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Maximise your agency’s collective skillset: A G Studio Branding guide for businesses

For this quarter’s blog, we’ve decided to flip the script a little and put the ball in the client’s court. This article isn’t about selling our skills to you. Instead, it’s about empowering clients to leverage what agencies offer to get proper bang for their buck.

In our perfect world, we imagine a naturally symbiotic relationship in which our clients are, and remain:

  • Communicative
  • Efficient
  • Consistent
  • Appreciative
  • Available
  • Reasonable
  • Able to provide constructive feedback and criticism

Reasonable and proactive agency clients understand the complex steps and processes involved in the creative work we do. They work collaboratively with us, but also give us the space to do what we do best. And they do all of this because it’s how they get the finest work from us.

Emulating what you expect from your agency is the ultimate quid pro quo. Let’s build a world without such professional double standards and instead, hold all parties to one set.

And because we’d like to help clients get there, we’ve got some tips for you. If you want the best from your agency, try to follow the steps below.

1. Be clear about what you want

Even if you don’t understand all the complex strands involved in weaving together a cohesive brand for your business, or initiating an effective marketing campaign that leads to increased sales, it helps your agency enormously if you do a bit of homework.

Do some research. Check out what logos you like. Figure out why you like them. Make notes. Create a mood board.

2. Accept your limitations

Brands and businesses outsource to creative agencies precisely because they don’t have the time, skills or internal resources to do it themselves. You need to trust the experts. Respect their opinion and listen to their insights. Don’t micromanage the branding process. Be open to other opinions. In this way, you’ll have a successful collaborative experience.

3. Adhere to deadlines

Just as our business runs on meeting targets and deadlines, so should yours. Including commitments you’ve made as a client, to your contractor/s. If you hate to wait for things, and find it unprofessional when people delay too long and miss deadlines, why make your agency wait on content they need to keep your marketing ball in play?

That’s pretty counterintuitive. It also slows down the production process and has a huge knock-on effect. So, deliver what you’ve committed to whether it be information, photographs, designs, or whatever else the agency needs to create the many branding deliverables they have probably been tasked with under strict timelines.

4. Be a democrat, not an autocrat

No one likes a demagogue leader or an oligarch potentate high on a sense of their own power. Democrats listen, include and collaborate. Yes, democrats need to be firm, but they also need to be fair and listen to discordant voices and have a healthy debate around differences of opinion. In this way, everyone learns from one another. It’s constructive and creates an empowering work environment for all.

5. Remember your manners. Be respectful and show respect

Positive reinforcement breeds a healthy and inspired professional environment. A good client understands that they are paying for the collective brain power and creative energy of a cohesive team that often has 100 years of experience in branding and marketing between them. And that has innate value that’s worth paying for. Why? Because over the long term it saves you in business hours of work, gets you more clients, and closes more sales. So make your agency team feel valued.

It may be easier said than done, but cultivating an ethos of collaboration between you and your service providers makes everyone feel good and do better. So it’s totally worth encouraging the culture and seeing where it goes.

What have you got to lose? Nothing.

What is there to gain? Results. Results. Results

Leads. Conversions. Sales. Introductions. Respect.

We pretty much guarantee that if you do the above, you’ll find you’re well satisfied with your return on investment when it comes to hiring an agency. Why not give it a shot?

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