How to find the right marketing partner?
One of the fastest ways to take your company's marketing efforts a big step further is to find the right agency partner. Unfortunately, today that's even harder than finding a dating partner, for which Tinder hasn't yet been created.
In my career, I have met and seen many different marketing companies, each specialising in a different marketing trend or sub-genre. There are creative agencies (formerly known as advertising agencies), there are media agencies (different from communications agencies), digital marketing agencies (often specialising in web/search engines) and marketing technology (or marketing automation) agencies. There are content agencies, event marketing agencies and influencer agencies. The list goes on and on.
Over the past six months, I have met dozens of Finnish marketing agencies and tried to map out the skills, capabilities, suitability and references of the different players, I have outlined below a simplified picture of what the marketing agency landscape in Finland looks like today. I am aware that this is by no means a complete outline.
Finland's marketing agencies 2022
But the players do not stop there. There are also video production companies, photo agencies, website operators and many more. It is impossible to keep track of all of them, as they are growing like mushrooms. There are also a number of emerging trends, such as niche agencies (youth marketing, marketing for Amazon, etc.). Another aspect of the same trend is the rise in the number of freelancers, particularly during the boom period. The other trend is somewhat counter-productive, as exemplified by the Finnish companies Avidly and Miltton, both of which have grown into veritable department stores for marketing and communications, where you can buy almost any marketing service. The choice for the marketing manager is whether to value a small number of partners (which can make it easier to coordinate partners and play to the same goal) or perhaps specific expertise from many different partners (in which case his own time can be spent managing them).
So what should a customer consider when trying to take a knife to an office widow? Here's a ten-point list to help clarify the situation.
1) What are the business objectives that I need a partner to help me achieve?
2) What current technology is transferred from another operator or in-house to a potential partner?
3) How does the potential new player fit in with the existing set of partners?
4) What am I willing to pay for a partner, i.e. do I go for a national top player or a district partner?
5) What criteria will I use to assess potential partners?
6) What are the main indicators to assess the results achieved by the partner?
7) What is the size and financial situation of the potential partner? Will we end up being a big or a small client for this agency?
8) What kind of skills (in terms of people) are there in the office? If there is a change of person in charge, can you find a replacement?
9) What recent and relevant references does the agency have? Does the agency understand our business?
10) What kind of issues does the agency specialise in and what processes does it use, i.e. what will the cooperation look and feel like?
These questions can be used as a starting point for thinking about the choice of partner.
And when it seems that finding the right partners is getting difficult, feel free to contact Ahto Advisory and I will be happy to help you find just the right partner or run an agency competition. My own network includes almost 100 Finnish marketing agencies, offering solutions to a wide variety of marketing challenges. Through a short consultation, clients can save themselves countless meetings with the wrong candidates and get a clear idea of what kind of partner they need for their business and which agency could be a good match.
