Wendy Covey
Seeking out a marketing partner that focuses on creating successful campaigns to engineering audiences can be a daunting task. If you’ve never worked with an agency before, you may find yourself not knowing how to vet potential partners. Or it may be the case that you’ve been burned by a negative experience in the past, and are wary of ending up in the same situation again.
Regardless of which of these might describe your dealings with marketing agencies, here are some key areas to explore to find that perfect fit agency partner for your company.
Questions to ask when selecting a marketing agency:
What types of companies do you serve, and in what industries or markets? Who is your ideal client, and why?
What are the core capabilities of your agency? Where do you shine?
How would you describe your company culture?
How long have you been in business? How do you manage fluctuations in demand?
What is your mix of employees and contractors? What types of skills are on the payroll? How long have you worked with your contractor partners?
What marketing and sales technology certifications do you have?
What is the size and scope of a typical marketing engagement?
How is your pricing structured?
How would we interface with your agency? Describe a typical account team.
What is your process to address issues? How do you handle customers who want to cancel their engagement with you?
How do you measure results?
In addition to these questions, ask for the following:
- Examples of relevant work, such as websites and writing samples
- Case studies, particularly of long-term engagements showing results over time
Here are a few phrases to look out for:
“We do everything.”
Most agencies under 20 employees are not staffed to serve your every marketing need. And that is perfectly acceptable. Ask probing questions to find out what they are truly good at, and where you (or they) need to bring in specialist help.
“We will guarantee first page results on search.”
This is a warning flag that the agency is not strategically focused, and will likely look to play short-term SEO games, rather than build an authentic content strategy that yields quality leads and greater long-term results.
“We charge by the hour.”
With this model, you may have a very hard time knowing if you are going to hit your budget targets. If an agency is using an hourly rates to quote your projects, dig deep to understand how many hours things will take, and what they will do to ensure they are good stewards of your budget.
A few last words from an agency owner’s perspective:
We find great fulfillment in meeting with prospective new clients. We are happy to help guide you to a solution that the best fit for your business. Sometimes the solution ends up completely different than what you first asked for, and it may or may not even be with our agency, but it is through this process that we build trust and explore a mutual fit.
Unfortunately there have been times when companies call for “free advice” or are using our time to vet out pricing against another agency that they already intend to work with. As you might imagine, these are frustrating distractions for us. Please keep in mind that most marketing agencies are small businesses, and be respectful of our time -- just as we will be with yours. For example, if you are talking to multiple agencies, that is ok! But let that agency know and be forthcoming with your intentions.
We find that this collaborative, honest approach sets us up for a successful long-term relationship, whether as partners or mutual referrers.
Continue learning tips about successfully working with an agency by reading more about our process at TREW Marketing.
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TREW is a marketing agency dedicated to reaching engineering and technical audiences through a range of marketing initiatives. Contact us today to learn more about the services we offer.
Wendy Covey
Wendy Covey is a CEO, a technical marketing leader, author of Content Marketing, Engineered, one of The Wall Street Journal’s 10 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs in America, and she holds a Texas fishing record. She resides in a small Hill Country town southwest of Austin, Texas, where she enjoys outdoor adventures with her family.
About TREW Marketing
TREW Marketing is a strategy-first content marketing agency serving B2B companies that target highly technical buyers. With deep experience in the design, embedded, measurement and automation, and software industries, TREW Marketing provides branding, marketing strategy, content development, and digital marketing services to help customers efficiently and effectively achieve business goals.