Getting the Results You Want: How to Communicate with Your Marketing Firm

So you’ve decided to hire us for your marketing needs. Congrats; you did something right today! 🙂

Hiring our services means you’re hiring our ideas, concepts, culture, and creativity. But there’s one more “C” we’ve discovered is essential for a phenomenal business relationship: “communication.” That’s the really hard one!

We love marketing, but you love your business. Communicating your goals for marketing your business helps us produce fantastic services you’ll be proud to call your Department of Marketing. It is essential you communicate with our team so we can create the content, website design, tone, or brochure you have pictured in your vision.

But hey, explaining the image in your head to someone else isn’t really easy, is it? Sometimes you are struggling for the words to convey what you mean. Or you may not like what we produced, but you’re not quite sure how to tell us.

Communication is the No. 1 skill gap in the job/employee market, according to LinkedIn’s CEO. Communication is everything in our work and in our lives. So here are some specific questions to ask and things to say that will translate your vision into words so we can design what you’re seeing!

(Note that many of these examples are about website design because we find that’s the most challenging for people to discuss. But we can apply many of these to other marketing projects.)

1. More/less white space. A lot of today’s websites have more white space, making it easy on the eyes. Not everyone loves this look though. Do you feel a background color matches your vibe? Want to see more stuff on the page?
2. Can we change the font? If you don’t already have a favorite font or one you’ve selected for your brand, we’ll choose one we think matches the style we’re discussing. But that can change. Use this nifty tool to identify a font or check out this list of web safe fonts to see if you like any of them.
3. Can you move this line? Don’t be afraid to tell us if you don’t like a color or if a line seems out of place. You may struggle with the words to convey what you want; maybe you don’t even KNOW what you want. If that’s the case, look at other websites you like and compare them. Share with us! You might also ask about shapes, shading, or animations.
4. Where did this idea come from? This is a good question to ask if you’re not sure how we came about this idea or the idea was completely different from what you wanted. If you’re asking this question then the root cause of the problem is the lack of communication. Let’s get back on the same page.
5. “I don’t think this accomplishes the idea of….” This helps us see that we may have missed what you were seeking in the execution of a design or campaign.
6. Can you make it look more like this? Sometimes you see a website or design that catches your attention. Great! We’ll try to match it, but it’s essential to know that we want to create a custom look for you and your business — not mimic others. Plus, there’s a very good chance that national brand you want to mimic spent tens of thousands of dollars to create that website or campaign.
7. We don’t like this [color/ line/ box/photo]. Can we try something else? Do not be afraid to say this; because this helps us adjust and adapt the project early on.
8. “Can we change ___ into ___?” This one is extremely helpful! You’re pointing to something specific and asking for a tweak. That’s how we collaborate to create the best work!
9. “I like this part, but we don’t like ___.” This is another good one because we need to know both what you like and dislike to come up with the final product.

It is critical for our clients to communicate what they want out of our services. Being direct through the whole process will help avoid having to change the content multiple times. If you have a question about your website or design project, contact us today