Anyone looking for a marketing agency for the first time quickly notices how similar they all sound. Every one promises more leads, every one shows attractive references, and after the third meeting the decision comes down to price or sympathy. Yet the choice can rest on verifiable criteria, meaning questions whose answers you get in writing before you sign.
In a mid-sized industrial company, different things matter than in an online shop. Long sales cycles, technical products and grown systems create requirements that many agencies quietly fail. The following eight criteria make exactly that verifiable before you commit.
Key takeaways:
The most common trigger is rarely a campaign idea. It is the moment marketing needs to go digital and nobody in-house has the time or the craft for it. The website is ten years old, trade fair contacts live in Excel, sales works without usable leads from the web, and your competitors show up on Google and in AI answers while you do not.
Three signals speak for external help instead of another internal hire. First, skills are missing in several disciplines at once, such as strategy, content and technology, and a single hire covers one of those at best. Second, you need an outside view, because your own offering has become so self-evident internally that nobody can explain anymore why a customer should switch. Third, results should become measurable, and the tools and experience for that are missing.
One signal speaks against it. If nobody in-house has time to work with the agency, even the best one will fail. Plan for two to four hours per week on your side, for approvals and subject-matter decisions. No agency in the world can bring knowledge about your products. It can only translate it.
Before the question of which agency comes the question of which type, because this is where most wrong decisions happen. Three models are on the table, and they differ less in price than in how much you have to coordinate yourself.
| Model | Strength | Weakness | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-service agency | strategy, content, technology and operations from one partner, one contact | not every discipline at specialist depth | marketing is being digitalised and coordination is missing in-house |
| Specialist | maximum depth in one discipline, such as SEO or ads | interfaces and strategy stay with you | foundations are in place and one discipline should scale |
| Freelancer network | flexible and affordable to start | coordination, outages and quality sit with you | you have experienced marketing leadership in-house |
For the situation this guide is about, meaning a mid-sized company that wants to digitalise its marketing, the path usually leads to a full-service agency. The reason is coordination. Whoever hands strategy, website, CRM connection and content to four different parties becomes the project manager of the very trade they wanted to outsource.
Everyone has attractive references. The following eight criteria are deliberately chosen so they can be verified before signing and so that many providers fail them. Each criterion carries a concrete test question, and the first three concern technology.
Digital B2B marketing stands and falls with the data behind it. If CRM, ERP and website are not connected, every campaign stays blind to what is actually being bought. An agency that only runs campaigns and refers ERP integration to your IT department does not solve your actual problem. Test question. Which connection did you build yourselves most recently, and who operates it today?
Every agency calls itself a partner of something. It only becomes verifiable through the platforms' official partner directories, at HubSpot for example with publicly visible tiers up to Diamond and Elite. The status shows certified staff and managed clients instead of a logo on a website. Test question. Under which name do we find you in the partner directory, and at which tier?
Whoever develops and operates their own digital products knows releases and the difference between a demo and daily operation from experience. These agencies talk differently about technology than pure campaign shops, namely about maintenance and responsibility. Test question. Which product or platform do you operate yourselves, with real users?
The remaining five criteria decide whether the agency understands your business and is still there after the project.
Industrial B2B sells over months, across several stakeholders and often through dealers or representatives. An agency that mainly knows consumer or e-commerce work optimises for quick clicks and wonders about your closing rates. Test question. Show us two industrial projects and explain how a trade fair contact became an order there.
Translated content loses twice in the DACH market, on Google and in AI answers that cite German-language sources. Technical content about machines, processes or compliance needs writers who think in the market's language and can handle the terminology of your industry. Test question. Who writes, concretely, and in which language does the original come to life?
Many mid-market industrial companies earn a considerable share of their revenue abroad, and different rules apply there, different platforms, and in China an entirely separate ecosystem without Google and LinkedIn. An agency that knows Baidu and WeChat only from hearsay cannot serve that market. Test question. Which markets can you operate in practice, and with what?
Clicks and impressions are interim states. It gets interesting when the agency makes the path from first visit to closed order traceable in your CRM and takes responsibility for the data management in your systems along the way. Test question. Which metric do you want to be measured on after twelve months?
