hubs like New York, London, and San Francisco.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: An agency is nothing without the talent that powers it.
Top Digital Marketing Companies Drive Results
The best digital agencies put forward ideas and strategies that are focused on observable business growth.
They will share a plan to track and measure results before beginning work on any given project.
Each strategic recommendation is made with a brand’s core objectives in mind, and each platform supports the digital growth model at hand.
There are many digital agencies that position themselves based on the fact that they are results-driven, and focused on driving quality traffic that converts.
You can expect agencies that pitch themselves this way to be proactive in developing a marketing strategy, setting goals and milestones, and to maintain focus on consistently fine-tuning campaigns to hone and improve their tactics.
The Best Digital Agency Services Proven To Boost ROI (Return On Investment)
The best digital agencies around the world offer a wide range of digital services.
If the agency is truly full-service, they should be able to handle all of your company’s digital marketing and business growth needs in-house with a high level of technical skill and experience.
Your partner firm should be able to devise a holistic, custom digital strategy for you based on an assessment of your brand’s particular needs.
In addition, clients can also request specific assistance from a top digital agency based on an a la carte selection of digital services.
Creative Digital Agencies Manage Branding & Logo Design
When it comes to logo design and branding, reputable design agencies do it all. Leading digital agencies can manage:
- Logo design.
- Business or product naming.
- Branding and rebranding campaigns.
- Key brand messaging, such as mission statements and core values.
- Creating brand books to maintain a consistent identity.
- Rolling out new brand identities to the public.
- Corporate identities.
- And more!
77% of marketers say proper branding is imperative for future business growth.
A cohesive brand identity is like a professional personality. It gives consumers something to relate to on a more intimate level as they interact with your company.
This makes them more likely to make a purchase and become a returning customer.
Allowing a full-service digital agency to manage your entire brand identity will result in long-term benefits. Consistent branding across all channels can increase revenue by up to 23%.
Top Marketing Companies Create Personalized Marketing & Advertising Strategies
Among many marketing services available at digital agencies, top digital companies create a comprehensive marketing strategy.
These strategies encompass tactics including:
- SEO optimization
- Social media marketing
- Display advertising
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Paid search
- And more!
Award-winning digital firms also engage with a community of fans and advocates through customer service and community management.
This initiative helps widen your reach and appeal to new audiences.
The Best Digital Firms Build Professional Websites, Mobile Apps & Digital Platforms
Leading full-service digital agencies offer start-to-finish custom website design. This includes:
- Strategy.
- Information architecture.
- Design.
- Development.
- Post-launch support.
In addition, digital firms offer custom mobile app development. When digital agencies are hired to build applications, they incorporate a process of:
- Strategy.
- Prototyping.
- Design.
- Development.
- QA testing.
- Maintenance.
Well-designed digital platforms are crucial for modern brands. After all, global e-commerce sales are expected to surpass $4.8 billion annually by 2021.
However, 38% of users will stop engaging with a website if the layout and design are unattractive. This means that a stunning and — most importantly — a high-functioning custom website is imperative to business growth.
16 Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Top Digital Marketing Firm
Top digital agencies need to be able to demonstrate their ability to identify and solve your business problems. This is a key trait of a top digital agency that you should consider when forging a partnership.
Before you hire a digital agency, ask targeted questions. These will unequivocally prove whether or not they have a success story that directly speaks to your needs as a business.
- What clients have you worked with and what services did you provide?
- How do you identify the areas that a business can improve in?
- What tools, tactics or strategies will you utilize to reach our target goals?
- Who will be working on our project?
- What is their personal expertise?
- What successful projects have they worked on and what was their role in the project?
- Who will our point of contact be at the digital agency?
- What is your process for determining a roadmap, deliverables, and a progressive yet achievable timeline?
- How will you determine the goals of the project?
- What is a reasonable timeline that this goal(s) can be achieved in?
