Choosing the Right Marketing Agency for Your Business

Written By: Behdad Jamshidi, Founder of CJAM Marketing

For business owners, finding a good marketing agency is like walking through a field of landmines — agencies promise the world, charge a wide range of price points, and specialize in different services. How can a business decide who the right marketing partner is for their company?

My name is Behdad Jamshidi, and as the founder of CJAM Marketing I’ve met with over 800 marketing agencies and partners over the last 5 years. Using a clear and strict vetting process, I narrowed these agencies down to 100 partners that I work with… they are the best of the best.

Why would I take on this herculean task? My single goal has been to match businesses with the right marketing partners. During this time, I have discovered three key questions that every business owner should ask a marketing agency before hiring them. Of course, there are many more questions you should ask, but these three are the best jumping-off point to ensure you cover the necessary high-level information and avoid making an expensive mistake hiring the wrong agency.

Question 1: What is the history of your agency and what you were doing before you became an agency owner?

You want to ask this question because you want to understand how the agency came to be. This will give you insights into which services came first in the agency and what they expanded into.

Was the founder someone who was an ex-Paid Ads employee of a marketing agency and decided they could do better? Then they likely will be strongest at paid ads.

Are the team business people who heard that an agency was a good way to make money and invest in other businesses? Then you want to make sure the employees they hire to do the marketing for your business are strong.

Or did they run a strategic marketing agency before, sold it and started a new one? Then you might have an agency owner who knows how to build scalable businesses and dig into why they sold their last business.

There are countless examples and stories.

The answers will give you insight into how capable the founder is in running an agency business and where the team’s expertise may be. Almost no agency can do full-service marketing well, but they can definitely have areas of strength. That doesn’t mean that agencies are bad, it just means you must use them for what they are good at! Work on identifying those!

Question 2: How long have you been in business for?

In this question, you are trying to assess the maturity of an agency. There are three levels:

1. Agencies that have been around for 0 to 5 yearsIf an agency says less than 5 years, that is a yellow flag — most agencies need to be in business for at least 5 years to get their systems and processes in place. Otherwise, you are going to struggle to work with them. They also are figuring out their culture and what kind of customers they work well with. So they pick up the wrong work all the time because either they need to make ends meet, or they truly are just learning who is a good fit for them.
2. Agencies that have been around for 5-10 yearsThe agencies that are in this space are more mature and better partners to work with. They may still be scaling and evolving into the type of agency they want to be, but there are systems and processes in place. Key team members that have been around for a while… if not then that is a yellow flag. They also have a better understanding of the types of customers they can and cannot help. Though they may be expanding their service offerings.When you hear an agency has added a new service recently, dig into who they brought on and how they have been structuring that service. If that is one of the key services you need, it may not be the right partner as it takes time to mature a new service within an agency.
3. Agencies that have been around for 10+ yearsThese agencies are some of my favourites to work with, especially if the agency owners are still excited about marketing and their agency. You’ve found someone who has passion for what they do and they are typically in it for the long game. With these types of agencies, systems and processes are quite defined, the team has values and they know the type of customers they want to work with. You have a much higher likelihood of working with a great partners here.Also, be careful if this question is answered with “Well, I’ve been in marketing for 10 years, but I’ve been running this agency for 1 year.” Being a contractor or freelancer is very different than running an agency business, and it requires very different skill sets in the long term to do successfully.

Question 3: What is your vision for the agency and exit strategy?

This is one of my favourite questions because you can see if the agency has realistic goals for their business. Do they expect to double every year and they are aiming for massive growth? This is a problem for you because the truth is that agency businesses aren’t tech businesses — hyper-growth in agencies comes at the cost of systems breaking and customers being unhappy. You want to look for agency owners who enjoy what they do and are looking to build slowly… who want to work with the right customers and make sure they do good work. Though agencies do grow fast initially, the growth should slow down as they do more revenue. Typically I hear some of my best agencies wanting to grow 10-15% a year and some just want to maintain.

My favourite agencies to work with are those who are in it for the long haul. They aren’t planning on selling their agencies anytime soon and building the business because they enjoy what they do and the work. If an agency is looking to sell the business in 2 years, that usually signals to me they don’t care about the long-term success or processes to allow the business to grow and take care of their customers.

With these three questions (which 99% of business owners don’t ask!), you’ll be in a better position to spot a good agency. Remember, ultimately working with an agency is like bringing a partner into the business. You want to make sure their goals are aligned with yours. If the agency is 85% of the way there, that is a great agency, and you can work on other areas where they can adjust to serve you better. Also, you will be able to adjust how you work with your agency as a business owner to better support them. Ideally, this becomes a symbiotic relationship.

About the Author

Behdad Jamshidi started CJAM Marketing after realizing that most business owners don’t know how to evaluate the value of a marketing agency or assess their own needs. Since every business is different not only in their needs but where they are at in the growth process, it isn’t a one size fits all. In the past 5 years, Behdad (or Bee) has met with and assessed 802+ marketing agencies and vetted them down to a lean 100 preferred partners across all marketing niches. After pairing hundreds of businesses with the right partners, he’s found his skillset lies in the matchmaking process. Featured in MarketWatch, Bloomberg, National Post and the Financial Post, Bee’s unique background in marketing, engineering, consulting, leadership, sales and strategy, has allowed him to serve as the conduit between business owners and the marketing teams they need.

To learn more about marketing and agencies, and how business owners can grow by hiring the best partners, follow me on LinkedIn.