Think of your partnership with a marketing agency like dating: a relationship that involves commitment and communication. This blog will outline practical tips for achieving both so that you can enjoy a smooth partnership and plenty of benefits.
Get Organized
Before your agency relationship begins, take a moment to organize your internal team. This proactive step ensures you’re able to delegate tasks effectively, and clearly define team members’ roles and responsibilities. Here’s what you can do before you meet with your agency.
- 01 Audit your capacities: Evaluate your team’s availability to determine its capacity to support the project efforts, and with these findings…
- 02 Assign clear roles: Assign roles and responsibilities to your project team members to foster accountability and delegate tasks.
Be Communicative
Great communication is the basis of all thriving relationships. With clear correspondence between you and your agency, you reduce confusion, keeping your project propelled toward success. Here’s what our Account Managers recommend to help you communicate with your agency:
- 01 Establish preferred channels: Let your agency know your preferred method of communication. Whether by email, phone, video call, or an in-person meeting at a quaint little coffee shop.
- 02 Designate a primary point of contact: Assign a single team member with the task of managing all communications with your agency, including consolidated feedback on deliverables. This minimizes confusion and the risk of project misunderstandings and disruptions.
Build Trust
Trust is the cornerstone of all flourishing relationships. In a transparent and honest relationship with your agency, you give your project the air it needs to be creative, goal-oriented, and all-around fun to work on. Here’s what we recommend to help you build trust alongside your agency.
- 01 Be Honest: Transparency is vital when building trust. Whether you have project sensitivities, concerns, ideas, or any other thoughts, express them to promote an open dialogue with your agency.
- 02 Ask questions: There are no wrong questions. Asking for clarification and challenging thought processes ensures you and your agency are on the same page, collaborating on solutions that target your desired outcomes.
Share Your Input
Feedback nurtures relationships. Throughout your project, your input helps shape and guide it, priming it to hit its mark and deliver results. Take these words of advice to help you organize, share, and have your feedback implemented effectively throughout the project.
- 01 Set realistic timelines: Communicate with your agency to set feedback and review timelines that are realistic for your internal team, taking into account lead times for each reviewer.
- 02 Organize feedback protocols: Understand which of your decision-makers must provide their input. This ensures all feedback can be consolidated into single responses, avoiding fragmented, conflicting, or overlapping thoughts.
Manage Your Expectations
Not every relationship starts on the right foot. Scope changes occur for various reasons, such as unclear project goals, which can result in additional costs and timeline adjustments. Here is our advice for successful scope management.
- 01 Flag additions early: Understand your agreed-upon project scope and discuss anticipated additions with your agency. This allows adjustments to be made as soon as possible.
- 02 Clarify scope management: Recognize that adjustments may accrue additional costs and resources. Before you commit to scope changes, ask your agency how they may affect your budget or timelines.
In the End…
To help you win over a successful relationship with your agency, start by clarifying roles and responsibilities within your team, and ensuring effective communication through preferred channels and a designated point of contact. Foster trust by openly sharing project details and encouraging questions for improved collaboration. Organize feedback with realistic timelines to avoid mixed messages and address scope changes promptly, understanding their impact on budgets and timelines for project stability.
By following this guidance, you’ll be well on your way to establishing a fulfilling and results-driven partnership that ensures your project remains on time and on budget – like a perfect date.
