Omnichannel considerations, data, analytics, customer engagement... A lot goes into your digital marketing strategy, and changes in your business or your customer’s expectations can often require major changes to your strategy. To consistently exceed your goals, you need a flexible marketing partner who can implement these emergent strategies on-the-fly.  

But with limited resources, how can you ensure you find the right strategic marketing partner? What characteristics and values should you identify and seek out? We argue flexibility is key. To meet these demands, we must understand why flexibility is critical within partnerships, and how to determine whether a potential marketing partner will be flexible enough to meet your needs.  

One Size Does Not Fit All

Each business is unique. As marketers, we must meet our customers and prospective customers where they are. While marketing departments across different, unique businesses may benefit from similar digital best practices, their approaches to reaching target audiences should differ.  

A strong marketing partner embraces these differences and dives deep into your processes to create innovative solutions that take your marketing operations to the next level. They help you craft and execute digital marketing strategies that reach your customers at the right place and time.  

The Market Is Everchanging

Your customer’s expectations and needs are always changing, so it’s important that your consulting partner recommend new, innovative, and adaptive strategies. Over the last couple of years, even the most prepared and mature digital marketing programs have faced challenges, which reinforces the need for more flexible strategies.  

A myriad of global events has completely changed how people consume goods and services. With so many individuals being held up in their homes due to the pandemic, the number of individuals who rely on social media for entertainment, shopping, and managing their day-to-day lives has dramatically increased. To accommodate this, many marketers have had to accelerate the development of omnichannel communication strategies.  

A great marketing partner will help you develop personalization, and communications strategies across existing and new channels, so you can ensure your brand stands above the noise. And as the market continues to change at breakneck speeds, they will work alongside you to ensure your digital strategy and MarTech stack are flexible enough to withstand any obstacle.

Teamwork Makes The Dream Work

Great digital marketing agencies realize that building relationships is at the heart of successful partnerships. Before engaging in any project, they should want to get to know you, your team, and your goals.  

Having that foundation helps an agency not only provide what you request of them but also anticipate what you need. At Lev, we achieve this by gaining a deeper understanding of your pain points, what you are building towards, and what you are being measured on - whether that’s driving revenue or the progress of a strategic initiative. This way, we can truly act as an extension of your team, working alongside you to ensure you have the tools needed to exceed your objectives.  

It’s important to feel confident that your strategic marketing partners have your best interests at heart, and we understand you may have many options to choose from. To help you feel more confident in your choice, make sure your marketing partner ensures every interaction provides value, embraces active listening, and thinks ahead. 

A Great Marketing Partner Ensures Every Interaction Provides Value

Trust is the most critical intangible asset of any great partnership. Your marketing partner should take the time to understand your most pressing challenges instead of just trying to make a sale.  

 A great marketing partner focuses on building strong relationships because they realize that is key to forming trust and confidence throughout the team. At Lev, our clients come to us for both our strategic and technical expertise to implement a strategy that maximizes the value of their investment. We examine their pain points and strategic objectives to develop internal processes that support future growth initiatives at scale.  

Digital marketing isn’t static; your strategy must ebb-and-flow based on audience needs and preferences. A marketing partner should focus on having an open conversation regarding your data, technical infrastructure, and automation needs, so you can see how your MarTech and digital strategy work together to accomplish your goals.  

A Great Marketing Partner Embraces Active Listening 

Your potential marketing partner shouldn’t only focus on earning a seat at the table with decision-makers; they should prioritize getting to know your whole team as well. Change can be scary, and those who will be impacted by potential changes should have their voices heard. Your marketing partner should want to dig into your team dynamics and processes to ensure any proposed, new solutions simplify the team’s day-to-day.  

Plans and opinions sway like trees in the wind, so during the entire engagement, your marketing partner should actively listen and adapt their offerings and plans to best fit your needs. This helps create buy-in across your entire organization.  

A Great Marketing Partner Thinks Ahead- 3 Months, 6 Months, and Beyond 

Your marketing partner shouldn’t be a one-and-done organization. Digital marketing challenges are always evolving, so they should be actively thinking about any solutions you may need in the future as you scale. At Lev, we do this by not only mapping out our initial deliverables, but by also creating a roadmap that provides recommendations you may need to consider in the next 3 months, 6 months, and beyond.   

We understand that priorities can change quickly, and we work alongside our clients to get ahead of any moving target, as well as point out other opportunities for optimization. This way, we can all be confident that we can reach client goals efficiently and in a timely manner.  

You don’t have to lead your digital marketing strategy and operations entirely on your own; we’d love to partner with you to get the most out of your MarTech investment.

Contact us to begin leveling up your customer experience today.