Where is your agency making an impact - on a SOW or on your business?
The one question that comms leaders need to ask themselves this year is what is my agency working towards – a scope of work (SOW) or my business?
This question isn’t as facetious as it sounds. I know that comms leaders worked closely with business and marketing leaders, and their agency, to build a SOW for their comms programme that will best serve their company’s marketing priorities. But when was that and how much has changed since?
The European tech market outlook has changed significantly in the past six months. Growth is stalling, valuations and funding are falling. Layoffs are becoming more commonplace and our sector knows how often – and how hard – marketing is hit.
So let’s come back to our key question. What is your agency working towards? Is it still working for your business and are you confident that it will continue to?
Too many companies and their agency partners are locked into relationships right now where they are working towards different goals. And this is a fundamental flaw in the traditional retainer.
That is why at The Flywheelers we offer Subscription Comms.
What does this mean and how is it different? There are three key ways:
1. Our pricing is completely transparent – you know exactly what you’re getting with us. There is no black box pricing and our deliverables are stated.
2. Our services are truly agile – if your business and marketing priorities change, you aren’t locked into a SOW with your comms partner where they’ll deliver the best possible outcome ‘within scope’. We have a high consultancy approach where we’ll advise you on how we can have the greatest possible impact. And our transparent pricing means we can be quick in agreeing to the change, while the business need is still there.
For example, if you tell us that recruitment is the top priority, we’re not going to tell you that the best thing we can do to support this goal is to exclusively secure media opportunities in the IT press about your culture – just because that’s all our SOW will allow. We’ll suggest whether our time might be better spent creating employee social toolkits with engaging content that can be shared directly with the target audience.
3. Our team is your extended team – our experienced team is not only a powerhouse of high-impact media relations. We are data storytellers, technical writers, social strategists and so much more, so you can deploy us as your extended team in the capacity that you need. That means that you have the support you need in those high–importance, high-pressure moments. Or, if the makeup of your internal team is changing, we can scaleup to give you the full cover you need.
If in 6 weeks you have the biggest product launch of the year, for example, we’re not going to be sleepwalking up to that date delivering the same programme as before. Together, we’ll be looking at how can we make sure we’re doing everything right to make that critical moment a success. From product blogs and beta customer case studies, to pre-developing thought leadership that taps into the new value proposition, we will make sure that our skills and experience are making the biggest impact for you and the business.
If your agency team is not thinking about how they can help you beyond their scope, it might be time to think again about how Subscription Comms could have a greater impact on your comms and marketing goals in 2023.
To hear more about how our Subscription Comms Model could work for you, reach out to me directly at [email protected].
