More than 56% of budgets are digital, and agencies are increasingly doing more and more work digitally. Agencies need to keep their skills sharp and current to succeed in the growing world of digital marketing.
Digital is always changing and evolving. This means agencies need to stay on the cutting edge to guide their clients in the digital space and win more digital business. It’s not just digital marketers and implementation teams who need to truly understand digital. To successfully deliver breakthrough digital solutions to clients, your entire agency needs to be on the same page and speak the same language.
There are five steps to building a digital capability plan to help your agency lead in the digital space.
Stage 1: Evaluation
Start by assessing where your skills currently stand and what skills you would like to develop. This assessment should take into account the client's needs and their digital priorities. Also, keep an eye on the agency's growth plans. Focus on areas where the agency wants to grow in the next 3-5 years.
At the end of this stage, you should have a clear vision of your organization's existing and desired skills.
Stage 2: Agency level setting
The next step is to make sure everyone is on the same page and speaking the same language. Across your organization, the level of knowledge about core digital topics can vary. A digital expert may have in-depth knowledge about her SEO. However, your account manager may only have a surface level understanding.
Getting the entire organization on the same page, using the same terminology, and understanding how core digital elements work is critical to success. This allows your team to work together more seamlessly, set the right client expectations, propose the right strategic ideas, and ultimately win more business.
This level set can be completed through an online digital marketing certification or an in-person boot camp. It is important that new employees also receive training to maintain organizational knowledge.
At the end of this stage, your organization should have a consistent understanding of digital marketing fundamentals, key terminology, and how they fit into your client's strategy.
Stage 3: Mastery and Depth
Fundamentals alone are usually not enough to provide your clients with great digital marketing. Clients expect agencies to consistently apply best practices, understand digital channels, and deliver best-in-class marketing.
Mastery and deep understanding of key topics should be part of ongoing competency planning. The main topics are:
- digital strategy
- digital measurement
- content optimization,
- digital marketing trends
- Channel optimization
- Digital media planning and strategy
- Digital channel strategy
You should also provide detailed instructions on topics that are most important to your client, such as SEO, Facebook marketing, LinkedIn marketing, website optimization, AI, and AR.
This stage is considered to be ongoing in order to increase knowledge in a particular field. Deeper digital workshops are needed to solidify knowledge.
Stage 4: Maintenance
Digital marketing learning and development is an ongoing effort, not a one-time workshop. It's important to continually improve your skills and challenge your thinking. This can be achieved through regular webinars, emails, or even short video content.
The idea of maintenance is to keep digital best practices top of mind. Digital knowledge is the first step, but continuously applying best practices is the goal. Create a continuous learning culture by incorporating digital learning opportunities into regular touchpoints. This stage is continuous to improve the organization over time.
Stage 5: Innovation and cutting edge
Digital is always changing and evolving. Clients expect their agencies to provide cutting-edge guidance and stay on top of the latest trends. Continuously advance your institution's knowledge with innovation training and education.
We offer continuous learning opportunities and provide the latest updates on innovation topics such as AI, AR, VR, privacy law, and evolving ad targeting. These can be delivered through webinars, short videos, podcasts or audio formats, articles, and newsletters. This stage is ongoing and may include monthly or quarterly updates.
final thoughts
Keeping your organization up to date and always up to date is an ongoing effort. Clients expect agencies to understand digital fundamentals and trends and provide best-in-class solutions using the latest best practices.
Agencies must invest in educating and learning their teams to serve their clients. By following these five capability-building steps, you can keep your agency on the digital cutting edge and grow your customer base.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, finding common ground and finding connections.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, finding common ground and finding connections.
