As a business trying to build a presence online, you need to work with a creative agency. There’s a lot they can contribute to your business, but if you haven’t worked with one before, it may be hard to imagine how your working relationship would be.
How will you work collaboratively? How can you help them bring out the best in you? You want to make sure that you get the most out of the online reputation services that you are getting.
To help you out, here are some things you can do to help the creative agency you are working with:
Make Sure the Creative Brief Is Complete
Your creative agency is going to ask for a creative brief from you. This is an essential document because the success of the campaign or project depends on it. You want to ensure that it has all the vital information about your project, including your branding guidelines, the goals you want to achieve, any deadlines, and even your budget. The goal is to have a document that will keep both you and the agency on the same page.
Ask as Many Questions as You Can During the First Meeting
When you do the kickoff, make sure that you make it a productive one. Apart from going over the brief that you provided them, ask as many questions as you can so you’ll know the team’s process better. It’s also a good idea to have key players from your company present so everyone will know what to expect. By asking questions, you can better ensure that your teams are aligned on goals and what to do to achieve them.
Learn the Process
Every digital marketing agency has its own process, but the creative engagement will generally include the following:
- The “learning phase” wherein they deep dive into your brand and your organization as a whole to learn about your specific needs, your weaknesses as a brand, the solutions you have already tried, and more. Here they will do research, surveys, analytic reviews, and more.
- After the first phase comes “insights,” wherein they’ll reveal what approaches they believe will deliver you the best possible results based on the goals you have.
- Once you have approved their insights, brainstorming starts. Depending on the agreement, this may or may not involve your team. Once the ideas are complete, they’ll pitch them to you, and you’ll choose the best ones.
- The team will now start with the execution of the ideas they have come with.
- As the work starts, they’ll also continuously track the performance of their strategies based on metrics that have been agreed upon too.
Feedback the Right Way
As the creative team’s process is ongoing and you want to ensure that everything is going well at all stages, you should eliminate the risk of oversights and miscommunication. You should know to speak up whenever you feel something is not sitting right with you. You should also know who to contact in case you need to speak with their team. Make it clear from the beginning if you want every idea to go through you before they are executed. Also, be responsible enough to respond to the queries of the agency promptly. You don’t want them stuck in the middle of a process because it’s taking you days to respond to them.
Conclusion
Some businesses make the mistake of thinking that because they are the clients, they have no responsibilities over anything creative because that’s what they hire the agency for. However, the best clients who get online reputation services are proactive and supportive, too. If you want to get the best results, you also need to give your working relationship your effort and time – provide the agency with as much information as you can so they can better paint your brand’s image. When they know your organization better, they’ll learn how to tell your story and get the audience to notice you in the way you want them to perceive you.
When you’re ready to work with a reliable agency to build your online reputation, Internet Zone I from Orange County, CA, is here to help you. We provide tailored online reputation management services that meet our clients’ specific needs. Contact us today online or call us at 714-529-8024 and let’s discuss what you need!