How to Build High-Achieving, High-Value Partnerships with Marketing Vendors

Business Growth

Jan 17

When you hire a marketing partner, you have goals you want to reach. You have tasks you want to complete. You have needs and skills your internal team can’t meet, so hiring a marketing partner to help is a fruitful path to growth and success. It feels reassuring and productive when you bring an extension of your team onboard.

But hiring a marketing partner doesn’t mean you can simply pass the workload to a vendor and walk away to let them figure it out on their own.

The best way to drive high-value results from a marketing partnership is by forming a strong relationship that combines the knowledge and expertise of both teams.

When you have clarity of roles and outcomes, collaboration, and communication, you will reach your marketing goals faster and with fewer roadblocks and challenges.

So, how do you do it?

5 Steps to Build Successful Partnerships with Marketing Vendors

If you’re working with marketing vendors, here are a few ways to get more out of your partnerships and drive better results from your efforts.

1. Know what to look for in a partner.

Creating a strong partnership with marketing vendors starts by setting a strong foundation. As you look for partners, ask questions to determine if they will be the right fit.

Do they have clear, concise SOWs and terms?
Do they offer everything you need? What are their specialties?
Do they have a specific marketing philosophy? Does it match yours?
Do they share your brand values?
Are they open to feedback and willing to collaborate?
How do they communicate with their partners?
What do other clients say about working with them?

2. Assign an internal team member to manage the partnership.

Even when marketing vendors are experts at what they do, they won’t be able to do their job successfully without your help. It’s essential to have someone on your team be available to collaborate and share information with your marketing vendors.

Assign an internal, marketing-oriented person to manage the relationship and collaborate and communicate with your marketing partners.

The best internal resources for marketing vendors to work with are CMOs, VPs, or Directors of Marketing or Sales. It is often less productive when marketing vendors work directly with the CEO, mostly because of time commitment and availability. With early stage companies, the lack of a dedicated, internal marketing role is the reason why companies are seeking marketing vendors. In those cases, having a strong fractional CMO or strategic lead is a great resource to lead and guide other marketing vendors.

Marketing is a two-way street to get the best results. You may hire an expert in marketing, but you are the expert in your industry. There needs to be sharing of ideas and feedback from each party. When both sides bring their expertise to the partnership, you will see things the other party can’t see, gain fresh perspectives, and develop ideas and insights you couldn’t have arrived at on your own.

3. Set collaboration expectations.

The level of collaboration needed between you and your marketing partners will vary depending on the type and scope of work. Early in the partnership, get clear about what will be required to reach your defined goals.

Talk to your partner about collaboration expectations in three key areas.

Discovery: Discovery typically takes place at the beginning of a project. It is when you share knowledge about your industry, customers, unique selling propositions, and any other relevant details that can help your marketing partners get to know your brand, business, and positioning.
Feedback: As your marketing partnership begins to produce deliverables and results, your vendor will look to you for feedback. Set expectations on how feedback is shared and on what timelines. To get the best results, you need to be able to provide feedback that is timely, clear, and constructive.
Changes: Throughout your partnership, it’s likely that plans, goals, and your business will change. Talk to your partners about how you can pivot if one or both of you needs to make a shift to the initial plans. Discuss the amount of time required to change direction, and set guidelines for how to promptly communicate changes.

4. Agree on a communication plan.

A good partnership will have clear communication throughout the life of the project. Clear communication means both sides have a transparent view of project status, know how to get in touch with each other, and have scheduled check-ins to share feedback and updates.

As part of your communication plan, outline details for:

Project Tracking: Decide on a project management tool you will use to share and track processes, project statuses, and communication.
Communication Methods: Discuss the best ways to communicate with each other. Who is the touchpoint person and decision-maker on both sides? What is the best communication method (phone, email, project management tool, etc.)? What’s the expected response time?
Meetings: Outline a schedule for meetings to review results and set expectations for upcoming projects. How often should meetings take place? What is on the agenda for each meeting?
Urgent Matters: Review and define potential urgent matters that may require a timely discussion or action outside of your planned upcoming meeting. Respecting each other’s time and processes for completion is key in a successful relationship

5. Define and review success expectations.

One key to having a successful relationship with a marketing partner is agreeing on what success looks like. If you and your partner have different expectations or visions of what a win looks like, it will be difficult to arrive at your goals together.

Early on, work with your partner to agree on goals and expected outcomes. Depending on your project, success expectations may be tied to:

Deliverables: What tangible deliverables will your marketing vendor provide?
Timelines: What are the deadlines for each deliverable?
Standards: What quality is the baseline of your expectations?
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): What metrics rate success?

Set success expectations, and then schedule regular meetings to discuss if you are hitting the mark.

Having shared success expectations allows you to measure progress from the same perspective. It makes it easier to work together to find solutions if you aren’t hitting the mark and to celebrate your wins when you reach your goals together.

Start Building Stronger Marketing Partnerships

By following these steps, you will build high-value, high-achieving marketing partnerships. You will find the right partners and set the right expectations.

And most importantly, you will have the clarity, collaboration, and communication needed to combine your expertise and drive the best marketing results for your business.

If you’re looking for a marketing partnership that can help your business reach your goals faster and with fewer roadblocks and challenges, talk to SpotOn Digital Media. Our team is dedicated to building digital marketing partnerships that work collaboratively to reach more customers and drive more business to your brand.

See how we can help you grow your brand. Contact SpotOn today.

Amanda Sanz