Hiring the Right Crew for YOU!

How to Choose the Right Marketing Company

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match…find me a find…catch me a catch. Even when you’re not looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right, there are several decisions in life that require you screen a lot of candidates looking for the one. Choosing a partner in the marketing business is one of those situations. Just like when you’re dating, there should be a list of criteria you have in mind when shopping around for your potential partner. Here are some items that should be on the list of the right marketing company and why:

 1.     Full-Service Shop

The reason you want to look for a full-service shop is because each piece of the video-production puzzle comes with a price and, just like anything, when you are buying more than one service, odds are you will get more bang for your buck if you stick with one vendor.  If you get the video capturing done at Studio A and the editing done at Studio B, you’re going to end up paying a pretty penny to each studio.  Along those same lines, there are some inherent benefits to working with one company from start to finish. We’ve talked about how important those pre-production meetings can be and when you start that process with one company, you afford them the opportunity to see that initial vision come to fruition, and that’s a bonus!

2.     The Right Marketing Company: Targeted Messaging Specialists

One question you will want to ask the companies you are interviewing is, “What messaging experience do you have?” A lot of companies out there can point and shoot a camera, but it takes true specialists to understand your market better than you do.  Aside from understanding various audiences, targeted messaging specialists or communications experts will also have a better grasp on wordsmithing your original content for video. Sometimes there are things that may be grammatically incorrect, but you have to grin and bear it for marketing.  Here is an example: “Got Milk?” Yikes! All grammar-obsessed folks out there shiver when they see that ad, but “Do you have milk?” would not be nearly as powerful.

3.     It’s the Little Things

When you’re looking for the right marketing company, like many other things, there are a slew of little things to consider:

• Does the team you’re considering have third-party verification? Do they have client testimonials on their website? Do they list their current clients?
• Were they easy to find? Did they come up via Google or other search engines? Do they have a Facebook page? In this era, when you hit three strikes in this category, that’s no bueno.  You want to make sure you are working with a company that is keeping up with marketing trends for their own needs so they can do the same for you.
• Contact information is easy to find. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to get in touch with a company only to find out that you have to email them and then you get an email back or you have to call a 1-800 number and speak with robots (ugh!). If a company is difficult to get in touch with from the start…that’s a sign.  You’re important business no matter what your budget is and you should feel like a priority from the get go.

Above all else, we recommend being picky! This video is going to follow you for a while and you need to be happy with it and, if finding the one takes a little while, that’s okay.  As long as in the end you’re happy with your pick, making your video is going to be a fun journey.

By Mindi Long