At Voom CreativeTM, we have been fortunate to work with many great clients over the years and have cultivated strong relationships with teams big and small. When we work with prospects and clients, we always put ourselves in their shoes. By striving to be part of a client’s team, we can anticipate questions before they come up and be prepared to provide meaningful answers. But what can clients do to get the most out of their agency partner, and maximize the relationship and service offerings to meet their business goals? Here are three tips that provide insights on how you can start or continue a lasting partnership with your creative partner and get superior results.
Set Clear Expectations.
Whether the relationship is new or ongoing, it’s never too late to set clear expectations or revisit them from time to time. If your agency partner is succeeding and contributing to your company’s growth, expectations can and usually do evolve. What was once an expectation early in a contract agreement is likely to change down the road because of business or economic influences.
An infant business starts on the first rung of a ladder. Over time, the company grows until one day it reaches the 28th rung (approximately two stories). There is much more at stake and more caution needed at the two-story level than at one foot. At the same token, resources are now available that once didn’t exist and it’s imperative to take the business to the next level to be a more prominent player or leader in the market. Expectations have suddenly increased.
Or your business might be going through a downturn, and the expectations of your creative partner have changed. You were once on the 23rd rung, spending twenty-five thousand dollars a month with your agency, but you’ve regressed to the 17th rung and now need to cut spending with your agency by 30 percent. When you express these changes (either positive or negative) to your agency partner, they can help support you more accordingly to meet expectations.
Don’t Be Afraid of Offending.
Being “Minnesota nice” doesn’t always pay off, especially in business. Sure, it’s polite to be kind, but not at the expense of getting exactly what you want to meet your goal. When it comes to creative design concepts, they can certainly be consumed in a “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” type of way; however, your agency should provide a rationale on why the design appeals to the target market and meets the goal. At the end of the day, the concepts need to fulfill the goal and make you 100 percent satisfied. If it doesn’t accomplish both, call a time out and say precisely what you think.
We have worked with clients across the globe and genuinely appreciate the blunt and candid delivery of our East Coast clients. We previously worked on several brand concepts for a global company headquartered in New York City. While we were working out ideas, our client responded to one design in particular and said these exact words: “I hate it!” I had to laugh to myself because of how much you’d never hear these words uttered from a Minnesotan. I had so much respect for her feedback because I knew exactly where the design stood, what she “hated” and what changes needed to be made to make it better. This sincere feedback allowed us to be more efficient with our revisions, skip multiple edits, and go directly from “A” to “Z.” Without such a genuine response, there would have likely been numerous changes that would have resulted in additional time on both the agency and client-side. The right agency partner welcomes honest input and appreciates the opportunity to fix it within well-defined parameters instead of guessing where the target is and how to hit the bullseye.
Ask the Right Questions.
Clients typically enter into a client/agency partnership based on the agency’s superior ability to fulfill a specific need. Whether it’s a website redesign or an entire rebrand, it’s easy (and natural) to pigeonhole your agency and assume that is all they do. The chances are they can also help fulfill many other marketing and advertising needs, especially if they are a full-service shop. Be proactive, transparent and communicate with your agency often. Ask how else they can help support a strategic goal or initiative. Ask for examples of similar work they’ve done so you can envision how your company could benefit from related tactics. If there isn’t a defined goal or specific initiative, don’t hesitate to reach out to your agency and use them as a sounding board. They have the experience and expertise to at least steer you in the right direction, if nothing else.
One of our first clients at Voom hired us to create ad concepts for a local advertising campaign. Before long, we created the media plans and placed media buys in numerous publications on top of designing all print and digital ads. The client had previously been managing this in-house. Knowing this, we offered up our support early on, but it wasn’t until a while later, when the scope expanded, that the client asked if we could help. We were able to step in and assist seamlessly because of our established relationship and clear understanding of their business. This was just the beginning of all of the support we provided to them over the years. To this day, we fulfill their advertising, marketing, branding and strategy needs. Some of this can be attributed to understanding our client and knowing when to “pitch” additional services, but it’s primarily because of the established trust and the client asking the right questions along the way.