The agency-client relationship can be difficult to establish and grow. These are the things I've learned over the years as both a consultant as well as operations leader, hiring consultants and agencies.
6. Agencies can’t fix business, product nor
team problems with good digital marketing.
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7. Why Hire an Agency?
Expertise and focus to stay up to date with rapid changes
Often less expensive vs. building a team in-house
Leverage insights from multiple clients
Bring outside viewpoints (“see the forest through the trees”)
Avoid internal barriers and politics
Results focused and performance-driven
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8. Agency Considerations
What do you want to achieve? – Be specific
What skills do you have in-house? / What skills are you missing?
Resources and budget considerations
Agency fees
Ad spend
Technical implementation costs
Specialized vs. multi-service agencies
Time: Who will manage the relationship? Are they prepared?
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9. Agency Checklist
Are they current with latest trends?
Do they display thought leadership?
Have experience in your niche or vertical (Ecommerce vs. lead generation)?
Who will manage AND work on your account day-to-day?
Get sample reports and case studies (beware of large KPI increases)
Request multiple client references
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10. The Best Agencies…
Spend time up-front analyzing your business
Ask in-depth questions and are naturally curious about your business
Offer services based around classic marketing techniques
Educate clients as part of their process
Are confident, but humble: Show a willingness to continue learning
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14. Know the Business Situation
Start-up
Turnaround
Accelerated Growth
Realignment
Sustaining Success
Source: The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins
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15. Match Strategy to the Business Situation
What is the business situation? (likely a combination)
What kind of change is needed in the business?
Which type of efforts will likely create the most valuable change?
Which parts of the contract & scope fit with each business situation?
Aim to get early wins (Under promise and over deliver)
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16. Focus on ROI
Agree on metrics and data sources
Set up attribution models
Calculate and benchmark customer LTV (multiple time periods)
Build models to view LTV with attribution
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19. This is a Partnership
Check everyone’s ego at the door
Create plans and efforts that will truly change/grow the business
Leverage each other to help validate what needs to be done
Put in structure, process and systems to rapidly scale ROI
Agency
Negotiate time lines for diagnosis
and action planning
(build into service offering)
Clients
Be open about your business
(learn to build trust)
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20. Tips for Communication
Take ownership for making the relationship work
Clarify expectations early and often
Regular check-ins (both verbal and non-verbal), at least once per week
Identify the untouchables and address surprises quickly
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21. Create an Agile Mindset
Agile methods offer the most flexibility and greatest chance for success
Marketing is an “educated” guessing game (We don’t know what we don’t know)
At the beginning, guesses will suck
Every campaign/effort provides more data and feedback to improve
Use feedback loops: Continuously talk to customers and stakeholders to find out what’s
important to them
Size of effort and ROI are not necessarily correlated
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25. Summary
Client
Know your goals beforehand
Remember that agencies can’t solve business problems
Focus on ROI, not cost
Agency
Know the business situation
Get to the break-even point as soon as possible
Focus on the bottom line ROI (vs. secondary KPIs)
Build a partnership through open communication
Use an agile methods to build the relationship (continuous improvement)
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