INTRODUCTION:
We will go through 5 key areas regarding uncovering missing pieces in marketing agencies. Companies are generally hiring agencies based on what they are being told. Here is some insight into some quick safeguards regarding hiring the wrong agency and verifying their elevator speech.
The Cobbler's Son Wears No Shoes:
We tend to be skeptical regarding what we are told by our employee's internally, and while we have a firm grasp from a consumer side on due diligence through legislation, B2B still operates in some form or fashion like the wild, wild west.
Our Hubspot account manager, Catie Bender, used the phrase "The Cobbler's Son Wears No Shoes" one time regarding our failing to complete an internal project in a timely manner for review. Agencies often allow their internal processes to lag when they get overburdened. Taking this statement to heart, we put safeguards in place immediately following to ensure we would meet guidelines and exceed expectations, both internally and externally to our clients.
That being said, let's look at some really quick ways to research whether you are hiring the right agency, and whether they are capable of living up to your standards and expectations:
- If they are going to manage your social media presence, what does their social media presence look like? Are they consistent with their messaging? Do they provide a continued presence for their company?
- Are they reposting and repurposing existing content, or are they creating unique content for their company?
- Have they been timely and consistent with communication to you? If they are a communications based company, which marketing agencies are, they should always be timely in their responses and communications with absolutely no exceptions.
- Are they creating a mountain regarding abilities? A great marketing agency will never fail to inform a client of what they are incapable of. Being informed of a weakness, reinforces an agencies strength and transparency. As an example, we do not create outbound marketing (television commercials, etc.), ad agencies are great at it...we are not.
- Lastly, but most importantly, ask the agency to create milestones for the proposed project. If they hem and haw at the idea of being held responsible to meet deadlines for the project...RUN!!!
CONCLUSION:
There are many agencies who claim to have vast abilities. The more research you do prior to hiring a marketing agency, the better results you will get. If they only using prior client examples as a reason to use them, do some digging, as they may have recently transitioned their superstar marketer, or outsourced the girth of the work to someone else.
Most importantly, if you haven't heard the word "No" come out of their mouth regarding capabilities, you are dealing with smoking mirrors. Run far and fast towards a realistic and honest agency, who will be more transparent and provide better results.
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