How To Determine The Value of Your Marketing Partner/Vendor

I'm pretty intrigued by this subject and it's one of the major reasons our agency is shifting its focus to more inbound marketing and the use of marketing automation software (for adWhite that software is HubSpot).

In my opinion, while relationships are still important – and always will be – they are no longer the single most important factor to why businesses select marketing partners. I believe relationships should still be a major factor in how you choose your marketing vendor and why you choose them, but there are other important aspects to consider.

The goal of all your marketing should be to improve your business, create more sales and make you more profitable. This can appear differently for different types of business in various industries. For some it's straight product sales while for others it's larger, more profitable consulting agreements. Whatever success looks like for you, your marketing partner should understand, believe in and help you reach those objectives.

Ideally, your vendor will help you set the right goals and develop marketing strategies to reach them. While ranking high in obscure search rankings or having a site that highlights your CEO's favorite suit sound nice, they do little to help you reach your ultimate goal of increasing sales. Winning a competition for the prettiest website isn’t the goal, either. There are a lot of fancy things you can spend money on, but your partner should recommend and provide the most effective and cost efficient solutions to help you succeed.

So when you choose a vendor, it should not only come down to cost, location, convenience or even that nice guy you know from your kid’s basketball team. Even if you like someone as a person, you still need to consider if they are the best choice to help you meet your goals. You must be confident that they have your best interests at heart.

Ultimately, you should choose a partner because they understand how to bring value to your business, they are responsive, they are smart, you trust them and they pay for themselves with the work they perform for your business. A true business relationship grows and develops over time with trust, hard work, responsiveness and ultimately – results.