Glyphix. The creative group you thought you’d never find.

Think You’re Getting the Best Out of your Creative Agency? Here’s How to Make Sure.

— Larry Cohen, President, Glyphix

So you just hired a new ad agency, marketing firm or some creative group to help support your company’s sales efforts. Sure they’re talented and capable of great work, or you wouldn’t have hired them in the first place. So how is it that some clients are able to get great work out of their creative partners while others can’t?

The truth is, whenever you hire an ad agency, marketing firm or any creative group, you’ve entered into a unique business relationship. Unlike some vendor relationships, you, as the client, can take several steps to help ensure that your creative team delivers your company’s message with as much impact to the market as possible; remember, successful work benefits both of you.

So what does it take to be a good client? The following is a simple list of how you can become one of those “good clients” and get the good work you need. Follow these 10 tips, or at least be aware of them, and I guarantee you will get better work from your agency and therefore be more successful in your marketing and advertising efforts.

1. Specifically define your expectations. How will you and your creative team define success? Will the success of a marketing piece or campaign be based on the amount of new sales, of new clients who sign up to use your service; or the number of incoming phone calls, or web site traffic, or even an increase in the market’s awareness of your brand?
2. Be honest and upfront with your budgets. Don’t make it a guessing game, decide what you’re able and willing to spend and commit to it. Then, let the agency do what you’re paying them to do, that is, figure out how to get you the biggest bang for your buck.
3. Always have the key decision makers in the room during a presentation. It streamlines the process, saves time and shows respect for the creative effort.
4. Keep approval loops tight. Gather input from all appropriate parties (your mother doesn’t need to weigh in on the new creative campaign, unless she owns the company). But approving creative work by building consensus often times destroys impact.
5. There should be just a couple of people in your company who interact with the creative team. Ten people giving the creative team direction is a sure fire way of frustrating both your people and the creative team.
6. Commit to the length of a campaign and stick to it. Tweak it when needed, especially when based on feedback from the market, but don’t pull the plug after the first week. Another wise old ad guy (or maybe the same one), once said: “when you start getting tired of seeing your ad is just about the time when the public begins to take notice of it.”
7. Pay a fair rate. A bargain never really is. Cheap creative that doesn’t work costs a lot more than spending a little more for good creative work that works.
8. Do what you promised to do by the time you promised to do it. If you promise to deliver changes, a decision, photos, or whatever, by a certain date, it’s important to meet that time frame. Otherwise, your project could be set aside and other clients may get bumped ahead of you. There are only so many hours in the day and while I don’t know of a single creative firm that works a regular 9 to 5 day, providing them with what they need in a timely manner will keep your project moving forward.
9. Let your agency do its job. Your input, ideas and industry knowledge is required and very valuable. But try to resist doing their job, even if it’s more fun.
10. Enjoy the process. This isn’t brain surgery. And shouldn’t be painful.

As the President of Glyphix, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients on both the national and local level over the last 20 years. And in that time I’ve seen how “bad” clients can negatively impact the creative work. All of the creative people here at Glyphix start each job with a very high level of excitement and desire to please; we all want to give our client the best work possible, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing. My team at Glyphix spends more time with our clients than we do with our families. So those clients that allow, support and push for great work are the ones we choose to spend our time working with and who end up getting the great work.

It’s no secret. If the agency work is successful, you’re successful. It’s a win-win for both of you.