How To Make Your Advertising Agency Your Partner


Sep 14, 2016

Let’s face it. The fact of the matter is that advertising agencies succeed when their clients succeed. Unfortunately, not every client-agency relationship ends in success. In fact, good advertising is hard to come by these days. People are inundated with a wide range of advertising from the moment they wake up in the morning until they turn the lights out at night. The question then becomes: How can you set the client-agency relationship up for success to improve your chances of creating a truly effective advertising campaign? The answer is simple: Make it a partnership, not a dictatorship. Here are a few tips to get you where you need to be.

  1. Choose the right agency. Sounds easy, right? Not so much. If you want a solid partnership, the fit is everything. Do you feel comfortable with them? Can you work with their process and vice versa? Do you feel like they can meet your needs? Are they just selling to you or do they truly care about your success? Do your organizational values align? These are all good questions to ask yourself when choosing the right agency. The entire relationship stems from here.
  2. Talk to them. Sounds obvious, huh? Sometimes it’s not. We’re talking about the quality of communication. Communicate clearly and they will listen. Any good agency wants to hear your questions, concerns and any other pertinent feedback. Sure, they probably eat, breathe and sleep advertising but that doesn’t mean they aren’t not open to new, and different directions. Two minds are always better than one. You’re in this together so they need to know what your thinking- the good and the bad.
  3. Be transparent. While your agency certainly doesn’t need to know every detail of everything that’s going on in the business, they do need to know the essentials. Anything that could possibly have an effect on the the campaign, tell them upfront. Ideally, you would also include them in your planning process. It’s always better for your agency to have more information rather than less. This will help them strategize to meet long-term goals, not just complete short-term projects. It might also save you money in the long-term if the agency can plan for changes.
  4. Have a little faith. Your advertising agency respects that you know your business from the inside-out but sometimes it might feel strongly about a particular creative direction, marketing tool or distribution channel that you have your doubts about. Remember that you partnered with them for their expertise and sometimes that will require you to trust them.

We, at Stout Heart, don’t want to be just another vendor. We’re not looking to be order-takers. We look for clients who are willing and able to partner with us and grow with us because we truly believe that we succeed when our clients succeed. The best advertising stems from a solid client-agency relationship where there is a mutual respect and an open communication line. Want to learn more about Stout Heart to see if we might be the right fit for your business? Don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re all ears.