Five ways to manage your client-agency relationship
Five steps to manage the relationship with your advertising agency including maintaining regular contact and setting confidentiality agreements.
Building and maintaining a client-agency relationship is central to achieving your marketing objectives. When the client-agency relationship is working well, it makes getting the job done much easier for you and the agency. You and your chosen agency should have mutual trust, confidence and understanding.
1. Have clear communication channels
Create open, clear communication channels. This will ensure your agency knows your project goals, timelines, and expectations. Make sure the preferred communication channels are shared with your whole team.
2. Have clear goals and expectations
By setting clear goals for your campaigns, the agency will know what they are expected to deliver. Developing briefing templates will help keep you and the agency focused on the end goal.
3. Maintain regular contact
Have regular status meetings with your agency. Review live campaign progress, address concerns, and make needed adjustments.
It might be helpful to have occasional brainstorming events or away days to productively get to know each other better.
4. Take a collaborative approach
You will get the most from the agency if you treat them as an extension of your business, not a supplier. You will then build a strong relationship with the agency to achieve a common goal.
5. Trust the agency
For the agency to do the best job for your business, you need to trust them. This trust spans from knowing they will use their expertise to create successful campaigns. It extends to sharing confidential information, trusting they will keep it confidential. You might want to consider signing a confidentiality agreement with your agency.