Tip #7 ∞ The Approval Process and Who's Responsible ∞

This post is #7 in a series of 21 posts (one per working day in August, 2009), to help you get the most from your advertising or marketing agency. This post follows on the article posted yesterday, about giving your agency one point of contact within your company.

That client point-of-contact should provide one written approval, called a "proof" in agency lingo, from some responsible individual at the client, for every project completed with the marketing/advertising agency.

The person who secures the approval (or proof) from you should be the agency account executive.

Approval of a project is a scary thing if you're the one signing off: Once your name is on that approval form or email, that's IT: It's now YOUR responsibility and you can no longer hold your agency liable for

-typos
-mistakes
-color problems
-errors in judgement
-miscalculations of message or delivery
-or any other problem with that project.

A smart agency, will document in writing the approval of every single project and file it away for future reference.

Some companies insist on having clients fill out cumbersome forms to document approval, but I think a simple reply to an email is sufficient. I simply open all the emails up involved in the approval process so they're visible on my screen, take a screen grab picture of the approvals and the final, and file the picture and all the accompanying emails away in the project folder as an approval.

If you find a mistake or a problem or just want to change something with a project after you've given your approval, you must understand that your agency will need to open the project up, rev it up, generate another round – no matter how tiny the change is – and secure another written approval.

So if you really, really want to change that dash to a colon, after you've already given your approval, think long and hard about it. You're looking at lots of additional time and expense after the approval process is complete. Pick your battles before the war is over.

Now once the approval is given, it is like a guide for the agency in the production phase. Let's say you've approved a file for printing that has a bright green border. That color is all important.

Now when the agency takes the files to the printer, sign-maker, or whoever is going to manufacture your project, they will use your approved proof as a guide to get the color right.

This is where you can hold your agency accountable. If your green border turns out yellow, then you can yell at your agency: Obviously SOMEONE wasn't paying attention.

On the other hand, a smart agency AE will get your approval on the printed material too, so there are no surprises. Usually you will go through multiple approval processes for every stage of the production of your project to make sure there are no mistakes.

You may get tired of seeing the same old thing over and over: first the content approval, then the design approval, then the production approval, then the printing approval, and finally the final! But that is the way it goes> Advertising and marketing is an exciting field, but like any job, there are tedious moments.

Now if you decide to complete your own production with the agency's art files, then you need to use your own proof as your guide. If you don't know much about production, or aren't a good detail person, then you probably should let your agency handle the production phase of the project, too, or you've really got no one to blame but yourself if it doesn't turn out like you'd expected.

Check in tomorrow for Tip #8 to learn about "The anatomy of an ad" - the lingo used in communications agencies - at least in my experience!

Tip #6 ∞ To Save Money, Give Your Agency One Point of Contact within Your Company ∞

Your agency should have one point of contact within your company, unless you want to pay for the extra hours it will take your agency account managers to secure approvals from the various personnel within your company.

You see, this is what happens when Bob in sales tells your AE he likes it but he wants the AE to also show it to the President. The President wants to change one little something, and then asks the AE to show it to Mary in operations. Now Mary has a change and the AE has to start all over again with Bob.

It gets to be a merry-go-round that your agency AE shouldn't be on in the first place.

To get the most from your ad agency, the client should have one point of contact for the agency and then that person should seek approvals, input and comments from all the sources within the client. That point-of-contact person should have the authority to make a decision when five people give him seven different opinions of the agency's work.

If you need training in how to source approvals from within your company, that can be arranged. It will take about an hour and will save you thousands and thousands of dollars over the course of working with your ad agency.

Tip #5 ∞ Show Don't Tell ∞

A picture is worth 1000 words.

These words are never more true than today. When you're creating an ad or a mar/com piece, if you don't grab the person in the first split second, you've lost them.

So how do you do that? A compelling picture, an arresting image, a fascinating idea.

If you can paint a picture in your customer's mind of the problem in their life that your company will solve, then you've fought half the battle.

But in order to do that, you need to SHOW them.

"Show don't tell" is a classic phrase that is taught in creative writing classes.

As an example of "Show don't tell," we are taught rather than writing:

The narrator of this story is Ishmael,

a better, more compelling way to state it is:

Call me Ishmael.

See the difference? This classic opening line of Melville's Moby Dick immediately draws the reader in. Melville has shown us that Ismael is the narrator without telling us. As a reader, it instantly draws you in. The reader becomes Ismael in fact. Now the story is about ME.

This gets back to the previous post (Tip #4: It's not about you).

But for an advertiser, how do you show instead of tell?

That's what your ad agency, with all their creative personnel, should be getting big bucks to figure out for you.

