indexWith plates full as you head into a new year, likelihood is that time is not on your side if you’re wanting to look for a new marketing agency.

Just had a marketer call me interested in having us help him find a new agency (at no cost to him) – and while he started exploring things at the end of last year, he quickly realized that there was no way he was going to be able to do an effective job finding the best agency for his business.

He did what most marketers should do:  started a file with information about agencies that have reached out to him – ones that looked particularly attractive.  He hadn’t done anything to connect with these firms, but he had at least started thinking about what he might want in an agency.  At the end of the day, this will help us, help him more quickly and more effectively as we start looking for a new marketing agency for his business.

If time is not on your side, and you don’t want to necessarily work with a group like ours to help you find a new firm, here are a few things you can consider doing:

1. Create a list of all the issues you have with your current agency (and be prepared to address them with candidates)

2. Create a list of the characteristics of what you’d like to see in your new agency

3. Define other qualifiers that are important to you (e.g. geography, size of firm)

4. Define the business issues you need a new agency to address (this can become part of your Request for Information)

Once you complete these exercises, pay a visit to each of the agency sites you’re considering.  Look for the experience you’d like the agency to possess and start at that point, to narrow down your list.