Choosing the right creative agency should come down to more than just budget.

Landing on an agency that takes the time to understand your business and its current creative challenges and then responds with an approach that’s on-brand, original, and innovative is key. Selecting the right agency for your business can be daunting, so we’re sharing a few important tips on how to find your perfect match.

Do Your Research

Researching an agency should be your first step before you reaching out. Engage with their online presence to get a sense of what they can do; follow them on their social media channels including Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Digital literacy is so important; you wouldn’t put your trust in a content agency that had a terrible social media presence (or none at all) or a poorly designed, clunky website.

Review their online portfolio; do they have a body of work that includes projects that are similar to yours in scope and scale? Not all clients are willing to share their campaign success data but try to get a sense of success. Look for client testimonials and success outcomes. An agency will present all or some of this in a business pitch but doing your own research prior will allow you to a do a deeper dive when you met.

We’d also recommend scrolling the social media accounts of like-minded brands or businesses you’re inspired by; happy clients will often tag in their creative partners when promoting their campaigns.  At crybaby, we’ve met a lot of new clients through our clients sharing the content we’ve created for them.

Get Clear on Your Creative Needs Before You Meet.

Take a beat before you meet. It’s important to get clear on exactly what you need; a stills campaign, a brand video, point-of-sale material, instructional How Tos, content for your social channels? You’ll want to think through not just what type of content you need but for which particular channel. It’s vital your agency understands the purpose of this content and where it will live. You may also want to consider the consequences of feeding fresh new content through your channels. For instance, will new imagery make your current website look dated and clunky? Will it put your social media feed to shame? Do you need a new tone of voice and brand language to match your new and improved content? Does your logo need an update? Do you need to start a YouTube channel to showcase all your fresh new video content?

The right creative content agency can help you work through these creative issues and advise on strategy and specialist skills they can offer as part of a campaign or content brief.

Ready. Set. Meet.

You can’t fake chemistry, which is why it’s so important to have that initial meet and greet. A face-to-face meeting or video chat is the best way to share your brand purpose and vision, explain a little about your products or services, your target market, internal team structure, and even your key competitors. Remember it’s a two-way conversation and it’s important to ask questions that will help you get to know the agency and their work. Ask about their vision, their particular strengths and signatures, and of course any recent campaigns or content they’ve produced that is relevant to your business or category. Ask them to talk you through a case study of a best-in-class campaign or content project; how they approached and executed the brief and how the work translated, with key insights and any data they’re able to share.

At crybaby, we like to get in front of our potential clients to better understand your business, what you do, and who you are.

Want to better understand our business, what we do, and who we are? Learn more about crybaby here