Savvy early-stage marketers often find themselves with a team constructed mostly (sometimes entirely) out of external collaborators. From PR agencies to brand strategy consultants, copywriters to designers, and advisors both formal and informal - the talent orbiting your marketing department can be what makes or breaks your nascent brand. Treating these essential contributors like employees or simple transactional service providers can blunt their efficacy, limit their contributions, and even sour their willingness to keep you as a client.
Working effectively with outside collaborators is about much more than managing the line items in your operating budget. It’s about maximizing the value you get out of each relationship while minimizing the time your internal team spends on the functions you decide to outsource. It’s also about being the kind of client that valuable external talent actually wants to keep around, long-term. This is a breakdown of the most common types of outside collaborators early-stage marketing departments engage - and guidance on how to get the most out of each one.
Copywriters
Among the most frequently engaged types of external collaborators for young companies, copywriters are brought in to help with marketing copy, execute on a content or SEO strategy, or even ghostwrite articles or all-hands presentations for your executives. An ideal copywriter relationship is a long one - your goal should be to convert these freelancers to evergreen external team members that understand your brand’s voice, work seamlessly with your internal team, and can be trusted to reliably deliver consistent results on time.
Do designate one person as your company’s content liaison - and be disciplined in filtering all feedback, approvals, and scheduling through that one person. This person should also coordinate access and feedback from key players within your organization.
Don’t insist on paying by the word, by the hour, or a la carte for ongoing content support - structuring assignments in batches with a regular cadence (for example, 15 blog posts per quarter or two bylines per month) and a flat, recurring fee will foster a better long-term relationship and yield higher quality content.
Do take the editing process seriously! Your constructive feedback helps define your preferences - honing your brand voice and making content creation more efficient going forward. In that spirit, be sure to provide all feedback before approving a draft. Your copywriter puts effort into that detailed final copyedit sweep - and despairs when the client inserts errors by adjusting language after they’ve approved a draft.
Don’t set arbitrary deadlines, check-ins, or expectations - instead, discuss your objectives, timeline, and obstacles with your copywriter before the project begins. As the person executing, she’s in a better position to determine a realistic timeline and scope for the project (which will save a lot of headache later).
Designers
Whether we’re talking about marketing collateral, merchandise, social media posts, or even your homepage - the importance of the visual side of your brand can’t be overlooked. Working with external designers is a fact of life for many young companies who lack in-house visual design resources (or can’t move fast enough waiting for product designers to prioritize marketing). Getting the most out of these essential players boils down to trust, communication, and practicality.
Do clearly define the scope of the project - including objectives, deliverables, timeline, payment structure, and approval process - and then stick to it. Just because the designer is working with you on one project does not mean she’s on call for your every visual need.
Don’t pretend you’re the designer. Ask lots of questions, be clear about what you like and don’t like, and explain yourself in plain language instead of trying to use design jargon. Try to focus on communicating the problems you see, not trying to find the solutions (trust the designer to do that part). This type of feedback (constructive, early, and clear) will help your designer determine potential remedies for the next iteration.
Do establish a realistic operating budget for necessary assets and collateral for your designer to work within. Photography, video, and graphics cost money when done properly (whether you license stock, book a shoot, or hire a freelancer / agency), as do physical items such as printed materials and merchandise. Good designers can find solutions within any budget, so long as you’re clear about what that budget is.
Don’t come in with outside notes at the 13th hour. There’s nothing more destructive to the design process (and your long-term relationship with a great designer) than bringing in new ideas from your significant other, dog walker, barista, et cetera after a project has been approved. Gather feedback from any relevant stakeholders as early in the process as possible.
Specialist Consultants
Brand, content, social media, SEO, growth, thought leadership, crisis comms - individual marketing consultants come in every stripe and are often the vital first hirers in standing up specific components of your marketing program. For example, there’s an easy argument to be made for outsourcing performance marketing before bringing it in-house - a specialist consultant or agency in this area will be able to leverage their other client relationships and experience to grow your brand. Some consultants specialize in strategy, some in execution, and many offer a mix of both. Maximizing the contributions of these collaborators can pay dividends years down the line.
