A marketing partnership can be an excellent investment, especially if it’s started at the right time and set up for success. Hiring a marketing partner gives you access to marketing experts so that you can focus on your own area of expertise.
In order to start a marketing partnership off on the best possible foundation, you need to have certain things already established internally and be ready to turn over key marketing functions to an outside team. It won’t serve either your organization or your partner firm well if you are not already at this point.
Here are a few things you will want to have in place before engaging with a marketing partner:
- Confirm your budget. A marketing partner often needs some time to establish a strategy and test campaigns before you will see clear results. As such, you’ll want to have the budget to establish a real relationship with a marketing partner over the course of a long-term engagement.
- Determine who will support their work internally. A marketing partner can do better work when they have a go-to point person at your organization who can approve content and act on key insights. Get things in order within your organization before seeking a marketing partner so that you can get the best return on your investment.
- Solidify your organization’s marketing goals. While a marketing partner can be an invaluable resource in helping to figure out tactics and strategy, you can’t come into the conversation cold. If you don’t know what you want, they won’t be able to apply their expertise to help you get there. Instead of asking a marketing partner to build a strategy on a shifting foundation, solidify your internal goals and objectives before hiring.
Questions to ask before hiring a marketing partner
In order to make a smart decision when choosing a new marketing partner, and to set that new partner up for success, you need to already know the answers to these questions.
- Are you looking for an experienced consultant to create a new marketing strategy that can be implemented in-house or a firm that can serve as an extension of the marketing team?
- Do you already have a good idea of where your marketing could improve, or are you looking for an expert to tell you?
- What is your budget?
- What are the top three things you expect from a marketing partner?
- Who will be the main point of contact for a new marketing partner?
- How will you ensure clear and timely communication with a marketing partner?
- What marketing skill sets do you already have internally, and which do you most need in a partner? (i.e., design, content creation, analytics, strategy)
- Do you already have a marketing automation solution or will you be looking for a marketing partner to recommend and set up such a program? What about data collection and analytics?
- Does your sales team have a CRM that the marketing partner can access and integrate marketing programs with?
- What are your quantifiable and qualitative goals for a marketing partnership?
If you have questions about what a marketing partner can do for you, give us a call.
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