In this tough economy, many companies who have managed their own advertising in-house or relied on word of mouth are now fighting for survival. They have discovered that what has worked in the past is not going to sustain them now. They have to compete for every customer like never before, and that often means turning to an advertising agency for the first time. Here are some suggestions of what you should look for when choosing an agency to represent you.

References. If you read enough agency websites in succession they all begin to sound the same: we’re experienced … we’ll deliver … we’re creative … we put a premium on serving our clients. Well, take them up on the client thing. Ask to speak with some of their clients directly. Talk is cheap, and companies can say anything about themselves. If they can’t produce references from satisfied clients, that’s a red flag.

Listening. Before handing out sage advertising advice an agency should listen to you and then listen some more. The fact is that no client has built a viable business (especially in today’s economy) without knowing a thing or two about meeting the needs of their customers. It’s true that effective ad agencies know how to help grow a business by motivating existing customers and reaching new ones. And good agencies will help to define a clear marketing message in order to increase sales. But not before they fully understand the goals and unique challenges of each client. They should listen more and speak less.

That said, you aren’t hiring an agency to be your lap dog or “yes men” (or women). After listening and understanding your challenges, they should bring in fresh new marketing ideas—and your job is to be open to them.

Accessibility. Some creative firms only provide an email form with which to contact them. That’s suspect. They should at the very least have a phone number, and a brick and mortar street address wouldn’t hurt either. They’re not engaged in covert ops, they are in advertising. So why the secrecy?

Samples. I have actually visited agency sites that don’t show any of the work they’ve done. What’s up with that? Advertising depends on ideas expressed through the combination of creative text and visuals. If they don’t show you their work (or enough of it for you to make a judgment about their expertise), it’s probably not worth seeing.

Creativity. Judge the firm’s portfolio by their creativity, not just by their experience in your particular industry. Creativity is what will get you noticed and what will set your company or product apart. It doesn’t necessarily matter if the agency has worked in your industry before because good advertising needn’t be industry specific. Effective advertising is made up of great ideas targeted successfully to distinct markets. Look to see how a prospective agency thinks, and again, look for satisfied clients across a spectrum of industries.

Bias. People have biases, and advertising agencies do too. Some are biased against newer marketing methods such as social media and phone apps. Or conversely, others view any offline media as old fashioned and ineffective. Truth is, people access information in many different ways depending on the industry and the customer base. I recently had a conversation with an online marketer who couldn’t believe that my firm had helped a company experience radical growth through a billboard campaign. The fact is that over 80 percent of the client’s customers’ decisions were affected by the billboards. How did we know this? Because our savvy client asked their customers (who generally had a short waiting period before being seen) to fill out cards asking how they came to the company (online search, referral from a friend, etc). Pay-per-click stats are not the only way to confirm return on investment.

I have my own personal bias. It’s a bias against advertisers and marketing firms that insist their clients conform to their particular niche marketing approach, and don’t consider all the options of what might work best for their client’s customers.

Friendliness. Friendliness? Isn’t that kind of touchy-feely? What’s that got to do with business, as long as the agency gets results? Well, from my experience, accounts go south less because of agency deliverables and more often because of miscommunication, misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Yes, hurt feelings! You and your agency are going to be spending time together in meetings and on the phone and corresponding by emails. It will go much better for both sides if you like each other.

So that’s my bare-bones list of what to look for if you’re in the market for an ad agency. Do you agree with my points? Are there other factors that need mentioning? Let me know your thoughts.

Tags: ad agency creativity, ad agency friendliness, ad agency portfolio, Dave Hile, listening to clients, tips for choosing an ad agency

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.