- How will the goals be measured (traffic, conversions, SEO ranking, revenue, etc.)?
- How often will you track and report results?
- Is the project a flat rate cost or by the hour?
- If the project is paid by the hour, whose expertise are we paying for on the team?
- What deliverables are included in the cost of the project?
- Does the pricing include meetings and phone calls to touch base on the project’s progress and questions?
Best Digital Agencies In The World: How To Choose The Right One For You
Determine Your Own Business Needs
Ultimately, the point of hiring an award-winning digital agency is to fulfill a specific business need.
Before you even begin searching for agencies or setting up meetings, you need to assess your own company goals.
“If you're looking to improve your brand’s social media presence, for instance, working with a company that only deals in web design might not be the smartest move,” Anshul Sushil, founder and CEO of Boring Brands, said to Entrepreneur.
Once you have a strong understanding of your business’s current standing and where you hope to go, you can find the agency that will complement your brand identity and help you achieve your objectives.
Discover Their Primary Strengths & Process To Attain Results
Although the best digital agencies have a wide variety of expertise, many agencies excel in one or two areas over the others.
Therefore, when you’re searching for a top digital agency to work with, always take into account the expertise of a certain team and company as a whole.
You can identify a professional digital agency’s primary strength and service by doing your homework.
Look at their portfolio, case studies and clientele and examine the work that they have done for them. Be sure to ask them which areas of a project excel and why.
This will allow you to determine if the best digital agency's skill set matches your needs.
Top digital agencies have high success rates with clients because they place a strong emphasis on a consistent and reliable process.
This process includes a dedicated point of contact, regular meetings, a cohesive team and plenty of internal and external communication.
Since 46% of employees rarely or never leave a meeting knowing what their next steps are, this organized process is imperative.
Once you have the right digital ad agency team in place, relinquish some control and let them go about their agenda, allowing internal teams to focus on other tasks.
The way in which a digital agency operates and communicates with its clients is just as important as the end results.
After all, you’re paying for a long-term service, and you deserve to feel comfortable with the trajectory and timeline of any digital project.
Ensure you’re in the loop on how and where the digital agency team finds inspiration and cultivates a successful and creative campaign.
“The design and advertising industry are in danger of pointless banality and an ocean of blandness from designers pulling the same references to the lack of provocation,” says Apple Art Director Stanley Chen. “It’s important to ask the question "why" before we get to ‘how’ and ‘what.’”
Compare the best digital agencies around the world by cost, expertise, portfolio, leadership, reviews and more in the table above.
Create A Fair & Secure Contract
An airtight and comprehensive contract is the most crucial logistical element when forging a partnership with a great digital agency.
Results aren’t always guaranteed, but deliverables and disclosable information can be.
Work with your legal department or applicable representative to draft (or oversee) a fair, legally-binding document.
It should outline important information such as the project’s time frame, any applicable deliverables, who your team members and point of contact will be, and what information is under non-disclosure.
This will protect you and your business down the road.
Top Digital Agencies
How Top Digital Companies Secure Results & Stay On Top Of Emerging Trends
A Top Digital Agency Utilizes Talent & Invests In Effective Teamwork
One of the biggest benefits of enlisting the help of a digital agency is widening your access to top talent across the world. The best digital ad agencies often have global offices and draw top designers, brand experts, and marketers.
In addition to a robust network of skillful creatives and business experts, digital agencies also house industry experts that are well-versed in the best practices of e-commerce businesses, service-based companies and more.
Access to top talent allows digital agencies to curate successful teams, unlocking more innovation, better ideas and lucrative campaigns.
These result in better success rates for clients. Although your internal team may have great initial ideas, a crafted team of experts will be well-versed in bringing those concepts (and more!) to fruition.
57% of businesses think outsourcing projects ultimately enables a better “focus on the core business.”
So, it may seem counterintuitive to hire an additional team for online projects. But in fact, a digital agency could be the best thing for your overall business.
