Eight simple steps to help you select the right Agency partners
Your Marketing agencies are partners. An extension to your team. Experts. A relationship with value add. So before you get into bed with them, you'd best choose the right one.
Marketing Agencies are critical to business success – the difference between beige marketing that sinks unnoticed in a sea of nothingness, or stand out work that reaches your audience with compelling messages that generate action. The difference between return on investment and a waste of money. Far from a one night stand!
In the same way as any other business service, Marketing professionals have no shortage of approaches. Cold calling. Recommendations and introductions from senior leaders. Past relationships. Sometimes fast tracked or shoe horned due to time pressures to get things done. Sadly, they might not be the right fit.
Getting into bed
So how do you ensure you’ve got the right agency structure and team in place.
This blog will help you to think about what you need and a couple of approaches on how to pick out the best agency from your beauty parade. And a checklist you can download.
If you want to do it properly, agency selection takes a bit of time. You should review annually – that way you continually refine and improve.
Decide what you need
Like any organisation, an agency wants business. They’ll turn their hand to most things. But a brand strategy agency is very different from a PR agency or a digital agency. You have a marketing strategy and a plan – look at your priorities. Think about what you need to achieve and decide on the type of expertise you think you need. This will help you decide whether you need a generalist or a small roster of specialists.
Decide how you’ll pay
There are lots of remuneration models out there.
You can pay tactically for the hours estimated to complete a project or campaign – in which case you can compare, benchmark and negotiate day rates for different levels of seniority.
You can pay a retained amount – for example an SEO agency can commit to doing a set number of hours per month to achieve a schedule with objectives and outcomes.
You can include performance or value based remuneration metrics to reward (or penalise) the agency based on their performance/results.
Review annually
As part of your annual planning process, review your panel and roster against what you need for the year ahead – that way you refine an improve - dropping out agencies that don't match your needs and bringing in new fresh thinking.
The Beauty Parade – selection criteria
There’s more than one way to approach this – it depends on a few things. Your company culture and needs, audit trail, the amount you are spending annually, procurement guidelines. You need to decide – either way we’ll help you get to the end result.
Gut feel checklist
Weighted scorecard
Start with a long list of agencies, then narrow it down. Set out what you think you need and ask the agency to present credentials. A scorecard will keep you focussed. A gut feel scorecard keeps it simple, but if you need a more analytical approach you can take the points below, and mark up more detailed requirements, and even add weighting for the things that are most important. Be careful not to overthink though, or you end up with analysis paralysis. Here’s what to look for:
1. Cultural Fit/Chemistry
You need to get along, right. Mutual respect, honest challenge, constructive disagreement, transparency. Agency relationships that go the distance overcome issues because they are trusted – and you are both on the same wavelength. If your agency talks at you from an ivory tower, doesn’t listen, or you can smell the corporate bullshit, then they are not for you. If they buy in to your challenges and goals, are passionate, listen, ask questions and engage – then score them high.
2. People
This leads nicely on to people. Agencies tend to send in the dream team to pitch – super confident, articulate and persuasive professionals with trendy suits and tanned complexions. Once they win your business, you won’t see them again (unless there’s a crisis). Make sure you know the skillsets and experience of the people who will actually work on your account – be wary of the big sell and then a handoff to a graduate trainee. This is also an opportunity to check out things like people churn (is it a happy agency or not).
3. Agency Model – Specialist or Generalist
You might start out not knowing what you want, but understand the difference and value for any scorecard. The right approach really comes down to your individual circumstances. For example, you can engage a specialised agency if you need help with one component part of your digital marketing activity, or you might prefer a more holistic and integrated approach from a generalist digital agency. As you work through the process it will become clear.
4. Capability
Be clear on what areas you need your agency to add value – shaping your strategy or executing it, creative stand out, technical or analytical skills? list it in your scorecard – make sure the agency evidence this, so you are not influenced by a swish presentation that sounds like utopia, but isn’t actually what you need. Their portfolio and their case studies will help you decide.
5. Their size and your size
Are you a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a big pond. If you are a small fish, your work (even the urgent stuff) gets turned around after everyone else’s and you get very little of their strategic or creative talent. If however, you are a big fish you can end up with the issue where the agency aren’t able to cope with your demands.
Small agencies have the advantage that the senior people will be more hands on, so if the culture and capability feels right then you are onto a good thing. Larger agencies (especially those who are part of a multinational group or network) can add a different dynamic – for example they might have connections on the ground if you are entering new geographies.
Find out who their clients are and where you will fit – find the balance. (that means you matter – but you don’t want to be the source of too high a percentage of their turnover).
6. Evidencing Experience
Has the agency got experience in your sector? If they have loads of experience in tourism or pharmaceuticals and you want them to position your SaaS proposition, then you’re off to a shaky start. You want them to understand the basics of your sector, but not to come with too many preconceived or set ideas – look for the types of challenge they’ve overcome - things like marketing to enterprise leaders or small business leaders or explaining complexity. If the agency have a direct competitor wave a red flag. Unless they specialise in your sector, a conflict of interest will surely harm you. Find out what clients they have and ask for case studies that closely match your needs.
7. Financial stability
You want to ensure the agency is well run and stable. Ask what new business they’ve won in the last year, and equally what they’ve lost. Turnover – and what that equals per head. The body language will tell you all you need to know, but gather the facts anyway.
8. Reference and Testimony
Awards, Accreditation and Testimonies. Look for the wider picture here. Agencies are usually happy to put forward a client or two for testimony. Rather than accept a pre prepared glowing report, approach the client with some carefully considered awkward questions. An agency invested in best practice will have industry alignments, professional association memberships and accreditations like Google Partner for instance. Look also for recent awards. These things all add up.
Further Help
Feel free to use our agency selection template. You can also read our blog on how to brief your agency for awesome work here. If you need help with your Marketing Strategy and approach, one of our GTM HIVE Fintech SaaS fractional experts can help you. Check out our available expert and their rates now.
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