Jul/091
Marketers and Their Agencies – So Happy Together?
Since moving back in house as a start-up marketer from a position at a marketing agency, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the marketer/agency relationship. The majority of my background resides in using inbound marketing as an effective tool to generate sales and grow start-up companies. While it is nature of the beast at start-up companies that much of the marketing is in house, I’ve worked with a handful of different agencies, and also gained unique perspective from my time at an agency. So I’ve seen both sides. And between smaller companies and the associated smaller marketing agencies, there often exists a weird dichotomy. Perhaps it exists because these relationships are not the type that you would find with larger organizations and larger agencies, wherein retainers or, “we’ll bill you by the hour, and by hour I mean every time I pick up the phone” are commonplace. Such relationships allow the agency to generate enough revenue where they’re comfortable with a limited amount of clients, so each client gets personal attention, forward-thinking agency teams, etc. The opposite type of relationship is what you’ll often find with smaller companies and smaller agencies. In this type of relationship, the client wants as much as they can get from the agency at the lowest possible price. This will inevitably lead to agency frustration, as they will expect due compensation for the work they complete. I’d be interested to hear thoughts from either side of the aisle on this, but in the meantime, here’s my rough cut at how we can mend this divide.
Marketing Agencies:
- Add value to our relationship: Hey, you can carry out a task I asked you to do? Nice. You can do it right the first time? Great. Want to make it so that I don’t shop around jobs and rely solely on you? Add value. Look out for me. Make me aware of new trends that would benefit my company. There are a lot of design agencies that will take my company’s money and give me collateral, logos, and “branding” in return. But more than most, small company marketers have to show a return on every dollar they’re given. Start-up marketing tends to be even stricter, as not only do I have to show a return for every dollar, but our revenue growth goals are very steep. Every dollar matters, and should be invested with this in mind.
- The past is the past: As far as you’re concerned, it doesn’t matter much to me what happened before I joined the company. I’ve been briefed on the company’s background, tactics, and strategies before I was hired, and there’s a reason I was brought on. With the average tenure of a CMO at an all-time low of 18 months, I understand why agencies worry about managing through the transfer. The best thing you, as an agency, can do? Hear me out, then add value to our relationship. No doubt as the new hire I’ll have some ideas. I’m all for a good back-and-forth, and a good intellectual challenge is always welcome, but if your response is, “Well that’s the way it was before,” or even worse, you want to fill me in on the old world, sorry, you’re wasting our collective time.
Marketers:
- Keep your expectations in check: Yep–you’re doing your job when you’re getting as much out of your agency as possible while containing costs. But be careful here. By cheaping out on your agency, do you think you’re going to get their best work? Think they’re going to look out for you or even be proactive, presenting you with new and different options without you having to ask? Probably not. Be realistic and fair, and your agency will do the same.
- Turn it around: Agencies love nothing more than responsive, engaged clients. It is understood that sometimes running the business or working something through internal procedures gets in the way or may take more time than expected, but try to be as responsive as possible and provide quality feedback to your agency. If something is going to be delayed, at the very leads give them a heads-up and keep them abreast of any changes.
Both:
- Collaborate: This is where the best ideas come from. I, as the in-house person, know my industry and my product. You, as the agency, are likely more aware of different ways I can successfully market it. Let’s collaborate on this and see what happens. This is the best possible working relationship, and both side should strive to make this happen.
What are your thoughts on this? Leave ‘em in the comments.
