If you’re shopping around for a growth marketing agency, I first have to say: kudos! You care about your business growth. You want to see a strong trajectory. And to ensure your numbers trend in the right direction, you’re bringing in some reinforcements. 

Seeking help is a great idea if you’re strapped for time or lack expertise—not just for your business but in all areas of your life. Recently, I was on the hunt for a fitness trainer to help me finally prioritize my health and wellbeing and it’s just the support I needed.

But no matter what type of help you’re looking for, you need to find the right help for you.

So how can you choose the right agency for your business? Today, we’re sharing six tips to help you assess growth marketing agencies. But first, let’s discuss what growth marketing is and how it can help you hit your goals. 

Traditional vs. Growth Marketing

Before you start booking calls with marketing agencies, you need to know the difference between traditional and growth marketing. 

One of the core differences is their approach to the buyer funnel. While traditional marketing focuses on growing awareness and acquisition (sales and leads), growth marketing extends the funnel to activation, retention, referral, and revenue. 

Source: First Page Strategy

Because growth marketers approach the funnel more holistically and focus on metrics like retention rate and customer lifetime value, they can have a greater impact on revenue. 

Another key difference is their techniques and processes: 

Traditional marketing often relies on tried-and-true techniques for reaching customers: holding a sale, sending out an email blast, or running Google Ads campaigns with the same keywords. Traditional marketing will certainly get you some results, but they may be short-term. Why? Your customers’ interests change. To continually see results, you need to keep up with them. 

Growth marketing, on the other hand, is all about frequent testing, experimentation, and optimization. Through testing and rigorous tracking, growth marketers can identify what’s attracting your audience and generating the biggest returns. They will then iterate on their strategy to incorporate these learnings. 

Of course, traditional marketing is essential. But if you don’t have a dedicated team of in-house experts, results can be slow or inconsistent. Because growth marketing takes a data-driven, always-on approach, you are more likely to see sustainable, long-term growth. 

It’s similar to why people work with fitness trainers rather than watching videos on Youtube. Sure, you’ll come across how-to squat videos, and that’s a great starting point. But these videos won’t show you how to increase weight according to your body type, so you’ll quickly plateau. 

You don’t want your marketing results to plateau? We don’t either! Here’s what you should look for to find the perfect growth marketing agency for your business. 

1. They have an impressive portfolio

When I was looking for a trainer last year, the first questions I asked were: do you have clients? Can I hear about their results? With so many influencers these days marketing themselves as fitness coaches and trainers, I had to sniff out the best of the best.

Similarly, there are thousands of growth marketing agencies out there that talk the talk. To identify the agencies that can walk the walk, ask for some social proof: their portfolio of past clients, case studies, and customer testimonials, for example. 

Source: DevriX

When reviewing case studies, look for detailed results and authentic input from clients. If you feel comfortable, you can also ask to speak to their clients about their experiences working with the agency. (You can bet your bottom dollar I reached out to those trainers’ clients to see if they’d vouch for them.)

As a growth marketing agency, we know that this is hugely important for prospective clients, so we have our case studies front and center on our website. For each case study, we highlight all the information that’s important for readers, like: 

• The company/industry
• Their goals
• Our strategy
• The engagement duration 
• The performance results

Take a look at this case study, where we helped a B2C client generate over $600,000 in sales through one email marketing strategy. We don’t mask critical information with fluffy language. We state everything you need to know upfront. 

2. They have experience in your industry

While my fitness goals are related to gaining muscle and strength, I know that’s not everyone’s goal. Some might be more interested in losing weight. Others may have an injury that they’re rehabbing. Everyone’s needs are different. So when looking for a fitness trainer, I narrowed down my options to those who have experience helping folks gain muscle and strength. 

The same process can be applied when choosing a growth marketing agency. If you’re a B2C business, you want to work with agencies with experience and success in B2C marketing. 

So when you review their portfolios, keep an eye out for which industries they have experience in. Some might have a diverse background that spans industries. Others may focus on a specific niche. Either is okay, as long as they prove they can knock your goals out of the park too!

