How to hire a marketing agency, with Alicia Williams and Chris Viscomi

Help! My Business is Growing

Chapters
2:30
Why would a business choose to obtain the services of a marketing agency over hiring an in-house marketing person or working with a freelancer?
7:42
What are some of the common mistakes that you see people make when they're vetting potential marketing agencies?
8:53
Should a company do any pre-work before they hire a marketing agency? Should they hire someone who's focused on brand strategy first? What do they need to have in place before they're ready for an agency like yours?
11:06
What would be a realistic expectation for any marketing activity or strategy to start working?
11:24
What are the signs that the marketing agency you hired is doing a good job, even though all your marketing activities or strategies are still in the development stage?
16:30
How often do you need to align or have conversations with your marketing agency? Should you have a weekly meeting with them? How does that work from a weekly or monthly operational standpoint?
17:31
How involved should your marketing agency be during strategic planning? Where do they come in during these planning processes?
19:34
Can a marketing agency help you with your long-term strategy? Can they help you develop what you need to build or do to get your business to reach specific goals within the next five years?
24:54
How do you decide on which marketing trends to try? How do you distinguish between something new that is worth trying versus something that is more like a shiny object that distracts us from our goals or purpose?
27:11
At what point should a company decide it might be time to part ways with their marketing agency and bring in someone in-house to handle specific marketing roles?
31:59
What is the next tangible step someone (who is just at the beginning of the journey of hiring a marketing agency and has no idea where to start) can take in the next week to get them closer to hiring the right agency for their business?
Help! My Business is Growing
How to hire a marketing agency, with Alicia Williams and Chris Viscomi
Sep 30, 2022 Episode 33
Kathy Svetina

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Business growth requires a sound marketing plan so your company can thrive, survive, and stay successful - and relevant -  in fast-changing trends and technologies. 


But if you don’t have the time or workforce to focus on marketing, an external marketing agency can do the heavy lifting for you. Their marketing experts can help you expand your client base, improve branding, and boost revenue. At the same time, you attend to other business matters like developing new products and services and closing sales.


But the process isn’t as simple as doing a quick Google search on “marketing agencies near me” and choose the one on top of the list. Hiring the right agency takes time, patience, and a lot of vetting, as well as taking a hard look at your business to see what you need and what needs work.


In this episode of Help! My Business Is Growing, my guests Alicia Williams and Chris Viscomi and I discuss how your business can benefit from hiring a marketing agency to how you know if it’s time to say goodbye and part ways if things are not working.

Alicia and Chris also demystify the entire hiring process, providing tips on choosing the right agency to match your business needs, and what red flags to watch out for. They also share what you can expect when your actual working relationship begins and touch on your agency’s scope of work. 

Alicia Williams is the CEO, and Chris Viscomi is the Co-Founder of Aliste Marketing, a boutique marketing agency that helps companies build tactical marketing plans consisting of out-of-the-box marketing techniques, cutting-edge videos, and social media strategies that give brands a voice to attract new clients.


In this week's episode, we discuss:

02:30  Why would a business choose to obtain the services of a marketing agency over hiring an in-house marketing person or working with a freelancer?

07:42 What are some of the common mistakes that you see people make when they're vetting potential marketing agencies?

08:53 Should a company do any pre-work before they hire a marketing agency? Should they hire someone who's focused on brand strategy first? 

11:06 What would be a realistic expectation for any marketing activity or strategy to start working?

11:24 What are the signs that the marketing agency you hired is doing a good job, even though all your marketing activities or strategies are still in development?

15:10 How often do you need to align or have conversations with your marketing agency? 

16:11 How involved should your marketing agency be during strategic planning? Where do they come in during these planning processes?

18:14 Can a marketing agency help you with your long-term strategy? 

23:34 How do you decide on which marketing trends to try? 

30:39 What is the next tangible step someone can take in the next week to get them closer to hiring the right agency for their business?


Resources:

Alicia Williams & Chris Viscomi, Co-founders and Marketing Experts, Aliste Marketing:
https://alistemarketing.com/

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/aliste-marketing/

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