5 things you should know about your creative agency before you meet them!

The first meeting with your agency decides how the rest of them will go! The meeting must give you your essentials – a chance to get to know your team, to get to know if they can handle the work they’re going to be doing for you, and so on. Here is a list of things you need to know before your kickoff meeting.

1.       Be prepared to answer questions

Your creative agency will aim at extracting as much as information they can in the first meeting to understand your business, goals and expectations for the overall outcome of the project. Ideally, you will receive a list of questions from the agency for you to be answering at the meeting which may include things like company background, values, goals, USPs, marketing objectives, budgets, demographic and so on.

2.       They are not telepathic

Be sure to give them as much as information possible during this meeting. Don’t leave anything stranded and expect them to assume it. Even if it is the minute of details which is usually taken for granted, be sure that you’re loud and clear about it. In case you don’t have a clear idea, don’t hesitate to ask the agency for help with things like fonts, colours, design elements, and so on,

3.       If you don’t understand the terminology, ask them

There might be a lot of terminology that might not be understood by you. Hashtags, platforms, CPAs, CLPS, BRs and so on might not seem like what you might’ve been doing as a part of your marketing before. In case you don’t understand them, don’t hesitate to ask them to explain it to you.

4.       Not their first time

The agency will have an established agenda for the kickoff meeting. They know what to ask, what to look for and what to expect from clients. You need to understand that there are so many things that are expected out of the kickoff meeting and this is why you should be prepared for this too.

5.       Might not get it right the first time

Despite their best efforts, the agency might not get it right the first time, and that is normal. During your kickoff meeting, you will have to come to agreement with your agency about the number of rights-of-return before the agency starts charging for amendments and edits. This will make things easier on you and the agency as well.

6 questions you should be asking before you choose an advertising agency

Choosing a creative agency for your brand can be quite a task. Here are a few questions that will help you narrow down on a good advertising agency.

What do you want the creative agency to do for you?
Understand your need before your agency does. Why do you need an ad agency? Do you need it to plan, create, and produce? Do you need an agency that does all of these or concentrate on a single aspect?

Should you choose an agency that offers media-buying as a service?
You don’t have to unless you don’t need to.

Should you choose an agency that specialises in a certain kind of advertising?
There are digital agencies, creative agencies that offer online and offline services, and agencies that offer only offline services. Make sure you choose your agency according to your need.

Should internet marketing be a concern while choosing an agency?
The agency you choose should ideally have some connection with marketing like direct marketing. Internet marketing is an essential part of marketing and you might need one.

Will the agency be able to handle the existing work-load as well as work for your new launches?
Ideally, even if you don’t plan on launching any new product or service, it is considered to be a good practice to choose an agency that can handle launches as and when you require.
Does the location of the agency matter?
Not at all! Communication can happen via many ways, as long as you are comfortable with the work and time that the agency delivers your work.

Top Digital Marketing Trends in 2014

The best thing about digital marketing is that it has no boundaries. With devices like smartphones,
tablets, laptops, consoles, television, digital billboards, and media including social media, SEO, video, content, email and much more, digital marketing is cost-effective and far-fetched. Here are five trends that will help digital marketing reach its maximum potential.

1. Location-based marketing

With the use of GPS technology to deliver multimedia content, information can be tailored to a specific geographical location straight to devices that a potential customer might use.

2. Social Media diversification

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn are old stories. Now, it’s Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram for the win. Creating a niche for your brand becomes much easier with increasing number of people being active in diverse social media platforms.

3. Content Curation

Data is filtered and customised information platforms are created to perfectly blend brand contexts and interest with that of the customer’s.  The brand gets visibility and the consumer gets customised
infotainment.

4. Video Marketing

Videos have always been more persuasive than text due to its visual impact. Also, there are a number of platforms and devices that support these platforms for consumers to follow these videos and get
persuaded.

5. Ad re-targeting

Remarketing basically helps brands target potential customers who visited their site but failed to
convert. Based on the database created to keep a track of the number of visits, brands showcase their
products or services on other sites that the customer might visit, hence constantly trying to pursue the
customer to convert.

5 things you should consider while choosing a new digital agency

Digital marketing is here to stay and brands, big and small, are allocating bigger portions of annual budgets to digital channels. The evolving market, rising opportunities, and intense competition has put brands under immense pressure to make the right decision. The best possible solution is to partner with a creative agency that has the base to complements your goals and skill sets, in other words, a digital agency.

Here are 5 simple steps to choose the right digital agency.

The Team

The first question you need to ask yourself is who will you be working with? Digital agencies are marketing experts. Along with this quality, you will also need to see if the team that you are going to be working with on a day-to-day basis. Digital agencies support marketing teams of brands using the right technology and service. To completely understand or evaluate the service, you will first need to be clear on the potential of the prospective team that will be working on your account and the relationship that you are going to have with them.

Communication
Lack of communication between the agency and the brand is a common reason for brands to review agency partnerships. Internal communication within marketing teams is extremely crucial to anaylse progress. The last thing an agency needs is submitting a report without having a clue if the data they present is updated.

In many ways, it is hard to analyse whether or not agencies will perform once the contract has been established. It is always a best practice to analyse how the agency prioritises communication during initial pitches by asking yourself questions like:

Did the agency maintain good communication before signing the contract?
Did they clearly communicate the challenges or amendments they thought were necessary to be addressed during the process?
Is there a genuine reason for delays, if any?
Does the agency have a culture of fixing things at the last minute?
These basic questions will help you track the communication strengths of any agency easily.

Reporting
Reporting is an important aspect of maintaining a healthy relationship with the client. The client needs to know everything related to the marketing strategy designed and developed by the agency. Amendments or a change in course of strategies must be made at the earliest and it can only be done when the reports are accurate and communicated efficiently.
Asking agencies case studies of reports that they created for previous clients will help you figure out the agency’s reporting skills easily. In case these reports are not suitable for your strategy, find out if the agency is flexible enough to create reports according to your process.

Trust
Very few brands have the capability or the right criteria to figure out if the agency they are going to hire is trustworthy. Trust is very subjective. An easy way to find out if the agency is trustworthy is to see how much they trust you. Although very cliché, it is believed that untrustworthy people find it hard to trust others. Ask yourself if the agency has been honest at every opportunity and whether or not they are working hard enough to earn your trust.

Transparency
The key to knowing whether the agency you are going to hire is transparent is if they make sure you are involved with all strategies hands-on.  A transparent agency will try to help you understand every aspect of the strategy. If you only hear about the pros and not cons of the strategy that they are coming up with, you know you have knocked on the wrong door. The worse thing that can happen to your brand other than a bad campaign is not being aware of that there was an issue in the first place.
Although choosing a digital agency can always expand your brand reach, goals and success, choosing the wrong one can lead to a bad crack that will be hard to seal.