A Short Guide To Better Agency/Brand Relationships

So you are looking for an agency to help grow your business, and you’ve met with a few, hired a few, and nothing seems to be working out the way you thought it woulda coulda shoulda. 

Why is it so challenging to find a good agency fit?

I’ve worked at a wide variety of agencies from  international publicly-traded groups, to boutique firms. I’ve worked as boots-on-the-ground and as a fractional CMO. I see how agencies and brands approach finding, vetting, and working together. I've put this short guide to finding an agency/brand partnership that works. I am curious to hear other input, so either message me or leave a comment below.

The relationship between agencies and brands has always been a complicated one. While it may seem like the perfect partnership on paper, the reality is often far from it. Many of these partnerships are ineffective, anxiety-driven, and short-lived. 

Several factors contribute to the unsuccessfulness of these partnerships. One of the most significant is the misalignment of expectations. Brands often come to the table with unrealistic goals and expectations, expecting the agency to deliver results beyond what is possible. And the agencies frequently don’t have honest and open conversations about what is likely because they fear losing the client. 

As a result, brands feel disappointed, and agencies feel unappreciated.

I spoke to Steve Kirsh, Founder & Managing Partner of the Khameleon Group a digital agency matchmaker, about the complexities of finding the right agency. 

I will also share a few personal observations about the agency/client relationship, where things go south, and how to improve the process for both parties.  

Much of the misalignment takes place before the relationship even begins. 

“The Agency landscape has become cluttered and confusing. Algorithms, bots, and paid agency databases are not designed nor optimized for a buyer to quickly obtain relevant, verifiable information during the time-consuming and complicated agency selection process,”  says Kirsh.

Below is a guide with ten tips to help improve outcomes.

1.Know What Problems You Are Trying To Solve

The agency and the brand need to be as specific as possible about the problem they are trying to solve. Before hiring an agency, you want to map your objectives and financial goals. If the brand strategy is undefined, the best agency in the world can’t help you. 

Many small and mid-sized organizations do need some help developing growth strategies, removing roadblocks, and uncovering gaps and opportunities. If this is the case, hire a fractional CMO for a short stint to clearly define the needs before signing a long term contract with an agency partner. 

2.The Agency Shortlist

Researching a list of agencies takes time, knowledge of what problem you are trying to solve, and experience matching the right agency with organizational goals. You must identify specialists for most small to mid-sized brands to address your business needs. There are very few agencies that are good at everything from soup to nuts. 

Having a dozen agencies on your shortlist is too many. This is an indication that further definition needs to take place.

One client had one agency trying to do everything from graphic design (their specialty) to paid search. The brand was getting killed by its competitors because they could not effectively compete. I retained the agency for design and hired a paid search specialist. The return on investment went way up, and they were able to compete effectively. 

To many brands, it sounds like hiring one agency will be much less hassle with one point of contact and a belief that if it’s all under one roof, programs will be more integrated and effective. Typically, campaign performance will suffer if this strategy is utilized. 

3. Digital Specialization

Back in my day (said in an ancient lady voice) when I started my career, generalists were in high demand. But that’s changed with the increased specialization of digital marketing. There are now subspecialties of specialties. And unless teams work in their field every day, seeing dozens if not thousands of occasions each week, being able to keep up with the rapid evolution of digital just isn’t feasible. For an agency to be genuinely full-service, they need to be large. Many SMBs will need to hire smaller agencies with more focused specialities.

4. Transparency

Brands are notoriously tight-lipped about sharing details about what they are looking for, and many agencies are as well. Brands need to be very clear about the issues they face, their budget, internal resources allocated to managing the agency, and expectations. And without transparency from the agency, marketing teams often feel in the dark about what the agency is doing, leading to anxiety and mistrust. 

5. Budget

Money is a challenging topic to discuss for many people. I get that. But in this situation, it’s crucial.  Almost every brand thinks it doesn’t have enough budget, and the agency worries they will come in too high.

When the brand sets the budget, the agency experts can accurately assign strategies and tactics to help achieve an organization’s goals. When brands are vague about budget, both sides waste a ton of time and resources. 

