As someone who works for a digital (and relationship marketing) agency (Bridge Worldwide), I was a little hesitant to write the title of this post. It’s a fair question though: Do You Really Need Your Digital Agency? I’m addressing this question not just to all the pharma and healthcare marketers out there, but also to all the agency folks that are regular readers. Your question is just slightly different: Does Your Client Really Need Your Digital Agency?

The inspiration for this post was a fellow Bridge colleague, Jason Bender. He writes the blog Famine City along with Marty Boyer, another Bridge-ian. Earlier this week, Jason wrote a post called “Howard Stern schools digital agencies w/ facebook.” I really should just re-blog Jason’s post because he pretty well sums it up. I’m going to add a little pharma/healthcare commentary to his thoughts though. Here’ the background from Jason’s post:

“He [Howard Stern]  (the “client”) had a relatively simple request for the folks who run his website (his “digital agency”). He wanted to post a video to his site. He made the request live on the air, and waited.

“After a few minutes, his producer claimed “they—the guys who run the site—can’t post a video on the site.” In other words, the “agency” told the “client” that it wasn’t possible to do what he wanted to do with his site.

What did Howard say?

 “Get back to me with a plan?” No.
“Let me know when that’s possible?” No.
“Can you explain why we can’t?” Nope.

He didn’t ask them anything. He solved the problem himself.

His solution? Forget the website, then. Create a Stern Show page on Facebook and post the video. “We’ll have it up in less than 5 minutes.” 

Jason ends his post quite simply: “So the question for digital agencies and the people who work at them is…what do you offer your clients that they can’t do themselves with 15 minutes and a Wi-Fi connection?” [bold is his]

For all you agency folks reading this, take a moment and really answer this. For you “clients,” ask yourself if you could do what your digital agency is doing on your own. 

As someone who takes great pride in the quality of work and depth of thinking we bring to our clients, I’m hoping, for the industry’s sake, that most agencies have a good answer for this question. You have to because if you don’t there’s an agency right behind you that does.

So to take Jason’s observation and apply it to healthcare and pharma (and really any industry), I put together a little list of what you should expect from your digital agency. If they’re just tweaking your website or uploading content for you, you don’t need them. If they’re doing more than this, great. But how much should you really expect? Here goes:

Your digital agency should…

• be able to occupy a seat at any table where any marketing strategy, tactic, or channel is discussed. In other words, they should be able to add value beyond just digital.
• provide strategic recommendations and not just tactical executions. Your agency shouldn’t simply take orders and do just what you say. They should be partners who are helping define your digital strategy and not just updating a little copy on your site.
• be creating systems that allow you to make simple updates without redoing things from scratch. In other words, if you request a change to one word in a Flash piece and your agency sends you a bill for $50k, you need a new agency. Same for updating site content (not design, content). Frequently updated sites should have a content management system (CMS) or some other simple procedure that allows this to happen.
• tell you “no.” They should tell you “no” to ideas that they believe are not good ones. They should say “no” when they know that you’re about to waste your money. Part of any agency’s job is to talk you out of doing things.
• know if you’re making your numbers. Are you over-budget? Are sales behind plan? Every agency should know this including your digital agency. I don’t know why some clients don’t share this with agencies and I don’t know why more agencies don’t ask for this. How can you recommend what a client should do next if you don’t even know where their business stands?
• cooperate with every other agency. More and more, digital is the hub of communication with customers. If your digital agency doesn’t know what everyone else is doing, you’ve got a problem.
• know healthcare/pharma. Yes, even your “tech” people should understand the market. They might be the ones who can come up with an elegant technology solution to a big problem (like adverse event reporting)  if they understand the market, regulatory rules, and brand strategy. If they only know “tech,” then you’re not getting your money’s worth. 
• know other industries as well. They should also know industries like consumer packaged goods (CPG) or consumer electronics or any other industry where some of the newest digital strategies and tactics are being tried. This will allow them to reapply these lessons to healthcare/pharma. If your agency only knows healthcare/pharma, then you’re missing something and probably doing the same thing as last year.
• do some thinking for “free.” Not your entire brand plan mind you or an entire website. I’m talking about leading your thinking. This might be as simple as sending you an article they found along with some of their own commentary. It might be a presentation they created on social media principles that they share with you (kinda like mine that I’m sharing).
• be making you smarter on digital…everyday. When was the last time your agency taught you something about digital that you didn’t already know? When was the last time they put together, say, a small training program for you that made you better?

It’s a pretty long list, but I don’t think it’s anything too complex or too much to ask. So now I’m curious if you’re getting this if you’re a marketer and if you’re giving this if you’re an agency person. Let me know what I’m missing or if I’m asking too much.

Now…I’ll sit here and  hope I’m not firebombed by some of my industry colleagues for letting out all the secrets and making their jobs harder.

Possibly related posts (auto-generated):

1. “Seriously. We Don’t Like TV Ads” — FDA
2. Healthcare Marketing New Year’s Resolutions – Part 2
3. A Simple Treatment for Your Ailing Healthcare Website