3. They offer the services you need

Once you find a few growth marketing agencies with a proven track record in your industry, you’ll want to make sure they offer the services that suit your needs. 

Typically, growth marketing agencies provide a variety of growth marketing services, like SEO, paid media, content creation, and more—which is perfect if you need a multitude of services. But if you’re looking for one or two services, make sure they shine in the service you’re looking for. 

Think of it this way. If you were prepping for a fitness competition, you’d want a trainer specializing in competitions, right? Even if a trainer has extensive experience helping clients gain muscle, you know that fitness competitions are a whole new ball game—and require a specific set of services. 

Here at Galactic Fed, we’re known for our outstanding SEO and paid media teams—so we make sure to provide a detailed outline of their expertise on our services page.

4. They’re easy to work with

Working with a growth marketing agency is a great way to reduce the costs of in-house hiring; recruiting, onboarding, training, salaries, and benefits certainly add up quickly. But sometimes, you can’t put a price on how easy it is to work with an in-house team. 

Luckily, there are growth marketing agencies out there that are just as easy to work with. How do you pick these agencies out from the crowd? Ask them to walk you through their process and how they work with clients. Then, take some time afterward to reflect on these questions: 

• What’s the mode of communication? Are they easily reachable?
• What are their working hours? Do they align with mine?
• How do they provide updates? Are they frequent? 
• Do they provide transparency into the process? 
• Am I consulted in decision-making? 
• Does their timeline line up with mine? Will I reach my goals according to my deadline?

After their walkthrough, if you believe they’ll be communicative, collaborative, and timely, that’s a great starting point. However, an “easy” working relationship totally depends on your expectations. So trust your instincts on this one!

For example, I wanted a trainer who was available early in the mornings and was happy to communicate over text. I also wanted someone who could provide a bit of “tough love” when I needed it. To me, that was an ideal working relationship. Make sure to find an agency whose process works for you.  

5. They’ll create a custom strategy for you

Even if you share the same goals as their other clients, your businesses are different. If a fitness coach gave you the same program as their other client, that would be a red flag, right? Your weight, body composition, strength, eating habits, and daily routine are all different. To hit your goals, you’d need a custom plan. 

The same goes for your growth marketing strategy. If an agency is trying to sell you on a pre-packaged, generic plan, your spidey senses should be tingling. A growth marketing agency should conduct a personalized assessment of your business, audience, goals, and current marketing performance. They should then use this assessment to craft a strategy customized to you. 

If that’s not in the cards, you should consider looking elsewhere. 

6. They’re data and results-driven

We’ll just come out and say it: true growth marketers are huge data nerds. (We’re allowed to say this because we’re growth marketers ourselves.) At the heart of their work is crunching data, tracking metrics, and seeing results. 

While numbers are synonymous with great growth marketing, be careful of agencies that oversell their capabilities. (You can get me a million more conversions?!) If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

To assess if they’re the real deal, ask them if they set SMART goals. 

Source: The Coaching Tools Company

SMART goals are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timebound. So if they believe a million conversions is a realistic goal, they should be able to back it up with an action plan, specific metrics and a tracking strategy, and a timeline. 

A quick Google search shows that the SMART framework is also used among fitness trainers—I’m not surprised! Creating SMART goals would increase confidence in their clients. They’ve got their eye on the prize and have a plan to achieve it!

Another way to identify true data-driven agencies is to ask them what tools they use to execute their strategy. If they list a robust list of tools that help with automation, analytics, reporting, and research, it sounds like they’re well-equipped to do what they say they’re going to do. 

Grow your business with a growth marketing agency

We’re all for getting help when we need it—whether it’s to help us achieve our business goals or fitness goals. Why go through an uphill battle alone when there are experts ready to support you? 

Plus, now you know how to assess a growth marketing agency, so it’ll be a lot easier to find the help you need. 

If you want to put these tips to the test, we welcome you to put our team in the hot seat. (We’re pretty confident that we’ll crush it.)