Seven tips to make your branding agency love you
Are you about to embark on a new relationship with a branding agency? Read seven tips to make sure you get the best out of them.
Like all relationships, creatives tend to produce their best work when treated with care and respect. So if you’ve recently hired a branding agency, here are some tips on how to make them fall in love with you.
1) Know what you’re looking for
Before you embark on a project, make sure you have a clearly defined brief and if your agency asks you to fill out a briefing form, do this properly. Establishing outcomes, stakeholders, approval processes and timings at the start will be beneficial for everyone.
Circumstances of course may change at any point; just tell your agency as soon as possible. Communication should be ongoing throughout, but be aware that if the brief escalates or changes dramatically, this will almost definitely incur additional costs.
2) Respect your agency’s time
A good agency will most-likely have other clients, so if a project expands or changes, they will need to find the time to fit your work around other commitments. A good work-life balance leads to better creative work and happier creatives, so it’s not good form to ask for something ‘yesterday’; respect the time of the team you’re working with.
3) Keep your promises
Meeting deadlines is a two-way street! Understand that a delay on your side can mean a delay on completion. Don’t underestimate how much more time it will take to get decisions made by a committee rather than one or two people.
Also, if you’re undertaking a project that requires you to get information, copy or images to the agency, make sure you leave yourself enough time to do this. The best clients to have are the ones that have most of their collateral ready to go before the first meeting!
4) Don’t be fickle
When faced with an array of great ideas, making a decision can be tough, but there will likely be numerous choices to make as part of a creative process.
Indecision not only leads to frustration for your agency, but can also delay a project, and there are only so many revisions that a designer can make before further changes start to rack up costs.
So, trust your gut instinct, take on board the comments of (knowledgeable, credible) others when you have to, and once you’ve made your decision, stick to your guns!
5) Don’t micro-manage
Would you hire a plumber then show him how it’s done because you have that same spanner in your toolkit?
You’ve chosen your agency because you trust that they will give you a great outcome, so don’t stand over them micro-managing the process every step of the way.
A great agency should always work collaboratively with you, but if you consistently reject their advice, hack up their ideas and ask them to copy your PowerPoint bodge-up, you’ll not endear yourself.
6) Trust them
Creatives generally love what they do; the great ones listen more than talk in the first meeting and then put a lot of work, experience, time and effort into making sure their clients get something that they’re delighted with.
Once you’ve given them the brief, trust and respect their professional opinion – their aim is to get you a brilliant end result…
7) Give constructive feedback
Agencies are all only human and can’t always get it 100% right, so if there is something you’re not happy with, make sure you tell them – politely! Great creatives will put their heart and soul into their work for you, so clear, constructive feedback can make all the difference to them going the extra mile for you.
You will obviously choose your ideal branding agency based on their work and reputation, but follow these tips to ensure your ideal client status with them too.
InnerVisions ID: Branding that means Business. We specialise in growing SMEs; providing an intelligent, multi-dimensional and commercially-aware approach to branding and all marketing communications.
If you’re looking for a fulfilling relationship with your branding agency then get in touch
