How To Work With A Marketing Agency

21 Mar How To Work With A Marketing Agency

As a craft business owner, you’re probably overwhelmed with opportunities and demands on your time. You know that you cannot do it all, but you also know that you love the energy and growth that comes with nurturing a business you believe in. How can you approach the task of creating more space in your schedule to do more of what you love and less of what you dislike? Have you been thinking that it’s time to look into hiring marketing support? Do any of these sound like you?

• You’re running your social media and writing your newsletter, but you know you need that time back to do the work that ONLY you can do. 
• You barely have an online presence and you need someone to pick up that work so new customers find you and learn more about you. 
• You’re looking to strategically shift or expand your business and need external support to execute that change. 

Whatever position you’re in, if you’ve been thinking about bringing in external help, you can prepare for that exploration by understanding how a relationship with a marketing agency might work for you. 

How to find a marketing agency that’s a good fit.

There is no shortage of digital marketing agencies that would be eager to serve you. How do you quickly narrow your search so you don’t waste tons of your time in meetings? We have three suggestions: 

1. Referrals: tap into your network of fellow business owners in your field. Ask them if they’ve worked with a marketing agency before- either in an ongoing capacity or for short-term project work. What did the agency do well? What were the pain points?  
2. Case Studies: Each agency’s website should contain examples of work they’ve done for clients in the past. A case study typically includes examples of creative assets accompanied by a description of the project and its metrics.  As you browse these, think about how their past projects compare to your needs. 
3. Testimonials: An agency’s website should also include testimonials from satisfied clients. An agency selects testimonials to publish on its site based on how the content of the testimonial aligns with the agency’s priorities. Consider the types of information conveyed in the testimonials– is the work they highlight in line with the kinds of help you’re seeking? 

By following these steps, your goal is to narrow down to a manager number of agencies to contact for further information. 

What does an agency do?

When you hire a marketing agency, you’ll have one account manager who is part of a team of professionals. Though you may only interact with your manager, you can be sure that they are constantly in contact with their team for insight, support, and feedback.  

Make sure you understand the services available and the expertise of the team. Is the agency full-service, meaning they can provide a full scope of services including graphic design, web design, digital marketing, print advertising, etc.? Or are they specialized in one facet of marketing (like graphic design or SEO)? Both configurations are common, so if the agency’s approach is not clear to you, make sure to ask specifically which services they provide. Then you can assess if their capabilities align with your needs. 

Depending on your needs, your arrangement with an agency will vary. Ongoing, routine work is usually structured under a monthly retainer, whereas one-time projects may be structured as a one-time fee or billed hourly. 

Monthly retainer

The heart of successful marketing is fostering goodwill with potential customers. In the current social media landscape, users who browse Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, and other platforms are seeking info-tainment. They want to learn and be entertained at the same time. These users react very positively to content that shows the human side of a shop or brand. At the same time, they react very negatively to content that is overtly or directly promotional. 

By bringing in an agency, you’re outsourcing the fostering, maintenance, and expansion of this audience. Your account manager will work within your broader goals to create content that is discoverable, shareable, and interesting. Their work will also be keyword-rich to enhance your site’s presence as an authority in terms of Search Engine Optimization. (In other words, good marketing works on a human level, to appeal to people, and on a technical level, to show search engine indexers what you do.)

Monthly retainer work is customizable to each client’s needs, but typically includes:

• Monthly social media content plan (including graphics and keyword-rich captions)
• Newsletters (to foster audience interest and trust)
• Blog posts (to enhance discoverability and foster trust)
• Periodic benchmarking
• Advertising (including digital, broadcast, print)

Monthly retainers typically require an initial commitment of at least six months. This time period allows the client liaison and the account manager to iron out how they will work together. Over the course of this period, you can expect to see some growth in your targeted measures, but the greatest impact will come over time as your accounts continue to provide content that viewers appreciate and enjoy. 

Consulting

If you’re looking to make significant business changes and want to get expert insights on how to approach the change, a custom, one-time consulting arrangement will suit that need. For instance, if you have a solid brick and mortar presence and now you’re ready to handle more online business, how will you approach that evolution? How will you be discovered by new potential customers? How will your business processes need to adjust to accommodate this change? A consulting project can deep-dive into your current customer base and make tailored recommendations on the specific audiences to target, the platforms and posts most effective with that audience, and the types of content that will resonate with them. Consulting projects may be arranged with a flat fee or hourly.

Project-based 

An agency can also provide services for one-off projects like logo redesign, updating your website for SEO, or creating automations within your email list, and more. These may be billed as a flat fee or hourly. 

How to prepare for working with an agency

As you begin conversations with an agency, first take the time to articulate to yourself your needs, goals, and expectations. If you can answer these questions for yourself, you’ll be prepared for a conversation that gets at the heart of how a good relationship might work. 

• Why are you thinking about working with an agency now?
• What are your goals for bringing in an agency?
• What tasks are best suited for delegating such as content creation and posting?
• In which areas do you (as the business owner) excel? (In other words, where should you be spending your time?)
• What facets of marketing are already going well for you?
• Do you have an internal marketing team or external partners? If so, have you thought about how everyone will work together?
• What does success look like for you? Sales, leads, reclaiming your time?
• Are you in a position to create or provide content to bolster the efforts of your marketing team? (This includes graphics and video.)

As you begin a conversation with an agency, share the answers to these questions to find out how they see their work in light of your unique situation. You’ll need to trust their expertise and that they have your success in mind. If you don’t find that assurance, you might not be talking to the right agency. 

Building Marketing Relationships

It makes sense that if marketing is about fostering relationships that build trust in your brand, then you’ll get the best results when working with a marketing agency you trust. The collaboration between client and agency is most impactful when the working relationship is based in communication, patience, and trust. 

Are you a craft business owner who is ready to grow with the support of a specialized team of professionals?  Stitchcraft Marketing is a digital marketing agency of crafting experts. We customize every program to showcase your brand, engage your customer base, and generate sales in a way that is nothing less than magical. If you’re curious about how an agency like Stitchcraft can help you, use our contact form to schedule time for a quick consultation on your situation.