The hard part is over; you’ve found the right agency partner to support your brand and goals — congrats! Now, it’s time for your teams to come together and make magic. Here are our top 5 tips for seamless collaboration with your agency partner.
Stay Organized
Set expectations around deliverables and deadlines before work begins. Stick to your schedule and come prepared for all meetings!
Creating shared meeting agendas and ongoing documents for notes will help ensure you and your agency partner are on the same page and using your time together efficiently.
Example Agenda:
(i) Quick recap of the last meeting
(ii) What was completed this week
(iii) Upcoming deadlines + action needed before the next meeting
Give Clear and Constructive Feedback
Transparent and honest communication is key to a successful partnership, but it’s important to make sure any feedback you share outlines actionable next steps.
Unfortunately, feedback will not always be positive. Sharing your concerns in a direct and productive way is crucial to the success of your partnership.
Do:
Share compliments and couple criticisms with proposals for how the agency can better align their work with your vision or expectations (i.e., ‘we’re looking for x,y,z’ or ‘this is the direction we want to go in’).
Don’t:
Share feedback while the agency is still working through revisions or use accusatory language (i.e., ‘you missed x,y,z’ or ‘you took this in the wrong direction’).
Pro tip:
Consolidate feedback into a single email or document so your agency partner knows what to prioritize and doesn’t waste time sifting through multiple emails from different members of your team.
Be Proactive
Stay curious throughout every stage of the process — dig deep and ask questions!
Stay up-to-date
Stay updated on your agency’s progress and ask questions as soon as they come up. Reviewing work at the last minute can delay progress and result in additional, unnecessary edits.
Accountability is key:
Always look ahead to the next deadline and understand what action(s) are needed from both sides. Remember — accountability goes both ways!
Pro Tip:
Using a project management tool (like Asana or Monday) can help keep everyone on track and organized.
Balance Decisiveness and Flexibility
Successful partnerships involve both clear-cut decisions and open-minded discussions. Some decisions require immediate action, while others benefit from collaborative brainstorming and multiple iterations.
It’s important to understand when it makes sense to see a creative or strategic decision through to the end and when to change course.
Do:
Be decisive and trust your intuition when it comes to your brand while remaining open to fresh perspectives and ideas.
Don't:
Change direction or deliverables at the eleventh hour. Last-minute changes are often difficult to accommodate and can add unnecessary strain to your partnership.
Trust Your Agency
You chose to partner with an agency that has a specific set of skills and expertise. They’ve executed similar work in the past and have learned what works and what doesn’t.
Trust starts with transparency
Share your vision, preferred process, goals, and aspirations without holding back.
Practice active listening
Trust the process and know your agency partner wants you project to succeed. Remember — you’re on the same team!
The beginning of your partnership is an exciting time! Remember to be patient as you start working together — it can take some time to get to know one another and get into a good rhythm. Following these best practices will help expedite the process and build a strong foundation for your working relationship!
