What Do Clients Look for in Marketing Agencies?

At Setup, we live in the world between marketing agencies and brands, connecting the two and consulting them on how to work effectively together. In any partnership, it’s important to understand and articulate the expectations one group has of another. 

The following list includes five notable traits marketing leaders from Great Clips, Atlanta Hawks, Randstad, CrowdStreet, and NCR expect from their marketing agency partners. 

[These answers came from our CMO Spotlight series. If you would like to learn more about these leaders’ marketing perspective and career advice, click here.]

Marketing Agency Must #1 | Alignment 

Clients want a marketing agency who is an extension of their team. “I look at agencies as a direct extension of our team, so I don't look at it like it's a client-agency relationship, but rather I'm scaling my team with variable cost and I'm getting people who are able to do things that we don't have as a need full time,” shared Brent Hieggelke, the CMO of CrowdStreet.

In order to work as a team, the partners need to align on values and work styles. 

The most important aspect of working with marketing agencies for Great Clips is alignment on values. “We are very steeped in our values, we live our values…and having an agency partner who has similar values is extremely important to us,” Lisa Hake, the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Great Clips, shared. 

When looking for a new agency, Joanna Irwin, the Global CMO at Randstad, also looks for partners with similar values. “I think it really starts with our core values as a company. So for Randstad, our core values are to know, to serve, to trust - striving for perfection and simultaneous promotion of all interests.” Ultimately, Randstad prioritizes how they feel when interacting with potential clients. When determining agency partners, they ask: Which one is going to jive with the company's personality and the team's personality? Which partner would they love to interact with?

Katie Kirschner, the VP of Brand, Content and Digital Marketing for NCR, emphasized the importance of recognizing each other’s chemistry and work styles. Since NCR is very hands-on and gritty, they need a partner who is willing to get down into weeds and work alongside them. “I want people who are getting in the dirt and rolling up their sleeves with us,” stated Kirschner. 

The best way to find alignment is to ask the right questions upfront. Kirschner always notes whether or not an agency focuses on themselves or shows knowledge/asks questions about the client first during a pitch. 

Marketing Agency Must #2 | Transparency

Hake prioritizes transparency and collaboration when working with different agency partners - making sure communication is at the forefront of the partnership. 

Melissa M. Proctor, the CMO and Executive Vice President of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena, also looks for transparency in her agency partners. “A lot of times there's a lot of bait and switch.” Agencies may present one team in the pitch, and then the client never sees them again. As an agency, being upfront and honest about who is working the account from the beginning will lead to a healthier relationship built on trust. 

Most every marketer wants to know who they will be working with and if there is a chemistry fit. One of the things Kirschner looks for is if the people brought into the pitch are going to be on the project.

Marketing Agency Must #3 | Experience

Experience is also a key factor in selecting an agency. Hake shared that both franchise and multi-unit retail experience play a role in making the Great Clips business a success. 

Having the expertise to offer something groundbreaking in the industry or catering to a specific need is imperative to Proctor. “I want to work with an agency that has some background or case study of irreverent work or copywriting that's in that frame of mind. Or if I'm looking at something that's very B2B focused. Or speaking to corporate partners…I'm looking for an agency that has the ability to turn on a dime and operate in that way. It's difficult to find one stop shops that can do all those things very well, and so I really think it's looking to be targeted in the work that we're looking for - and if it's digital or if we're looking for an influencer campaign....how are they approaching the work differently than everybody else that may be....because there's a lot of things that we can try to do inhouse, but if we're partnering with an agency, it's because they do something above and beyond what we're able to do. And so having that point of differentiation and being able to articulate that, is critical.”

Hieggelke pointed out that an advantage of having an agency, or resident expert in the field, allows the client to have access to a range of skill sets and perspectives from working across different industries. Instead of hiring a dedicated video person, agencies have video experts to handle one-off tasks, making it more affordable to partner with an agency. 

Marketing Agency Must #4 | Representation 

“One of the things that I look for in an agency is based on brand and the target audience, making sure that there's some level of diversity within the agency that can speak authentically to that audience,” Proctor shared. “There are a number of times where I've been pitched by people who look nothing like my target audience, have no connection to it, and I'll ask, ‘What is the makeup of your agency? What does that look like?’ I don't doubt the work that you do, but I think it's important for us to do business with people who understand our audience in new and unique ways.” 

Proctor believes it is important to understand your target audience through and through, and sometimes that means hiring people with the same background and perspective as them. 

Marketing Agency Must #5 | Challengers

Kirschner looks for agency partners who are proactive. She wants to know “where you think our partnership will grow, or help us to drive the project forward.” 

Implementing the five traits above will give any marketing agency a leg up in the relationship. If you’re a marketing agency reading this, what do you think your company could work on? If you’re a client reading this, is there a particular trait we didn’t mention that you always look for? Share in the comments below! 

If you’d like to know what agencies expect from marketers, check out this blog: 5 Things Agencies wish Clients Knew.