You expect a lot out of your employees but do you set expectations when you’re the client? Working with a marketing agency can be extremely rewarding – it frees you up to focus on other parts of your business and reach customers at the same time. Being the client requires you to speak up and let your agency know how they can best support you. To make the most of your relationship with a marketing agency, you should go in with expectations of what they can do for you.
Expect to get what you want in a way that works for you when it comes to measuring success. There’s no one-size-fits-all report for all clients. The beauty of reporting software is that we can send you exactly what you want to see. While most clients prefer to get a monthly report summary along with a conference call, it’s up to you how high level or in-depth you want to get with your data. One of our clients likes to see his data weekly so we created an automated weekly summary of his accounts that goes directly to him and then we can answer any questions he has or make changes mid-month based on his feedback.
Expect your marketing agency to set deadlines for you and hold you to them. Getting your agency the material they need on time allows them to do their best work for you. Having deadlines allows your agency to schedule in the time for your projects appropriately. We work with a client on their email newsletters that go out monthly. We make it clear to them that if they want their email to go out the last Tuesday of the month, they need to get everything to us by the Thursday before so we can ask questions and get the newsletters approved in plenty of time before they go out.
Expect some trial and error. Marketing is an art and a science which takes time to develop. Just like any relationship, it takes time to get to know your marketing agency. We have clients who are always traveling and when I started working with them, I wondered why they took days to get back to me. Now I know I need to give them their space and I can plan my projects more accordingly.
Your marketing agency is there to help you achieve your goals. Knowing what to expect from them will give you what you really wanted in the first place, marketing that takes your business where you want it to go.
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