As in all fields of business, there are many different niches within each sector so it can take many hours of research to find the right potential match for the products or services you are interested in.
This is no different when it comes to comparing and selecting marketing companies. With so many marketing companies out there, it can be a daunting task to find the right company that has both experience in your sector, and can come in to your budget expectations.
A good starting point in finding the right marketing company, is to create a comparison list. This can simply be a spreadsheet, or even just a sheet of paper that has fields and columns headed with the attributes that are important to you. If you draw up a shortlist of five marketing companies you are potentially interested in and then, from desk research, make a list of how each company compares.
Some companies will have published prices on their website, or an indication of their prices, so this may be a starting point. You could then look at their testimonials or client experience to see if they have any names you recognise, or are active in your particular business sector. Doing this kind of research can give you good results and hone your choice, before you actually go on to make an enquiry.
Obviously, the size of the marketing company and their location may be an important consideration. Larger marketing firms will most probably come with higher price tags for their services - fine if you have those budgets, but if your budgets are small, then a smaller company may be appropriate for you.
Whilst location can be important for some, it doesn't necessarily have to be a barrier to selecting a marketing company. With today's web based conferencing and Voip/ chat, you can actually get excellent marketing consultancy regardless of physical location.
As well as basic company information, you can also glean alot of information about the style of the marketing company you are researching, i.e. how they do business and their culture. It's a good idea to try to get a match for how you see your business style, so for example, if you are a young lively brand aiming at a young consumer focused audience, you may find a company with that style reflected in their own comm's.
Choosing and working with a new marketing company can be a daunting task, but with a little of the right research in the righ areas, it can result in a long-term, mutually rewarding business relationship that gets great results.