Finding the perfect marketing Agency can elevate your brand to new heights, and hiring the wrong one can lead to serious consequences.
In fact, Hiring The Wrong Agency Is A Fireable Offense.
Read more - Why Do Clients Fire Marketing Agencies?
In today's competitive landscape, partnering with the right Agency can make all the difference in achieving your marketing goals. Whether you're a seasoned brand marketer or new to the field, the resources below will outline why you need to hire the right Agency the first time, and how you can do that in the most cost and time effective manner.
Below you’ll find everything you need to know about hiring a marketing agency: Why, how, and where to begin.
Agency 101: The Agency-Client Relationship for Beginners
When an agency begins to work with a client, there can be a disconnect between the two teams. Why do disconnects occur?
The team of client-side marketers may not understand the agency’s role.
Competitive dynamics may exist between the internal and agency team members.
The adjustment to onboarding the agency and establishing communication norms may take time.
If you’re new to the agency selection process, then this FAQ sheet should answer any of your questions from a breakdown of the discovery phase to budgeting guidance to evaluation practices.
Leveraging an Agency vs. Hiring Internally
Finding the best marketing talent right now is a huge challenge.
Filling those ever-wider gaps in marketing capacity or capability is challenging for both Clients and Agencies. As marketing matchmakers, Setup has been called to the rescue now more than ever. While we do some recruiting work, we are seeing a spike in demand for our support helping Clients find Agencies to fill the gaps left by stretched marketing teams. Maybe you’re debating on a new hire to add to your in-house team - Setup can guide you on whether hiring an agency vs. an employee might work best for your situation.
What we’ve found is that it is easier (and cheaper) to hire a fantastic Agency with a diverse team of experienced specialists and in-depth knowledge of industry trends than it is to hire each needed role onto an in-house marketing team.
Finding the Right Agency
In the United States alone, there are over 88,000 marketing Agencies (IBISWorld - Industry Market Research, Reports, and Statistics) offering a wide range of marketing services.... so Clients searching for the right marketing services can feel a lot like looking for a needle in a haystack. To help you find the right one, we’ve created a 44 page guide of vital information on how to navigate the ad Agency process, including interactive worksheets after each chapter. The guide includes:
PART 1 | PLANNING FOR A MARKETING AGENCY
How to map marketing objectives (and determine where your in-house team needs help)
How to budget for a new marketing relationship
PART 2 | THE MARKETING AGENCY SELECTION PROCESS
How to find marketing Agencies, build and narrow your list of potential Agency partners
How to avoid common Agency selection mistakes
How to navigate the RFP process
Alternatives to the RFP process
PART 3 | ONBOARDING A MARKETING AGENCY
How to set an Agency relationship up for success
How to onboard a new marketing Agency and manage the Agency team
The Agency Selection Process
Choosing an Agency partner is an important decision, so it’s critical to properly evaluate all of your options. An effective performance appraisal process for potential advertising Agency partners is essential to ensuring a long-term fit for your business’ marketing goals. We’ve created a free, interactive guide that includes templates for evaluating potential Agency partners in a pitch, RFP, or other competitive process. When designing these scorecards, Setup partnered with major brands - combining their actual scorecards/corporate policies for both selection and evaluation with our extensive experience working within the Agency-Client relationship - to create the most comprehensive marketing Agency selection scorecard template. Drill down an agency’s true capabilities using the scorecard below and this checklist (Case Studies, Client References, Sample Project).
Additional Resources
tools to help you find the right agency
A guide & interactive workbook for marketers entering the agency selection process that teaches you the process of planning for, selecting, and onboarding a marketing agency.
An interactive scorecard for brand-side marketers in the agency selection process who want to systematically evaluate potential agency partners.
An interactive scorecard for brands who want to systematically evaluate the relationship and/or performance of an existing agency partner.
A template for marketers who want to map out a new project/initiative in a structured way. Inside is a downloadable PDF that guides marketers through the thought process of planning.
A toolkit for marketers who are entering a request for proposal (RFP) process or marketers who are unfamiliar with the RFP process. Includes a Guide to RFPs, editable RFP template, and an interactive RFP checklist.
Starting a new role? Setup has compiled a set of guides that break down marketing roles, including a list of job requirements, suggestions on how to build their new team, and tips on how to fill gaps.