Keys To A Productive Client/Agency Relationship in Marketing

Communication between your company and your marketing agency is critical. You need to tell them what’s working, what’s not and how your customers react so they can create the best possible marketing plan for you. And you need to heed your agency’s counsel.

Give Your Agency Lots of Information
When you first hire a marketing agency, you must provide a great deal information. The more you provide, the more the agency can help you:

#1. Have a goal

 “What are we celebrating this time next year?” This goal serves as the focal point around which an agency builds a marketing effort. It could be anything, including:
-Increase sales
-Boost market share
-Sell a certain product
-Sell through a certain channel
-Other

#2. Hand over all your sales and marketing information

Before you meet with the agency, have enough information to answer any questions they might have; it needs it to give you a thorough investigation.
This includes:

-Prior marketing efforts, including duration, cost and ROI
-Sales information broken down by source, location and item
-Know what types of marketing work for you and what don’t

#3. Leave your ego at home

By hiring an agency, you’ve admitted that your marketing needs help. Keep your ego out of the relationship. Don’t withhold information that makes your earlier marketing look better or stronger. Provide accurate information and numbers. The more honest information you can provide, the more the agency can help.

Offer Feedback

After your marketing plan is up and running, continue to provide feedback. This will help the agency discover new tactics and learn which campaigns are working and which aren’t.

Generally, they’re just discussions. Think of your doctor. You go in there, ‘How are you feeling?’ ‘Well, everything’s great, except when I do this, it hurts.’ It’s the same thing with marketing. We talk a lot, just like, ‘How are things going? How are you feeling about stuff? How’s this location?’

 
Send Ideas & Concerns

Clients say ‘Hey, I was thinking about this. … Take a look at this. … I think we should do this.’ Get some interchanges going back and forth. Schedule a conference call. If the conference call goes well, schedule a meeting. If the meeting goes well, implement the strategy and make it happen.

If you’re driving home and you’re stuck in rush-hour traffic, you look at a billboard -- and all of a sudden you’re thinking of a great way to sell. The greatest thing you can do with that little flash is call or email me what just happened and say, ‘You know, is there anything we can do with that?’

Listen to Your Agency

Agencies are hired usually because they know more about marketing than their clients – so, listen to your agency’s advice. Many marketers ignore common sense; they have a hard time letting go of favorite tactics. Agencies want to spend their time and resources on somebody who does want to improve.