Are you looking for tips for hiring an advertising agency? Using a marketing agency is a great way to create a good marketing strategy and make it a reality. However, without looking into tips for hiring an advertising agency before you get into a contract, it can turn into a nightmare. Instead of developing a great marketing strategy, you’d just waste the money and gain nothing. When you jump into using a creative agency before you read our tips for hiring an advertising agency, you could easily just be flushing money down the drain.
This is why we recommend researching tips for hiring an advertising agency before you get into a contract, and we put together a quick guide to get you started:
Six Quick Tips for Hiring an Advertising Agency
- Understand what your ad agency does (and does not do).
Some business owners assume that the point of an advertising agency is to increase your sells. If executed properly, the strategy the ad agency puts in place will improve the overall health of your business in the long run, but helping you make a quick buck is not the function of an ad agency.
The primary goal of a marketing agency is to help you identify who your target audience is, what reaches them, and what narrative has the best impact on connecting you with them. Once you’ve narrowed this down, you have the focus to create a really effective marketing strategy, that will build your brand and improve ongoing health of your company. If you get into a deal with an ad agency thinking that they’re going to be responsible for moving your product today or tomorrow, you might be disappointed. - Collect request for proposals (RFP).
Collecting a RFP from each of the perspective ad agencies you’re considering will allow you to identify the agency that best understands your company and the direction you want to go in. The RFP will give you a glimpse of the creativity the agency has to offer, how well they understand your brand, their connection with media channels, and will help you gauge if they are a good fit for your business or not. - Pay attention to whether or not the agency understand your brand.
Despite what they’ll tell you, there is no ad agency that is a perfect fit for every company. Marketing is not a “one size fits all” kind of service. In order to ensure the agency you’re working with will help drive your marketing approach towards your goals, you need to know that they understand your business’s goals. The better the the agency grasps your long-term plans, the better they can create a marketing strategy that aligns with it. - Work with your marketing agency to create a budget.
Many business owners think that creating a budget for a marketing strategy is the responsibility of the ad agency, and they just sign the checks. However, the most effective approach to developing a marketing budget is when the business owner and the ad agency work together on it. The business owner best understands the financial health of the company and the budget that will align with their long-term goals, while the ad agency best understands the industry standard and how to prioritize strategies to meet a budget. If the owner and the agency don’t work together on this, the marketing campaign will not be as effective. - Understand your own brand.
There are a lot of “stock” marketing approaches that appeal to basic human needs to sell a product (this product will make you look/feel better, have greater financial security, improve your life in some way). Some of these strategies work with a variety businesses and products, but if the approach you take doesn’t follow with your brand, it will alienate or confuse your target audience. - Keep your campaign consistent across all channels.
Your ad agency will likely use several channels to convey your marketing message. Perhaps social media, sales material, or other strategies. You want to make sure that the message is consistent across all channels, so the brand message is cohesive. A good marketing agency will do this for you, but it is something you should pay attention to while considering RFPs and making a ad agency selection.
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