233: Agencies Aren’t Your Enemy: How to Work Together & Build a Better Brand

Digital agencies get a bad rap these days.

From providing inflated results to wasting time on dead-end tactics, many businesses have fired their agencies and moved things in-house.

However, agencies aren’t the enemy. You just have to understand how to build the right relationship with them, and truly integrate them with your team.

Our guest today is Susan Wenograd the CMO of digital agency Aimclear.

We talk with Susan about the shift she’s seeing in where brands are directing their paid ad spend, and the issues of attribution that are coming along with it. She talks about how to build a deeper relationship with your agency so they can bring you greater success, and her thoughts around navigating the digital landscape as things continue to change and evolve.

This episode is a must-listen whether you're a digital agency or doing digital marketing in-house for a brand.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 8:01 What the role of CMO looks like at a digital agency.
• 10:06 The changes in where brands are spending their paid media dollars.
• 14:43 Today’s analytics are not the analytics of the future, and why attribution objectives may continue to get less defined.
• 18:08 How to spot an agency that’s getting results that are too good to be true.
• 21:26 If you want your agency to be a better partner, you need to more transparent.
• 24:58 As an agency, it’s important to have the difficult conversations and be a leader.
• 30:17 Global perspectives on digital marketing and where the US is falling behind.
• 34:35 You cannot fix broken strategy by optimizing tactics.
• 37:02 If you're entire marketing plan only consists of spending $300K/month on Facebook, you do not have a brand (and that’s a problem).
• 41:06 Why fluidity and flexibility are the keys to long-term success.
• 42:35 Is it time to hand bidding control over to Facebook?

Links And Resources

• Aimclear
• Aimclear Blog
• Susan on Twitter @SusanEDub
• foxwelldigital.com/courses
• The Coalition
• @a_brawn on Twitter
• @andrewfoxwell on Twitter
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital
• Review or subscribe on iTunes