First: Know what you want.

Whether it’s time to take your brand to the next level, launch your company or introduce a new product, partnering with a marketing or creative agency is often a good move for a smaller or on-the-rise business. Or, for a business that just doesn’t have a robust marketing or creative team in house. 

No matter the reason for seeking an agency relationship, it’s important to be clear what it is that you need before you go searching for that perfect partner. 

Before you put together a request for proposal (RFP), ask yourself these six questions: 

1. What is your primary objective?
2. Are you looking for someone to help with strategy, execution or both? 
3. Is this a project-specific, one-time engagement or do you need ongoing support?
4. What level of internal resources (financial or human) are you ready to dedicate?
5. What would success look like for this work?
6. Who are the decision makers?

Write this ALL down. It will be essential to building out the RFP and aligning your internal team before you hire an agency.

No such thing as one size fits all.

Depending on your company’s scope, style, size and objective, you may benefit more from a smaller or larger agency. Creative and marketing agencies can vary greatly in size – from the one-woman show to the global corp and everything in between. And, aside from those big guys, most will have specific strengths or niches, too.

Think about the type of work that you need the most help with – what’s the priority? Areas of work might include:

• Brand development
• Creative campaign development
• Logo designs
• Website redesign/updates
• Audience or brand research
• Marketing persona development
• Social media strategy 
• Paid advertising strategy
• And more!

Once you’ve determined your top priorities, look for agencies with those strengths and think about if your priorities are similar or disparate, meaning you may need and agency with more resources to accommodate it. 

Pros and Cons of Big agencies vs. Boutiques

There’s no “right” or “wrong” really with choosing an agency size. As with much of what we deal with in marketing and branding, the answer is “it depends.” 

Here are some sweeping generalizations about agency size to consider when thinking about which direction to go in. Mind you, these don’t apply to every agency of these sizes. 

Big agency pros: 

• Larger teams and bandwidth
• Multiple in-house specialties
• A roadmap or “formula” for almost everything from working with many clients/industries
• Proven track record
• Access to more data/past case studies from past experience
• Network of providers
• Efficiency of procedures 

Big agency cons:

• The same “Formula” from working with many clients/industries could mean you to get a less customized experience
• Depending on your spend, you may get a “B” or “C” team handling your work – and never really hear from the owner or sales contact again
• Less willingness to partner with other firms/agencies you may be contracted with for other services, esp. If they offer it in house
• More expensive
• Less flexible potentially with project changes or timelines, especially if they have a large client roster

Boutique agency pros: 

• Smaller team, you’ll likely work with the same people from day 1, no B teams
• Investment of leadership/involvement of owners likely
• More passionate/invested in you because of smaller client list
• More customized project, fresh eyes on the industry/problem
• Less expensive
• More focused on the key priority/less up-selling
• More nimble to changes in the project typically

Boutique agency cons: 

• Less experience/ volume of clients to refer back to
• May need to subcontract work out or turn down parts of the work
• May have limited access to data/case studies
• Smaller network of partners/clients
• Less procedural so possibly less efficient

Time to Get Stalking: Agency Stalking that Is.

After you choose which size direction you think works best for your organization, there’s one more step to take before sending out an RFP: reconnaissance. 

Do your homework before you even send out an RFP. Look at agency websites for:

• Case studies and portfolios
• Recent client list (if published)
• Teams page to get a sense of key roles
• Links to websites or campaigns that they were part of and see if they’re still active (if they were recent). 

From there, make your list of agencies you’d be interested to work with or hear a pitch from. Make it at least 8-10 names long (not everyone will submit a proposal or be the right fit after all). 

Next blog, I’ll cover putting together the request for proposal and developing the pitch/decision making process.