Agency Life | How to Find Success Working at a Marketing Agency

Join Kate Covalt on The SCORRCAST as she shares insights on finding success in the fast-paced world of marketing agencies. Discover strategies for thriving in agency life, from managing client relationships to balancing workloads and building a rewarding career. Learn tips on adapting to agency dynamics, maximizing creativity, and achieving professional growth in a competitive industry.

Transcript

0:00

Hey everyone this is Alec McChesney, your host of the SCORR cast, and I'm so excited for this episode, as well as a few others see right now I am in the headquarters of SCORR marketing in Kearney, Nebraska, and I'm here for a couple of days, and so I've been able to have five or six different episodes with some of the key business leaders at our organization. This episode is going to go into one detail. The next we'll go into another. We're going to talk about branding. We're going to talk about marketing, strategy, business development versus marketing. Talk about what it's like to work at an agency. And I'm just so excited for you to be able to listen to these key leaders at SCORR Marketing. Enjoy the episode. Hello and welcome to another episode of The SCORR cast. I'm your host, Alex, and on today's episode, we have Kate Covalt, who I am so excited that I have bribed you to be on voluntold told to get you on an episode of the podcast. And I think we're going to talk about something that's really important today, which is the agency lifestyle, yeah, something that I'm obsessed with. And I think you have to have a certain predisposition, if you will, in order to work at a marketing agency. And I know we're going to talk a little bit about that, from an education standpoint, what a success look like, but also CORRs philosophy and how we work as a marketing agency. But before we go down that and you and I start rambling, if you could please just give us an introduction to yourself, you know, give us that 92nd background of you know what, what led you to CORR? What roles have you had at SCORR? How long you've been there, and then, what role are you in today? Yeah, sure. So. Kate Covalt, I am currently the vice president of Client Services and an account strategist. Or Kate Covalt, I am currently the vice president of Client Services and an executive strategist here at SCORR. I'm coming up on 10 years here. And you know, when I started, I came from internal marketing prior, and I knew I wanted to work at an agency for at least a piece of my career. I thought I was going to be two to three years. I think, like a lot of people here and now, 10 years has happened. I've always been on the client services team in some capacity. So that role has looked different over the years. Started out really in what we had as program management, so kind of a dual account and project management role, working with a team of client service for each client, then took on the director of account management role, oversaw the account management team, and then, most recently, I'm overseeing the entire client services team. So you know, I knew I wanted to kind of work in the agency field for at least a little bit. But what really drew me to SCORR was the focus in clinical trials and research I have my dad went through clinical trials when we were young, and so got to kind of see firsthand how impactful it was to our our life. My dad was able to walk me down the aisle at my wedding because of clinical trials. So when I found SCORR and saw what their kind of niche was in, it just like fit. So definitely came because of the kind of passion of stayed, because of the people. Yeah, I love it. And there's so much good there in terms of, you know, one your background. And I think one of the things that's been really interesting in the SCORR cast so far is learning why people got in the industry and then why they stayed. And, you know, there are difficulties, and being able to bring it back to that why, and the mission and the focus and all that. So I appreciate you sharing that I do want to jump into the role a marketing agency plays. Because I think this is, there's this misconception, I think, in all industries, what a marketing agency is. And I remember, you know, coming out of college and being in journalism, if you told me a decade later, I'd be working in a marketing agency as a strategist or a business development director. I would have told you absolutely not. And so I think you're the perfect person to answer this question with the role that you have and the teams you go oversee. And I think it's a tough question to see time is, you know, what role does a marketing agency? And in this scenario, specifically SCORR, what role do we play in the lives of our audience, of our clients, and especially in the life sciences? I mean, I think it is a good question. I think it changes a little bit based on the client. If you're a good marketing agency, that that should change. I think we have definitely our identity and our philosophy of how we approach client partnerships and relationships and even marketing as a whole and the strategy there. But you know, I think we see ourselves as truly a partner, and so our goal for clients is ultimately to see them successful. We don't view ourselves as being successful unless they are so our. Goals really do become their their goals become our goals. And I think it's so important, because every client is is different. So there's not like a cookie cutter approach to what that looks like. Some clients are looking for agency partners that are there to fill the gaps of their internal offerings and their internal team. Others need, like the full kit and caboodle. They want the whole team. They need to really outsource their whole marketing function. And I think that's one of the things that is great about SCORR is based on our size, we can do both, and really excel at both, and really do put the focus on how do we make either your marketing team look good by enhancing what you already bring to the table? Or how do we bolt on and really fulfill that function for you? There's so many good keywords in there, but the partnership, the strategy, the tailor. One of the things that we talk about a lot is fall in love with the problem and not the so we should not have SCORRs of full service agency. And you could come in and you could get anything under the sun, you could get all of it at once, or you can get one piece of that pie. So how have you seen that change? You know, a little bit off topic here, but over a decade, a lot of different marketing things that have come up, and there's a new tool all the time. How do, how does SCORR fit into that as a partner of our clients, as new things come in the market, there's new opportunities. How do we, how do we fulfill that as a partner, too? Yeah, I mean, I think it's that collective knowledge. So, you know, I even think, and I'm sure we'll get into this later, but like, when you're working at an agency, your exposure to organizations is