People who work at top digital agencies are surrounded by intelligent and talented colleagues. This culminates in unique and compelling ideas for all clients.
Whether it’s an individual team, department, or the firm at large, teamwork is constant and evokes innovation.
With a large mix of designers, marketers, business professionals and industry experts, digital agencies have many people contributing to an ever-growing pool of ideas, trends and general best practices.
What’s more? These experts also work directly with many clients, resulting in additional collaboration on several similar projects.
This enables digital agencies to research and cultivate new ideas, observe the trends other big businesses are implementing, and utilize them in other projects.
When you contract a small team of experts from the best digital agency, your employees will be able to focus on their own roles within the company.
This streamlines projects and enables internal employees to stay in their own lane of expertise without allowing new initiatives to falter.
Top-Rated Digital Agencies Maintain An Organized, Goal-Oriented Roadmap
Marketers who draft and report on their strategy are up to 538% more successful. But this strategy is more than just a few timelines and a general idea.
Enter: A roadmap, or a clearly defined guideline of your goals, set forth by a digital advertising agency.
Unlike a process or agenda — which details the who and when of a digital strategy — a roadmap outlines how you’re going to achieve your goals.
Because a top digital agency initially takes time to understand your users, online presence and general business goals, their roadmaps will likely be much more detailed.
They'll be significantly more actionable and, thus, provide better results for your brand’s bottom line.
In the 1960s, Dr. Edwin Locke performed a study that challenged one group of individuals to “do their best” and another to “beat their best time.”
His research found that people who had specific, concrete goals performed better 90% of the time.
The idea of implementing actual, numbers-based goals should be utilized in business as well. A leading digital marketing agency can help.
Through research and expertise, an outsourced team of experts will be able to hone a set of progressive yet achievable goals for your business. These objectives, coupled with a strategic roadmap, will breed success for clients.
Top Marketing Agencies Have Access To Top Tools
Digital agencies have direct access to top tools that allow them to acquire information, conduct research, design platforms and produce marketing campaigns without forcing you to pay for your own subscription.
Some of these include SEO and website performance tools like:
- Ahrefs
- SEMRush
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics
Content marketing tools, such as:
Email marketing resources, like:
And social media management platforms, like:
- Facebook Business Manager
- Sprout Social
- Buffer
- Hootsuite
These tools and resources are imperative for conducting effective consumer and competitor research. When leading digital companies utilize them, they can gather detailed data on:
- Website performance and traffic.
- Target audiences and demographics.
- Competitors’ successful campaigns.
- Advertisement performance.
- And more!
When marketing experts have access to this information, they can better understand your brand’s strengths and weaknesses, determine goals, and formulate a successful plan of action to achieve them.
What’s more? When digital agencies utilize these resources well, the proof is in the pudding. 88% of marketers saw measurable increases with personalized digital marketing efforts.
The Top Digital Marketing Strategies Focus On Users
The best trends are those that focus on users. Whether it’s a functional website or a cohesive brand identity, keeping the customer’s wants and needs at the forefront of every decision is the best trend any digital agency can follow.
“The main thing for both designers and the client to remember is that we aren’t designing for ourselves. Businesses and designers need to talk to consumers and learn as much information as possible from them — how they shop, how they look for products, and so on,” says Tatyana Khamdamova, head of design at Blue Fountain Media.
“They need to create the best user journey possible to achieve the goals that the company has.”
How Your Brand Can Benefit From The Best Digital Agencies
Digital agencies offer a wide range of services that can help shape your brand identity and build a digital and physical presence that drives sales and conversions.
From building a marketing strategy to creating a website and beyond, the services that a top digital agency provides is paramount to business success.
The best digital agencies around the world understand their industry and the global market as a whole. This empowers them to craft the perfect strategy tailored to your specific brand that keeps key business goals in mind.
To find the best digital agency for your brand, explore DesignRush's comprehensive list of digital agencies above.
