Introducing Our New Series: Marketing Agency Horror Stories

03/05/26

Doug Cofer

Over the last 20 years, we’ve encountered numerous projects that had unraveled with a previous agency and helped restore structure and direction for the client. These situations occurred for a variety of reasons, many of which could have been avoided. In many cases, companies entered into contracts with good intentions but without clearly aligned expectations, a full understanding of their vendor’s capabilities, or a clear picture of what execution should look like.

That’s why we’re launching a new series: Marketing Agency Horror Stories. This series is all about helping companies make informed decisions and avoid the kinds of situations we’ve seen too often. That begins with understanding what to look for and what to question when working with a marketing agency.

Over the course of this series, we will break down several key components of your relationship with your marketing agency, including:

Capabilities

It is essential to align the scope and complexity of your project with an agency that has the appropriate experience, technical knowledge, and demonstrated capabilities to execute it effectively. We will outline how to determine which marketing agency is best aligned with your company’s goals and how to evaluate whether they can deliver effectively.

Website Projects

We’ll be sharing real, practical things to look out for and clear guidelines on what should be happening when you work with an agency or any provider on a website project.

Ongoing Retainer Engagements

This includes services such as:

Social media management
Demand/Lead generation
Holistic marketing management
SEO

We’ll outline what companies should realistically expect in terms of execution, communication, and accountability.

Reporting, Metrics, and Performance

Companies should be able to clearly understand how their marketing efforts are performing. We’ll discuss:

What performance and results should look like
Metrics – what is real and what is not

Timeline and Turnaround

While well-executed marketing takes time, meaningful progress should not be continually postponed. We’ll outline what realistic timelines look like and when you should expect to see measurable results from your investment. Additionally, we’ll give you hard numbers on how long certain projects should take and why.

Realistic Rates

You will see extremely low rates and extremely high rates in the market. We want to help you understand what is reasonable and realistic in order to accomplish your marketing objectives.

Stay tuned to our website and social channels to follow along with the Marketing Agency Horror Stories series. Don’t miss out on this chance to avoid costly mistakes and more effectively manage your relationship with your marketing agency.

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