TABLE OF CONTENTS
Importance of Hiring the Right Agency | Signs Your Current Agency Misses the Mark | What to Do Next
For many businesses, finding the right marketing agency partner is crucial to successful marketing — but this can be more challenging than it seems.
Why?
Often, realizing you’ve hired the wrong agency isn’t immediately apparent.
To help you avoid this all-too-easy pitfall, keep an eye out for the following seven warning signs that indicate a marketing agency may not be the right fit.
The Importance of Hiring the Right Marketing Agency
But first, let’s discuss why it’s so important to carefully vet and choose an agency that jives with your business.
A marketing agency that truly aligns with your organizational goals and needs can significantly impact your growth, reach, and credibility. Beyond refining your branding and marketing strategies, a great agency can become a trusted partner as your business expands, even helping you navigate potential challenges.
However, not every agency is suitable for every business.
Whether it just isn’t a personality fit, or there are other issues — like poor communication, inconsistent performance, or simply a lack of industry understanding — it’s essential to recognize these red flags early on so you can pivot before wasting valuable time and resources.
Signs Your Current Agency Partnership Isn’t at Its Fullest Potential
1. Lack of Clear Communication
Communication is key in any relationship, but especially between your business and your marketing agency.
Whether breakdowns in communications have just begun or have impacted your day-to-day operation for weeks now, it may be time for a skeptical look at a potentially poorly matched agency.
Issues as simple as delayed responses, back-and-forths that leave you feeling confused, and even the dreaded no-show to a meeting are good early warning signs of poor communication. Annoying in the moment and potentially disastrous given enough time, a lack of clear communication can mean it’s time to move on.
Missed opportunities can be significant setbacks for a growing business, and if let fester, even simple frustrations can grow into larger issues.
One clear example of poor communication is misaligned goals with your agency. If your brand needs don’t match up with the agency’s execution time after time, it may be time to start looking into how to fire a marketing agency.
2. Poor Understanding of Your Industry
No one likes cookie-cutter, and marketing is no different. Many marketing agencies use quick, generic solutions to optimize for maximized output rather than truly diving deep into your business, industry, and unique characteristics.
Another pitfall to stay vigilant for is a lack of industry-specific insight used when formulating a marketing plan or strategy.
Every industry is different and requires tailored strategies to properly optimize marketing assets and tactics, which good marketing agencies will adapt to. Even if this doesn’t cause damaged credibility, your target audience may fail to engage at all, wasting time and resources and necessitating a return to the drawing board.
3. Inconsistent Performance and Results
Most businesses seek the aid of a marketing agency to help boost their performance and hone their strategy to get better results. So, if metrics begin to fluctuate and the agency doesn’t have a solution or an answer to these problems, there may be larger issues under the surface.
Most agencies also recognize this issue, which is why they will attempt to hide spotty metrics behind jargon or other fluffy reporting formats.
To avoid what are likely unfulfilled promises made to your business, some agencies may even attempt to avoid providing measurable results to keep up the illusion of time and resources well spent.
Since return on investment (ROI) is crucial in your relationship with a marketing agency, having the right metrics and performance results is essential for accurate measurement.
4. Limited Transparency and Reporting
In the same vein as inconsistent reporting and results, agencies with limited transparency and unclear reporting metrics should be avoided. As a client, insight into performance is key to making decisions for your business, and diminished transparency only serves to muddy the waters.
Marketing Pro Tip
A lack of transparency in reporting campaign performance or other marketing initiatives is often a clear sign that something may be amiss.
Rather than break the bad news, some sub-par marketing agencies may believe that they can buy more time or disguise a lackluster performance by keeping their clients in the dark.
Not only does limited transparency hinder your ability to make well-informed and wise decisions for your business, but decreased trust in an organization that should be working in good faith is usually the beginning of the end of that relationship.
Trust is everything in business and marketing, and this is no different in the relationship between an organization and its chosen marketing agency.
5. Misalignment With Your Business Goals
In a relationship between a seller and a client, the client should receive the service they want — not what the seller pressures them into.
Whether intentionally or not, a marketing agency with misaligned goals can often hinder your business more than it can help. Creating and deploying strategies and initiatives that don’t align with your brand or goals can create confusion, not only for the intended audience but also internally.
Without a clear goal, a business can spin its wheels when deciding the best steps to take to grow and reach new consumers, wasting the efforts of employees and resources that could have been better used elsewhere.
Unproductive campaigns can cause lasting damage to a business’s brand and leave a poor taste in the mouth of potential clients or customers. So, it’s crucial for your agency to align with your business's goals and act in the best interest of those goals when creating a marketing strategy.
6. Poor Strategic Planning
Most businesses hire a marketing agency for their expertise and strategic planning.
A competent agency offers long-term plans implemented in stages and has a deep understanding of marketing tailored to the unique needs of businesses across different markets and sizes. They know what to do and when to do it to optimize your business's performance.
A clear sign that a marketing agency may need to be replaced is a lack of proactive planning and initiative. If a new agency asks you for a plan or inquires about what they should prioritize first, it’s a major red flag. This indicates they may lack the strategic foresight necessary to drive your business forward.
A strong marketing agency should take the lead, bringing fresh ideas and a well-thought-out action plan tailored to your specific needs. They should anticipate challenges, recommend strategies that align with your goals, and guide you on the path to success.
An agency that is truly invested in your business will proactively suggest steps to build your brand, increase engagement, and drive growth — without needing to be prompted by you.
While short-term fixes may offer quick benefits, they generally aren't sustainable for the long-term success of your business. Instead, focus on creating strategies that promote lasting growth. Reactive planning and relying on short-term solutions to address problems can lead to significant issues and result in missed opportunities.
7. Unresponsive or Inflexible Strategies
A good marketing agency should be timely and responsive, addressing your business’s needs promptly. Delays in communication and rigid strategic planning can hinder growth and limit the agility needed to adapt campaigns and initiatives.
If your agency is unresponsive or inflexible, it may be time to consider parting ways.
What to Do When Your Marketing Agency Isn’t a Good Fit
It's crucial to watch for warning signs of a bad marketing agency from the start. Whether they’re unresponsive, lacking transparency, failing to provide clear reporting, or not taking proactive steps for success, recognizing these red flags is the first step toward finding a better fit.
Regularly checking in on the status of the relationship and evaluating performance should be central to your partnership with a marketing agency. If you’re unsatisfied with the results or if something doesn’t feel quite right, it may be time for a change.
If you’re starting to question the effectiveness of your current marketing strategies, LAIRE is here to help. Reach out today to explore the best of what a marketing agency can be.
