When you finally hire a marketing firm to work with your business you should feel relieved. Now you will have a team working with you to guide your marketing in the right direction. You have experts at your disposal to tell you whether or not you should be on Pinterest, create a printed flyer for your customers or change the copy on the homepage of your website.
However, if you are like many small business owners, letting go of control over your marketing can be difficult. You know your business better than anyone else so it can be hard to turn over the reigns. Remember you hired this team because of their expertise. They need to learn more about your business, but they are also experts in their field.
Here’s how to build a trusting relationship with your marketing team.
Do Your Homework
Homework doesn’t ever really go away (sorry students). You’ll need to research multiple marketing firms before you start scheduling meetings. Look at a company’s portfolio page and case studies. Are they working with businesses in similar industries as you? Are they giving their clients the marketing results you’re looking for? Great! If not, maybe they’re not the right firm to work with.
Check out the ‘Meet the Team’ page. Learn more about the people who make up the company. Look up their social media profiles if you have time. Your relationship with your marketing team is a collaborative one, which means there will be lots of time spent communicating back and forth over design work and content. After looking at various marketing firms, if you can start picturing yourself working with a specific marketing team, it’s time to give them a call.
They Care About the End Goal
Be clear with your marketing team about your end goal. Do you want 50 new customers a month, increased web traffic or 500 new followers on Twitter? Depending on the outcome you want, process should be tailored to fit your needs. Sometimes they might suggest ideas you’re not entirely sure of, but that doesn’t mean they are wrong.
A good marketing team will recommend activities and strategies they believe will directly benefit your business. So express concern and ask about their reasoning and how the suggestion relates to your goals. You won’t get new results if you keep doing what you have always done.
They Want to Hear From You
I know you’re busy, you’re a business owner for crying out loud. You have emails to answer and phone calls to return, so providing feedback on marketing projects isn’t always your first priority. But the longer you wait, or the longer you go without responding, the more daunting the project will become. It’s much easier to give feedback each week on a few small things than it is to wait until you have to review all your website copy in one day. Provide timely feedback to the team and you’ll be golden.
You’ve hired professionals to help you, so let them!
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Improving Client Relationships