Creativity just a starting point in hiring a marketing firm

Do you ever worry that your business isn’t sizeable enough to hire a marketing firm? Ignore that insecurity! It doesn’t really matter how large your account is going to be for most local marketing firms to gladly take you on. What truly matters is whether or not the marketing firm is the right fit for your near-term and even long-term requirements.

There are four Ps in marketing – which of the Ps is where you are with your business presently?

Price, Product or Place?

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If you are just establishing a product or service, and still need to work out any one of the first three Ps of marketing, namely – Price, Product or Place – then you might wish to engage a marketing firm or consultant to help you sort out those fundamentals. They would hone in on topics like distribution, pricing options and the array of line items to sell. Your deliverable would be an intelligent roadmap to your business’ success, aka a written marketing plan.

Promotion

But, if you have the selling basics down, you might be thinking about the fourth P: Promotion. A branding agency and/or lead-development firm will help you with this final P.

Branding firms help you sort out your unique selling proposition, determine what your differentiators are, and then they get that “specialness” across in a logo, a tagline, identity materials like business cards and your company literature. A lead-development firm focuses on any number of grassroots or even grander tactics, such as advertising, social media, public relations, direct mail, websites, etcetera.

So what are some considerations in hiring a branding and/or lead generation marketing firm?

• First know what you need. Do you already have a solid position in the marketplace, well differentiated from any other? Will prospects know at a glance “what you are about?” And does your brand messaging look the same wherever it appears, looking ultra-consistent in every medium, even online? Then go on to step two: tactics.

• Tactics are how your message gets out to your prospects. What you are concerned with here is reach and frequency. How much bang can you get with your buck? Where can you promote your message efficiently and effectively?

• Most lead-generation firms can recommend the appropriate tactics for your business based on experience and research. They then prioritize and price those tactics. Some will even buy ad space on billboards, for example, and rent the direct mail lists you’ll need. They can also create the very advertisements and mailers needed. This wide-ranging service is what is referred to as a ‘full service agency.’ A full-service agency can often do branding as well.

But are they a fit?

Ask for recommendations, now that you know the scope of the work you’ll have your marketing agency perform. Who is known for cost-containment, fair-dealings, has a favorable reputation and focuses on business ethics? That’s a company you’d like to talk to! Bonus points if the firm does what’s called “pro bono” work for a local charity – this speaks to its integrity and passion for the community.

Hint: Look up the firm’s name on Google and append the query with the word ‘problems’ or ‘complaints.’ This might help you identify something important to know, pre-hire.

You also want to look at their creative portfolios. Your eye should be drawn to the marketing firm’s flair at getting across unique attributes of the product or service, both visually and verbally. Does each thumbnail example look like the next? Stay away from cookie-cutter creative.

You want to work with branding agencies that exhibit a mastery of design. See if the agency does something custom for each client, and look for a power-packed portfolio. Do make sure the firm can speak to the objective of each campaign and its results.

Important: Ask whether you’ll retain the rights to the creative work the firm does on your behalf and what conditions will apply. Since it’s your brand, you’ll want to carry it with you over time and perhaps even sell that “intellectual property” one day, along with your business.

Will you be a big fish in a small pond? That’s usually better than the opposite. Often the glamour of going with a big agency fades when your work gets passed down to the junior staff day-to-day. Provided the small pond is not shallow, you can get the attention of a top-notch business owner and get down to business!

How are the marketing agency’s systems and processes? Will jobs get bogged down and will you miss an important deadline? This speaks to quality, and a marketing firm owner who understands how doing things right the first time results in less waste and greater productivity is worth hiring and having at the helm. Learn how they track milestones and keep an eye on costs. Even the firm’s hiring criteria and processes could affect your work.

Hint: Ask what the firm does when there are cost overages. Does it keep to its estimate, warn you about scope creep, and even send a revised estimate mid-stream? Basically, how does it avoid surprises?

Several large marketing firms try to be full service and are really masters at traditional marketing and not so much on digital. Dig deep. Do the account executives and the creatives “live” on the web? Do they have first-hand knowledge and experience on Google, in social media, about websites and ecommerce?

Finally, imagine being with the firm’s principal and his/her staff for a long time – especially as your business expands, partly through their fine efforts. Will you become like a well-oiled machine, working as a team together? Or will things get rusty and the gears stop engaging over time? Will the firm have your best interests always in mind, or just their own?

Good luck in making this fourth P selection. Your business will be well-served by a professional branding and/or lead generation agency.

Laurie Macomber, owner of Fort Collins-based Blue Skies Marketing, can be reached at laurie@blueskiesmktg.com or 970-689-3000.