Overtime your working relationship with your marketing agency should become more natural as you become familiar with work styles, communication, and goals. A healthy relationship with your marketing agency translates to profitability. However, if you are starting to notice red flags as time goes by, then maybe the agency isn't a good fit for you and your company.
The primary role of the marketing agency is to create marketing plans and advertising that is targeted to your business, product, and brand if you have an uneasy feeling about the relationship with your agency and feel that it's not benefiting your business or brand it could be time to find another agency.
Here are seven other signs you need a new marketing agency.
Issues with Communication
Communication is going to be crucial in your relationship with your marketing agency. Having communication problems with the agency will negatively affect the relationship because you can't clarify the work they re doing, and if it makes sense for the goals of your business. There needs to be open lines of communication, and regular check-ins so that everyone can consistently be on the same page about strategies.
No Transparency
The agency you work with needs to be transparent with you. There needs to be a total understanding of the work they are doing for you, what they are billing for, and how hey will report results. Invoice should give you information on the services that were performed or the month and how they are fulfilling your contract agreement. IF numbers aren't adding up, or the agency isn't being transparent with their invoices, this is a huge red flag.
No Understanding of Your Business
If you've been working with the agency for several months and they still have no concept of your business, industry, or target customer, it is time to cut ties. It's not a good sign if the marketing agency doesn't understand your business. How are they going to correctly get your message out to target audiences, if they don't understand it themselves? If they haven't spent any time getting to know your business or understanding your customer, they can't create proper marketing material for you.
Poor Strategies
Any strategy that the marketing agency is explaining to you needs to make sense, and you need to be on board with it. Before any marketing initiative can be launched, you need to have a solid understanding o a strategy and company objectives and goals. If you are underwhelmed with the strategy and feel like that your target goals are not being met, it' a concern you shouldn't ignore.
Sloppy Output
Any marketing agency you hire is essentially an extension of your business, product, or brand. If their work is sloppy, there are missing deadlines, or putting out material with mistakes (social media, ad creative, etc.) this reflects poorly on your company, since the audience is seeing your brand putting out sloppy content. The last thing you want is to ruin your businesses reputation with bad quality work.
Not Reaching Goals
It's not uncommon for agencies to make a mistake or have an off day at some point, but if the agency consistently is over-promising on goals and under-delivering, there might be a problem. If they are missing their goals on creative, targets, and you aren't impressed with their work, it's time to consider a new marketing agency.
Non-existent Reporting
There should be a pre-defined schedule where the agency is reporting its findings to you. Reports show and measure what is working, not working, and areas to shift some goals or strategies, and they should show who is ding the work. As a business, you should be able to see return on investment (ROI) in the reports, so that you can justify working with an agency.
If you aren't receiving a report, or your reports are missing valuable information, this is a big concern with your marketing agency. Reporting should be done at least monthly, if not bi-weekly to see progress and track strategies and where maybe things need to be changed. If your agency isn't giving you reports, you should be concerned.
Final Thoughts
Before making decisions take a look at your contract and budget you've been provided from the marketing agency. If you do not feel you are getting your money's worth, then it may be time to consider a new marketing agency.