Why Agencies Are Not Always The Way To Go

I recently sat down with the COO of a medium sized business that has largely outsourced its marketing efforts to outside agencies.? He not only wanted me to help his company transition toward integrating marketing into the company’s business practices, but he wanted me to stay on to oversee it.

As we spoke it became clear that he viewed marketing agencies as a necessary evil, but one long overdue from being replaced.

The problems that he highlighted are not uncommon to most outsourced operations with very few exceptions.? While these issue plague many outsourced business services that is not so say that are not shining examples that defy the general perception of their industry.?

Because of this outlook and experience, it was no surprise that he sought me out without the aid of a recruiter.? He had not only heard about the results I delivered, how I delivered them, but also that I was looking to exit the consulting space for an internal role.

So it becomes obvious before I even get into the problems what one of the solutions is to avoid falling into common traps or standing out from the crowd.? And that is building a reliable network of people who will sing your praises and build a word-of-mouth following.? Establishing a good reputation that separates you from the rest is an ounce of prevention.

The first problem that he highlighted about any and all outsourced marketing was that they simply did not get it.? They were able to deliver marketing qualified leads and do it at a price that returned ROI.? However, most of those marketing qualified leads never translated into sales qualified leads.? The seasoned sales team determined that the leads had not matured enough to become customers.?

Additionally, the marketing teams were using generic marketing communication assets because it was in the agency’s best interest but not the clients.

That leads us to the second problem.? The outside agency had different priorities than the client.? They were looking to hit a target and had no incentive to exceed it.? The agency could not play favorites and had to focus on delivering a fixed ROI.? Any extra effort had to go to ensuring other clients were able to have a similar return on their investment.

Circling back to the generic assets brings us to our third issue.? The product not only improperly represent the company, it could represent any company, and negatively impacts ROI.? If the image of the company and its employees, goods, and services do not match up with reality then it will turn away people as well as fail to identify the company out from others in the same industry.

The same principles outlined for poor marketing from agencies can be attributed to some recruiting companies.? Many recruiters use generic job descriptions that give the job seeker no concept of the company’s culture or industry.? Some are not clear about the company’s geographic location.? They just want numbers.

The key to building that successful reputation for quality work is investing in not only the client, but also their potential clients, customers, or employees.? It is a quality over quantity approach that seems allusive amongst many firms both large and small.? However, there are exceptions to every rule.