Ad agencies are not doing a good job of navigating the shift to digital, social, and mobile channels, according to Chief Marketing Officer report on client/agency effectiveness. Just 9% of senior marketers believe traditional ad agencies are doing a good job of evolving and extending their service capabilities in the digital age, in contrast to 22% who view their agencies as struggling to transition their business models and service offerings, it found.
Another 51% of the 250-plus senior marketers surveyed in the CMO Council study see their agencies as playing catch-up with regards to new technology, or acquiring but not integrating digital marketing capabilities.
Clearly tapping the correct agency has become a harder process for marketers—a process that must be balanced against ad budgets, new technologies and new markets. To that end, MarketingVOX suggests the following questions to ask as you vet your prospects. Some of these have been culled from blog posts; the majority are based on earlier interviews MarketingVOX conducted with sources in the industry.
To Open The Conversation
1. If you had unlimited resources and budget, what would you create to promote the brand? A really good agency will have hundreds of answers prepared for this question, Sven Larsen, chief marketing officer of Zemoga, a digital marketing firm that has created campaigns for Yahoo, HBO, Sears, Viacom and Toyota. "It will help you gauge what risks the agency is willing to take for the sake of innovation. An agency's ability to not only predict future trends, but incorporate them into a successful marketing strategy is crucial."
2. Whose work or what campaigns, other than your own, do you admire? An agency that is constantly monitoring its competitors will make sure that they're producing the most cutting-edge marketing solutions for their clients, Larsen says. "They have a good handle on what strategies are successful, as well as what strategies have failed. They set lofty goals and come out with breakthrough products to maximize your business."
3. Are you an Apple or PC? "This one falls in line with, 'If you were a tree what kind would you be?'," says Bryon Morrison, president of Ipsh, which is part of Omnicom's The Marketing Arm. In other words you learn a great deal about their sense of design, technical biases, he says.
Social Media Questions
4. Which social media platform is best suited for my company and why? "A big mistake a lot of folks get into is they feel they need to be everywhere and on every social media platform, which means they end up spreading themselves too thin and therefore not able to penetrate any of the social media platforms in a substantial way," says Clay Dollarhide, the director of Digital Marketing and Public Relations for mPRm Public Relations. "Have a discussion with your digital marketing agencies to see where they think your campaign could really succeed within the social media realm and not to feel obligated to have a Facebook fanpage because everyone else has one."
Digital Agency-specific
5. How much of a campaign budget should go to digital? "The correct answer is that it depends on the campaign objectives and audience, but you'll learn if they feel the world revolves around digital," says Ipsh’s Morrison.
6. If you found yourself having to unilaterally make a decision on behalf of your client, would you execute work that builds the brand or makes the sale? It's an especially relevant question for digital agencies, because you will learn what their orientation is toward direct, e-commerce, data-driven marketing or if they lean toward immersive, flash-driven experiences, Morrison says.
7. How do you evaluate how social media impacts customer acquisition, retention and referrals? While the number of comments, reposting, Tweeting, bookmarking, content context all build online visibility and reputation, stakeholders will need to see the value that keeps people employed, says Andrew Ballenthin, president of Sol Solutions. There are a lot of statistics digital marketers work with that can be impressive, he adds, but try to focus on a tangible ROI. "Enlist an agency who wants to be accountable for the whole process of generating closed sales so you get more than amazing top line campaign numbers."
CRM Integration
8. How do your services integrate with our current CRM system? Integration is critical to leverage your existing investments. "You don’t want to create silos," says Justin Gray, CEO and Chief Brand Officer of MaaS Impact.
9. How will sales interact with and provide feedback on the marketing cycle? Most organizations view sales and marketing as separate departments, Gray says. "There must be a clear path of communication to between the two or you are shooting in the dark."
Search-specific
10. How do you make sure you are not straying into grey hat tactics? Companies have to look out for "grey hat" firms as well, writes Kevin M. Ryan, CEO of the strategic consulting and project management firm Motivity Marketing at AdAge.com. There are in fact three categories of search engine optimization firms, he explains. "White hats that obey all the rules, black hats that break the rules and gray hats that play somewhere in the middle."
11. Can you give me customer references that go back at least five years? "It is easy for a black hat firm to keep a customer happy for six months or a year, says Joe Silverman, CEO of New York Computer Help, an IT outsourced service company (via Forbes). "But only a white hat SEO consultant can keep someone who has been satisfied for five years – by then the client will have realized if something shady had been going on."