As a brand, if you genuinely don’t know, hire a fractional CEO like me (shameless plug here) to define roadblocks to more revenue and the budget needed to achieve that goal.

6. Misalignment of Business Goals & Skill Set

While recommendations are a great place to start, vetting against the brand’s specific set of problems must occur.  For example, if you are a DTC brand that relies heavily on filling the top of the funnel with aggressive performance marketing, hiring a branding agency to run your paid search and SEO is a huge mismatch. 

7. Culture Fit

Cultural fit is one of the most important aspects of a successful agency/brand relationship. For both agency and brand, it’s imperative to understand your internal culture and how you work best. While getting to know each other is always a ramp-up period, the fundamentals should be a good fit. 

8. Undefined Expectations

On both sides of the aisle, agencies and brands must be clear about their expectations of the relationship and the program goals. Benchmarks must be set up in advance, and everyone should row in the same direction to beat the baseline and meet or exceed expectations.

At Angelsmith, we’ve never had a successful long-term relationship with a client when we were not all on the same page with expectations in advance. 

9. RFPs

Request For Proposals is infrequently an excellent way to get to know an agency, its culture, and its work style. They are often merely a cover-your-a$$ (CYA) to satisfy the c-suite that marketing did their due diligence. 

Can I rant for a minute? RFPs created by the committee are the absolute worst. It results in a lack of clarity, a misunderstanding of the agency/organization relationship, diluted messaging, and frequently a conflict of interest. 

There I got it off my chest and into the universe. Hopefully, this practice will end. 

As a fractional CMO for small brands, I recommend assigning smaller get-to-know-ya projects  to agencies you are considering. Although it isn’t always possible, this is the best way to get to know each other. Think of it as dating; RFPs are already planning the wedding and getting married after a couple of dates. Working on a project together is more like The Real World. Hard to hide the warts when you’re in the trenches together.  If you can’t assign a project, take them to dinner, or find a way to get to really know them. By the way, I find dinner vs. lunch to be a better gauge of fit; people have let their hair down a bit and it feels like you can really see the real human. 

“RFPs are dead. Uncertainty and risks during the selection process will occur without sufficient input from client decision makers and candid feedback from agencies and therefore will result in higher costs and more hassles for both agencies and their clients,” Steve Kirsch, Founder & Managing Partner, Khameleon.Group

10. Too Many Shareholders

When no one owns the relationship, results can suffer. Marketing should own the relationship with the agency. And one person from each side should manage the projects. Hiring an agency requires a focused effort from the brand. This is not a hire-and-forget activity. Most agencies are really good at project management and resource allocation. 

As the brand, you can solve this in several ways if you don’t have anyone in-house to manage the relationship. One, you can install an agency project coordinator at your office a couple of days a week or rely on someone on your executive team to manage the relationship. But this takes time, so this will take time away from other mission-critical activities. 

Summary

On average, agency-client relationships last less than three years. Often due to a need for more communication, response, understanding, or results. Taking the time to do your due diligence before embarking on a joint project can lead to better outcomes for both parties. 

As an agency leader and fractional CMO, I have created an internal ‘good fit’ checklist of all the elements the brand needs if we are going to succeed together. If they aren’t a good fit, referring them to another group is much more advantageous.  

The value of a long-term relationship allows both to develop a level of trust and understanding that is difficult to develop in a short run. Other benefits include consistency, efficiency, deeper insights, cost savings, and better work. For example, at Angelsmith, we jumped in to help solve a big problem for one of our franchise clients that significantly increased sales velocity. We’ve worked with that brand team for nearly ten years. Without that long-term relationship and all of the intellectual property we’ve developed, this may not have been possible. 

I get it. As a fractional CMO, finding the right agency partners is one of the most daunting tasks for clients. Unfortunately, this can lead to some clients sticking with underperforming agencies. But the danger is wasted resources, lack of innovation, and missed opportunities, not to mention the agony of being in a crappy relationship. 

Any good relationship builds over time and requires work from both parties. Misaligned expectations is one of the most significant reasons why agency partnerships result in ineffective and short-lived outcomes.  Putting the work in the beginning to fully vet and truly get to know your partners can help establish a long and prosperous relationship.

What are your tried and true tactics to improve your agency/brand partnerships?