In our last feature, we talked about how to evaluate your current marketing agency and outlined some of the critical questions you need to ask in order to get a better picture of the work they’re doing for you. Now let’s look at what to do if you don’t like their answers.
An agency that doesn’t share your vision or isn’t getting you results isn’t one you want to stay in a relationship with. As hard as it may be, it’s time to let them go. We’ve prepared a brief guide to some of the preparations you need to make as you enter the final decision stage of switching marketing agencies.
Keep in mind that while the majority of agencies will accept a break-up as a sad but inevitable part of a business relationship, there are occasionally agencies that will make your departure difficult. So it’s in your best interests to prepare before you separate, in the rare event that your current agency tries to make accessing your own information and documents a hassle for you.
We’ve compiled a checklist of sorts to help businesses like yours smooth the transition (and hopefully avoid any worst-case scenarios!) when switching providers. Here’s our advice, gleaned from over two decadse of experience onboarding clients.
The Top 5 Things You Need When Switching Marketing Agencies
When switching marketing agencies, you’ll want to make sure to avoid interruptions to your current campaigns and projects. That’s why it’s crucial to take the following steps before your big move to a new agency.
- Prepare CMS, hosting, domain, and FTP access. It’s crucial that your new agency has this information in order to access your website to update text and pictures. They also need access to hosting so they can log in and fix any issues with the way your website and domain name are hosted. The new agency also needs file access for seamless server transfer or wholesale changes. This is the master key to your website for a marketer.
- Check your contract. Some agencies might feel that because they created the content, they own the content. Make sure to review the contract you have with your existing agency to verify ownership and let your new agency know if there are any major materials that belong to the outgoing agency.
- Gather your graphic design content in layered files. You need the original, editable files (.ai, .eps, or .psd) so your new agency can make tweaks or updates. Without these layered files, you won’t be able to make wholesale revisions as your business scales and moves to a new agency.
- Secure access to analytics and ownership of social media. If your previous agency set up your analytics platforms for you, it’s possible they didn’t give you super admin access, but rather view-only or partial access. Before switching marketing agencies, make sure you have full access to analytics platforms.
You’ll also need the highest level of access to Google Search Console for SEO and site visibility. To make changes or additions to Google My Business or your Google Business profile for local search results, you’ll also need access. And in order to prevent being locked out of any campaigns in progress, secure access to all of your company’s Google Ad campaigns.
And of course, you need full access to all of your company’s social media profiles! Not only is it important to maintain an uninterrupted social media presence, but platforms like Instagram and Facebook also provide valuable analytics that you can only access with admin permissions. - Lock down CRM or email marketing platform access. We have a saying: You’re only as good as your database. Make sure you own all of your data before making an agency switch. This applies especially to sales lead data. You also need the highest level of access to your email marketing or marketing automation platform so you can remove the old agency and add users from the new one.
A Team-Based Approach to Radically Shift Your Marketing
Gathering and securing all of this information together before you sign on with your new digital marketing agency will go a long way toward streamlining the onboarding process. It not only makes the process easier for you, but for your new agency. Successful onboarding is the first step to establishing a years-long relationship with your new team-based marketing agency, so it pays to be prepared.
If you’re in this final stage and looking for a partner that can guide you through this process, please let us know. We’ve been making our team-based approach work for businesses like yours for over 20 years. We even handle all communication (with you cc’d on our emails) with your previous agency so that you don’t feel that this is all on you.
You can read more about our approach and learn how using a team of subject matter experts can help you scale without the heavy cost of hiring internally or using multiple vendors. And a partner that can leverage game-changing marketing software will help your marketing efforts soar.
Learn More About Switching Marketing Agencies
If you missed our companion piece, How To Evaluate Your Current Digital Marketing Agency, you can read it here. In it we talk about the critical questions you need to ask your current provider. These questions will help you decide if it’s time to make a change.
Also make sure to check out our latest Digital Marketing Masterclass on this topic from Chris Carr.
Please contact us today with any questions about how we can help implement a proven system and to learn more about our unique approach.