Do find someone you trust, then give them room to run. High-quality and experienced consultants have honed processes that work, so follow their lead on how a project should be scoped to maximize success. They’ll ask for exactly what they need when it comes to onboarding, knowledge transfer, and access to key people within your organization. Your role is to marshal resources and move obstacles out of their way.
Don’t engage them before you’re ready to prioritize the project. Establishing a strategic direction requires the attention of the marketing lead and other key players on your team, and that strategy is usually informed by current conditions. That means implementation should happen as soon as possible after you have a strategy in hand. If you’re not ready to move on the project (as in, it’s one of your top priorities for that quarter), you’re not ready to engage a consultant just yet.
Do try to learn as much as you can from them during the collaboration. While you may be paying for a specific deliverable, it’s often the case that the most valuable thing you get from a consultant is specialized knowledge. Adopt a student mindset - pay attention, ask questions, and take notes - to quickly uplevel your own skills in the consultant’s area of expertise.
Don’t take “above and beyond” for granted. While these dedicated professionals might be lightning-fast at answering your emails, giving quick last-minute feedback on something, or even proactively pulling together an out-of-scope deliverable, it shouldn’t be your expectation that they’re available for any task at any hour. With the exception of certain types of consultants (such as security, crisis comms, and PR), most consultants would prefer you keep your expectations within the defined scope of work.
Public Relations Consultant & Agencies
For many young companies, it makes the most sense to bring PR in-house as early as possible. But chances are, you’ll still find yourself working with an agency at some point - from engaging a local agency to launch a new market to bringing on a temporary agency while you search for the right comms candidate for your team. As a huge budget line item and one of the most visible marketing areas, mismanaging this relationship can be a costly mistake. Getting the most bang for your buck is about learning how to get out of the way of the agency you’ve hired to advocate on your behalf.
Do make sure you have clearly established your brand, your story, and your objectives before expecting an agency to be able to get you press attention. If you haven’t completed brand strategy work before engaging an agency, expect to spend the first month or two of the engagement getting this work accomplished.
Don’t feel compelled to use every service they offer. Mid-sized and larger agencies will often provide a full menu of offerings. Just because they offer it, doesn’t mean you need it. And it certainly doesn’t mean you need it right now. If you’re looking to get consumer PR traction to drive user growth this quarter, don’t get distracted chasing thought leadership or conferences just because it’s on the menu.
Do make sure they have the access, info, and visibility they need. While it’s ideal to have one contact person managing the relationship, an agency will still require direct access to your company’s decision makers and spokespeople on a regular basis. They’ll also need to be kept in the loop on strategic direction, product developments, and potential crisis areas.
Don’t try to drive. PR isn’t an area that can be micromanaged by the client. You’re paying an agency for their understanding of the media landscape - let them use it. Find an agency you trust, then lean on their expertise to shape your public relations strategy, handle media relationships, and determine the most effective angles for pitching.
Advisors
Beyond experience, expertise, and connections, the marketing advisors (formal and informal) in your life can often be the thought partners that help you figure out how to elevate your brand. Since advisors often aren’t paid (in cash at least), the working dynamics can be tricky for a lot of managers to figure out and many err on the side of “not bothering” these valuable collaborators.
Do take charge of the relationship. Be clear about what value you want to get from your advisor, have a frank discussion about how you’d like to engage with them going forward, and don’t be shy about proactively pulling them in when you need their perspective.
Don’t tip-toe around making a concrete ask. Your advisors want you to succeed but they’re also busy people, so don’t be coy about asking them explicitly for what you need. Instead of sending a multi-paragraph email without a CTA, just get to the point: “Could you intro me to X within the next week to talk about their digital marketing approach?”
Do make promotional asks as low-lift as possible by providing draft language and specific instructions. If you want an advisor to amplify your latest feature announcement to their network, be sure to provide them with sample language, a specific time to post, and a preferred URL.
Don’t pretend you already know everything and don’t assume that they do. Your advisor isn’t there to be impressed by you or to give marching orders for you to follow blindly. They’re there to provide expertise, experience, and fresh perspective so you can make the right decisions for your company.
As always, I'm available to chat about your management or anything else marketing related. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to me at jamie@fuelcapital.com.