Knowing What You Actually Need from a Marketing Agency
To many people’s ears, “we need a new site” can sound like a pretty straightforward project brief. The goal? A new site. The deliverable? A new site.
But if you’ve made it even this far, you already know the deliverable isn’t the goal. It’s just the part that’s easy to put into words (and to describe in an RFP).
The issue becomes more apparent if you trade “site” for “video.” We’ve had prospective clients come to us saying they “need a video.” When we try to suss out what the video should convey, who it should speak to and what it should accomplish, we’re met with confusion or silence. (They just asked for a video—why did we have to make it so hard?)
But it’s important. You probably wouldn’t hire an animation company for your thought leadership videos any more than you’d use a talking head in a suit and tie to sell energy drinks. When it comes to videos, sites, email campaigns, and so on, what you need to accomplish drives you to the right people to do the work.
One request, four possible disciplines
When we hear that someone needs a new site, our team tends to zoom directly to the challenge lurking behind the ask.
| An RFP for a new site might mean: | So the real job is: |
| The site is genuinely out of date | Design and development Perhaps it really is realigning with current technology, design conventions, and the latest evolution of the brand to meet users’ functionality expectations and keep things fresh. Even if that’s the whole gig, this is a good time to make sure strategy, positioning and the brand are all buttoned up. |
| Nobody owns the platform | Diagnosis and strategy Is it a lack of internal attachment to or simple boredom? The agency can help identify the issue, educate channel champions, audit the design and content for relevance and currency, and create a plan to keep people engaged. |
| The positioning is soft | Research and competitive analysis Digging deep into the trusted strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats matrix (or any other competitive positioning tool) will reveal where the brand fits among its peers and point to a space it can own. |
| The brand lacks clarity and purpose | Branding It’s time to go back to the basics, defining exactly what the brand stands for then crafting the voice and tone, look and feel, and brand architecture. |
A production shop can build you a beautiful site. A brand studio might sharpen the message. But if it hasn’t been brought out into the open, it’ll still be there when the work is done — because the team you brought in was solving for the wrong thing.
We zoom straight to that lurking challenge because being hired for the wrong reason is frustrating for everyone. Name and agree on the real marketing problem before the brief becomes a PDF, and clients can choose the right partner — and partners can do their best work.
