- Every marketing firm you approach will need to brainstorm and deliberate about your marketing requirements
- You must match your culture and business values before hiring a marketing agency
- Things like having poor or unclear contractual services can cause problems later on when delivering the contracted marketing activities
Communication is critical to marketing as is hiring a good marketing agency. The right agency will be able to convince you of their merit, provided you ask the right questions.
Below is a list of good questions to ask before you hire a marketing firm:
What Are the Firm’s Credentials?
The marketing firm must have a specialty in certain business segments or sectors, i.e., FMCG, durable goods, technology goods, education, healthcare, etc. Good marketing firms will pitch their years of experience, successful case studies, and strengths to your company. If they shy away from exploring the details of their work, you should ask for information for the complete picture.
Does the Firm Understand Your Needs?
Every marketing firm you approach will need to brainstorm and deliberate about your marketing requirements. To accomplish that, they can assess your needs and expectations from a brief published by you or within the first interaction with your company. Still, it never hurts to verify before hiring a marketing agency, if they have understood your needs correctly.
How Does the Firm View You and Your Company Culture?
Your chosen marketing firm must be able to extract authentic positive aspects about you, your business, and your organisation’s work culture. You must match your culture and business values before hiring a marketing agency. If the firm views these aspects differently from your intended brand or has substantial reasons to avoid aligning with all aspects of your culture, then they might not be the best choice for you. Customers will not feel that your business is genuine or authentic if the wrong firm does your marketing.
How Does the Firm Define Contractual Obligations, Communication, and Customer Service?
Similar to other business engagements with a vendor or a client, it is important to clearly understand how the marketing firm upholds transparency and clarity in its documents and processes. Ambiguity is always a source of conflict and poor delivery. Things like having poor or unclear contractual services can cause problems later on when delivering the contracted marketing activities.
If the marketing firm is unwilling to engage with you or their other customers directly and only via email or phone, this type of customer service can be more harmful to your business. It removes the possibilities of building good relationships and correcting any mistakes or marketing activities further down the road.
Ask for References
The marketing firm must be able to present the right references. They may not be from the same industry, but they may have the same marketing challenges as you. Customer feedback from the right references goes a long way in improving mutual understanding and trust. On the other hand, if this is absent in their references, you should move on to review a different marketing agency.
Ask for the Approach and the Plan
Marketing plan questionnaires are in place to get an understanding of how the firm intends to serve your marketing goals and build a practical approach to execute their strategy. Since you are a business owner, you are well equipped to gauge the suitability of their approach and their plan for you.
If the marketing firm tries to bombard you with questionnaires before giving a suitable answer, time to move on. A good marketing firm can present a brief plan and pick out your marketing needs without annoying you with too many questions. This is a great question that can work wonders to evaluate the marketing firm before hiring them.
Check out our free Marketing Resources to help you out when working with a marketing agency
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Communication is critical to marketing as is hiring a good marketing agency. The right agency will be able to convince you of their merit, provided you ask the right questions.
Below is a list of good questions to ask before you hire a marketing firm:
What Are the Firm’s Credentials?
The marketing firm must have a specialty in certain business segments or sectors, i.e., FMCG, durable goods, technology goods, education, healthcare, etc. Good marketing firms will pitch their years of experience, successful case studies, and strengths to your company. If they shy away from exploring the details of their work, you should ask for information for the complete picture.
Does the Firm Understand Your Needs?
Every marketing firm you approach will need to brainstorm and deliberate about your marketing requirements. To accomplish that, they can assess your needs and expectations from a brief published by you or within the first interaction with your company. Still, it never hurts to verify before hiring a marketing agency, if they have understood your needs correctly.
How Does the Firm View You and Your Company Culture?
Your chosen marketing firm must be able to extract authentic positive aspects about you, your business, and your organisation’s work culture. You must match your culture and business values before hiring a marketing agency. If the firm views these aspects differently from your intended brand or has substantial reasons to avoid aligning with all aspects of your culture, then they might not be the best choice for you. Customers will not feel that your business is genuine or authentic if the wrong firm does your marketing.
How Does the Firm Define Contractual Obligations, Communication, and Customer Service?
Similar to other business engagements with a vendor or a client, it is important to clearly understand how the marketing firm upholds transparency and clarity in its documents and processes. Ambiguity is always a source of conflict and poor delivery. Things like having poor or unclear contractual services can cause problems later on when delivering the contracted marketing activities.
If the marketing firm is unwilling to engage with you or their other customers directly and only via email or phone, this type of customer service can be more harmful to your business. It removes the possibilities of building good relationships and correcting any mistakes or marketing activities further down the road.
Ask for References
The marketing firm must be able to present the right references. They may not be from the same industry, but they may have the same marketing challenges as you. Customer feedback from the right references goes a long way in improving mutual understanding and trust. On the other hand, if this is absent in their references, you should move on to review a different marketing agency.
Ask for the Approach and the Plan
Marketing plan questionnaires are in place to get an understanding of how the firm intends to serve your marketing goals and build a practical approach to execute their strategy. Since you are a business owner, you are well equipped to gauge the suitability of their approach and their plan for you.
If the marketing firm tries to bombard you with questionnaires before giving a suitable answer, time to move on. A good marketing firm can present a brief plan and pick out your marketing needs without annoying you with too many questions. This is a great question that can work wonders to evaluate the marketing firm before hiring them.
Check out our free Marketing Resources to help you out when working with a marketing agency
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