Marketers traditionally have looked for marketing agencies with previous experience in their industry. The old way of thinking was that there would not be a learning curve to accommodate. Those small, yet ever so important, nuances pertaining to the industry were already understood. Most of all, the industry experience meant that the agency knew how things were traditionally done. The way all the players in the industry do things. Anyone see the underlying problem here?
Back in the day, when marketing agencies had client relationships that lasted for decades, the thinking was always centered on their industry experience. The same techniques were used by the major companies in the industry. Everyone was doing the same thing, in the same channels, and the only difference was the creative aspect (which, quite honestly, was also very similar). Fast forward to today, where everything has changed. Internet, email, online shopping, mobile, texting, tweeting—a whole new world of communication channels exists. The traditional channels are not as effective and some have even become almost extinct. Every industry has experienced change to its core. So why have marketers been slow to change their thinking when it comes to marketing?
One of the problems with only considering marketing solutions from an agency that has industry experience is that the marketer is assuming success is based on an intimate knowledge of their industry. Simply because an agency has had years of experience in a particular industry does not automatically translate to successful marketing results. Especially in today’s technologically dominated world. Marketing is not done the same way it has always been done, no matter the industry.
Consider the changes in customer behavior when it comes to purchasing. With online and social media an essential part of customers’ daily lives, buyers have more sources, choices, outlets and opinions to consider. Customers are using more channels than ever to access information, consider reviews, and research products and services, often switching multiple channels for a single transaction.
As customer behavior has drastically changed, so, too, has marketing. Agencies have had to evolve to focus more on customer behaviors and multichannel communications that work together for the common goal. Marketing has become a marriage between science and creative. Marketers need strong capabilities in analysis, communication, consumer behavior and operations. Multiple channels need to be optimized to their unique abilities while ensuring they are all working cohesively. No one channel is effective solely on its own.
Marketers therefore should be concentrating their efforts on seeking agencies that have both successful marketing expertise and industry experience. Whether searching for solutions in a particular channel, or perhaps multiple channels, consideration should also be based on the types of successful expertise an agency brings within those channels and not solely on the fact that it once did a campaign in the late 1990s for a company that did business within the same general industry.
So how do marketers evaluate their current marketing agency and decide if it’s time to consider other resources? Are there optimization opportunities that could be made? Do our current activities achieve the greatest ROI or could we be doing more? Is your current marketing agency offering expertise with the latest techniques and providing analytics and metrics for all aspects of your marketing? Is it time to consider a change to your resources? A good starting point to answering these important questions may be to review this agency scorecard. Here’s a clear, concise tool you can use to gauge your current agency’s performance. It will help you determine which factors to consider and provide important comparison points for your evaluation. The agency scorecard lets you evaluate 5 critical areas:
It only takes a few minutes to complete, and the insights you’ll gain are invaluable. Download the agency scorecard, along with other agency-evaluating tools, in our helpful CMO kit. Click here to download it today.
Topics: CMO
