5 Ways to Get the Most from Working with a Marketing Firm

As we head closer to 2022, many companies may be considering working with a marketing agency next year to make progress toward their visibility and sales goals. This can be an advantageous relationship, no matter whether you plan to have the agency function as your sole marketing arm, or if you plan to use it to execute only the activities that your internal team does not have the expertise or bandwidth to support.

As a full-service agency with over 17 years of experience supporting B2B tech and healthcare companies, we’re suggesting the following best practices for optimizing your relationship with your marketing partner to ensure you get the most benefit:

Set objectives and performance benchmarks early on. Agencies should be evaluated based on their ability to hit KPIs, so communicate goals and determine performance metrics at the beginning of the relationship. Understanding expectations can help the agency self-evaluate and readjust marketing activities as needed.

Share your subject matter expertise. Increasingly, customer journeys are digital first, so it’s vital to have a regular flow of useful content for prospects to consume. Marketing agencies can be a wellspring for content development, but they need your help. While agencies can offer writing pros who understand how to effectively tell a story, they still depend on the company’s subject matter experts as an information source. The most effective content-development initiatives are a partnership between a company’s SMEs who provide the knowledge and the marketers who know how to write it up in an engaging, compelling manner.

Be realistic in expectations. We all want to shoot for the stars, but it’s also important to discuss with your agency what they can realistically do within the parameters they are given. A smaller budget won’t go as far in getting things done as a larger budget, for instance. From a media standpoint (PR and media relations are often considered a subset of marketing), it’s also important to be realistic about just how significant your company’s news is. A brand new, first-of-its-kind solution that fills a major market gap will very likely gain more significant coverage compared to a minor software upgrade or enhancement.

It’s about the long game. Objectives such as building awareness and establishing thought leadership take time to gain momentum. Oftentimes, clients come on board with an agency with these goals and anticipate seeing results within mere weeks. Understand that building such awareness does not happen overnight. Instead, focus on steady, incremental gains that lead to increased brand awareness over time. As an offshoot of this, many companies sign on with an agency just weeks before a major product launch or announcement. Be sure to give the agency time to build a plan of attack for optimal results.

Communicate regularly. Your marketing agency needs visibility into your company happenings and product roadmap, so be sure that you have an internal liaison who can frequently communicate and collaborate with them. Plan for regular meetings to talk about the status of ongoing activities as well as new events on the horizon.

A marketing agency delivers the best results when treated as a company’s trusted partner and an extension of its operations. Remember that the agency wants your company to succeed as much as you do, and that your success helps to validate the agency’s value to others.

If you’re ready to start the conversation about your 2022 marketing or PR goals, let’s talk today to get the ball rolling. We’re ready to partner with you for the most successful business year ever.