Digital Marketing Agency Insights
Finding & Working With The Best Digital Marketing Agency
If you hire the right digital marketing agency, your online performance can easily change for the better. Your strategic partner is central to your growth because it can help you get more leads and a better return on investment.
You need more than just execution when you invest in digital marketing.
You need a partner who understands your business, aligns with your KPIs and drives measurable results.
The best agencies act as strategic growth partners, not just service providers.
In this guide, we’ll break down the latest digital marketing best practices, explain how Digital Silk stands out among top performers and list the exact steps to find, vet and work with the best digital marketing agency for your business goals.
6 Digital Marketing Best Practices You Should Know
A digital marketing website performs best when audience insight, actionable data, and disciplined execution work together to connect every initiative to measurable results.
The practices below help leadership teams focus on strategies that drive sustained growth and support smarter investments over time:
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Understanding your target audience means identifying the triggers that shape decisions and the moments that carry the most weight in the buying process.
For leaders looking for digital marketing services, this involves using research and data to map behaviors across channels and stages of the journey.
This insight allows proper budget optimization, ensuring resources are directed toward initiatives that generate higher-value opportunities and helping brands align strategies as market conditions evolve.
2. Implement Personalization Strategies
Personalization shapes how prospects and clients perceive the value of a brand and the relevance of its messaging.
With 89% of companies stating that personalization is invaluable to their business success, tailored experiences have become a standard for driving meaningful growth.
Using data to anticipate needs, refine messaging and time outreach with intention turns generic interactions into ones that feel purposeful.
This approach drives higher-quality engagement, improves conversion efficiency and keeps marketing efforts focused on the opportunities that matter most.
3. Leverage SEO And Content Marketing
SEO and content marketing are at the core of measurable digital growth, with organic search driving 53.3% of all website traffic and outperforming every other channel.
Capturing that opportunity starts with understanding how audiences search, the intent behind their queries and the type of content that builds authority and trust.
The best digital marketing services prioritize the following aspects:
- Keyword research: Identify the terms your audience uses at every stage of their journey to match intent with relevant content.
- High-quality content: Develop material that provides depth and value, optimized to perform well in search while addressing audience needs.
- Content calendar: Plan and schedule topics to maintain consistency and support long-term visibility.
- Content repurposing: Adapt proven assets into new formats, like turning a blog post into a webinar or a video, to extend their impact.
4. Prioritize Voice Search Optimization
90% of consumers say voice functions make it easier to find what they need online and brands need to adapt their strategies to match this behavior.
Optimizing for voice search means shaping content around natural, conversational queries and aligning it with real user intent.
Incorporating long-tail keywords, local SEO and structured data helps a digital marketing website appear in results from assistants like Google Assistant, Alexa or Siri.
This approach connects brands with customers in moments when intent is clear and action is most likely.
5. Integrate Paid And Organic Channels
Paid and organic channels deliver stronger results when you plan and execute them as a single strategy.
A digital marketing provider company can align PPC, SEO, social media and email strategies so each channel supports the others and moves your audience through the funnel more efficiently.
Sharing data across campaigns lets you adjust budgets quickly and refine messaging where it matters most.
Over time, these insights help shape more effective strategies that steadily increase traffic quality, conversion rates and overall returns.
6. Social Commerce And Shoppable Content
Social platforms have become direct sales channels, with social shopping penetration now at 31% globally.
Facebook leads the way, with 24% of social shoppers saying they are most likely to make a purchase there.
Shoppable posts simplify the path from discovery to purchase and create opportunities to drive revenue where your audience already spends time.
Strategies to make shoppable posts effective include:
- Using platform-specific tools: Following each platform’s setup guidelines to create a smooth and reliable purchasing experience
- Prioritizing high-quality visuals: Sharing clear, well-lit images or short videos that show products in context and from multiple angles
- Writing concise, informative descriptions: Including key details like size, materials or unique features to help buyers make quick decisions
- Highlighting social proof: Featuring ratings, reviews or user-generated content to build trust and reduce hesitation
- Testing timing and placement: Analyzing performance to see when and where your audience engages and buys most
- Streamlining checkout: Reducing unnecessary steps in the buying process to lower drop-off rates and increase completed purchases
5 Best Digital Marketing Examples From Digital Silk's Expertise
As a top digital marketing agency, Digital Silk has delivered strategies that turn complex challenges into opportunities for stronger performance and sustained impact.
