Your boss finally gave you budget approval to use an outside vendor. After a month of searching, you found the marketing agency of your dreams. But now, after a couple weeks of working together, you’re left feeling a bit disappointed and frustrated.
What happened?
While you can’t necessarily control the actions of your agency, there are several things YOU can do to make sure you’re being the best client possible. And lucky for you, we’ve assembled them into this handy dandy blog post.
(Note: Several of these tips are taken right out of our very own “Guide to a Successful Agency-Client Relationship” that we hand out to all new clients.)
Don’t expect consensus
Feedback is an important part of the creative process, but getting everyone at your office to agree is next to impossible…and usually results in a “watered down” concept. Internally, designate one person as the ultimate decision maker—who should also serve as the agency’s main point of contact—who has veto power when there’s a disagreement.
Be available
Hopefully your agency is more of a partner than a vendor. They’re there to do the heavy lifting and critical thinking, but still need your feedback during the process to make sure they’re on the right track. This means you’ll need to carve out time during your busy work week for the occasional status phone call or in-person review meeting where they can have your undivided attention.
Expect a learning curve
Your agency may be masters of marketing, but you’ll always be the ultimate expert on your specific company. Expect a bit of hand-holding (and lots of question asking!) upfront while they get acquainted…subsequent projects will get faster and smoother, we promise!
Embrace new ideas
You’ve hired your marketing agency to do bigger and better things than you can accomplish in-house. Instead of falling back on old tactics, act bold and take a (calculated) risk to push your branding and marketing forward.
Respect deadlines
To keep your project moving along as planned, your agency needs your response by the deadlines communicated by their project manager. If you do run into unforeseen delays, they can always adjust the timeline; however, you might need to wait to get back on their production schedule if their team is booked up.
Have fun
Most agencies (us included) take their work seriously, but not themselves. Creative types don’t tend to wear business suits or high heels. And hopefully they try to avoid marketing buzzwords or enjoy replying to emails with an on-point meme. Odds are, they want you to feel comfortable enough to act like yourself, too!
