Guest post by Marielle Leon, a senior-level content marketing strategy specialist who previously worked in-house at Stripe, Glassdoor, Facebook, Pottery Barn, and more.
If you’ve ever partnered with an external creative agency as a marketer, you’ve likely felt pressure to squeeze as much value as possible from the relationship. When done right, you’ll not only get the creative support your marketing department needs, but also effectively demonstrate the agency’s value to leadership.
So, what’s the secret to get the most from your agency (and your budget)? The answer is somewhat counterintuitive. It’s not about working them to the bone — and it’s most definitely not about price per word or pixel. What it comes down to is being a good partner, stoking creative fires (yours and theirs), trusting their experience, giving good direction and feedback, and following through.
Here’s a rundown of what it takes to do it well — and get the most for your money — based on two decades of overseeing freelancers, contractors, and agencies as external support for internal creative teams at some of the Bay Area’s biggest companies.
1. Be a good partner
Make sure the people at your agency love you. They’ll want to kick ass for you. This means being reasonable about deadlines, never throwing anyone from the agency under the bus, admitting you failed to set them up for success if you pretty much failed to set them up for success, finding paths forward, etc.
Also, make sure they get paid. Mostly it’s about being a good human. But being a good partner will also serve you well. Your agency will make you look good, and there’s a good chance they’ll help make your company more successful. They’ll also be highly motivated to help bail you out if you ever find yourself in a production pickle — at your current company (or your next one).
2. Think beyond the task list
Brainstorm regularly about other ways the agency can engage with your company — especially if you have some wiggle room in the budget for side projects or have the agency on retainer. The more embedded the agency is with your messaging, the more fluent they’ll be in your brand’s look, feel, voice, tone, goals, etc. But they’ll still bring a fresh outsider’s perspective. It’s a powerful combo. Make it a regular agenda item to chat about creative projects that transcend your never-ending to-do list.Everyone will benefit from sinking their teeth into a meaty project, and if (when) you land on something with traction, you, your agency, and ultimately your company will look (and feel) like ballers.
3. Discipline yourself to delegate
In addition to regularly considering bigger, more aspirational ways the agency can contribute to your company’s success, it’s important to remember that you hired your agency to support you — and sometimes that means taking on the grunt work. A seasoned agency should always ask you “how else can we make your life easier?” at the close of every meeting. And if they don’t, consider coaching them to make a habit of it.
It took me a long time in my career to recognize that I could outsource a project that was vexing me. There was a time when I would only give projects to agencies once I could tie it up with a neat bow — a perfectly crafted creative brief, a clear messaging framework, and solid brand guidelines. But this approach can lead to burnout. By sharing both the exciting projects and the mundane tasks, you can relieve yourself of mental blocks and gain fresh perspectives. Offloading a task, especially when you’re stuck or unclear, can be a win-win. You get relief and new insights, while the agency gets the chance to impress you with their creativity and expertise.
Pro tip:
Be sure these items are on your regular agenda when you meet with your creative agency:
- Status update on deliverables
- Action items
- Planning
- Beyond the task list (think aspirational projects!)
- Debrief on previous projects, performance updates, budget updates, etc.
- Ways the agency can make life easier (both sides should come prepared!)
4. Get key agency players to use your tools
Whether you use Slack, AirTable, Asana, Trello or other forms of communication and project management, add your agency to the conversation to help streamline workflow (and reduce emails). This hack can sometimes require a chat with IT about adding external folks to your systems. But it’s worth it.
You’ll need to find that sweet spot where you’re providing a direct line and removing friction without needlessly complicating communication. Try not to unleash the agency into the wild west to fend for themselves — which can get expensive fast if they’re billing you to slog through lots of irrelevant information. Instead create a separate channel where key members from both teams can collaborate.
Pro tip:
To facilitate clear and efficient communication, I usually suggest making direct connections on Slack between the agency and three and ten people total, plus perhaps one or two project-specific channels. You can also ask your agency if they have a channel they prefer to host for team communication.