These examples show how tailored approaches across SEO, paid media and content have helped brands achieve ambitious goals.
1. Ventura Foods
Ventura Foods needed to grow its YouTube channel on a $12K monthly budget while reaching a niche audience of verified foodservice operators.
Digital Silk built a precision-targeted strategy with highly focused ad campaigns, audience-matching tactics and a full channel restructure supported by continuous optimization.
The result: subscribers grew from 650 to over 70,000, cost-per-view dropped 46% below benchmark, and monthly views surpassed goals by 80% over six months.
2. Lifestyle
Lifestyle, the Emmy-winning team behind Lifestyle with Roy Ice, wanted to connect with younger, mobile-first viewers but had no TikTok presence and stagnant Instagram performance.
Digital Silk created a platform-native short-form video strategy, transforming archived long-form episodes into branded Reels and TikToks while adding trend-driven storytelling and behind-the-scenes content.
The result: the channel earned over 1.2M video views, gained 21K TikTok followers and lifted Instagram engagement to 4.2%.
3. AGS Devices
AGS Devices needed to shift from offline sales to a scalable digital strategy that could generate qualified leads and build visibility in a competitive B2B market.
Digital Silk launched a multi-channel campaign combining SEO, LinkedIn Ads and content marketing to reach decision-makers and establish trust in key industries.
The result: organic traffic grew by 80%, LinkedIn cost-per-lead dropped by 48%, and account reach expanded by over 3,800% in just a few weeks.
4. Urbanna Landscaping
Urbanna Landscaping needed a digital strategy that could generate qualified leads and increase revenue in the competitive Santa Fe market.
Our experts supported geo-targeted Google and Meta campaigns that promoted high-value services like landscape design and xeriscaping while eliminating wasted spend on low-performing audiences.
The result: Urbanna generated over 300 qualified leads, doubled the average client value and increased total sales by 66% in just a few months.
5. Laser By Aleya
Laser By Aleya needed to build stronger local visibility and generate a steady flow of qualified leads in the New York market.
Digital Silk introduced a dual strategy, combining performance-focused Meta Ads with a refined SEO plan centered on high-intent local keywords and improved content structure.
The result: organic sessions grew by 70%, cost-per-lead dropped by 27%, and the site earned top 20 rankings for more than 260 keywords.
How To Find The Best Digital Marketing Agency
The selection process starts long before the first discovery call.
Follow these 9 proven steps to ensure you choose an agency that delivers measurable, sustainable impact.
Step 1: Figure Out Your Goals And Key Metrics
As your first step, you need to define what success in digital marketing means for you.
Do you want more leads? Is your goal to lower cost per acquisition (CPA)? Do you just want to get your name out there or do you want to use as many marketing channels as possible?
Here’s how you can set up your digital marketing strategy:
Set your main goals: Be specific when you’re setting the bar. Setting general goals like getting more people to know about your business, increasing online sales or entering new markets don’t really give you tangible benchmarks. Instead of saying “I want to increase website traffic”, say something more precise, like “I want to increase organic traffic by 40% in six months”.
Choose Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Decide which metrics will tell you how well your digital marketing is doing. These could be things like cost per acquisition (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), marketing qualified (MQL) to sales qualified lead (SQL), pipeline velocity or bounce rate. Starting with clear digital marketing KPIs helps you evaluate your performance more easily.
Assign reasonable due dates: You can’t expect numbers to skyrocket overnight. SEO strategies normally take three to six months to show results. On the other hand, PPC can bring in traffic right away but they need to be updated constantly. Knowing these deadlines helps you set reasonable expectations, while allowing digital marketing agencies to set realistic plans.
Step 2: Check Your Current Channels, Data And Tech Stack
Before you hire experts, you need to understand what’s currently happening to your digital marketing.
By doing this, you can find holes in your current methods and gives agencies the data they need to create good strategies.
You can use the following steps to assess your digital marketing:
Review your existing marketing channels: Look at how well your digital marketing is doing on all channels. This includes SEO, social media, email marketing, paid advertising and content marketing. Write down what’s working and what isn’t, since this can be useful for future agency partners.
