Choosing a creative & interactive agency isn’t as simple as picking paint swatches for your business. Both choices can be reversed with a little bit of work, but only one has a longer lasting impression on you and your customers (unless you repaint your walls are highlighter orange, in which case, we applaud your boldness.)
Choosing an agency is one of the biggest decisions you can make because it determines how customers view your business. It’s what helps get your message across, and through that, helps you make sales to interested customers. A quick Google search shows that locally, there’s a handful of companies to choose from. So, how can you choose the right agency for your business? Let’s break it down into a five steps.
For the purpose of choosing an agency, it helps to first determine your goals for advertising and creative planning. For that, you need to figure out your audience. Are you targeting nationally or just honing in on a local audience? Audience helps determine the next step, budget. National campaigns will cost more, so if you’re looking at a smaller local audience, you may not need a larger and more expensive agency.
If you have a smaller budget, you may consider hiring freelance. Freelance will cost you less, but it comes with a few caveats. We’ve had a few clients tell us their freelance designers/developers weren’t able to be reached in a time of need. Reliability is a sacrifice sometimes made out of necessity, so keep that in mind when considering your budgetary limits.
Once you’ve figured out the who and the how much, look at the how and why. The look and feel you want your business to portray is where creative agencies will shine. Are you a law firm who wants a more traditional / conservative look an feel, or are you a fun and quirky cupcake bakery? Once you’ve determined your business goals and how you want to be seen by your customers, it’s time to find some agencies.
Based on the criteria you set in determining your business goals, search for companies either locally or nationally that offer a service you’re looking for. There’s no science to searching for agencies, but there are a few ways to help weed out the ones not worth looking into. Reviews for agencies can tell you a lot about them from business owners in your shoes. Check out reviews on Yelp, Google Reviews, and Facebook to help you decide which agency has the chops you’re looking for.
Another way to determine the quality of an agency’s work is to look at their portfolio. Seeing what they’ve done in the past helps you get a feel for the caliber of work they’re putting out and if it’s something you’d like to see done for your business. This can also help you figure out if their previous work would cause a conflict of interest. If you still need some convincing, check out their “About Us” or “Meet the Team” pages. Putting faces to an agency makes it a little bit easier to trust them and get to know them a bit better.
Once you’ve shopped around the different agencies, it’s time to see what they can do for you. Get in touch with a few agencies either by calling, emailing or filling out a contact form. Most won’t charge for an initial consultation, so describe in detail exactly what you need from them. Explain your goals clearly and ask for specific information about their plan of action to achieve those goals. At this point you can start narrowing it down based on the responses you get. Rule out the agencies that are too high in price and won’t work with your budget, or ones that just don’t fit in general with your objectives.
Now that you’ve talked with a few agencies, it’s time to weed some out. Narrow down your choices to two or three based on budgetary restrictions, chemistry/connection, and if they fully understand your business needs and goals.
Be up front about your maximum budget. It takes a lot of time for both parties to iron out the details. You’re better off saying that you can’t afford X amount up front so no time is wasted working something out. Make your objectives clear, and be realistic with your timeline. Meeting expectations is the hallmark of a great working relationship, and that’s impossible unless all information, expectations, budgets and objectives are discussed beforehand. An agency only has what you give them to work with, so make sure it’s enough.
Ask the agencies for RFPs (request for proposal) that outline their plans for your business. Specifically, ask for apples to apples: Give the same requirements to the agencies you reach out to, so you can compare their offerings. It’s at this point that you can choose to meet with the agency in person to get a better feel on who you’d be working with.
Based on the criteria you set out at the beginning of this search, the RFPs you read from the different agencies and the in person meetings, make a decision on who you want to partner with. You should feel comfortable and ensured in your decision at this point. Your final decision should feel as if that the agency was a part of your own business. You should feel comfortable thinking of it as the web design or creative department of your company instead of just your agency. At this point, it’s an extension of your business, not something separate from it.
(We sure hope you do.) And at the end of the day, we’d love to be that agency that’s an extension of your business! Get in touch with us and find out what we can do for you.
