How to increase your agency's speed.
Let’s face it, everyone wants things done faster. In today’s world, marketing opportunities emerge and if your agency isn’t nimble enough to capitalize, you miss out. It’s that simple.
In a survey conducted by DEFY, timely execution was a key issue identified by healthcare marketers. Work is taking too long from start to finish because agencies are too rigid in their approach. Agencies have processes on top of processes which means, as one survey respondent said, “it takes forever to get anything done.”
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to help your agency improve their delivery time. Is it enough? Time will tell. (See what we did there?) Rest assured, we built our agency to be remarkably nimble with budgets, timelines, expectations, and everything in between.
Share these ideas with your agency and if they can’t move faster, maybe it’s time to move on.
1.
Set clear priorities.
Make sure your agency understands what matters most to you and your brand at the very start of the relationship. And don’t hesitate to remind them about what matters before you begin a new project.
Be realistic about how long it takes to produce work, at the same time, hold the agency to their deadlines. When an agency tells you when you will be seeing work, don’t let them change the dates unless you agree to suggested timeline changes ahead of time.
2.
Pressure-test ideas at the start.
A tactic is only as good as the thinking that went into it. Your agency should be thorough in their initial questioning to grasp the essence of the project, while you as a client should equally probe into the strategic alignment and rationale of agency recommendations. Mutual exploration serves to ensure the most valuable creative deliverable is identified to meet the business objective. The agency hours used to transform an idea into a tactic can be managed most efficiently when everyone has the right information right from the start.
3.
Make sure the effort equals the output.
Creativity courses through the veins of everybody on the agency side, so it’s easy for creativity itself to become the focus. As the person paying the bills, you want to be sure that the creativity is channeled in the right direction so the tactic doesn’t take longer than needed or cost more than it should.
You can help by being clear about the impact you see the tactic having. Let the agency know how it compares to other things with which they are familiar. Tell them where it sits on your list of priorities. We’ve found that even sharing something as simple as “I want to make a small/medium/large investment in this,” can help let the agency know what you expect in terms of effort and costs. If you are clear about the amount of effort you want to see, make sure your feedback matches it. You can’t tell the agency to take a low effort/low cost approach, and then expect to see a high effort/high cost result, an excessively high number of versions or revisions.
In addition to what you can do, you should expect the agency itself to self-manage against overkill. Transparency from your agency about project status and timelines should always be expected.
4.
Challenge superfluous steps in the process.
Every agency has processes. While these processes are designed to ensure quality, they can also lead to inefficiencies, especially if they’re not tailored to the unique needs of the project, and ultimately, your business needs. Marketers would be well-served by knowing the detailed steps of their agency process.
Ask for your agency’s processes in writing.
What you’re likely to discover is that the same process is being used for both small and large deliverables. You’re also likely to see editorial rounds for every step before the tactic is shared with you, and if you’re working with a big agency, you’re bound to see layers of internal reviews and approvals. All of these add time and money to the project and you are well within your rights to challenge what seems to be process for the sake of process.
5.
Add time-saving steps when appropriate.
This might seem counter-intuitive, but sometimes adding steps to the process can actually save time down the road. If you want to see the project at early stages of development (highly recommended), add that step to the process. It’s okay to ask to see a rough outline, followed by a rough draft, to see if the agency is tracking to initial agreements. If you need input from others in your organization, get feedback early vs. later in the process and account for that in the timeline.
6.
Keep your team intact.
If you have a number of projects underway, with more planned, talk to the agency about how the work is prioritized. Your agency might be inclined to utilize additional creative support to hit aggressive timelines. In our experience, you are almost always best served by having your usual people working on all of your projects to ensure consistency, context, and depth of knowledge about your brand. If your priorities are clear, press the agency to suggest ways to stagger the work to optimize the use of your team to deliver what is most urgently needed. By slowing some things down, you may be able to speed up delivery of the things that will have the greatest impact.
If your agency isn't responding fast enough, you have options.
At The DEFY Collective, you’ll find experienced marketers who have worked on both sides of the client-agency relationship. We know how valuable time is and how critical it is to respond to opportunities as they emerge. Regardless of your timeline and budget, we can find solutions that work and we guarantee timely delivery.
Time is money. It’s time to get to work with an agency that gets it.
Need support now?
Call the DEFY helpline and connect with agency leadership for free advice on just about anything related to your agency relationship. We will help you get the most out of your agency, guaranteed!
