Hiring an agency is like hiring an employee: You hope you’re going to be working together for a very long time. As such, fit is very important. But to establish that, you have to do your research – both internal and external.

Start with self-discovery.

It’s not enough to approach an agency and say, “make me successful.” First determine what your needs are, what qualifies as a success and, most importantly, who you are as a brand and who you want to be (this isn’t always the same thing).

Being more self-aware of your brand’s strengths, weaknesses, and identity will go a long way towards identifying which marketing agencies are the right fit for you.

Establish relevance.

A marketing agency may have 50 years worth of experience or a list of hundreds of clients, but how many of those projects relate specifically to your industry or what you want to do?

You want an agency that can hit the ground running. You don’t want them fumbling around in a new industry or experimenting with projects they’ve never done before – especially when they’re using your marketing budget to do it.

Evaluate the working relationship.

Since relationships with agencies can be quite intimate, make sure that you have complementary work habits. Meet the team handling your account (not the pitch team) and ask questions about how they work. Do their answers match with how you want to work?

There are a lot of B2B marketing agencies out there. Have a clear idea of who you are and what you need so you’ll be able to find an agency that can get you where you want to go.

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