Are you looking for tips for hiring an advertising agency? When you are looking into hiring a marketing agency for the first time, it can feel overwhelming. If you hire the right creative agency, you often find yourself on a seamless path towards your marketing goals. However, if you do not keep these tips for hiring an advertising agency in mind while making your decision, you might find that all you have to show for the money spent is wasted time and lost sales.
To help you make the right choice, we’ve put together a list of tips for hiring an advertising agency the first time:
Four Tips for Hiring an Advertising Agency
- Keep your eye on what’s important.
Many times, small business owners choose their marketing agency because they feel rapport with the account manager they work with. While it is important to have good communication and chemistry with the marketing agency that you work with, this is not what is going to get your business on the marketing path you want it to be on.
We aren’t saying don’t follow your gut instinct if you particularly like a marketing agency. We’re saying don’t let this be the only factor in your decision making process. Make sure you look into the agency’s experience with other businesses like yours. Talk to other clients who they work with; ask about their satisfaction. Look at their portfolio. Your marketing goals aren’t going to be reached through the smile and charm of the marketing agency. They’ll be successful through the work of the ad agency; that’s what you want to base your decision on. - Be forward-thinking in your decision-making process.
As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Perhaps the needs you have are fairly small-scale, but as your business grows, so will your marketing goals. Don’t approach your search for the right marketing agency with only the needs you have today in mind. Create a timeline that you foresee for your long-term marketing needs. How do you foresee growing your website to keep up with the market? What will your social media look like in a few years? What multi-media resources will you need down the road?
While considering marketing agencies, ask yourself how the agency that your looking at fits into your long-term plans. Maybe they can meet your needs now, but you’ll have to move to a bigger marketing organization (or a smaller one, who is more dedicated to only you) down the road if their services don’t align with your needs. Keep your long game in mind while shopping for marketing agencies. - Remember that good communication is a two-way street.
By all means, you should look for a marketing agency who is careful to listen to and understand your needs, and great at communicating with you. However, there is no marketing agency in the world who can read your mind. It is your responsibility to be direct and communicate your needs, before finalizing which marketing agency you’ll use.
If you have a tight budget, you need to make sure that you convey that to the prospective marketing agencies, in the initial meetings. They cannot create a plan for you if they don’t understand your budgetary limitations. Your time frames need to be clearly set forth before you make a final decision on which marketing agency to use. If there is any marketing concept that you particularly love or hate, make sure that you bring it up before bringing the marketing agency on, so they can make sure their plans align with what you have in mind, from the get go. - Don’t rush yourself.
You might be eager to get your marketing campaign going, but taking the time to make sure that the marketing agency you use is right for your business will save you the time, money and frustration of choosing a team who can’t help you.
Before making a decision on which marketing team to hire, request that each agency presents a request for proposal that explains how they will tackle your marketing needs, the cost and time-frame. Make sure that the representatives who present the pitch are the actual team you’ll be working with, as some agencies use a “business development” team to hook you in, and then you never see them again.
