Is ineffective marketing collateral failing your agency?
Having worked with so many agencies over the years, we at The Future Factory started to notice that while agencies are very good at developing innovative and creative campaigns that help their clients sell products, they often fall short when selling themselves and their own services. Having seen the same issues arise time and time again, we’ve identified the winning components that we believe all agency credentials, websites and wider collateral must consider to support successful business development endeavours.
The Future Factory's design lead Sam Wheatman.
As a ‘new business’ agency, we are approaching and having conversations with brand directors on a daily basis. This has given us a huge amount of insight into what key-decision makers look for when reviewing and selecting new agencies. Armed with this knowledge, we have a clear understanding of how an agency should present themselves to brands, both on and off paper.
Here are a few tips for agencies to make the most of their credentials and marketing collateral:
Showcase your creativity
Your collateral should showcase your agency’s creativity and shouldn’t shy away from the personality that sets you apart from your competitors. Make sure you stand out, but be careful not to be too gimmicky – you don’t want to deter from the content.
Content and substance
It’s not all style and pretty pictures – make sure you offer substance in equal measure! Marketing Directors want to see key facts and what they stand to gain by working with you. Make sure to show your enthusiasm for the brand and share an opinion or two – this is a potential client we’re talking about so go the extra mile to show that you get their world.
Every creds deck should be personalised although this isn’t necessarily by adding the brand’s logo. You can make style elements, colours or tone of voice make a nod to the brand, or select relevant case studies and insights.
Consistency
Set brand guidelines and stick to them, especially when it comes to fonts, branding and colours, and always make sure that any images you use are as hi-res as possible! You only get one shot at a first impression – make it a good one!
PR agencies tend to struggle the most with developing credentials presentations that match up to the quality of advertising and digital agencies. Most likely due to the fact that PR agencies are less likely to have in-house creative teams, but also due to the eternal struggle of how to present press clippings. It is possible to standardise clipping formats to create case studies which look both neat and clearly convey the success and reach of a PR campaign.
Creating an easy to edit template is the best way to ensure that anyone in the team can make last minute changes and updates without losing the consistency and style.
Be concise and get to the point!
Be relevant, be concise and don’t waffle! Marketing Directors are incredibly busy and don’t have the time to trawl through big chunks of information. They are likely to be looking at your website or creds deck on their phone on the train home.
Focus on showing what makes you different and highlighting what you can offer them. If you’re showing case studies, make sure the brand or challenge you worked on was relevant to their business.
Step away from the PowerPoint
Videos, Vines and GIFs can be a great way of giving a Marketing Director a feel for your agency personality, as well as a quick way of summarising your recent work. Be sure to include copy on any videos so that the viewer can decipher who the work was for, what elements the agency was responsible for and the results for the brand.
For some new business opportunities, a well designed one page PDF agency summary is the perfect introduction to your agency and a welcome relief to the standard 20+ page intro most agencies will inundate marketing teams with.
Don’t forget the small details
Even small design elements such as the company’s email signature can give clients and new business prospects a good insight into an agency. Are your email signatures consistent across the agency? Do they shout about your latest award wins? Do they convey your ethos?
This little piece of agency creative is being sent out to your clients and prospects hundreds of times every single day, so it can be a good place to start!
Sam Wheatman is Design Lead at The Future Factory.
Content by The Drum Network member:
The Future Factory
With a mix of lead generation, board level consultancy and coaching, we help to make the future more predictable for agency Owners, Founder and Directors. www.thefuturefactory.co.uk
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