AGENCY EVALUATION CHECKLIST. Some helpful questions to ask the 21st Century Agency

Transcription

1 AGENCY EVALUATION CHECKLIST Some helpful questions to ask the 21st Century Agency

2 The best way to truly get to know the agency of interest is to spend quality time with its employees... In one day, you ll get answers and an understanding about the agency you ll never get from a RFP. When hiring an agency to assist your marketing team in reaching its business objectives, you need to know can the agency I m talking to really do all? Is it really full service, or just functionally capable? In most cases, an RFP is provided to determine whether a specific advertising or PR or digital agency is a good fit for a company. While an RFP may be something you have to do because of company policy, it s not necessarily what you should do when looking for a trusted marketing partner. The best way to truly get to know the agency of interest is to spend quality time with its employees. Go to the agency s headquarters for a day. Meet its employees, from the CEO and the account managers to recent hires. Watch the team work. Present members with a small exercise to see how they would react and respond to a situation typical of your company. In one day, you ll get answers and an understanding about the agency you ll never get from a RFP. Plus, you can test the all-important question of day-to-day compatibility. Do you have some natural synergy? Some kind of repoire with this group? Do your philosophies match? Will they give you what you need, when you need it? Will they take your company to the next level? Will you enjoy working with them? These are things that are very difficult to determine from an RFP response. Whether you take our advice to visit the agency or not, you ll still probably have to do an RFP and you ll still need to ask the right questions. So, here they are the top questions to ask a prospective agency partner to find out if it can really deliver what you are looking for from a marketing partner, in today s real time, two-way, always-on media environment. Everyone says Yeah we do that. These questions will help you sort out functional capability (i.e. we physically can accomplish a task) from true expertise, skill, and experience.

3 So, here they are the top questions to ask a prospective agency partner to find out if it can really deliver what you are looking for from a marketing partner, in today s real time, two-way, always-on media environment. Analytics Strategic Planning Content Agency Social Media What is the agency s strategic planning methodology for content and audience development? Who in the agency develops the strategy? What data is it Client based on? What is the time frame to develop a strategy? How do they work with the client during strategy development? What is the client responsible for providing? How are performance targets and KPIs identified, measured and reported? How does the strategy account for listening/monitoring and real time responsiveness? Are ongoing strategy recommendations made by the agency for ongoing content and engagement optimization? Who makes these recommendations? What data are the recommendations based on? Client Experience How does the agency deliver the client experience? What is the account management system like? How often is the account manager in communication with the client contact from my company? How does the account manager distribute requests/ recommendations from the client to the agency team? How are the performance targets and KPIs reported? Does the agency reward the team based on performance?

4 Does the agency scan online conversation on a daily basis? Can they identify risk and/or opportunity? Monitoring / Research / Analytics / Alerts / Reporting How does the agency keep you informed about what people think about your brand in real time? In what format are the social media and analytics reports delivered to the client? How often are reports sent? Weekly, monthly, quarterly? Can the agency send additional reports upon request? What is the turnaround time? Are the analytics reports across all platforms? Are recommendations based on findings reported? Governance / Real Time Functionality How does the agency account for real-time governance? As stories break, and online conversations change, can the agency proactively engage in real time? Can reactive social content be created immediately for the brand to stay relevant during unplanned events? How does the agency keep conversations tonally and strategically on brand? Does the agency scan online conversation on a daily basis? Can they identify risk and/or opportunity? Can they react accordingly for your brand? Can the agency moderate your channel conversation in real time?

5 Can their approval processes account for the real-time nature of social media? Moderation Does the agency allow for selective curation and sharing of consumer generated content? Can the agency respond to questions being asked of your brand i real time? What are the agency s Best Practices for answering commonly asked questions? Do they have FAQ documents, response flowcharts, and/or escalation parameters for each brand to assist in answering questions? How long is the turnaround time? Content Development Is there a content calendar? When is it used? If not, what content planning system is established in place of a content calendar? How long is the approval process? How have they dealt with regulatory / compliance approvals in the past? Can their approval processes account for the real-time nature of social media? Can the agency create rich media content efficiently and quickly? Web video, infographics, memes, galleries, etc. How are decisions made about what content to publish and when

6 Tools & Technology What tools does the agency use for day to day operation? What software tools are used specific to social, content, media, analytics? What is the level of software knowledge by the agency employees? What is the level of software knowledge expected by the client? Can the agency adapt to use the tool the client is already using? What experience do you have with [insert tools you re currently using]? Use Cases How has the agency been successful? Ask for case studies. Ask to speak with three of their best clients, and three of their worst clients. Actually call them. Specific examples of the agency s success stories are the best way to know what the agency is capable of accomplishing for your brand. Ask for examples in every question you ask. We hope this was helpful for you in evaluating your next external marketing partner. As you might imagine, Raidious has excellent answers for all of these questions, and many more, along with some great use cases, and a wonderful facility, which we would be thrilled to invite you to visit any time. As you might imagine, Raidious has excellent answers for all of these questions, and many more...

7 RAIDIOUS BUILDS AUDIENCES FOR BRANDS CONTACT US 47 South Meridian Street Suite 302 Indianapolis, IN (317)