Your company has a marketing problem. You’ve been hard at work figuring out your needs and your options for satisfying them—including looking at internal hires and workloads—and decided to hire an outside marketing agency. Great! But before you sign on the dotted line, it’s up to you to perform due diligence before marketing outsourcing: the topic of this blog as well as the enVisioning Success podcast episode, Making the Decision: Agency or Internal?
Review Their Work with Other Clients
During your conversations with a marketing agency, you’ve hopefully gotten some examples of their previous work on website design, brand management, and marketing. It’s time to review all that. Some sites will list their clients, have testimonials, or provide case studies. You might have to ask them for some examples or referrals, as not all businesses like to promote outsourced marketing. You might even see their branding on sites you visit (for example, you can search for Marketing by Vision Advertising to bring up some websites by us).
Conduct a Trial Period or Evaluation
It’s worth having a discussion about an initial trial or evaluation period of one or more months, especially for ongoing marketing like content marketing instead of projects like website design. This can help avoid the buyer’s remorse of being “locked in” to a year-long contract and help both you and the agency decide if you’re a good fit for each other. Decide what marketing or consultation you’d like to try with them and reach out.
Assess Timelines and Flexibility
Both you and your marketing agency are going to need to be flexible in your marketing partnership. You might promise to be responsive to their emails and required information and review, but then get slammed by work. Likewise, the agency might encounter unforeseen issues with implementing your marketing or website elements. Everyone needs to take a breath, review hard vs. soft deadlines, reassess projects, and keep communication open.
About the enVisioning Success Podcast
This article is based on topics discussed in enVisioning Success, our weekly podcast hosted by Vision Advertising CEO Laura DiBenedetto and COO Julia Becker Collins. In it, they discuss all things business and marketing, from lead generation to leadership. Find us on PodBean to download from your platform of choice, or subscribe to our mailing list to get new episodes and other news delivered directly to your inbox. Interested in working with Vision Advertising? Learn more about our services and contact us today.