Check your data: Go over all the numbers on all platforms, such as Google Analytics (GA4), server-side tracking, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) social media and marketing insights. The way you're collecting this data should be accurate and complete, since digital marketing agencies will use this information for their strategies.
See what you’re currently using: Your digital marketing is only as good as the tools you’re using. This could be things like Content Management Systems (CMS), email marketing platforms, social media management tools and automation software. Getting this information helps you figure out if you need to get more tools or switch to different platforms in the future.
Step 3: Decide On The Budget, Timeline And The Scope Of The Service
Think about how much you’d want to change in your digital marketing strategy. Once you get past this stage, you should know the exact budget and deadlines for your agency partner,
These are the steps you’d need to take:
Decide what services you need: Do you need a full strategy for all channels? Or will some areas like SEO, PPC or social media marketing be enough? You should also think about the exact model you’re after, which can be ongoing management, project-based work or strategic consulting.
Think about how much you want to spend: Do some digging on how much other businesses in your industry spend on digital marketing. In most cases, you’d expect to spend 6-10% of your revenue on marketing, with much of that going to digital channels. You would need to choose between monthly retainer fees or performance-based compensation.
Define when you want to see results: What are your goals, for both short and long-term plans? You can launch some campaigns right away, but the full digital marketing strategi could take two to three months to put into action. This is because agencies need time to for strategies, creating campaigns and optimizing them over time.
Step 4: Start Searching
Looking for a digital marketing agency isn’t that hard when you know what you need:
Use professional directories: Think of these as modern-day versions of the yellow pages. You can find all kinds of businesses with verified reviews, case studies and details on each company to help you figure out how good they are. Some of the more well-known directories are DesignRush, Clutch, Google Partners, Facebook Business Partners and HubSpot’s Agency Directory.
Ask for recommendations: You probably keep in touch with other business owners or industry peers. If they’re willing to share their experiences, you could learn more about how some agencies do their job and if they can do the same for you.
See if they’ve won any awards: Recognition from well-known organizations like Forbes, the American Marketing Association, Search Engine Land Awards or Webby Awards can be a big tell. While these don’t immediately guarantee success, they can show that someone is doing something new and effective in a certain area.
Evaluate Agency Websites and Portfolios: Review each agency's website to understand their service offerings, case studies and company culture. Pay attention to how they present their own brand – agencies that can't effectively market themselves may struggle with your marketing needs.
Assess Team Expertise and Certifications: Review the qualifications and experience of key team members who would work on your account. Look for relevant certifications from Google, Forbes, HubSpot and other major platforms, as well as experience in your industry vertical.
Step 5: Issue An RFP / Share Your Brief
Create a comprehensive Request for Proposal (RFP) that provides potential agency partners with all the information they need to propose effective solutions.
Develop a Detailed Brief: Include your company background, target audience, current marketing challenges, goals and objectives, budget parameters, timeline requirements and evaluation criteria. The more information you provide, the better agencies can tailor their proposals to your needs.
Request Specific Deliverables: Ask for detailed strategy outlines, proposed tactics, timeline estimates, team structures and expected results. Request examples of how they would approach your specific challenges and what tools or methodologies they would use.
Share submission details: Tell them exactly how you want them to write your proposal and when the due date is. You should also tell them how to get in touch with you if they have any questions. When you do this, all the proposals you get will be similar and you can compare them easily.
Step 6: Meet The People You’ll Work With
Getting down to only a few digital marketing agencies is only the first step. Your next step is to get into the details:
Get to know them in meetings: Use these calls to learn more about their suggested strategies and how much they know about your industry. Find out how they'd deal with your specific problems and how they’re different from their competitors.
See if you can communicate well: Do they listen to what you want? Do they ask you questions? Can they explain their ideas? Pay attention to these signals to see if this fits your company's culture.
Meet the team: You should know who you’re working with. Don’t just talk to the agency’s sales team, go above and beyond to meet the entire team. When you do this, you’ll know if you’ll get along with the people you’ll talk to every day.
Assess their thinking: Do the agencies use data and best practices from your industry? Do they use this information to make plans? If they can explain why they chose them and how they can help you, you’ve hit the jackpot.
