An insider’s guide into how to better manage your marketing or digital agency.
Let us start by saying that without question the best marketing talent resides in agency side, be it creative, strategic, or technical.
Also despite contrary suspicions, agency owners do really care about client happiness and delivering awesome results for clients. There is no doubt about it in our minds, and every founder of an agency large or small we’ve ever met has this passion.
And the good agencies within their specialism will always deliver the best ‘product’. Fact.
So why so often do clients change marketing agencies? And how do you get the best value from them?
The secret lies in knowing who does what well, having a network of trusted suppliers and having the in-house experience and resource to manage often complex marketing and digital projects.
Having spent 20 years within agencies, and the last 10 as the senior escalation point for client complaint, the most prevalent theme is always around perceived value for money and mismanaged expectation.
And much of the blame lies with you Mr Client. Yes there are horror stories where you’ll be pitched to by the A team and serviced by a graduate trainee… and pay the same rate for it. These are few and far between thankfully but it does pay to know how agencies operate and who to speak to.
But where it does fall down nine times out of ten is not having the right internal resource on hand to deliver this process for you. And that is firmly at your door.
It leads to poor briefing, lack of clarity around scope of work, disconnect between the project and the business objectives, unrealistic expectations on all sides, tangible fury from clients, and utter apathy from your agency.
At Ireland Consulting, we like to think of ourselves as poachers turned gamekeepers, knowing how agencies operate allows us much greater ability to manage the relationship effectively – delivering consistently excellent quality at better than market prices.
So if you want help to better manage your suppliers and maximise ROI on your marketing, please do get in touch on 07884456132 or email hello@irelandconsulting.co.uk