The most common frustration does not come during the project. It comes afterwards. Workflows age, fields go stale, and the agency has moved on to the next client. So ask about the model for the time after go-live, with fixed responsibilities and response times instead of ad-hoc hours. Test question. What does your operating model after the project look like, and what does it cost?
Saying no is far cheaper before the contract than after. Five patterns have proven to be reliable warning signs, across all agency types.
A single sign is not yet a rejection, two of them in one conversation are. The good news, all five can be spotted in the first week.
In a Bitkom survey, 53 percent of German companies said they struggle to manage their digitalisation, and whoever closes this gap with external help wants to know the price first. A universal number does not exist, but there are reliable ranges from the Swiss market.
Hourly rates of established agencies sit between CHF 150 and 250 as a rough range, depending on seniority and discipline. Ongoing mandates for an SME typically start in the four-figure range per month, and individual projects such as a website relaunch or a CRM rollout sit above that. What matters is less the rate than the fit, because an agency that asks about goals and systems in the first meeting calculates differently than one that offers a package right away.
Three billing models are common. An hourly budget fits occasional support. A monthly retainer fits ongoing operation and makes costs plannable. A fixed-price project fits well-defined ventures such as a relaunch. For digitalising an SME's marketing, the mix has proven itself, meaning a project for the build and a retainer for the operation afterwards.
Then run the numbers on the alternative, with your own assumptions. Say an internal marketing hire costs you around CHF 9,000 per month including social contributions and covers two of the required disciplines. A mandate that covers four disciplines and scales without notice periods is then hardly the expensive option. It is a different distribution of risk.
Picture a machine builder with sixty employees who has invited three agencies. All three present well. The difference is now made by the process, and no longer by the presentation.
Also pay attention to two soft factors in the conversations, because they decide day-to-day satisfaction. You need one fixed contact person who gets to know your business over time, and an agreed rhythm, such as a short weekly update and a results review every quarter. Changing contacts are the most common reason mandates tip over in year two.
The most important point comes last. All accounts and data belong to you contractually, from the website through the CRM to the ad account. A serious agency insists on this without being asked.
Choosing a marketing agency is neither a matter of taste nor a matter of price for an industrial company. It is decided by verifiable criteria, above all system integration, a verifiable partner status and a settled operating model after the project. Whoever asks the eight test questions in writing sorts out the interchangeable providers before the first contract lands on the table.
Want to try the eight test questions on a real agency? Send them to us and we will answer them in writing. As a HubSpot Diamond Partner we build ERP and CRM integrations ourselves and run marketing from Switzerland to China. Get in touch.
A full-service agency covers strategy, content, technology and ongoing operation from one partner, so a company does not have to coordinate several specialists. In a B2B context this usually includes CRM, marketing automation and the connection to existing systems. The counterpart is the specialist, who offers one discipline at maximum depth.
By verifiable facts instead of reference logos: a publicly visible partner status, system connections built and operated in-house, industrial references with a traceable path from contact to order, and a clear operating model for the time after the project. Whoever answers written test questions evasively usually also fails during the project.
As a rough range, hourly rates of established Swiss agencies sit between CHF 150 and 250, depending on discipline and seniority. Ongoing mandates for SMEs typically start in the four-figure range per month. More important than the rate is what the mandate includes, in particular whether operation and maintenance are part of it.
An internal hire pays off when a lot of similar work accrues continuously and the discipline is clear. An agency fits when several disciplines are needed at once, when marketing is only being built up, or when specialist knowledge such as system integration and export markets is required. Many SMEs run both, with an internal coordinator and an agency for execution and technology.
Projects such as a relaunch or a CRM rollout usually run three to nine months. Ongoing mandates are commonly agreed annually, with a quarterly review of the goals. Shorter test phases through a paid pilot project are a good way to check the collaboration before you commit for longer.
Access to your website including analytics and to your CRM, an honest overview of past activities, your positioning including target customers, and the names of the internal contacts with their availability. The more complete these foundations, the faster the agency delivers, and the less you pay for the catch-up work.