Getting Value from Marketing Suppliers and Agencies
4 keys to great agency and supplier relationships
Every company is keen on getting value from marketing suppliers. As a company grows, they often find themselves hiring agencies to assist with different aspects of their business marketing. Until business growth warrants in-house hires of marketing skills, and often beyond, it is likely that most businesses will hire increasingly sizeable agencies as they grow, whether for PR, SEO, digital marketing or advertising – and gather a roster of other suppliers they turn to for design, writing, and more.
The trouble with agency appointments
Too often, when you have agencies outsourcing such work, the relationships are problematic. It’s common to feel you aren’t getting value from marketing suppliers, are not getting a good level of service or a return on your investment. Sometimes the grumbles are around the level or frequency of output, or the delay between starting work and the emergence of results. Perhaps you feel a little aggrieved that you are serviced by less senior people than you originally thought or simply feel there’s an imbalance between the cost of service and the results of the spend.
The reason for rocky relationships…
What could create the feeling that you are getting value from marketing suppliers? Part of the problem can lie in the history and approach of making appointments.
We’ve written about some of the strategic, practical and commercial problems that can creep in, in our earlier article on effective marketing supplier management.
However, when it comes to the quality of relationships, it can be hard to uncover why some relationships work, and others do not.
The hidden reasons for rocky relationships are often found on the client side as much as the agency side. Of course, some agencies may deliver sub-standard service, or leave things to a too-junior team. But often that’s not the problem at all.
For example: agencies are frequently left to manage themselves, with little hands-on help from the client side, after the original appointment. The gap can be informational, leaving the service provider without essential knowledge or understanding of your needs. Or it can be practical, leaving the agency without clear routes to information or support to do the job well.
The reality is that no agency or service provider relationship is a ‘set it and forget it’ proposition. These relationships need nurturing and developing, just like those you have with your customers and other enabling partners.
The four keys to effective agency relationship management
There are four essential aspects needed to make any agency relationship work, regardless of the type of agency or size of client organisation.
Lay a firm foundation: The foundation for effective relationships must be laid prior to and during the process of appointment. Being clear about your strategic aims, practical needs, and day to day support requirement sets the scene for realistic budgeting and frameworks for support. It is important that you learn enough about how different types of agency or service provider works, and what their revenue model is, instead of making assumptions.
Make smart agency selections: It’s essential that you choose your suppliers carefully, and never make emergency appointments on a rushed, ‘good enough’ basis. You should be evaluating targeted alternative providers for a service on a like-for-like basis that can only be done by giving a common brief to all. Take time to listen, get to know, and select your provider from the pack based on the human fit you feel, not just the skills base and evidence of previous work. Do not forget to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s on terms, making sure you’ve addressed all your questions and concerns.
Invest in shared success: After appointment, it is critical to invest in each relationship from the start. That means not only setting targets but agreeing what a successful relationship and service looks like. Provide each agency or service provider with a point of contact, who has the time and a clear mandate to support them to do a good job. Plan ahead for ongoing joint thinking and planning, so that agencies never feel ‘set adrift’ to figure it out for themselves. You’ll expect to be kept informed of changes on their side – so don’t forget to keep them abreast of changes on your side too. And as you kick off your relationship, don’t forget to educate your agency – they are experts in their field, not in your industry or about your organisation.
Hold a regular relationship review: Last, revisit your relationships on a regular basis. Getting value from marketing suppliers requires more than regular reporting and meetings with your agencies. Organise regular reviews, at least once per year, to assess at a strategic level if things are going in the right direction. Discuss results openly against targets and evaluate both qualitative and quantitative measures of success and progress. Good agencies and service providers don’t resist a review process like this. If both parties go into these reviews with a learning mindset they can enable relationships to evolve honestly and positively.
Keeping marketing agencies aligned
When you’ve a few marketing providers and agencies working for you, it’s important to keep them all in synch not just with you, but with each other. They need to feel like a team working together on your behalf – but they cannot do so when working in isolation.
How? Bring them together periodically to share an update briefing from your business. Arrange a team-wide conference call every now and again. Ensure that the senior partners or agency team leaders know each other and understand each other’s remit – to avoid accidental clashes and duplications, as well as to facilitate sharing of information. Critically, make it clear to these leads that you have an expectation they will collaborate and share information.
The benefits of taking a more structured approach to each relationship, and managing agency relationships proactively, are many-fold.
Getting value from marketing suppliers requires investment and doesn’t happen by magic. When there is investment on both sides, mutual trust and good human relationships grow which can significantly enhance results. Agencies cease to be stressful to manage and kick along the road and can instead become partners working almost as hard as you for your business success.
Are you struggling to get value from your agencies or finding that they aren’t working well together to ensure you get that value?
Getting every agency and provider into alignment with your business needs and each other is a key part of marketing control – get in touch to discuss.