Tip #4 ∞ It's Not About You ∞

This is the fourth tip in a 21-tip series of "how to get more from your ad agency." This tip is about messaging. Here's the tip: It's not about you!

That may seem counter-intuitive when you're the one footing the bill, paying for the agency personnel, ad space or printing or time to deliver your message. You may think this is my space, therefore I'm going to

a - show my employees
b - show my building
c - show my products
d - all of the above.

But guess what? No one really cares about you.

People just care about themselves. They're thinking "What's in it for me?"

They're thinking, "How will this product make my life easier, make me better, smarter, more profitable?"

How Successful Companies Do It

As an example, look at the big, national (think most successful!) advertisers in the world.

When The Coca-cola Company prepares an ad to run during the Superbowl, they are not showing the bottling company, or the truck drivers who work day and night delivering the product to 7-11s nationwide, or the packaging firm where the packages are painstakingly designed and produced, or the corporate headquarters in Atlanta.

Coca-cola ads show how a nice cold Coke refreshes ME. They're showing that with a Coke, I'll have more friends and more fun. It's not about Coke, it's about Coke's customers: It's about ME.

The Old Way

So many B2B marketers are still using the old "Show the building, show the employees," mantra with the thought that if someone sees my building, they'll know I'm really in business and buy more from me. If they see I have employees, they'll understand we have good people working here, so they'll buy from me.

Folks, that's not the way to build a brand. You might create more awareness, but so what. Every company has employees and buildings.

A Sad Case Set To Fail

I've seen billboards recently for a tire company. This company has been around a long time but I don't recall seeing ads from them before. The company's ads are featuring their employees and talking about their many locations in the Chicago area. I live not far from a location and I have driven past it a thousand times, but for some reason, I've never once thought about going there for a tire.

Now that I've seen their ads, I've realized that the company wants me to know about them, and I do. But I still am not motivated to buy a tire from them. Even though this company has spent thousands of dollars advertising, I'll probably go to my regular mechanic when I need a tire: He knows my car and gets me tires really quick, then he puts them on, checks the oil, and gives me a sense of confidence that I'm going to be able to get from point A to point B safely.

This is really sad for this tire company because they are going to think that advertising doesn't work. They are going to blame their ad agency. The truth is I AM more aware of this tire company's existence because of their advertising, but just because they have buildings and employees, I'm not motivated enough to go there for a tire: Their messaging is off. Their ads are all about THEM and not enough about ME.

Your Messaging Should Be About THEM

Your mar/com projects should address the problems your customers face and demonstrate in a split second how your products or services solve their problems. Your ads should be about THEM.

Sounds simple enough, right?

If you understand this basic tenet of advertising philosophy, then you may better appreciate the strategies that your ad agency is trying to implement for you, even if they haven't given you a layout featuring a photo of your building.

If your advertising goal is to create awareness of your existence, then go ahead and show your building. It's probably a very nice building! But don't expect a windfall of new customers to come pouring in just because you have a building.

Tip #3 ∞ Respect Your Agency's Expertise & Taste

To get the most from your ad agency, you should respect your agency's expertise and tastes and provide clear directions and goals for each project.

But keep in mind that with marketing/communications and advertising work, there are no "rights" and "wrongs." Communications is about reaching into the audience's psyche and getting them to act: the "good" in it is in the eyes of the beholder and the reaction of the audience.

How do you know if you'll like what the agency gives you? Evaluate their portfolio. If you don't like what the agency shows in its portfolio, or on its website, chances are you're not going to like the work you get from the agency. So don't hire them in the first place.

On the flip side, if you do like what the agency shows in their portfolio, and you think their past creative work is good, then let them do their job and give you their creative talent: That's what you're paying them for. But a word of caution: agency creative work is only as good as the creative people behind the work: Ask your account executive who wrote the copy in the brochures, who created the graphic design, who was the art director.

In short, who were the people behind the good creative that you like and will they be working on your account?

I've had clients says things like, "Now, I don't have much of a marketing background, but here's how I'd do it..." and then throw out an idea that in my opinion would have completely undermined the brand or key messaging that their company had spent thousands of dollars building.

I've also had clients who admit they don't know how to write well, and then go ahead and provide all the brochure copy anyway (and frankly, it wasn't good copy!). But, if you insist that your ad agency use your ad copy, and you reject the creative work they prepared and presented to you, then they probably will do as you ask: because they want to make you happy and keep you as a client.

However, you may have just cut off your own nose to spite your face: You're paying this agency to do the work, and then you just went and rejected what they developed for you. Why?

Your agency should have years of experience and a track record of proven success stories. They should know what would trigger your audience to act, so why not let them employ industry best practices? For advertising to stand out and get results, it needs to be fresh and different.

