When to Hire a Marketing Agency

How much you CAN spend depends on how much you can afford. Not just based on "what's in the bank," but a complex calculation that includes predicted response (ROI) to your pro-active marketing actions, coupled with a cash-flow analysis, and based on anticipated and available funds.

How much you SHOULD spend is for the marketing professionals (ad agencies, public relations folks, other marketing types) to determine. That takes into account your corporate objectives (as in - sales as a result of...), intended market share, or increase in market share, ability to fund expenditures, etc.

Maybe you’ve had an unpleasant experience by declaring your budget early on or what you thought was too openly. That has happened. But as a general rule, when you speak with the interested agencies, engage in open dialogue when it comes to your BUDGET.

If it’s time to hire a marketing partner:

If you’ve done your due diligence and have concluded it’s time for a new agency (or a fresh marketing partner), think and act carefully. Identify, invite and investigate only those candidates that possess the attributes you demand. This is much more than a hunt for pretty pictures, so don’t start

looking at creative samples until you’ve confirmed a fit based on capabilities and some degree of chemistry (likeability) tested during a telephone conference. After that, it makes sense to ask for creative samples. In the final analysis, you’ll select for capability, chemistry and creative. As virtually everyone learns, in business, birds-of-a-feather flock together and likes do attract.

Finally, regardless of your size (gross sales, budget, market-share, employees or locations), be certain your marketing candidates will do for you that which you can’t already do for yourself.

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Chuck Meyst is Chairman & CEO of Business Partnering International, Ltd. BPI operates the Internet client and agency matchmaking service agencyfinder.com. He can be reached at chuck@agencyfinder.com.