Make sure they know how to do it: For some services, like complex PPC, technical SEO or marketing automation, you need to know you’re working with the very best. Make sure the agency is familiar with all the details from projects that are comparable to yours.
Look into their performance predictions: Agencies can’t make guarantees when it comes to results. But they can provide realistic estimates on what's common in your industry and what they’ve done in the past. If their claims are too good to be true, be careful about working with them.
Step 7: Compare The Prices And Contracts
Knowing what you want is one thing, but being able to afford it is another. When choosing a digital marketing partner, use the following steps:
Know how their pricing works: There are four common pricing models for digital marketing. Agencies can charge you every month, for every project, take a percentage of your ad spend or based on performance. Sure, each one has its own perks but it’s up to you to decide which option fits your budget. Consider how much financial risk you’re willing to take.
Review the terms of the contract: You should know what you’re getting yourself into. What happens if you want to terminate the contract? Who owns intellectual property? How do you want the company to report to you? If you find flexible contract terms that can change as your needs evolve, this is a green flag.
Check the cultural fit: Consider things like the size of the organization, how people work, how they communicate with you and if their values are in line with yours. When both sides complement each other, you can get more effective results.
Step 8: Analyze Their Case Studies And References
You should do a background check on the agency to make sure the results are authentic:
Talk to their existing clients: Confirm if their success stories in digital marketing are accurate. Ask them about the results they achieved and any problems they had. Be specific about what you want to know.
Read their case studies: Most digital marketing agencies showcase their work on their website. Don’t focus on the final results only. Try to find the strategic reasoning behind them, the actions they took to get there and the challenges they addressed. You need examples that they can get genuine results, not just numbers that let them control the narrative.
Check the details around ROI: What return on investment has the agency delivered for similar clients? Can they offer a detailed run-down on costs and results so you can understand their process?
Step 9: Make Your Decision And Give Them All The Details
After you’ve finished your evaluation, you can make your final choice and start getting ready for your collaboration:
Write down your criteria: Create a scoresheet with all your criteria. Put all the cards on the table and see where each digital marketing agency ends up.
Talk about the final terms: After you’ve made your choice, you should work together to finalize the terms of your contract. You can also discuss how you’ll talk to each other and what you expect from your partnership. Both sides should know what’s expected of them, when it’s due and how they can measure success.
Introduce them to their roles and responsibilities: Your onboarding strategy should lay down all the details. Cover important topics like transferring information, giving them access to the tools and platforms they need and setting up reporting.
Why You Should Choose Digital Silk For Your Digital Marketing
Digital Silk is a leading digital marketing agency for businesses of all industries. We help our clients expand their reach by using strategic thinking, creative campaigns and measurable results.
We go beyond what a typical digital marketing company would do. We offer solutions that fit your business goals and the way the market works.
A history of getting things done: Digital silk has always done a great job for clients, regardless of their industry. Our case studies show exactly this. For one of our clients, we achieved a 460% growth in organic traffic, while another one got a 350% bump in conversion rates.
All-around digital marketing expertise: We offer digital marketing services for all major channels. Digital Silk can help you with search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media, content and email marketing. We keep your messaging the same everywhere and your performance at its best for all your customers.
Using data for planning: Our experts use data to create your digital marketing. We get this from in-depth market research, competitive analysis and insights into your target customers. We keep an eye on how well your campaigns are doing and make the necessary changes. This ensures you get the most out of your investment.
Awards for creativity and expertise: Our team is creative, brilliant and technically competent. We create digital marketing that connects with users and gives you results you can be proud of.
Transparency: We're all in this together. You can reach out to us at any time and we’ll loop you in on every detail.
Knowledge of your industry: Our digital marketing services aren’t just for one type of business. Technology, eCommerce, healthcare and professional services are just some of our industries. This way, we can come up with better plans and deal with problems that are only common in your industry.
Solutions that grow with your business: Not every company needs the same digital marketing. We can change our plans and strategies as your needs change and your company grows.
Full reports: Digital Silk gives you detailed statistics and reports that show you how well your digital marketing is going. We link what you do online to how well your business does.
Our values define your digital marketing:
- Project ownership
- Transparency
- Dedicated digital strategists
Contact our team or fill in our Request a Quote form and you can receive a free, custom quote and consultation for your next project.