just amplified. You know, I've worked on over, I think, close to 50 clients. Now, I'm not 50 years old yet, so that would be having to work at a different company every year to hit that kind of background. But when you do that, and then it's adding agency, and you have all these people worked on multiple accounts, seeing different business structures, what's worked, what's not, tried new things, seeing how it's worked, and then, you know, tailored it and been able to actually try new things that come out in marketing, or new platforms, avenues, any of that, and then taking that collective knowledge and saying, This is how it worked, or this is how it didn't work, this is maybe how we would tweak it next time. So it's that collective knowledge and using that to get better every time. So it's not that internal marketing teams can't do that. Of course, they are. It's the speed at which that knowledge is being gained and shared that's a lot harder, right? I think especially nowadays we talk about all the times of one of the things I love about working at a marketing agency is that there's paid search, there's paid social, there's organic social, there's organic search. That's four things that I think a lot of teams say, oh, one person can do all four of those things, but it's actually three or four different assets that have to happen. And so I'm curious, you know, what I think about? What excites me to work at a working agency so much that is the adrenaline for me of going from one client to the next. Oh, yeah, next thing. And there's no day that is the same. But I'm curious, kind of, on your end, what do you see as kind of the big excitements or the rewarding factors of being able to work at an agency like, I mean, definitely the dynamic environment. There's no day at an agency where you're like, Okay, three more hours until five. It's more like, oh, man, it's four. How am I gonna fit all of this into the rest of the day? And I think that is great. That is something that, like, I'm drawn to, and I feel like most of our team members have to be in, like, the right ability to thrive in that, you know, deadline driven environment. If that stresses you out, it's not probably the place for you. But procrastinator is great. Deadline driven. It really makes it fast paced. But also, you know, all the team members within the organization have all of these, you know, focus areas that their SMEs in, and I think that's the big difference from when I was working internal, which I did for five years before I came to SCORR. You're, you are, you're wearing a lot of hats, and so you're really scratching the surface of all of these different disciplines, so you're dangerous and everything, but that level of expertise that comes with having someone like solely focused in one of these things, and who really geeks out about one of these things or areas is fun, because when you come to an agency and people love the piece of marketing that they're doing, and makes you excited about it, and it keeps you in the know too. So it's just that dynamic, fast paced, deadline driven, always changing. There's no days that are ever the exact same. There's no challenge that's, you know, the exact same, either. When you said all that, I'm thinking, it's like the perfect job description for what I'm looking for. And then somebody else is looking at that and saying, that's my. Night, yes. And, you know, I joke about all the time, you know, the jet ski, or how I am a SCORR related tattoo on, you know, I just think of, you know, coming from the journalism background, like the fast paced deadline driven but then on the on the other side of the token, you know, in house, it's a completely different perspective. And so I'm curious, if I ask you the flip side of that, and look at, you know, what are the challenges, the pitfalls of working an agency? Is it just the same things that are exciting, or what else some of them? I mean, deadline driven can be, you know, when everything's coming at you at once, you have to really be good at prioritizing. So that can be hard. I think, you know, client expectation or team members expectations can be something that you have to get really good at communicating and knowing when to push and push and push and when to maybe compromise, or just kind of being able to also look at things. And I think something that's unique about SCORRs. We really do, honestly believe that we can't be successful if the client isn't successful. So we're not over here if something's not performing, trying to spin it of like, oh, but it's actually a good thing, because no, if it's not working, we want to be very transparent, like, this isn't working. But here are the three things we think that we're going to be able to rectify it by doing. So I think it's, it's that, and finding partners who want to partner like that, and not just, you know, order takers. So, I mean, that can be challenging. And I just think the hardest part of any job is working with people, because people are all so, you know, unique and different, and so you have to be really good at, you know, understanding, what is your motive? What are you trying to get out of this project? Maybe that's different than what the client's saying. And how do I bring these two perspectives together? How do we work all towards one common goal? And I think that's no different. At an agency, you have your internal teams that you're trying to motivate to get the final deliverable across on time and on budget, and then client expectations too, of what that deliverable will be and what it should be so. And I think in part of that, my next question, which is all about, how do you advance inside of marketing? See, I hit on a lot of it, but the thing that stands out to me the most is the communication. I think that what we see, and even thinking back where I started in a marketing agency, wanting to be a copywriter, and then go to strategy, and then go to Account Management, then back to strategy, and then business development, the common thread for most of that is communication, and how hard it is to communicate with the client, and then how you have to then re communicate that back to an internal team and vice versa. So I know that's, that's a part of your answer, but I'm curious if there's anything else you want to elaborate more on the communication point. But someone's starting out right now. They're they're at university, or they're trying to jump from in house to an agency. What's that skill set? How can they advance their career can they focus on? You know, I think one of the things that's difficult starting out is that there's so many jobs out there. I had no idea when I went to the job market, like, what all the different functions would be, how they would all work together, and like, what I was really going to find reward out of and what I wasn't and so I think a don't be afraid to jump in and try, like new things, just because, you know, you think you have this perception of what sales is. It might not be our, you know, our