Whether your company is a small local business or a large corporate system, you recognise the importance of marketing and know that brand awareness is key for company growth. Usually, company owners don’t have the time needed to truly develop a great marketing plan and this leads them to seek the help of an outside specialist or agency. However, as it becomes more and more common to work with an outside company for public relations and marketing work, company owners are often unsure of what to expect before and during the process.
Know Your Market and Material
Marketing is so much more than putting money into ad campaigns and hoping it works out. Take some time to figure out who your target audience is ahead of time and the process of creating a marketing plan will go significantly more smoothly. By determining who your market is ahead of time, you will be able to save time in the “testing” phase after you hire a digital agency. However, prior to determining your market, try to take an unbiased look at the products or services offered and carefully evaluate the demand for what you are offering against the content that you produce.
Build Trust and Communicate
Just as with any great friendship, building a relationship with the employees of an agency will help create an effective bond that will help your business grow. Expect for them to ask a significant number of questions and remember that even though it feels as if they are poking holes in your business plan, they are just taking the time to grasp how your business works so they can provide the best marketing strategies. Consider creating a list of important information such as revenue goals, current marketing strategies, and how you plan to measure success. The agency you hired is there to help and this is the time to get vulnerable and talk about advertising weaknesses, not just the strengths.
Recognise the Partnership and Ask Questions
Once you have chosen and hired an agency, don’t be shy and remember to interact as much as possible. The agency is now your partner and will give the best results with a high level of communication at all hours of the day. If you have a marketing crisis during a strange time, make sure that your agency will still be available to help you. During the first few meetings, don’t get too comfortable and do ask plenty of questions to make sure that your company and the agency really do work well together. The agency should be working to integrate effectively as an extension of your current company structure but this works best when you bring your expertise in the company’s field, goals, and challenges to the table right away. After everything, remember that communication is quite literally what good advertising and marketing is all about and the relationship you have with the agency is no exception. Trust the agency of your choice to work alongside you and give constructive criticism about how to improve marketing efforts for both the short-term and long-term goals of your company.
