When you’ve determined it’s time to hire a marketing agency to help you meet your tourism company’s growth goals, it can be a challenge to find a good fit. You’ll likely come with concerns and questions. We’re here to share the common concerns we hear from potential clients, and give you the tips you need to find the best fit for your businesses.
Common Concerns
While speaking with potential clients, these are some of the most common concerns that we hear.
- “How do I know who I can trust?” This often comes from clients who have been doing their marketing in-house for years but know it’s time to hand it off to others with more expertise.
- “I’ve gone through multiple agencies and I’m not seeing value.” Usually, this comment is because agencies lacked alignment with the client or did not provide measurement.
- “I don’t know what I need or what I should spend.” This comment often occurs when past agencies didn’t help the client create defined goals and a strategy to back those goals.
Is It a Good Fit? The Determining Factors.
After hundreds of calls with prospective clients to determine whether Blend is a good fit for them at the stage of growth they’re in, these are some determining factors that can serve as a guide to choosing your next marketing agency.
1. Industry Experience
Industry experience isn’t everything, but it is really important for most industries. An agency that has experience working with tourism businesses will typically have a better understanding of your unique needs and challenges. At one time, Blend worked across multiple industries. There was certainly some value in cross-pollination of ideas from multiple industries. However, we learned that it was incredibly difficult to stay up to date on each industry, and to continue to provide strategic direction to our clients. Social advertising, email marketing, etc. can look pretty different depending on the industry you are in. And of course, each industry has its own specialized channels and systems—in the tourism industry, it’s important to understand booking platforms (for conversion tracking, holiday sales setup, revenue reporting, etc.), OTAs, Google Things To Do, and more.
Can a non-specialized marketing agency do some good for you? Sure. A lot can be done well by finding experts in their field who know general best practices and are just really good at what they do. However, having an agency with experience in your space can give you a leg up and quicken the learning curve when you start working together.
2. Services Offered
At Blend, we do full-service marketing. That means we are doing strategy and execution across several areas of marketing. Other agencies specialize in one or more areas. Many companies focus on advertising or SEO work, for example. It is important to think through the services you need. We get the question a lot “Can you explain the value of these different services?” We love that question. It allows us to do some research and help prospective clients understand the types of work we may do for them, and how it could help them grow their specific business.
Understanding what you are getting, and why it is of value, is very important. Through the years we’ve learned this the hard way, taking on clients who didn’t understand what they had signed up for. We all want partnerships to start on the right foot, and making sure there is clarity around the services you will get is a big step towards that.
3. Pricing/Budget
What things cost in the agency world is a big topic. How agencies charge varies. It can be really confusing. You may find agencies that charge a flat fee for a set of services, those that charge a percent of revenue, or others that charge a percent of ad spend. We prefer to talk through the different pricing models we offer (fixed fee, % of revenue) and discuss the pros and cons of each depending on their situation. It is not one-size-fits-all, and a successful arrangement has to work for both sides.
Before you have a budget conversation, think about what your goals are. That’s very important to setting a budget. Do you want to double in revenue in 1-2 years, or are you happy where you are and just want to be more efficient with your spend? What does success look like to you? The better you can answer that, the better job an agency can do setting up a model that will give you the best chance of success.
4. Measurement and Communication
That question of “what does success look like to you” should have some KPIs as part of the answer. Achievable goals with specific KPIs and solid tracking, will improve your chance of success and help create alignment with your agency. Skip that step, and the relationship—and your business—will suffer due to confusion and a lack of trust. That’s one of the reasons we work on measurement as one of our first steps when entering into a new client relationship.
Communication is key to any partnership. A very common statement we hear is “I was working with this person but then they disappeared and now I’m bouncing around to different people.” Talk to prospective agencies about what communication looks like. Will you have an account manager? What does ongoing communication and reporting look like? How are priorities set? When you have questions or feedback, should that be handled through a call, email, or chat? Knowing what communication will look like can avoid a LOT of confusion as you start working together.
Also, find out how you will work with different teams. Does everything go through an account manager, or will you work with team leads or specialists of various teams—advertising, design, etc?
5. Contract
Before you sign a contract with a marketing agency, make sure that you read the contract carefully and understand all of the terms and conditions. Many companies are unaware of their contract terms. Important things to fully understand:
- Payment: How you will be billed and your options for payment.
- Contract Duration: How long is the contract and what happens at the end of the contract period? Does it auto renew or do you have to get a new contract?
- Cancellation: This can vary widely. You will typically see some sort of notice period, which can be a matter of weeks to multiple months. This may feel restrictive, but it also protects both sides from the other walking away at a moment’s notice.
Other Things To Consider When Choosing an Agency
- References: See if you can speak to a few current clients about their experience working with the agency.
- Case Studies: Most agencies can pick out a few successful outcomes to create case studies, so the existence of a few successful stories is not enough of a reason to pick a particular agency. However, it can be helpful to look past the results and look for quality of work and quality of thinking. Does the agency demonstrate the ability to create the kind of growth or transformation you’re looking for?
