In various posts, I have emphasized the importance of web marketing firm wearing many hats. There are a number of different ways in which different web marketing services overlap, and they may call for a web marketing firm to have a reasonable level of expertise in web design, social media, search engine optimization, and more.

A good web marketing firm should also have a demonstrated capacity for research, and it should know how to conduct that research in the context of its other web services. In particular, social media management is an indispensable tool for gaining important information, not just about customer feedback and the effectiveness of your marketing campaign but also about what your target audience expects even before that campaign begins.

Before you even go into business with a web marketing firm, its social media team should be able to take a cursory look at the online activity of your competitors and prospective customers, and thereby get a sense of how you can set yourself apart. This isn’t to say that you should expect them to outline a campaign for you upfront; but your initial conversations about that campaign should be based on clear information and demonstrate that your web marketing firm knows how to really analyze social media content, in addition to creating it.