If you’ve never worked with a full-service marketing, advertising, and web design firm, or if you’ve never found one that you truly clicked with, you may view entering into this relationship with some trepidation. Will they listen to our ideas? Will they understand our goals and our industry? Who gets the final say on creative issues?
Fear not! The client/agency relationship, when conducted properly, is a thing of beauty. Here’s how it should unfold:
Introductions
Face-to-face meetings are great, but not absolutely necessary. The key is making sure all the players on both sides have a comfort level with one another and an understanding of everyone’s role. This can be done in an informal conference call just as easily as in a conference room.
Research
The next step is for the firm to get to know your company, your product or service offering, your industry, and any intel you have on your competition. This process, which involves some back and forth with your team, also helps cement your newly-formed business relationships.
Coordination & Planning
With a good understanding of where you are today, where you want to be tomorrow, and the resources you have for getting there, your agency should now be involved in coordination and planning. Whether you are rolling out a months-long, multi-faceted campaign or creating a single, new marketing piece, it’s worth the time to ensure that everyone knows how the project will progress. And seeing the completed plan should be very reassuring for you.
Execution
Throughout the engagement, communication is key. Hopefully you will have gotten to know all the players at the agency, but you should also have one primary point of contact or account manager who ensures that everyone involved (designers, programmers, writers, etc.) are all on the same page and working steadfastly on your behalf. Even if you do have direct access to other players in the agency, everyone (including you) should always copy your primary point of contact, to ensure proper follow-up on all of your questions, concerns, and feedback.
Review, Feedback, Iteration, & Approval
Your agency will provide you with many opportunities along the way to see and comment on drafts (or “comps” as they are often referred to). You will need to take your review, feedback, and approval process very seriously, as ultimately you will be responsible for the outcome. Your account manager will present the deliverables in a way that makes them easy to review and refreshes your memory on how they relate to one another. If you have changes you’d like made—even at late stages of the process—a good agency will be very accommodating. When mistakes ARE made (as invariably they are) a credible agency will take responsibility when the error is theirs (especially if for some reason you did not approve the final work).
Launch
Your agency will have double- and triple-checked every aspect of the work, coordinated with other vendors involved, and, in general, gone over every detail of each piece with a fine-toothed comb. In short, they may have some sleepless nights leading up to the launch, but you should not.
Smooth as Silk
While you can certainly find stories of dysfunctional client/agency relationships, they should be few and far between. When you have found the right firm for your marketing, advertising, and online presence, you have every reason to expect that the entire process will flow smoothly. And if it doesn’t, your agency will act quickly to put things back on track. All the while, you can be working on other critical business initiatives or just kicking back for a few to enjoy this success!
