[Indizine]

When looking to hire a marketing company do you look for appropriate marketing qualifications or depth/breadth of experience or both?

I know many graphic designers who have just learned the software and have no ideas what fonts mean, for example, or marketing consultants that dont know about demographics or cannot write articles using proper English grammar.

Their stuff might look nice or sounds great at first glance, but who meaures the actual success of what you paid them to do based on their ability to provide you the correct service?

I also never hire on testimonials unless they are worthy testimonials. Mrs G from Cheshire might not know any better about logo design and just loves the colour Pink. Mr D from Paignton might have thoughts 100,000 website hits a month is great. Miss P from Cumbria might think 2,000 leaflets sent out across the county sounds fantastic; WOW! 2000 potential customers! Not.

What are the things that convince you the company has what it takes to make a difference and meet your real objectives?

[Calibre Designs]

Great post there Sandra.

Definitely experience and portfolio. Who have they currently served? Many companies you have not heard of? Research into them and they may be large international companies or just for very small sole traders.

Depends on who you want and for what purpose. How big is your vision?

I don't believe that they need to be qualified. Its the experience that counts. Then again, everyone needs to be given a chance otherwise the experience will not come.

[Dotwhack]

Hi,

I concur - experience is the key along with recommendations. I very rarley hire any company to do anything without having spoken to someone about them first. Don't feel silly contacting some of their clients/testimonials to see what they thought of the product or service.

[Tigglet]

Experience is important but it's also about relationships. It's a cliche but I believe people buy from people. If you don't like somebody, you won't trust them and build an ongoing relationship with them. Your gut instinct tells you whether someone is right for the job and of course this has to be backed up with experience and examples of previous work. Testimonials are only valid if you trust the person giving the testimonial.

I don't believe that they need to be qualified. Its the experience that counts. Then again, everyone needs to be given a chance otherwise the experience will not come.

I agree with Kay here, with regard to Marketing, if somebody has a natural talent for something and their experience displays this, then it doesn't matter whether they are qualified or not - their work speaks for itself.

[ChampionAssistants]

I don't think that portfolio is the best way to look for a marketing company.
the best way is to talk to the someone at the company and listen to them and get a sense of their drive and ambition.

I would take someone with a weaker portfolio and the drive and ambition over a large company who will just "phone it in" or go through the motions in order to get your business.

[KeyMark Services]

I would imagine it depends on whom is doing the hiring and for what niche they are aiming at.

IMHO, I would look for a mixture of all the above, portfolio, experience, testimonials and indeed drive and ambition.

Finding out if there clients are not only an attractive brand is one thing, but are they successful?

For example, SEO marketeers make me giggle when they call you up cold and say we are great?!

If they were that great would we not of found them ourselves...?

[whistle ink]

If it's design related then I would look at their portfolio over testimonials.

Regarding Marketing I think it's word of mouth recommendations or what you seem to gather from tehor forum postings etc as well.

If they can show their results then that is a plus point too.

[Inzvestor]

Professionals and Brokers should be clearly separated

Professionals know their industry inside out, have usually done the ground work for many years and for several employers, picking up skills along the way.
Brokers (and to a lesser degree consultants) on the other hand just have to have a working knowledge of a product, service or process and a good network to outsource the work to.

Before contracting the company I would run a check on the credentials of the professional to ensure they were not just a broker/consultant, quizzing them in depth about systems processes and ensuring they clearly understood the brief and could communicate this to me on a number of levels (plain English and technical).
If these criteria cannot be met then I would steer clear and find a service provider who meets this criteria.

Make sure the company or person you hire is a professional and not a broker/consultant and you are already one step ahead of your competitors.

If hiring a marketing company, look for meaningful results, and always verify conversion rates of their clients.

[Indizine]

The question I was asking, is whether you would look for qualifications or not as part of the credentials, or just the experience, or both, of the marketing agency or individual, as the case might be.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by moonlighterUK

I would imagine it depends on whom is doing the hiring and for what niche they are aiming at.

IMHO, I would look for a mixture of all the above, portfolio, experience, testimonials and indeed drive and ambition.

Finding out if there clients are not only an attractive brand is one thing, but are they successful?

For example, SEO marketeers make me giggle when they call you up cold and say we are great?!

agreed I would never dream of telling someone I was great.

Underselling oneself is never a good idea.

I always say I am the best.

Alvin