Have you considered hiring a marketing agency before? If you did, there’s a strong chance you were disappointed with the results, outcomes, or perhaps the partnership itself. The first thought that springs to mind is that the marketing agency is to blame, but we’re here to inform you that the problem can be from both parties.
Let’s take a look at the problems from a marketing agency’s perspective.
Problem #1 :
“Misunderstanding”
From the client’s point of view: “ If an agency can’t get me numerous leads in the first week as expected, they’re a waste.” And here comes the first problem. The lack of understanding of what marketing is.
Marketers are no genies. It’s impossible to get leads the first day or even week!! It depends on various things, like the size of the business, the industry, the products/services, the target audience, the brand’s position in the market, the goals and objectives, and many more. It takes time for the agency to research well, understand the type of business and optimize the company’s current position to address what’s needed to take the right action at the right time and create a suitable strategy and plan.
An agency can’t take action without fully understanding the business they’re marketing for, so here it’s the client’s misunderstanding that leads them to dissatisfaction, as this makes them set unrealistic expectations that can never be met.
To solve such a problem, the agency should, at the beginning of their first meeting, provide the client with a thorough introduction and explanation of marketing, services, and what they can do for businesses and brands, and then begin by introducing one another to exchange information and knowledge to assess the client’s needs and satisfaction.
Problem #2:
“Comparison”
Most brands compare their success to others. This produces a great deal of discontent. If you pay attention, all of the successful big brands are who they are because they did not compare themselves to others but instead played their cards well. They knew that comparison would get them down.
Consider the brand as a human being. When we compare ourselves to others, this drives our behavior. The comparison could be about something genetic, such as desiring to be taller, skinnier, etc., but is more commonly about something the other person is capable of doing that we wish we could as well. Not only do we naturally want to be better than they are, the unconscious realization that we do not often become self-destructive. The same goes for a brand. You can be anything, but you can’t be everything.
You need to put that in mind. A brand’s first time running marketing can’t be compared to another brand’s marketing that has been running for years; it took them time to get to where they are now. That is why clients are disappointed with an agency’s results since they are impatient and want everything instantly!
Problem #3:
“Mispositioning and assessment”
As an agency, we’ve seen how brands may misposition themselves, resulting in poor decisions and unsatisfactory outcomes.
The marketing agency’s role is to conduct a thorough, in-depth analysis of the company, assessing all of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to make the best decisions, develop the best strategy, and implement the best action, all while negotiating with the client to ensure satisfaction.
Because clients may not know much about themselves due to a lack of research, it is critical for an agency to ensure that the client understands who they are, their market position, who their target audience is, and so on, to avoid unrealistic expectations, misunderstandings, and disagreements.
Problem #4:
“Distrust”
There are a large number of marketing agencies in the Egyptian market. HILARIOUS! Anyone with 2% marketing expertise can start a marketing agency! These agencies mostly focus on seeming amazing outwardly, but when you peek inside, you’ll hear the field cockroach voice! This results in unprofessional work, copying, lying… and so on.
Perhaps you might relate if you tried hiring more than a marketing agency before. This problem drives clients to distrust excellent marketing agencies and the agencies get the opportunity to partner with large brands.
However, before partnering with an agency, you must conduct thorough research, observe and understand the agency internally, take the time to reflect, and then make a decision.
To illustrate what happens on both sides, The agency asks, “Where do I bill my time?” and the client asks, “Why do I have to pay you to get to know my industry?”
This might be the first true test of a good agency/client partnership. As an agency, the best experiences we’ve had followed an upfront conversation at the beginning of the relationship about how we would get to know the client, what was billable, and who covered outside expenses. We’ve never failed to reach an agreement. There is an investment on both sides since we both have the same goal: to improve revenue or brand positioning, or both. So, Investing time in that relationship by filling the missing information exchangeable on both sides is the only way to do a great job for the client and create a lasting profitable relationship on both sides.