10 questions to ask your digital agency

Not surprisingly, I've been hearing about situations lately where traditional agencies are adding digital capabilities. By the same token, digital agencies are adding offline capabilities, as evidenced by digital agency Razorfish's recent foray into creating a TV spot. I've blogged a lot in the past about agency models, and Ad Age recently weighed in as well.

It's a hot topic and an ongoing debate. Eventually we'll all probably meet in the middle. But I don't think that's necessarily the best thing. Here's why:

Digital capabilities can't be added overnight. (Certainly the same can be said for offline/traditional capabilities, too.) At my agency, we've known for ten years the interactive channel is a difficult channel to master. There are many layers, pieces, parts, and people that need to come together to make a digital project successful. From ideation and strategy all the way through execution, digital requires a complicated, sophisticated, and unique approach, and once you have that mastered, there is always some new technology to learn around the corner.

Our agency's technical staff are in-house for a reason - quality control, innovation, and flexibility - and I am amazed on a daily basis at the magic they bring to our projects. I can't imagine us being as responsive or as creative for our clients if we were trying to wrangle freelancers or direct a sister agency from afar.

If you had a brain tumor, would you ask your family doctor to also be your brain surgeon? Digital requires specialization. When you hire a digital agency, make sure it's the real deal. Here's how:

1. Quiz them on their digital capabilities. Ask them if they outsource.
2. See what they say when you ask "How is digital marketing different than traditional?"
3. Ask them what their hosting setup is, and how their development, staging, and production servers allow for an organized and phased approach to medical/legal/regulatory review.
4. Ask them what percentage of their staff are technical.
5. Do they have in-house search marketing, email marketing, online media, analytics, and emerging/social media teams? How long have they had them? And if they only recently added digital expertise, how'd they do it? (Bought another agency, built from ground-up, merged with a sister agency, etc.)
6. Have they ever built, using in-house resources, any apps, widgets, gadgets or games?
7. Ask for their case studies on user experience.
8. Are their designers and writers Web-based, or traditional-turned-Web? (If the latter, buyer beware. They are very different, no matter what anyone tells you.)
9. Are their strategists' and account teams' backgrounds based in digital, or a more recent add-on to more traditional experience?
10. Ask for the bios of the team you'll be working with. This is completely acceptable and helps ensure you get the right digital-based staff on your team.

Only you will know the "right" answers to the questions above, based on your own needs and your brand's objectives. But at least asking the right questions is the first step to ensuring your digital agency is, in fact, the real deal.

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