If your agency principals have a track record, went to college, studied under advertising greats, worked with people who were successful in the field, why wouldn't you take their advice?

If you don't like what your agency gives you, then you need to tell them why you don't like it, show them an example of something you like better. If they can't deliver what you want, then hire a new agency.

But don't expect the new agency to be much better if you're not giving them clear direction in what you expect and what you like either.

Tip #2 ∞ Give Your Agency a Firm Budget & Timeframe ∞

An ad agency needs a frame of reference within which to work. Building an ad - or any marcom project (website, brochure, video, event, etc.) - can be compared to building a house. You can have a $1 million house or you can have a $50,000 house. It all depends on what you want in your house, where it is located, how big it is, etc.

Your ad/marketing agency should be able to complete what you want within your budget or at least tell you what the limitations for your project are, given your budget expectations..

You have to keep in mind, that your budget must include labor and overhead for the ad agency, as well as production costs. If you don't allow your ad agency to budget for overhead, they are not going to be around long, and then, since your agency archives your creative work for future usage, your creative investment is going to be wasted or lost, when your agency closes its doors for good.

Working with an agency is kind of like getting married: it must be a trusting partnership for it to work well.

Creative can be developed within your budget, no matter how small your budget is. Instead of original photography, your agency can use stock photography to save money. Instead of purchasing stock images, your agency graphic designer can layout type in a creative manner to make an ad. But you still need a budget to develop the copy: pay the copywriter, pay the graphic designer.

If you give your agency a healthy budget to work with, then they can dream up ever more sophisticated concepts that require a budget to execute. The concept might involve illustration, animation, clever creative work. But if you don't give your agency a budget, then they are going to have to limit their thinking.

Compare working with an ad agency to working with an architect and telling her that you don't know how much money you have to build a house, but you'd like him to design one anyway. Wouldn't it be better to tell your architect how much you have to spend on the house, and then have the architect design to your budget? Why waste the architect's time drawing a $1million house if you only have $50,000 to spend on construction?

Your ad agency could develop and execute your entire marketing plan, as long as they know what your budget is and what your timeframe is. Your budget should allow your agency the freedom to consider various media buys, creative strategies and tactics, and printing costs if necessary.

You should have enough trust in your agency to let your agency spend your money wisely. A healthy client/agency relationship is like a healthy marriage: present should be trust, mutual respect, honest communications.

If you can't trust your ad agency with a budget, then you definitely should get a new ad agency: one you feel you can trust.

Tip #1 ∞ Define Your Audience (or Target Market) Per Project & Overall

Before you start a project with your ad agency, it is crucial to define the audience(s) of the project. Often there are many obvious audience(s) and usually there are some not-so-obvious audience(s).

Your audience could be your existing customers. It could be prospects. It could be both. But where are your prospects and how will you reach them? Do you already have an existing mailing list? Or do you need to create one? Do you own a store that draws from a 5-mile radius? Check your existing customer zip codes to discover how far your reach is.

I once planned a yellow pages ad campaign for a thriving doctors office with seven physicians on staff. They had been spending close to $100,000 for the past couple of years on yellow page ads that reached areas up to twenty miles away from their office location. They had purchased these far flung areas from their yellow page ad rep believing that people from that far away would travel to their location. My gut instinct told me they were over-reaching, and a quick analysis of their customer zip codes proved me right: Not one customer came from farther than a 10-mile radius, with the vast majority being within 3 miles. We were able to whittle their yellow page spend by more than half, improve their existing yellow page ads and listings, and boost their response rates.

So, we were able to define for that business their obvious audience was within a 3-mile radius. I had another account that sold nationwide from 35 locations. They wanted to conduct a national ad campaign. But we quickly found out that it would be much more cost effective to use direct mail to target existing customers (it's easier to sell more to existing customers than find new ones, after all!) and purchase a mailing list of potential customers, then use direct mail and email to reach these prospects. But they had one more problem: their CEO needed to be educated about the project and sign off on the budget. The CEO also needed to convince his board it was worth it. That was an audience - kind of hidden - we also needed to convince before we could embark on the project.

What are your hidden (un-obvious) audience(s)? Often, the CEO and his board will be an audience that needs to be considered. Possibly your employees should be targeted too. It's possible that a simple email to the staff and management about your planned campaign will be enough to reach them. Sometimes, you will need to present to internal groups through a more elaborate manner: a power point at a planned meeting for instance. No matter which tactic you employ to reach them, these groups should be considered an audience or a segment of your target market for your program and you should plan the best way to reach these groups as part of your project.

Let your agency know the ramifications and the best way to "talk" to the hidden audiences so that your project can proceed as quickly as possible and garner the best possible outcomes.

Tip #1 for how to work best with your ad agency: Define the audience(s)!