How can partnering with external agencies help or hurt your marketing projects?

Be sure to identify what the particular marketing needs are that you want the agency to be able to serve. By having that crystal clear understanding, you’ll be able to create a short list of those who are qualified. You’ll also be able to prepare an RFP, and to hold valuable conversations, focusing on the things that matter most to you.

Opportunities: - If you can partner with the agency in a part of the project in such a way that the agency receives a good profit, it can create a long-term profitable cooperation for both parties. threats: - If you want to compensate for the lack of time, financial and human resources with agencies and you cannot provide the benefit of the other party, you will definitely regret your work after a while. Because agencies are normally looking to get more projects and may not do your work with great quality.

When you do it right, an agency can unlock the best of your brand, allowing your marketing team to focus on their strengths. You do need to make sure that the external agency is equipped with a strong understanding of your brand, your voice, and your customer, as well as a clear plan for ideation and approvals.

Don’t underestimate chemistry and style. Be sure to spend time with the agency. You know the people with whom you will be working. Be open in explaining how you like to work (e.g., regular meetings, monthly zoom calls, ongoing Slack.) listen closely to your potentially agency to understand how they work and have flexible they will be as a partner in adapting to your needs.

The biggest mistake I've witnessed is when a company thinks that simply hiring an expensive agency is a silver bullet for success. Agencies can do many things, but they still need vision, direction, and guidance to deliver the work you want to see. They're not miracle workers just because they're expensive, and they probably won't be able to solve your fundamentally unsolvable problems. Staying aware about that, and setting expectations for agency work accordingly, will make sure you're hiring agencies on for the right work and not as a band-aid for more fundamental problems with your brand or marketing strategy.

OK, I’m just gonna put this out there… 👀  1. Hire a digital agency who says they are ‘creative’ but just copy you competitor’s ads 🤦♀️ 2. Hire a solid creative agency, spend all your budget on their fees, have none left for media spend 3. Hire an ex-agency fractional CMO, who brings on world-class freelancers to create cut-through work that's ready to run in weeks. This isn’t a self-promotional post, but if it was - you’d know who to DM, right? 😉

One of the most frustrating experiences, both as someone in an agency and on an in-house team, is when the agency is not set up for success. When you’re partnering with an agency, you need to have a strong foundation to make the most of the resources, and plan for the monthly retainer or duration of the contract. Too often, the agency doesn’t have the authority to execute on creative ideas or things are held up in confusing approval flows.

Have a diverse slate of agencies to interview just like you would with candidates for an open role. Working with external agencies is a critical opportunity to focus and increase diversity of representation.

I believe, it has to be a right mix. There is great advantage of partnering with external agencies, where there is less vulnerability to business to loose confidentially and there is a need to have diverse talent for marketing at various platforms, which needs more specialization but less than full time engagement. The key to outsourcing is to establish the right structure of communication and control in your organization.