Finding the marketing company that can execute your strategy and meet your goals isn’t hard. There are numerous marketers in most areas with the necessary skills.
But why settle for a good fit when the perfect fit might be right around the corner?
As your search continues, you’ll jot down the names of the most qualified agencies and scratch off the ones who come up short. And you’ll end up with a list of perfectly capable candidates who can do the job. The problem, though, is that every one of your finalists is, basically, boring. Their ideas are okay but not great, and their forced enthusiasm doesn’t infect you with real enthusiasm. They all offer competence, but none of them have inspired you.
Here’s a tip: The inspiration is already inside you. What you’re seeking are marketers likely to feel that inspiration resonate, and use it to create a winning campaign. In other words, you want a team that thinks like you. So here’s what to look for:
- Shared Values
Your company’s culture has its own codified values that can include loyalty, safety, integrity, equality and more. Your agency’s values should match and complement yours. A high number of shared values indicates that you’ll both be on the same page more often than not. And shared ethics help ensure that the marketing company is genuinely dedicated to developing your business and not wandering off, following its own agenda.
- Sound Strategies
Ask your marketing candidates about strategy and process. What do they intend to do for your company, and what tools, digital and otherwise, will they employ? How does their process work? If all is explained to your satisfaction and their process would work in harmony with your own company’s process, then this agency would look like a good fit.
- Breakthrough Creative
Advertising and marketing creative is where you’re likeliest to discover if this agency will inspire you or not. Look around for awards, trophies, and plaques, especially for advertising creative or video/film work. If the agency’s creative makes you smile or—bonus points—laugh, say hi to your new marketing partner. Poor creative does not get results and, once used, is never heard from again. Your agency is obligated to give you arresting marketing content that makes your brand stand out from the crowd. And developing eye-catching ads for you that result in high numbers of impressions should be your agency partner’s primary mission.
- Get Results
When interviewing a marketing company, ask to see their portfolio of previous work and clients. Their portfolio will show you their work, and you’ll be able to ask about the results of different campaigns in the book. Their work will either impress you, depress you or leave you cold, so the work that impresses you wins this round.
- Company Culture
Your company has its own culture, either designed by management or sprung up spontaneously all by itself, like weeds in a vacant lot. And so does every marketing agency you visit. How did your time with the agency’s executives go? Were people relaxed or withdrawn, confident or tentative? Was everyone on the same page? Did the staffers get along well? Did you feel the creatives you met were fully capable of developing your campaign? In other words, did you trust them?
If so, you’ve checked off the boxes. And if one agency won your trust, made you laugh, offered sensible solutions, had a history of significant ROI and shared your company’s values, it’s time to make your inspired choice.