How to choose a Dutch marketing agency as your local partner

So you’ve decided you want to dive into the Dutch market, what’s next? Well, now you need to know how to choose a local digital marketing agency in the Netherlands!

You may think that you can figure out a local marketing strategy yourself, but keep in mind that entering a market is tough enough, a foreign market can be enough tougher. Thorough inside knowledge of said market can make or break you. Therefore, choosing the best marketing agency in the Netherlands can make a big difference in the success of your business in the land of tulips.

We are aware that making this decision can be a bit daunting, so we’ve prepared a simple guide to help you figure out how to choose the right marketing agency.

Establish your company’s marketing needs and goals

The first step in figuring out how to choose a digital marketing agency in the Netherlands is establishing your company’s marketing needs. In order to ensure you do not waste any resources and all actions are as strategic as possible, you need to know what you want to achieve.

Do you want to sell your product to the Dutch public directly through marketplaces? Or do you wish to create brand awareness in the Netherlands first? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you find the best marketing agency in the Netherlands.

Answering some of the following questions might help you determine your company’s marketing needs and goals:

What audience are you trying to target in the Netherlands?

Are you aiming to target solely cosmopolitan cities such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam? Then maybe you’re better off looking for the best digital marketing agency in Amsterdam itself. You should have a clear idea of your target audience. Is it young people? Are you looking to reel in an older demographic? Families perhaps? Your creatives or a mature, more serious public?

Go for an agency that has a deep understanding of your target audience’s desires. It will be easier to know how to choose the right marketing agency once you know if the agency can communicate with your desired target audience efficiently.

Are you leaning towards creative services, or more towards technical services?

If you’re looking to revamp your online presence, keep in mind that while some digital marketing agencies specialise in user experience (UX) design and technical, functional, user-centred designs, others focus largely on creative and artistic design. Hence why knowing your target audience is imperative, it will be key in deciding how to choose a digital marketing agency in the Netherlands.

How to choose a digital marketing agency in the Netherlands that meets your needs

Once you know what your marketing needs and goals are, you can truly begin to find the best agency in the Netherlands for you. You need to assess the packages and services that they offer and explore whether they can cover your needs. You will also need to research the agencies themselves, to ensure they are the right fit for your business.

Researching agencies will ultimately be the key to finding the best marketing agency in the Netherlands for you. So, how exactly do you go about doing this?

1. Look into the marketing agency’s portfolio

What have they achieved with other clients? Do they have international clients such as yourself? It is important to look into the agency’s portfolio and their work with other clients, this way you will be able to assess the extent, reach, and efficacy of their work. It is particularly useful to check out whether or not they have worked with international clients such as yourself, to ascertain that they are capable of successfully inserting an international client into the Dutch market.

2. What are the digital marketing’s team members specialised in?

Once you’ve determined your marketing goals and needs, a good way of knowing how to choose a digital marketing agency in the Netherlands is looking into what their team members are specialised in. Do they have professionals that cover the areas of expertise that your business needs? Then it’s a good indicator that this might be the best marketing agency in the Netherlands for you.

4. The best fit for you will share your values and business culture

A key element when finding for yourself the best agency in the Netherlands is making sure they share your values and business culture. A marketing agency that values the same things as your business, and has a similar, or at the very least compatible, work environment, will make you both fit in like perfect puzzle pieces. At the end of the day, the best marketing agency in the Netherlands for you should work as an extension of your own business, as if it were another branch of it.

5. The right digital agency for you will have a good digital presence themselves

The agency’s own digital presence is a huge tell, particularly when you will be working with them for online services. How well is their website designed? Is it user-friendly? Is it attractive? How well do they rank on Google and is their content SEO-friendly? How could you trust an agency to take care of your services when their internal services don’t seem to shine all that much?

6. Is the agency easy to contact?

When looking into how to choose a digital marketing agency in the Netherlands, it should be obvious that they must be relatively easy to contact. First and foremost, you will be working remotely with them for the most part, so communication is key.

Communication also refers to language barriers. Will you be able to communicate effectively with the agency? Will things get lost in translation? Are they used to dealing with people from your country and/or culture? If the reply to these questions isn’t an immediate yes for you, then maybe this is not the best digital marketing agency for you, and you’d be better off with another digital marketing agency that can simplify the process.

7. The best agency for you will need to be within budget.

Sometimes you can get so caught up in how to choose the right marketing agency, that one forgets to adjust both needs and expectations to one’s budget. This is where you need to find the right balance as well as be realistic with your goals. If you want good service, you should be willing to pay for it. It’s better to do a few key actions well done that might yield better results than trying to go for an agency that might offer “the whole package” but then doesn’t yield results.

All in all, we know that figuring out how to choose a digital marketing agency in the Netherlands may seem intimidating, but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Take a look at our story, we might just be the perfect fit!