5. Give solid direction
To maximize value from your agency, sometimes it’s necessary to rely on them to bring order to a less-than-perfect project handoff. However, ideally, you would provide a strong creative brief, which serves as the gold-standard foundation for launching a stellar deliverable. There are many exemplary resources out there with guidance on how to write a killer brief, but this creative brief primer is the best of the best. In a nutshell: make sure your agency knows exactly who you’re trying to reach with the collateral they’ll be creating (current user research–generated personas are ideal, but if they don’t exist, do your best to map out demographics and shared pain points).
Make sure the agency has the most recent messaging frameworks. And be sure they understand the format and channel you’ll use, whether there will be an opportunity for A/B testing, and exactly what the call to action (CTA) will be. And for the love of all things holy, provide focus; make sure they have as strong a grasp on what you’re not trying to accomplish as they do on what you are trying to accomplish. If you don’t give crisp direction, you’ll get a flabby, diffused end product that won’t work.
6. When you give feedback, share nitty gritty details
As your agency ramps up, expect a learning curve. This can be a tricky time because you’re slammed and likely brought the agency onboard to take some things off your overloaded plate and not yet reaping the full relief of having an agency partner. But it is so, so critical at this stage to do the hard thing and give very detailed feedback on every single thing your agency does.
This is how you set them up for success.
Use tracked changes in docs so they can see edits you make, and make it clear that your expectation is that they take heed of every single little thing. Go the extra step to add explanations in the comments (along the lines of note: I’m switching the word “leverage” for “use” here per our prohibited list of words [add link to doc] identified as jargon that are mostly banned across the board).
And for design assets, take a similar approach by adding comments on stickers in Figma, Canva, or whatever design platform you’re using. Every time you partner with this agency, they will return a cleaner and crisper product on the first round, and your life will become immensely easier.
When providing feedback, remember to use some levity, some authentic compliments, and a bit of self-deprecation even when communicating in docs. This goes a long way toward developing mutual respect and a high-functioning collaborative rhythm.
7. Make debriefs a thing you always do
Within a month of when a project wraps, schedule a debrief. You might not have any real data yet on whether the collateral you partnered on is successful, but even without click-through and conversion data, net promoter score (NPS) metrics, or other readouts on key performance indicators (KPIs), you can still talk about how the collaborative effort went.
Here’s a few starter questions I like to ask:
- Did you waste any time?
- Where could you have moved more quickly?
- Did you build in enough time on your workback schedule?
- Could messaging have been clearer?
- Is there something you could have done to be a better partner for your agency?
And if your agency is worth their salt, they’ll come to the table with lots of ideas about what they could have done better, too — and they’ll ask you if you have any to add. This process is really critical to crushing your next project together.
8. Remember them!
Six months later when you see some killer performance stats (and, yes, even if they’re not so killer), follow up with your agency and tell them the news. They’ll be happy to have the full picture of a piece they worked on, and — once again it’s not all selfless.
Getting that feedback will motivate them to work that much harder and better for you because they know your partnership is not just transactional. This is how you build a lasting rapport.
If nothing is going on or projects are delayed, don’t ghost your agency. Keep them in the loop if budgets have changed or initiatives are on hold. Whatever it may be, let them know you’re still thinking of them and will give them a shout when you’re ready for that next project.
And when the next project comes down the pike fast and furiously — with deliverables due day-before-yesterday and internal partners breathing down your neck (even though cross-functional teams are failing to commit to anything, everyone is passing the buck, and budget is still a pipe dream) — your agency will be ready to dive in with sleeves rolled up.
An agency that really has your back won’t leave you alone either — even if things are slow. You should expect to hear from your contact regularly, checking in to see how they can support you.
Pro tip:
When you have a super awesome creative agency on board, it can be tempting to keep them all to yourself. But if you hear of another department in your organization looking for support, consider dropping your agency’s name. Your colleagues benefit from an agency that’s been onboarded within the organization — and the agency benefits from the additional work. Sharing the love is almost always a win-win.
The bottom line
This is my playbook for managing contracted creative agencies at large companies, and it has yielded a lot of great work and lasting collaborative relationships. If you have other tips to add, I’d love to hear them! Remember partnering with an agency is a collaboration that has the potential to grow and evolve, benefiting every single person — and, of course, the business — involved. Hiring a new creative agency? Check out my six tips for bringing an agency on board or reach out to Pinwheel to see how they can help.
