Not many people go into business in the IoT sector to become marketers. You likely have some IoT innovation. But turning innovative thinking into reality requires marketing. After all, if people aren’t using the “T” in your IoT you won’t be successful.
So, you’re faced with two options:
- Set aside time and energy to learning marketing strategy, coming up with a marketing plan, and executing marketing campaigns, or
- Outsource your marketing needs to professionals who can get started on marketing your business right away.
If you’ve chosen Option 1, you should stop reading this right now and start educating yourself on marketing because you’ve probably got a lot of studying to do to become an expert marketer.
If you chose Option 2, read on to see how to find, and hire the right marketing agency.
A Simple Plan for Choosing an Agency
1 Collect Your Stakeholders
If you are the leader of the company, you do not need to include anyone else, but you may want other people’s opinions on agencies you are considering. If someone on your team will be working directly with the agency you pick, then you will probably want to include them in the choice of agencies. In that case, let your team know their roles in making the decision.
2 Write Your Brief
A well-crafted project brief efficiently expresses your objectives for your project. A brief also becomes a useful tool when you are in the middle of a project because it gives you and your agency a reference for determining how effective you are. The brief becomes a North Star for your project, giving you something against which you can track your progress and help you prioritize tasks.
3 Gather Your Potential Agency List
Armed with a project brief it’s time you reach out to your potential agencies. This step can be tricky. How do you get your project brief in front of the right people? That’s one of the reasons businesses use TDA. Posting a project on TDA makes putting your project out to agencies easy. Once you get your project out to agencies, you’ll be ready to receive and review their applications.
4 Evaluate Your Shortlist
Once you’ve collected applications, you’ll want to go back to your decision-making team, review your brief and evaluate the agency applications. We recommend having each of your decision-makers separately evaluate agencies on the following factors:
- Experience
Rate the agency’s previous work on projects like yours.
- Case Studies/Examples
Rate the results/outcomes from the agency’s previous projects.
- Knowledge of the Topic
Rate the agency’s understanding of what’s needed for your project.
- Communication
Rate the agency’s written communication and application. - Budget/Pricing
Rate the agency’s proposed budget.
5 Hire Your Agency
Start off on the right foot by working with your agency to resolve any discrepancies between your project and their approach to the work. Once you’ve got your plan, your agency can get to work on execution and you can relax knowing that you’ve created an environment for success.
Finding an Agency With TDA
Using TDA is easy. You use our forms to answer questions about your project and create a brief. Agency teams see your needs and apply for the project. You choose an agency to work with, hire them, and track their progress all the way.