In our last post we strongly encouraged mid-spend marketers to stop trying to run marketing agency searches on their own.

As we suggested last week…

Managing an agency search on your own is a little like working in the (weeds of the) business versus working on the business.

You don’t have the time.

You don’t have the full purview of all the best-in-class agencies that can move your business forward.

You don’t know all the right questions to ask.

Did I say…you don’t have the time! You have a business to run for God’s sake!

BUT…IF YOU’RE INSISTENT ON MANAGING IT YOURSELF, HERE’S HOW TO START A GREAT SEARCH:

Start by defining your needs and outlining what you’re not getting from your current agency that you wish you had. We are just finishing up a search for a mobility company in part because their current agency isn’t giving the attention they deserve, they’re shorting them on reporting and analytics, and the agency is just making the Marketing client feel like they’re missing out on so many great opportunities.

Right or wrong, this is the way the marketer feels.

Once you define your needs, dive into a platform like Agency Spotter to start identifying agencies that might meet your criteria. At RSW/AgencySearch we manage a database of well over 10,000 agencies of all types and sizes.

It’s where we start to begin searches for clients. We keep it up-to-date and are constantly adding new agencies to the mix.

Identify about 30 agencies that look promising. Email them with a small handful of pre-qualifying questions to dive a bit deeper into their work, their experience, the kinds of problems they’ve solved.

What we typically do next is narrow that list down to about 15 high value agencies and hold short interviews with them to whittle down the list to about 7 firms, any of which could prove a great partner for our marketing client.

Our next step is typically an RFI (we write and get approval from the marketing client). 7 agencies get the RFI, we make our recommendations on which of the 7 should make it into the final pitch presentation.

Post the selection we let each agency talk with the marketer client to get insights from them.

The finalist agencies (usually 3) get an outline of what’s expected of them in the final pitch presentation. We give them a good 2-3 weeks to prepare and then you sit back and enjoy the exchanges…then make your pick.

If you run a search on your own, don’t let it carry much past a couple of months and be organized for Pete’s sake. You don’t want the agencies wondering what the heck they got themselves into!

We still think you’d be better off working with a group like ours.

We don’t cost mid-spend marketers a thing to manage the search.  Can’t beat that!

Give us a call (513-293-6785) or drop us a line (mark@rswas.com) if you’d like to talk.