The right chat marketing agency can help you grow your business. It’s not always easy to find the best one for your needs, but this guide will show you how to get started. Here are some questions to ask when interviewing potential agencies:

• What experience do they have?
• Who are their clients?
• What methods do they use?
• How much does it cost?
• You should also look into whether the company has a good reputation overall; if people seem happy with them, that’s usually a sign that they’re worth considering.

Before you even get started looking to hire a chat marketing agency, you need to understand your own business goals and chat marketing goals. Why do you want chat automation in the first place? If you are not sure, you may want to hire a chat marketing expert for a consult. I offer this and have been able to help businesses discover the right strategies and ideas that will move them forward and solve problems. Still, I have placed these same companies with some fantastic agencies to help make it a reality. Learn more about my Marketing consultancy services at www.StellarMediaMarketing.com

Now that we got that out of the way, this article gives an overview of what you need to know about finding the right chat marketing agency for your business.

Experience:

If you’re hiring a chat marketing company, the experience of the agency is of utmost importance. An agency that has been in business for a long time will better understand the trends and how to best reach out to your potential customers. It’s essential to work with an agency that feels confident in its skills and abilities. An excellent way to tell if they have the experience they need to complete the job is to:

Interview them

You want to make sure the chat marketing agency you work with has plenty of experience in this area. You can tell if an agency has the right expertise by interviewing them. Ask them about the previous clients and the previous projects that they have worked on in the past. What chat marketing strategies do they have experience implementing, and what successes have they gotten clients through those marketing efforts. It’s important to find a company that feels confident in its abilities and knows what it’s doing from past experiences.

See case studies they have done.

Does the agency have any case studies? For example, Here is a link to a case study ManyChat did for my agency, Stellar Media Marketing: [Case Study] How Jump Consulting Used ManyChat to Boost Facebook Live Distribution by 229X. Seeing case studies can give you an idea of how effective their strategies are.

Check out their demo.

Does the company have demos, either live or videos, of the chat automation they can perform? Seeing a demo of the chatbot going in real-time will allow you to determine whether or not they can help your business and show you what is possible.

Watch videos they have created or read blogs they have written.

Another way an agency can show their experience is through the content they create. Do they have a blog they regularly update? Or perhaps a YouTube channel showcasing their expertise (Here is an example of my channel Baby Got Bot). A good chat marketing agency will have plenty of content they have created on the topic, which is short, to the point, and useful. No matter the types of content they produce, it can be helpful to take some time to check it out and see if they know what they are talking about when it comes to chat marketing. 

Explored their credentials page

Does the agency you are considering have any credentials, such as certifications? Certifications are not the win-all to a great builder, but it is another element you can factor in.

Clients:

Understanding what kind of clients the agency typically works with is also helpful. Do they primarily work with e-commerce, brick, and mortar, business to business, etc.? This will help you understand what kind of experience they might bring to your own business. Lastly, it’s a good idea to see whether their client list matches up with your industry vertical. Also, check into the testimonials and reviews they have received from current or past clients.

Methods:

Every company has different methods that work for them. It is important to find out how they plan to work with your business and if you’ll receive a personalized approach or rather the same way as all other clients. Ask about their process, what exactly it entails and how often they do it etc. Do they have a specific workflow? Are they well organized in their approach? Their methods and the results they bring should be what sets them apart from other agencies you’re considering.

Price:

Find out how much it would cost to work with them. The price should fall within your budget as there is no point in finding an agency to work with if they charge so much that you cannot afford them. Find an agency that charges appropriately for its services and falls within your budget. Just because a company is charging more does not necessarily mean they’re the right fit for you; it’s good to find out what others are paying to get a better idea of price ranges in the industry. Also, keep in mind that you often get what you pay for when it comes to chat marketing. I personally have become a bit of a specialist as a “Chat Automation Cleaner.” Meaning I am often hired to come in and clean up the mess that a cheap and less experienced builder put into place. So it’s also important to keep in mind that chat marketing should not be an overnight venture. It should take some time to implement and make changes and fine-tune the machine you are building.

Pricing for chat automation can be all over the board, mainly because there is a low entry barrier and because there are thousands of chat strategies that can be implemented. Pricing can range from $500USD for a simple build upwards of $30k for complex custom builds requiring coding and custom integrations. Generally, most chat marketing solutions I see most businesses needing will range from $1200 to $5000. So keep that in mind when budgeting for these sorts of projects. That is not to say your project can’t cost less than $1000USD, but it would likely be a very basic chat automation build, OR you could be asking for trouble if you go cheap. 

PRO TIP: Want to test to see if a company knows their Facebook Messenger compliance? Ask them if you can sell digital products inside a chatbot (as in taking payment and delivering the product). If they say yes, they are not a good fit. It is actually against Facebook’s TOS to sell digital products inside of Messenger. You can market the digital products, but you need to push users to an external website to purchase for sales. 

There are many different agencies out there to choose from, so do your research. There’s no better way to find the right agency than finding the one that is the best fit for your business.

• Make sure they have experience
• Make sure it’s within your budget
• Find out what their methodology entails and check to see if it aligns with your own business
• See what kind of clients they typically work with and how well those types of clients mesh with yours.
• Check out testimonials and reviews to see how they’ve worked with past clients.

Hiring a chat marketer or agency can be overwhelming, especially if you’re not familiar with some of the terms like “chat lead” vs. “chat conversion.” But finding the right chat marketing agency for your business is one of the first steps into understanding more about chat conversion and chat marketing. You can find an agency that aligns with your own business by doing your research, asking the right questions, and understanding what kind of results they can bring to companies like yours.

If you need help finding a chat marketing company that fits your needs feel free to set up a free call with me, Kelly Mirabella, at www.callstellar.com. I have personally vetted several chat marketing agencies as part of my training program. As members of BGB Insiders, they get hands-on help from me and ongoing training. I ensure you are set up with someone well trained and familiar with your niche. There is no cost to you for me to help, and it is just my way of creating win-win situations for you and my students and members.