BY MEL DUNN
Unless your company employs a deep and multi-talented marketing team, you’ll most likely need to leverage external marketing resources at some point. Maybe it’s for one project, or to cover an internal gap or absence, or maybe it’s part of a longer-term strategy. Either way, whether a project or in perpetuity, it’s equally important to hire a partner that will help you reach your business goals.
If you’re looking for a marketing agency to augment or supplement your team, you need to start by asking the right questions. Whatever the answers may be, you’ll feel more confident when it comes time to decide. If you’re on the hunt for a B2B marketing agency, ask these seven questions before signing on the dotted line.
1. What services do you offer?
You wouldn’t go to a car wash for an oil change. But you could go to a mechanic for that oil change—and new tires, brake work, wiper blades, a transmission overhaul, and more. The same goes for marketing agencies—some are specialized, like a boutique graphic design agency, and others offer everything under the sun. The type of agency you hire will ultimately depend on your business needs—are you looking to cover a specific marketing discipline or a broader set of skills and aspects of the work? It’s not only important to ask an agency what they offer but you should also understand how their services align with your objectives.
2. What experience do you have in our industry?
You don’t need to hire an agency that only works within your industry, but they should have experience in it. If you’re a healthcare company selling in a B2B environment, you want to know that the agency has experience doing what you need. The right agency will understand your business off the bat, and ideally leverage their experience to propel your ideas even further. They’ll curb your challenges and emphasize your opportunities. They’ll know your audience and how to engage them. If you want to get specific, ask for client case studies and relevant results from businesses like yours. And don’t forget to ask about competitors—it gets murky when an agency represents companies with competing products or services.
3. What does your ideal client relationship look like?
When vetting a marketing agency, treat the process as if you’re hiring for your team. Like a new employee, an agency should not only have a suitable skill set, but ideally, share similar core values. The most successful relationships tend to thrive when the client and agency are a good cultural fit. In our experience, this helps create mutual respect and trust throughout the partnership. If teamwork is a cultural value of your organization, for example, probe the agency on their collaboration style and how they engage clients.
4. Who will I work with from your team?
You can avoid the bait-and-switch by asking an agency for detail on the team that would be working with your business, and you can ask to meet them in advance of kickoff. Particularly for larger agencies, often the team that does the selling, scoping, and proposal development is not the team that will be providing the ongoing support—take the time to ask who you’ll be working with on a day-to-day basis and clarify their roles. Even after work has begun, occasionally, the agency-client dynamic can feel off, and switching individuals involved in the work can sometimes result in a positive effect. Ultimately, the goal is to be as selective about building your agency partner as you are hiring for your internal team.
5. Do you outsource any work?
Speaking of the team, it’s important to understand if the agency produces all of the work in-house or relies on freelancers. Depending on the size of the agency and their scope of services, they may outsource certain skills or tap into their talent network during a busy period. If this is the case, it’s not a deal breaker—the question to ask is “Why?” A good answer would be, “This is an important piece of our work, but across our client base it doesn’t warrant a full-time job.” Other reasons could be that this specific marketing skill is highly variable in workload and so freelancers help the agency ensure they’re staffed and resourced appropriately. However, if you’re hiring an agency for writing purposes and they outsource everything, you might consider going direct to the writers.
6. What’s your recommended budget for us?
If you’re planning to hire a marketing agency, you’ve likely already allocated a certain budget for the year. But choosing a number out of thin air isn’t always the best approach. The budget you need will largely depend on what you’re trying to accomplish and how quickly. It’s important to discuss rates and billing structure, but don’t forget to be crystal clear about your goals and objectives. While every agency approaches billing differently, the right agency will guide you to a budget by focusing on your outcomes, not your wallet.
7. What’s the right agency model?
Of course, that’s a trick question. There isn’t only one agency for your business. The important piece to remember is to consider what does your team need, what works well for your business, and what are you looking to solve. Use answers to those questions to guide the right partner.
While this short list of questions isn’t all-inclusive, it can help guide the initial conversation you have with a B2B marketing agency. And the answers should give you a good feel for who the agency is at its core. There are a lot of talented agencies out there, but you need to choose the marketing partner that’s right for your business.
Ready to ask us these questions? Let’s chat.