entire client services team, in a way, does sales because they're recommending solutions. But I think if you ask any of them if they're in sales, they would say no. So it's like, you know you might have talents or gifts that you don't understand how they're applicable to certain positions. So try. I think that's one of the benefits of going and working on an agency when you are early in your career, is you see all of the different functions. You get exposure to different companies and how they're operating, how their marketing is structured, how they're outsourcing, how decisions are being made, things like that. So I think it's be curious, and don't be afraid to try something that you might not know if you'll totally be able to do on day one, like there is room to grow in every position. So, yeah, stay curious and work on your communication skills. The curious words is my it's my buzz word right now, I think if you're not curious any industry, yeah, you're not gonna be successful. So Okay, I promise I was gonna ask a bad podcast. Okay, this is my bad podcast question, because I did not send it to you in the outline, but I think it's a good way to wrap up, and it's on the exact opposite side. Okay, now somebody is in house, and they are, they are working at an internal company here in life sciences, and you know, maybe they're debating hiring a. A marketing agency. Why? What are the benefits that we get from bringing in house or an outside source agency, like a sport marketing Yeah, I mean, I think there's different, you know, reasons to do it, or even what type of model to work with your agency within, if you're looking at it. But I think you know, if you have a team, even if it's a small team or a large team, there's, if you're doing a lot, there's always going to be a capacity thing. So having a partner that understands your business, that can take, you know, overflow is great, but that still comes with relationship. Like you, you can't just go and find someone off, off, you know, the street and say you need to truly understand this. Now bright or white, white paper on it. So, you know, build those relationships and connections, even if, if you have a team in house, so that if that team needs support, you have a partner. But also, I think the really big thing is, you know, like when you hire SCORR, you're getting access to 60 professionals that are solely focused on marketing and have, you know, dedicated their time and education to this space specifically. So you get all of that combined knowledge, you get insights into the new things, new things that are trending, what's working, what's not. It happens all the time that a tactic that's working. You know, last year, maybe it's not working as well this year, even though it was a surefire thing. So being able to understand that in real time is really helpful, and you have a much larger team to pivot. So I think, you know, today is like economy, right? When you have a whole in house team, it can be a challenge if you know you're not hitting revenue numbers, how you can't scale that team up and down as easily when you're outsourcing, you can, if you're having, you know, a really good quarter, and you can put more, you know, fuel to the fire, then you can. And then in quarters where you can't, things can get scaled back. So there's flexibility that comes with working with an agency partner. But I think you know whether you're enhancing the team you have internally or fully looking to outsource. The most important thing is finding an agency that you want to work with, because it is, at the end of the day, a relationship business in that you want friends, right? Who are going to tell you what what is real and what is not real. And I think that's important when you're, you know, talking to an agency too. Is this agency going to be one that is telling me my ideas really bad if it is, or are they going to get on board if my idea is great, even if it's not theirs? So you need someone who's really looking out for your interest and dedicated to that making sure you like working with them is, I think, such an important thing that it's a right fit for both we as humans like to work with and buy from people we know, like and trust. Yeah, I think it's again, with that agency. I think that the bad rap that agencies often get is the exact opposite of what you just described where, instead of that partnership it is, we're gonna hide behind some marketing metrics and things like that. And I know I only have you for a short amount of time, but since you already were about told to I know that I'm gonna force you to come back for another episode where we can go a little bit deeper on, because I am really interested in kind of that economic impact of where we're at today in 2024 and going to 2025 and how marketing agencies can can help navigate that. But for today, I think that this has been a fantastic conversation. Again. I think there's so many use cases here from the individual that's in university or trying to have a career change. You know, I think back to me leaving journalism. I was ready to, like I was doing anything to try to get out of that industry with where it was at. And again, didn't know that marketing agencies were anything other than the advertisers, you know, on Madison Avenue and all the different roles that you can have. I have to put you on the spot just for a final thought. You know, this is one takeaway. Or you were talking at Creighton University, someone asked you, you know, what's one thing I should take away from from this conversation going forward about marketing agencies, where would you go with that? Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna take the buzz word stay curious, but don't be afraid to reach out and make connections for yourself. I think that is so important. It's a relationship business. If you are really dying to start working at an agency and they're not hiring or whatever, build those relationships, because there are people out there who will mentor, who will talk to you about, you know what interviewing is like, what working in an agency is like? My experience has been, if you ask somebody for help or for guidance or hey, I just want your insights, they're more often than not, willing to share what they've learned along the way. So I think do that, stay curious and don't be afraid to reach out to people to learn from them. I get where you want to go. You heard it here first. If you are listening to this message, yeah, on LinkedIn, right away, right away, I know that you and I would be, you know, ecstatic to have that conversation. And so just want to say thank you for taking your time out of your calendar. Get back to going to serve our clients. Thank you. As always, thank you for tuning in to this episode of The SCORR cast, brought to you by SCORR marketing. We appreciate your time and hope you found this discussion insightful. Don't forget to subscribe and join us for our next episode. Until then, remember, marketing is supposed to be fun.