Marketing agencies stay up-to-date on the latest trends and innovations sweeping through the advertising landscape, often pitching these new technologies and platforms to the benefit of their clients. On the flip side, clients might be trying to promote new products or reach certain audiences, which gives marketers a creative challenge that can garner great results.
When marketers and their clients collaborate to achieve a specific goal, whether it’s being SEO friendly or increasing impressions, a relationship between agency and client needs to go beyond the written contract. It needs to be a holistic partnership where both parties have an equal say in marketing matters.
As a leading marketing agency in Texas, we understand the nuances and importance of the relationship between agency and client. So read on to learn why working with an agency has to be more about a partnership than just a transaction.
Understand the Agency’s Strength
No two marketing agencies are made equal, meaning they each have unique niches and specializations. Some might have experts in performance marketing and organic content, while others might focus solely on copywriting or design. To help narrow down your choice of marketing agency, you should ask yourself what they can bring to the table. This will usually be aligned with the individual marketing and business goals you want to achieve.
By doing your research to understand the prospective marketers’ strengths and specializations, you can cull your list of potential collaborators to focus on those with certain expertise that can help you realize your goals. When you understand the strengths of your chosen marketing agency, you can then further refine your goals to ensure your agency’s strengths are put to the best use.
What Are Your Goals?
Having clear marketing goals for your business is a surefire way to help your partner agency work out what resources they may need to help you achieve them. Though coming up with these goals can be a daunting task, you can easily use your business as a starting point.
To kick things off, start thinking about your business goals through the lens of where you are now and where you want to be. For example, if you find that purchases from a neighboring city are at a low, do you want to expand your reach to include these audiences? Can marketing help you achieve this goal?
But if you’re really struggling to align your business goals with a marketing goal, then there are some general goals you can use as a starting point, which your agency can help you refine. If you want to find prospective customers to increase sales, then consider lead generation as your goal. Though if you want to focus on spreading your business far and wide, brand awareness might be your goal.
If you’ve settled on a goal or two that you’re happy with, then work with your agency to figure out how you’re going to achieve them. Your marketing agency will have the expertise and knowledge to help shape a strategy that aligns with your goals. One of the great things about partnering with an agency is that some marketers may even offer a solution to a problem you might not have thought about.
Map Out Your Collaboration
After identifying your goals and how you’ll be achieving them, it’s time for you and your agency to sit down and plan how you intend to collaborate. A great way to kick-start the project is by having a meeting at the very beginning, either in-person or via Zoom or Teams.
By having this meeting, you can clearly establish expectations. You can start by outlining and detailing your timelines and milestones. This ensures that all parties are on the same page. It also creates a sense of accountability, as both parties will have to ensure that various deliverables and milestones are met on time and on budget.
During this meeting, you should also take the time to identify who is in charge of what aspect of the project, as well as what the agency needs to start the project with confidence. While establishing who’s who in the zoo, it’s a great chance for you and the agency members to get to know each other better. Not only will it allow you to put a face to a name, but it will also give you a chance to learn a bit about each person’s background and specialization, which can help you see how the various dots of your marketing plan and strategy are connected.
Create Clear Communication Guidelines
No matter the partnership, great communication always equates to exemplary results. Creating clear communication guidelines is a great way to open up the chat to ensure that all parties have access to each other so that they can get what they need to fulfill their role in the project.
One way to create clear guidelines is to establish how often you intend to meet for work-in-progress (WIP) meetings. Whether it’s biweekly or every month, having WIP meetings is an excellent way for the agency to regularly update you about the goings on of the project. This can include any big wins, potential issues, changes in the team or even reconfirming priorities. Having WIP meetings also gives you, as the client, the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarity on different aspects of the project.
By collaborating in a WIP meeting, both you and the agency can work together to stay on track to achieve the goals you set out together. It’s also a great chance to refine your goals based on the project’s progression.
Define Expectations
Having clear expectations for both parties is of the utmost importance. When both parties have a clear understanding of what’s expected of them, then they can follow through on their end of the project rather than putting in half as much effort due to incorrect assumptions.
For instance, if you assume that social media content creation includes graphic design and copywriting, but the agency only does one of those things, then expectations weren’t clearly established.
You should be using the preliminary meetings with the agency to establish what’s expected from all parties, to prevent issues that could’ve been avoided from the start.
Build a Long-Term Partnership with Integrate Agency
One of the great things about working with an agency is that they’ll get to know your business inside out – everything from your brand’s tone right through to the latest product or service you want to showcase. It’s this intimacy that helps foster positive, long-term partnerships.
If an agency focuses solely on delivering project after project, then they often compromise on quality. But by working with an agency that genuinely cares about the success of your business, you’ll have marketers who want to take your business to new heights through high-quality marketing.
And this is where we come in.
Here at Integrate Agency, our point of difference is fostering long-lasting partnerships with all of our clients. We support businesses big and small to grow through the power of marketing, all the while making new friends and connections along the way.
We thrive on collaborating with our clients to determine their needs so we can create a stellar marketing strategy that aligns with their goals. For each client we work with, we not only help them achieve their marketing goals, but we also support them well into the future.
Want to learn more about how we can bolster your online presence and have fun along the way? Then get in touch with our team, and let us develop a long-term partnership that will help your business soar.