5 reasons why your brand needs an agency life partner: Tina Garg

When you think about spending your life with someone, you put a lot of thought into it. You meet with them, sometimes on multiple occasions, to see if you’re compatible. You ask them questions about their beliefs and goals. You try to connect with them.

Finding the right agency for your brand involves a very similar process. Like the initial phase of courtship, it’s important to ask the right questions and try to understand each other better. The pitching stage helps assess if you share the same values and have similar approaches. Among your suitors could be creative agencies (who help run your campaigns), PR agencies (which get you as much facetime on the news), or media buying agencies (which help in purchasing and ad placements). Pick the one that’s best suited to your needs.

Now that we’ve covered the who, let’s talk about the why. Why do you need a creative agency in the first place?

Ditch the DIY mantra
Yes, it’s your business, and yes, you’re the best judge of how to reach your potential clients. It’s only natural that the DIY route sounds most appealing. But is that really feasible for your business? Marketing is a full-time job that will require a substantial share of your resources and time. Why not leave it to the experts? Hiring an agency gives you the combined might of copywriters, editors, designers, UI experts, project managers, brand strategists – an entire team that will work on your brand. Let them worry about reaching your target audience, crafting an effective communications strategy, and coming up with campaigns. So you can focus on doing what you do best – developing and bettering your product/service.

A fresh pair of eyes
Sometimes, when we’re too close to something, we lose focus and stop seeing the bigger picture. This applies equally to your company. Roping in an agency helps bring a fresh set of eyes on your business – its products, processes, et al. Trust your agency to help tide over the blind spots and create an image that truly reflects what your brand stands for. Your communication strategy will certainly be richer thanks to their insights.

Autopilot mode: activated
When you hire a competent agency, you can sit back and relax, because they’ll take care of all your marketing needs – campaign strategy, content calendars, design, and execution of creatives. You’ll be assigned a Single Point of Contact (SPOC), usually an Account Manager, who’ll keep you updated on the progress. Just like your company’s finance, legal, and accounting departments, your agency functions as an external marketing team which usually requires zero to minimal intervention. Now, doesn’t that sound tempting?

The test results are in
More than the execution of a marketing strategy, it’s the postpartum analysis which is of vital importance. Your agency, if it’s a good one, will ensure they run all relevant tests and analyses to figure out what’s working for you (and what’s not). They’re the ones with access to a wide variety of tools and systems to measure the hits and misses. Basically, they’re the guys who will tweak strategies to ensure more of the good stuff.

Multi-brand trumps
Most agencies worth their salt have worked with and represented multiple brands. Choosing a good agency gives you an edge in terms of their varied expertise. This is just the push your brand needs to stand out in the market and go to the next level.

Once you’re convinced about the need to hire an agency (which you should be, by now), it’s time for the how. Want to zero in on the perfect match? Let’s chat.

Tina Garg is the Founder and CEO of Pink Lemonade, a creative agency specialising in communication, content, and design. Starting the company in October 2009, Garg has worked relentlessly to ensure its astounding growth rate.