Hi, my name is Michelle Sternbauer, and I am an Account Director, here at THAT Agency. Today, I want to walk you through, how you can set your new digital marketing agency up for success!

Most likely, you've spent a lot of time, money and resources - researching, interviewing and selecting a new digital marketing agency.

When partnering with a new client, one of the first phases we enter, will be onboarding.

During onboarding, you will:
1. Assess Your Previous Campaigns & Assets
2. Define Your Business & Marketing Goals
3. Build a Customized Marketing Plan
4. Establish Key Personnel (int/ext)

Keeping in mind these 4 steps to onboarding, there are some things you can do on your end to prepare for this first phase with your new agency.

To start, your new marketing agency will take deep dive into your previous campaigns and assets. This will provide insight on both your company, as well as what you have previously tried that has, or maybe has not worked.

They will be able to assess the current state of your campaigns, as well as some potential quick wins to propel their efforts.

Be prepared to provide access to:
- Website Admin & Hosting
- Previous Marketing Reports
- Google Suite
- Social Profiles
- Email Marketing Platform
- Asset Management Portal

Next comes defining business & marketing goals. This is an essential step, as it provides both your company and the agency a clear guide as to the success of a campaign.

Prepare for this by defining:

- What is your company's main goal?
- What are three goals of the business to achieve this year?
- What are your expansion goals?
- What are your revenue targets? Are you currently achieving them?
- What are your sales goals?
- What do you want your sales team to achieve?
- What is your quarterly sales target?
- What is your current cost per lead?
- What is the lifetime value of a customer?
- What are your marketing goals?
- What do you want your marketing team to achieve?


Once you have assessed all previous campaigns and defined goals, it will be time to build your marketing plan.

While there is not a lot of onboarding prep work that you can do, my biggest piece of advice is to make certain you are an active participant during this stage. Ask questions. Make suggestions. Troubleshoot problems. The more active you are during this stage, the more you will understand and contribute as the campaigns unfold.

The last step of the onboarding process will be establishing key personnel that will comprise your team internally. You can prepare for this by compiling a short list of team members you may want to include on your team, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. This way, once the marketing plan is developed, you will be able to select appropriate team members and define their roles and responsibilities.

For a campaign, and ultimately your new digital marketing agency to be successful, it is imperative for you to prepare and educate them on your company and previous campaigns. From there, you can work together to clearly outline expectations and develop strategic marketing campaigns THAT work!

For more information, visit us at http://www.thatagency.com/.

Happy Onboarding!