Businesses that work well with agencies

Transcript

In this episode, we’re going to be talking about what businesses benefit from working with agencies.
So who would you say works well with agencies?
In a nutshell, anybody that’s in charge of doing marketing at a particular business. So this could be a marketing manager, it could be a marketing executive, or you know, in some cases, it could be the owner manager. But the best relationship is where a client’s and there is one nominated person to work with the agency. Typically, where we see these things kind of fall down, or where the person nominated to work, the agency is really responsible for a million other things as well. So they’ve got great intentions, they come on board, they say, yeah, no problem, I’m going to get you everything when you need it, they start doing that, and then their attentions get distracted elsewhere. And that’s why we tend to find for a better long term, more stable relationship, it works better when that person’s at the client side is that their only job is the marketing function. Because that they understand it, that they know how to work with agencies, typically, they’re probably recruited for that reason as well. And it just works better from the agency side and the client side.
So do you have any tips on of how to get the most out of the relationship?
Yeah, I’m out thing really, every company should think about who to nominate. Now, if this to smaller company where they haven’t got enough members of staff to, to say I’ve got a dedicated marketing manager, there might be somebody who wants to take up the reins of sort of stepping into that role. If it is a good company that has got one great, or if it’s an owner manager who feels like they want to control the entire process, that’s fine, as long as they understand the logistics of working with the agency, and that their feedback needs to be good. And the key thing, reason that we tend to want this one person for contact is because they can aggregate all the feedback from within the business. So for example, say if we sent over a proof of a website, instead of getting 10 Different people replying, with 10 different sets of comments, this person has done the filtering, to get that into one list that they’ve approved internally, before it comes back to the agency. This is significantly quicker, in terms of turning around feedback back to the client. But also it’s just saves an awful lot of hassle in the process. And another really useful tip is being very precise with feedback. So one thing that we’ve seen many times is, yeah, like that, or no, don’t like that. But it doesn’t mean anything. What don’t you like? Or do you like? And so it’s really important that people think about when they’re giving feedback. And so say they don’t like that. Well, what do you like? Do you not like the colour do not like the image used? I mean, the number of times that we’ve actually sort of got through very large projects. And then the clients as as I don’t like that, and then we say, what is it you don’t like, and when it really boils down to it, it’s possibly one image that’s been used changing the image, suddenly, they absolutely love it. So I think being accurate and precise with the feedback gets a better outcome for them. The other sort of useful tip that I’d say as well as to trust your agency, you’ve employed that agency for a reason that you’ve looked at them, you’ve done your research on them, and they’ve maybe done work in your industry that you like, and trust them to do the job. Yeah, if you want to do it yourself, do it yourself. Yeah, or draw ourself and sort of then be very clear to the agency. They’re just drawing by numbers. But alternatively, really take the agency’s advice, they’re there, they’re being paid as professionals for a reason. Yeah, they don’t, they don’t necessarily appreciate having everyone dictate everything to them. And therefore the relationship doesn’t go very well from the outset. So if it is a relationship that clients are looking for, where they just need someone to do exactly what they asked them to do, then great, be really transparent about that from the outset. Alternatively, you know, most good agency relationships are ones where the client can trust the agency to get on with what they do best and trust the client to get on with what they do best. And have that sort of open, transparent and honest relationship in terms of the communication channels, what they really think of things and basically just sort of being very open with each other about what they do like and what they don’t like. So I think they’re probably our main tips really, for working well with agencies.
Thanks for that. James. If you’ve got any questions, please get in touch for us at Hello at so marketing.com