Why a Close Relationship with Your Agency Is So Critical

Posted on April 10, 2017 in Agency

At first glance, how close you are to your agency may not seem like a big deal. You give them your budget and let them run free to do what they do best, marketing your business…right?

Unfortunately, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. How close (or distant) you are from your agency can have a dramatic effect on the success of your marketing and advertising efforts.

In fact, we’d go so far as to say that a close relationship built on transparency and communication is one of the most important components of marketing success.

Let’s break that thought down. Businesses partner with agencies for one reason, more or less: to drive revenue.

This may be by strengthening their brand, fine-tuning their messaging, promoting a specific product, or tailoring their strategy to reach the right audience, but it all boils down to assisting an organization to boost their revenue. However, an agency can only facilitate growth when there is open communication, transparency, and trust.

Working with an ad agency is like working with a CPA: it’s only worth your time if you communicate with and trust them.

A CPA needs to know everything about your current financial situation. Your CPA doesn’t just ask for a few key numbers here and there, but collects as much information as possible about your finances. There’s a reason for that: for a CPA to bring you the most benefits as possible, all the cards need to be on the table.

And a good CPA won’t just ask about your current financial situation, but your financial goals as well. They need to know where you want to be — in detail — in six months, five years, or even ten years. A good CPA will tell you whether your goals are reasonable, or if you need to modify your expectations.

Sure, an agency provides a vastly different service, but the principles remain the same. For best possible results, your agency needs to have a crystal clear vision of where you are right now as well as where you want to be.

Your agency needs to know about your strengths, your weaknesses, the areas where you’re excelling, and the areas where you’re lagging behind.

Tell them everything, even the stuff that seems completely unrelated. You never know what campaigns, promotions, or marketing strategies could help with a problem that seems unrelated at first glance. More times than I can count, we’ve had clients ecstatic to hear that yes, we really do have a great solution for that problem — and we find ourselves wishing they’d told us sooner.

Give your agency a candid, no-holds-barred look at your company, and the results will amaze you.

Bottom line is that helping your agency develop a comprehensive understanding of your business and your business goals enables them to not only meet but exceed those goals.