Do you outsource a lot of your work to another marketing agency? Outsourcing is a great way to keep costs and commitments in your business low, while still getting the job done and to a great standard. However, it can still be tricky to effectively communicate with people in another office. Here, we are taking you through some of our top tips on how you can effectively manage your outsourced marketing agency.
Have Clearly Set Goals
A great marketing strategy is not subjective and you do not want to be hiring a marketing agency who are trying to flex their creative muscles on your dime. You simply want them to get the job done. When discussing a marketing project, it is important that you hold your ground on what you want and are not taken in by all the extra bells and whistles that can be added on. If there are some add-ons that sound interesting to you, then have the agency explain how this will bring in measurable results for you. Otherwise, you could just be wasting your money!
When working with a marketing agency it is good to set out clearly defined goals. Tell them exactly how you are planning to make more money in the upcoming year. This could be something such as improving your organic search engine ranking which means that your website should appear higher on Google when using specific keyword search terms or you could simply be looking to generate more online leads every month.
We would recommend that you make a list of what your goals are along with some percentages. Then, when you take this to a marketing agency they will be able to talk it through with you and let you know whether or not your figures are reasonable.
Setting Expectations
If you want to have a good business relationship with your outsourced marketing agency, then you will need to clearly communicate what exactly your expectations are. As you are an outsourced client for the agency, really it is your decision about how low or high maintenance you want to be. Your expectations from the agency could be weekly meetings or it could be something as simple as quarterly reports. You also have the option, rather than to sit and wait for scheduled updates, you could do your own performance analysis by requesting your own dashboard login.
You may also be wondering how to use Kanban boards to stay updated. Using an online Kanban board is a great way for everyone to stay updated about where you are in a project and how much is still left to be completed. Whatever your expectations are, it is important that they are communicated at the very beginning, as to avoid confusion later on down the line.
There Can Be A Little Give and Take
With outsourced marketing, there are many fantastic benefits that you can enjoy, however, it is important to stress that immediate satisfaction is not usually one of them. Marketers will always be trying to combine both your input and their own best practices that they have found to be effective across different business sectors. For both parties, this can definitely be a learning curve. If your marketing strategy has not gone off to a flying start, then you will want to see what they say in terms of feedback and look at how they follow this up. Having a little give and take will ensure that your expectations are consistently met and that they can be honed in and improved over a longer period of time.
Share Your Knowledge
When you are using an outsourced marketing agency, they will do their research into your business sector and they probably already have other clients from your sector too. However, while they are experts in marketing, they won’t be experts in your field and so it is always helpful to share your own industry knowledge with them. If you find articles that you really love or see a competitor doing something that catches your eye, make sure that you send this on to your marketing agency.
Pass On Work to Your Staff
For most business owners, they will be passing on marketing work to an agency as they don’t have the time themselves. So, it can become slightly counterproductive if you are having to communicate with the marketing agency all the time. Try and get some of your staff up to speed with what are you are trying to achieve with the marketing agency and give them the permission to communication with them and approve strategies. It is also a good idea to have a team meeting as working collaboratively can bring new and fresh ideas to the table. You never know, a member of your staff may already have a keen interest in social media or blogging and will really love this job.
