Consumer packaged goods brands in the ‘50s had it easy. Hire an ad agency to shoot a 30-second commercial (complete with a catchy jingle). Spend millions to run the ad on the three major television networks. Then, watch the dollars come rolling in.Fast forward seventy years and marketing has gone digital. The old plays are dead, and an ad agency isn’t enough.Today you need a website agency, and a PPC agency, and a content agency, and a TikTok agency and… or do you?Instead of focusing on just one piece of the marketing puzzle, growth agencies use data to evaluate the entire sales funnel and identify the best opportunities for profitable growth.If you’re thinking about hiring a growth agency, this post will lay out the exact steps to take to ensure that you find the right partner for your unique business.

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What do Growth Agencies do?

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Depending on your business and customers, your outsourced growth agency will implement tactics like SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, Google PPC advertising, and website optimization.To determine the right tactics for your business, you need to look to your customers: where do they hang out online? Where do they go for answers or solutions? What is their buying process?The key is to meet your customers where they are.A high-quality growth agency will evaluate and improve all aspects of your digital and traditional marketing. They’ll make strategic recommendations for what to cut, what to do more of, what new tactics to test, and how to achieve your ambitious growth targets.

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Research to Create a List of Potential Growth Agencies

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It’s typically best to start your growth agency search by going broad, and then narrow down from there. The goal here is to generate a list of five to twenty potential service providers to consider.Not every agency that can help with growth will call itself a “growth agency”. Broaden your search to include growth marketing agencies, growth consultants, demand generation agencies, and lead generation agencies.You can certainly use Google to start your search, but don’t stop there. Lean on your network to add to your list.Ask your LinkedIn connections for recommendations. Call up colleagues and friends. Write a post in industry groups or forums like the Exit Five Community asking members for recommendations.