Blog
Hiring and working alongside a new digital agency can seem like a daunting task, but getting one on board to help with your projects will make life a whole lot easier for you, and your team. So, we took to Twitter to ask digital professionals: “What’s the single most important thing you would get your clients to do differently?” Here are some of the responses we received:
- Be clear on the brief and requirements of a project.
- Keep us in the loop of personalities in the decision-making team.
- Transparency. Share expected challenges and politics surrounding a project.
Which is a great segue into what working with a good digital agency feels and looks like, as well as how they can help you achieve results you never thought were possible with your digital products.
Creativity
They’re a part of your team. Creative teams often have a great mix of knowledgeable, approachable and hard work members, who honestly love their jobs and love your projects.
Team players
Retainers for professional technicians when you need them. They’re Collaborators.
So you have an idea…but is it even possible, or will it even work to achieve your goals? An agency will work with you to turn those ideas into the best it can be. Using creative thinking and conducting thorough research into your target audience creates a solid digital strategy, which is the foundation for all creative and technical work to be built on.
Successful collaboration between agency and client comes down to good communications and practice throughout all stages of a project. Business relationships are different and should be treated and organised accordingly.
Great project managers
There are many ways of keeping a project on track. We mentioned communication and collaboration is key, so how does an agency do this?
Most agencies will use an online project management system, allowing both parties to stay up-to-date on project milestones, tasks and timelines in real-time. There are many common ones available such as Asana, Basecamp and Jira, others use a variety of systems depending on the project, they may even have their own custom built portal for you to login and view details.
Using a system such as this is critical when organising larger project tasks, it’s also helpful to have an overview of where to the project is at, ticking boxes to help keep your sanity on projects that span over a few months.
Reliable time-savers
With the ability to track project status, and see what tasks need to be taken care of all in one spot and in real-time, you will likely find yourself with some time to spend elsewhere!
An effective agency will be able to gain your trust, letting you leave them to get on with the bulk of the work and giving them the ability to make decisions that you no longer have to think about, only getting in touch for sign-offs, proofs or critical questions.
They’re scalable
Depending on your set-up, you may not need a dedicated UX expert, developer or data analyst, all of the time. Your digital agency will often be able to plug these knowledge gaps - both on a retained or project basis, allowing you to scale up or down as you need.
Finally, the importance of being a good client. I will write a full post on this next. But for now, being great to work with can bring all sorts of benefits for an organisation. To name a few: it reflects well on you as a brand; it encourages your collaborators to be more invested in their work for you; and it may even make all parties that little bit happier.
Share this article on social media.
