When you ask your marketing agency to help you out with your website or a promotion - do they ask you why you need help or do they go to work getting the details for a quote?
At miminum your agency should ask:
- Why do you want to do this?
- Why is the best way to accomplish your objectives?
- Why now?
Your agency owes it to you to ask why.
It isn't that you don't know what you want or need. It's that your agency owes it to you to understand how your request fits into your ongoing marketing activities. You buy more than just execution from your marketing partners. You buy expertise, insight and advice. If you aren't getting it you may want to look elsewhere.
Recession. Competition. Chasing dollars for good reasons and bad.
Asking why will help in the long run.
It isn't your website. It isn't your email newsletter. Certainly better versions of these things might not hurt but if the goal is to generate more and better leads than it might be your message or your target audience. These things aren't as bright, shiny and cool as a new ipad app but they matter and digging into why will help you figure them out.
Consider the impact of not asking why.
Not asking means you either don't want to know or don't care. This means you might get lucky and only end up with a lousy under-performing promotion. Don't get lucky and you could get a confusing customer experience. Worst case of all you spend time and money for the privilege of driving away customers.
Make sure even if you are asking why - so does your marketing agency.
Photo by Marco Bellucci. Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
