Good help can be hard to find
The goal of every search we conduct is to find a match that will yield results for your business for years to come. It’s something we strive for, and it’s something we achieve. But today I want to do some reverse engineering of the process. In essence, what makes a marketer unhappy with their agency (or agencies)?
It’s often one of two scenarios:
Sometimes it’s a matter of an agency relationship fizzling out – while the shop was a strong choice at the start, they’ve become less proactive as time goes on. Where once they were offering fresh ideas, now they simply wait for your next direction without bringing their own ideas to the table.
Another potential scenario, and one that we’ll focus on today, is that these relationships are a less-than ideal fit from the start, because marketers aren’t getting the full picture when they conduct a self-driven search.
Being within the space, most marketers’ perspectives in this regard are inherently limited: whether the pool is agencies you’ve worked with in the past, those you’ve been referred to, or just located in the same geographic area.
Of course, as with just about everything else, COVID’s impacted the search for strong agency partners in a few ways.
First, quite simply, there’s a higher need for searches. As in-house marketing headcounts unfortunately shrink, you may be turning to agencies to fill in the resulting gaps. It’s a logical turn: agencies provide a solution that offers the flexibility the moment demands.
And while the pressure is at an all-time high for marketers to find the right agency, some may be tempted to cut corners to fill an immediate need – limiting their own options to the “usual suspects” they already know – which can often be a fast track to an ultimately unsuccessful partnership.
The second change, which will likely prove to be more impactful in the long-term, is the fact that marketers are recognizing the value of remote work.
Beyond the (relatively) seamless transition of internal teams to a virtual workspace, companies have gotten more comfortable working with agencies across the country, opening up an entirely new world of potential search candidates. For those of you that have been reluctant in the past to search for an agency that you can’t easily “stroll into,” hopefully recent months have shown that a partner 3,000 miles away can be just as effective as one 3 blocks away.
A significantly larger pool of potential candidates? Yep.
A better chance of finding an agency to match your needs? Sure.
A completely overwhelming process of finding a needle in a U.S.-sized haystack? Maybe…but that’s where we come in.
We already have the database: 10,000 agencies strong, with narrowing criteria tailored to fit your goals – whether that’s an AOR, a small project, or anything in-between. We give you a full range of options, and help you find the best agency, not the one that you happened to stumble upon (or, more accurately, the one that stumbled upon you).
We can help open the purview of your search and help you through the process of finding exactly what you’re looking for, at no cost to you. Give us a call or email me at msneider@rswagencysearch.com.
