3 Questions to Answer Before Hiring a Marketing Agency

Table of Contents:

1. What are your goals and objectives?
2. What information are you willing to share with a marketing agency?
3. What is your top priority in a marketing agency?

You’ve been tasked to find a marketing agency for your organization. This should be easy, right? The honest answer is that it depends what services you’re interested in and how much time you have to vet the right agency for your brand. In most cases, a Google search or recommendations from your network may leave you with a vast list of marketing agencies to sort through – a task that doesn’t compliment a time crunch. There may also be immense pressure on you to find an agency that works well with your company, understands your brand and delivers results. An expert in the world of marketing agencies, Drew McLellan runs a consulting firm for marketing agency owners and maintains a pulse on what businesses are looking for. Here are three must-answers questions to ask yourself and your team to determine how a marketing agency can best suit your needs.

1. What are your goals and objectives?

This may seem like an easy question: what are you looking for in a marketing agency? Taking the time to do the upfront work with your team to determine what it is you’d like to see achieved with your marketing, what’s working and not working, and what services you’re interested in will save you time in your search. The number one trend that McLellan is seeing with companies that are vetting new marketing agencies? They want a marketing agency with a strong point of view. “Companies are tired of agencies dialing it in and bringing them the same stuff. They want fresh creative, big ideas and an outside perspective,” McLellan shares. It’s also important to know whether you’re interested in working with an agency that has deep expertise in your industry or if you’re looking for more of a generalist firm.

For example, we’ve had clients come to us as an agency outside of their niche because they wanted a fresh perspective after everything in their industry began to look the same. On the other hand, we’ve had clients that are interested in the work we’ve done for other businesses in their industry and they appreciate that we have the additional context and experience they’re looking for.

2. What information are you willing to share with a marketing agency?

When aligning with your team on what you’re looking for in a marketing agency, you can also decide what information you’re willing to share with the agency. If you want an agency that has bought into delivering your key performance indicators (KPIs), you have to be willing to share financial information with them and trust in the fact that you have a partner for the long term. As McLellan shares, “You can’t hold your cards so close to your vest that the agency doesn’t know enough to actually show you how they think and what they would do.” Being prepared to share your realistic budget, for example, allows an agency to create specific and smart solutions that fit within that range.

For us at Orange Label  marketing agency, items that can be helpful in the initial stages of our relationship include knowing your budget, KPIs and sales. If you are participating in our Orange Label Approach™, we conduct an Orange Exploration™ in which we meet with key players at your organization to explore your core business and marketing objectives, competitive landscape, history and more. Next, in the View From the Field™, we meet with a sample of your brand’s customers, prospects and/or external stakeholders to dive into your industry and discover the feelings associated with your product or service. With these key insights, we create a custom brand messaging platform and Marketing Execution Strategy tailored for your brand with key initiatives and tactics to achieve your goals.

3. What is your top priority in a marketing agency?

The last way to cut down your list of marketing agencies? Get ultra specific on your top priorities and must-meet criteria. For example, how important is it that the marketing agency be local? If your brand prefers to conduct in-person meetings, go to your marketing agency’s office and vice versa, this will reduce options for agencies that aren’t within your vicinity. Is your company willing to work with an out-of-state marketing agency or would you prefer that the agency is in the same timezone? If you’re open to working with an agency that’s in a different timezone, be sure to ask how that protocol will work and determine what times will work best for the instances when you do need to meet. For example, we’ve worked with clients that are right down the street and made in-person meetups a regular occurrence.  One of our longest-standing clients of 20+ years, Greenwell Farms is located on the beautiful Big Island of Hawaii and the distance (and three-hour time difference) has proven to be no match for our relationship! Determining send schedules for content, meeting times to review results and initiatives, and more can help steer relationships with a long-distance agency along with advanced planning and clear communication. Aside from geography, it’s good to be upfront about marketing initiatives you’re interested in to see what services the agency offers and get their pulse on what may work best for your brand. For example, our expertise at Orange Label marketing agency revolves around services in social media marketing, data analytics, media planning and buying, content and design.

If you’re in search of the right marketing agency for your brand, answering these three major questions with your team will get you started off on the right foot! To learn more about our services, please contact our marketing agency today for a quick call on how we may be able to help you or put you in contact with a resource that can. For more insights from Marketing Agency Consultant Drew McLellan, tune into our upcoming podcast in mid-March. Subscribe to our monthly email list so you don’t miss it!