Choosing the right marketing agency to help

Your business is ready. Your product is ready. You offer amazing service to your customers. The only thing you need now is a marketing strategy to turbo charge your customer / client base. For small businesses, or organisations that have limited resources such as charities, this can be a daunting challenge. 

Marketing is a broad word. It covers everything including traditional advertising, digital media, technology, word of mouth (virality), public perception and even ethics. Marketing agencies can help, but you need to be clear on what you want them to help with. 

Before speaking with an agency or consultant it is worthwhile defining the goals of your marketing efforts. What are the key factors you want to influence? What behaviors do you want your customers or prospects to change? Are you clear on the story of your business or organization? Are you happy with the presentation of your brand?

By zoning in on the key areas that you feel need addressing and asking the right questions internally, you can establish a rich environment to partner with an agency or consultant. 

Here are 4 things to remember when selecting an agency or consultant to help your business. 

What are the overall goals for your marketing function? 

You do not have to know what their strategy is at this point, but you need to know the desired outcome. For example, a simple phrase such as “We want to increase the number of enquiries online about our service”, or, “People are not aware of what our charity does in the community”, are good starting points. Such statements provide clear points to address through marketing strategies, programs and tactics. If the recommended strategies and activities all align with your goals; then you are on the right track. High performing agencies are great at identifying where there are strategic opportunities to help you achieve your goals. 

What is your budget? And be clear about it! 

This is obviously crucial. Be clear on the max amount that can be spent and the timing of this spend in your budget. If an agency is to propose a strategy that does not meet this, they have not addressed your brief. At times agencies may offer tiered strategies where they illustrate what an increase in budget can deliver in terms of outputs. This can be useful for future planning. However, if they have not put the majority of their work into your initial brief, they have not delivered what they have promised. If an agency cannot deliver work within the budget you have provided, they are not the agency for you. 

Resources are finite, and need to be treasured

Every project and program needs people to execute it. You can have all the plans and strategies laid out perfectly, but if you don't have the people or resources to work on it - nothing will happen. Your agency should understand this and advise accordingly. If an agency proposes that you hire new staff to execute work they have recommended, you need to be extremely diligent in calculating the return on investment. Hiring new staff to support new marketing initiatives is dangerous for small businesses and charities. It is not known whether the new marketing strategy will be successful and whether this need will be needed in the future. Shifting resources to support new marketing efforts create opportunity costs in other areas. Never forget your core operations. Remember that your customer experience is highly reliant on these.

Don’t boil the ocean! 

As mentioned, there are lots and lots of aspects covered by the term “marketing”. It is very common for organizations to try and pursue every area. They could have new strategies launching in paid social, SEO tactics, email marketing programs, radio campaigns, PR strategies and a brand relaunch; all planned at the same time. The likelihood here is that resources and focus will be spread too thin. Statistically it is hard to pinpoint the effectiveness of one program when there are multiple programs at play. Where possible, an incremental approach is best. Test, analyze and adjust. By using this approach for each of the activities you launch you can weed out the ones that don’t work and optimize the activities that do. In time you will build a portfolio of high performing programs and strategies, and be confident in their performance. 

You live your brand. You know your customers. 

Agencies and consultants can influence your decisions; but they do not make the key decisions regarding the mission and values of your brand. The work of your agency and consultant should help you understand how your brand is perceived externally and provide pathways to increase the performance of your brand. However, you have likely spent the last number of years establishing how your brand is perceived, gathering direct feedback from customers and learning along the way. There may be challenging decisions to make based on what the agency recommends, but do not discount your experiences entirely. Every brand has a story to tell. Remember, you have been living your brand and will be living your brand longer than any external agency. 

To discuss these topics and more, please reach out to us directly on phelim@alcomis.ie.