Looking to elevate your telecom company’s marketing game with the help of a professional agency? Fantastic choice! When the stars align, collaborating with a marketing agency can catapult your brand into the stratosphere with innovative campaigns that capture attention and drive results.
However, navigating the waters of agency selection can feel like diving into a sea of options, each with its own set of challenges and opportunities. Fortunately, we’re here to guide you through the process with clarity and confidence.
We’ve curated a comprehensive list of essential questions designed to streamline your search for the perfect digital marketing partner. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or new to the game, these queries will pave the way for a successful partnership by ensuring alignment, transparency, and shared goals.
So, let’s dive in and uncover the insights that will set the stage for success, together.
1. Do you work with other telecom companies?
It’s obvious but necessary to find out if the agency truly has the industry knowledge to create effective content. Too many telecom companies have been burned before by working with non-specialist agencies and are right to be worried. If your audience is highly technical, you need a marketing agency that can rise to the challenge.
2. Do you have examples of campaigns you’ve run for telecom companies like ours?
Saying you understand telecom companies is one thing but the proof is in the pudding. Request testimonials, case studies, examples of whitepapers, blogs, social media posts, videos, and anything else relevant to your company goals.
3. Who is your ideal client, and why?
A successful agency-client relationship goes both ways. Asking this question can yield surprising and fruitful answers in terms of building a successful relationship.
4. How long have you been in business?
Longevity isn’t always a marker of quality, but you don’t want an agency that’s only just finding its feet. After all, the ideal marketing agency is one that’ll feel like an extension of your own team. For that to be possible they need to have hired and trained the right people and have proven and tested systems in place.
5. Who will be my point of contact? Who will be in my team?
People are everything, and you need to be 100% clear about who your day to day contact will be, since this will be the most crucial relationship. You need to get a chance to meet them before agreeing to any contract.
A bigger team doesn’t necessarily mean bigger results, a smaller more agile team can often be more beneficial. Regardless of the size of the team, you need to feel confident about their abilities.
6. What typical marketing or design projects do you handle? Are there any areas you excel in?
Ask to see examples of previous campaigns and get a sense of which projects the agency is most passionate about. Even if these don’t align perfectly with your needs, they could also show you what else is possible.
7. Do you only do inbound content marketing or do you also provide outbound, such as paid social media ads?
Find out whether there are opportunities to grow with the agency, as needed, or whether their scope is strictly limited. For example, once your foundational content is in hand, you might want to explore distribution opportunities and who better than the agency who’s created the original content? If they cannot do this work, perhaps they are able to collaborate with other agencies or freelancers to deliver the work.
8. How will you communicate with us about our marketing project? What project management tools will you use?
You want to communicate quickly while sharing projects and keeping track of the progress of your campaigns. What are the agency’s suggestions? Are they happy to work with your tools, or do they have alternative ones to suggest? If the latter, how user-friendly is it, and will your IT department allow it?
9. What marketing software do you typically use?
Asking this will give you a different viewpoint on the types of projects the agency works on. Are they just sticking to Canva for example, or have they invested in more sophisticated design and video editing software? Are they open to trying out new tools?
10. How do you measure campaign and project results?
You need to know how your agency plans to measure results. It’s not enough to send you an automated report every few months, you need the results to be analysed and discussed with you. All of this data needs to be clearly aligned with your business needs and optimised regularly.
11. Will you be using AI for any part of the project?
AI is a hot topic that comes with many ethical and security minefields, so you need to be aware if and when the agency might be employing it. Using AI to automate repetitive tasks is one thing, but you don’t want sensitive information about your company to be fed to ChatGPT. You must also avoid content getting flagged as AI in case it penalises you on social media for example.
12. How often and how will you report to us?
A successful client-agency relationship thrives with regular communication, so find out what the agency has in mind. Will there be a weekly update call? Will you get daily updates by email or through Slack? You need to agree on a system that works with your own work week and processes.
13. Do you outsource any work?
Most marketing agencies outsource to freelancers, either when the workload exceeds capacity or for tasks that require specialist knowledge (technical or industry-specific for example). It’s good to be aware of when this is the case if it has an impact on timelines or the quality of work.
14. How do you bill? On an hourly or project-base? How do we keep track of budget?
Get the money chat out of the way as soon as you can so you feel completely clear and comfortable about what you’re getting for your money and how you will keep control of it. The agency should let you keep track in real time of the budget and flag any risks of over-spend immediately.
15. When it comes to content reviewing, how often can I edit or request changes before signing it off? Is there a limit on revisions?
Some marketing agencies will be quite strict on the number of revisions, while others will be more flexible. If you have multiple stakeholders involved in the reviewing process it’s best to know upfront if you might incur additional costs for multiple rounds of revision.
16. What do you need from me to give us the most accurate proposal?
Give your marketing agency a chance to ask their questions too so they have the best chance of giving you a personalised proposal.
Build a successful B2B telecoms marketing agency relationship
Ready to start talking with an award-winning B2B telecoms marketing agency? Look no further, we could be your perfect match! Get in touch with us at hello@isolinecomms.com
