Your Most Important Hire: How To Choose A Creative Agency That's Right For Your Business
Creativity is key, even more so now than ever before. Most industries are saturated with similar products/packaging, so without working with the right creative agency to push your brand out there in a way that is unique and engaging to your target demographic, you’ll likely get lost in the noise.
Working with an agency can be extremely beneficial for your business, with you being able to utilise a wider variety of talent and knowledge, often for a lower cost than if you were to hire in-house. However, finding the right one for you and knowing how to choose a creative agency suited to you in order to maximise the potential of the partnership is really important. We’re here with 4 core things to consider when it comes to how to choose a creative agency to make the process that bit easier!
How To Choose A Creative Agency: 4 Core Points
Look At Their Portfolio
One of the best ways to get a good gauge of a creative agency is to look at their portfolio. This is a one-stop-shop where they are demonstrating their skills, experience, ability to adapt to different industries, and of course, their creativity. Deciding how to choose a creative agency can be difficult, but the portfolio is a great place to start.
Whilst there is so much that goes into your creative design as a brand, including verbal identity and web development which then facilitate how your brand is presented to your target audience through creative elements, your decision on who to contact and take through to the pitch stage will likely be centred on their quality of work and what you can see in front of you.
Read Reviews/Take Recommendations
There are good agencies and bad agencies out there, so you should read reviews or take verbal recommendations from people you know as an important factor in how to choose a creative agency that is right for you. Take bad reviews with a pinch of salt if they’re few and far between, as we all know they might not be genuine, however they do give a good indication on things like communication style, quality of work, level of experience and whether people developed long term relationships with the agency.
If you know other people/businesses who have had positive experiences with agencies, make sure to have a chat with them, as that will usually give you a more in-depth idea than online reviews to help point you in the right direction on how to choose a creative agency.
Look At Their Service Offerings
Next up, it’s important you look at the service offerings as part of how to choose a creative agency. When onboarding a creative agency, often you’ll have an idea of the services that you’re looking for from them. You might not know the intricate details and want to hear what the agency would recommend for you, however you should look at what they offer to ensure that the elements you definitely require can be covered. Some of the main service areas a creative agency offer would be:
Visual identity (typography, logo design, colour palettes, etc)
Verbal identity (brand tone of voice)
Motion design
Campaign compilation
Web design and development
User experience considerations
Content creation
Having everything under one roof when it comes to creative elements often offers a better experience and results, so we’d recommend looking for a full service creative agency.
Consider Cost
Sorry to get practical here, but of course, looking at cost is important and can be a strong factor when it comes to how to choose a creative agency. As mentioned, often choosing an agency is a very cost-effective option in terms of the quality and quantity of work that is delivered, particularly when compared with hiring in-house. You’re paying less for the expertise of more people, which is great. However, agencies do come in at different costs, so this might be a differentiating factor.
Usually, the full cost is presented during the pitch stage once the full scope is understood by the prospective agency. It’s rare that an agency will offer set costing that they’ll be able to give you upfront, so don’t let that put you off, but if they can give you a ballpark of the kind of budgets they work with that would make sure neither of you are wasting your time.
Final Thoughts On How To Choose A Creative Agency
Knowing how to choose a creative agency can be difficult, as there are many out there, but as long as you look at their portfolio, take recommendations from people you know or reviews, look at their service offerings and consider cost, you should be able to narrow down to a few great agencies who will then pitch to you.
If you’re in the process of looking for a creative agency and want to learn more about what we do at BGN, get in touch with us and a member of our team will be happy to get the process started!
