6 things to look for when hiring a marketing agency

• October 8, 2018
• Agency

Having a solid marketing agency is imperative to growing your business. Clients hire professional marketing agencies because they need a trusted partner who can simultaneously manage creative and budgets, design and logistics, story and schedule. They know it’s best to leave your marketing strategy to the pros. Here are a few things to consider before hiring a marketing agency.

Process

An agency’s job is to help you connect with your customers – ultimately driving revenue and improving the bottom line. A good agency will combine strategy, creativity, and excellent account service to provide their clients with a holistic marketing partner who can handle all their marketing needs. Agencies tend to be handling a LOT of moving parts related to your business, so knowing that they’re buttoned-up is absolutely mandatory. 

Consistency 

In branding and marketing consistency is paramount, which means you have to be able to count on your agency to deliver on-time and on-budget, every single project. The only way for agencies to ensure that consistency is by having bulletproof processes.

Transparency

Agencies have a great deal of discretion in how they handle billing, and let’s be honest — marketing projects can get messy. Changes are often made mid-stream, new cooks are joining the kitchen all the time, and evolving expectations on all sides are not uncommon. If your agency is not proactively transparent with billing that’s a signal that things may be getting lost in the shuffle. Great agencies build a culture of transparency from the ground up, instilling all team members with the philosophy that clients come first, and as such their money and time must be treated with the highest priority. 

Capabilities

Some agencies are ‘Accounts Heavy’ – meaning they have a large proportion of their staff allocated to handling account management, but they are lacking in emphasis on an actual creative team. Instead of hiring designers, photographers, and video professionals, they focus on strategic planners, ad buyers, and account executives. Having all the Creative “outside” means that the agency has to go out and find vendors to provide the actual Creative that the client is asking for. This eventually gets seen by the rest of the world. Account management and strategy is certainly critical, but a balanced agency roster means that your agency is carrying a diverse array of skill sets across the marketing and creative discipline. 

References

Agencies should be able to demonstrate a track record of successful and happy clients. Great agencies should have clients who are more than willing to provide a reference or a recommendation.

Culture

Companies don’t hire companies – people hire people. Ultimately there are a number of great marketing agencies out there who can handle your projects. But there’s more to choosing who you work with than just the capabilities of their team. Regardless of how efficient and expert they might be, you’re going to be spending a lot of time together with them, so you do still want to find a team you can stand to be around. Hiring an agency is like adding a team of employees who only happen to work for you part-time. Just like with any other employee you’d interview, ask your agency questions about their culture and try to imagine what the experience of working with them day-to-day will be like.

Looking to hire a marketing agency? We’d be happy to chat! Drop us a line.