Gone are the days of rigid, formal engagements between agency and client! Now, agencies are adopting a more collaborative, less parliament-esque process focused on innovation and mutual growth. That sounds warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it?

At Dovetail, a St. Louis digital marketing agency, we believe in forging strong partnerships with our clients and working hand-in-hand to create strategies that elevate brands to new heights. Let’s dive in to explore some of what we mean by our “new professionalism” and how our way of getting to know clients and delivering results works for us.

 

 

The Evolution of Marketing Agency Relationships

From Formality to Flexibility

In the days of yore, marketing agencies operated with a certain formality — clients were kept at arm’s length, and strategies were often developed in isolation. After all, creatives are creative… and what does a client know about the nuances of creativity, right? *shudders in condescending*

The agency-client relationship was often defined by rigid structures and clear boundaries, which sometimes stifled not only an agency’s precious creativity, but hindered effective communication between client and creative.

Modern-Day Collaboration

Oh, how the times have changed. Today, the focus has shifted to building collaborative partnerships, as opposed to putting up walls. Agencies like Dovetail invite clients to have a part in the creative process, ensuring that they’re actively involved from the very beginning. It’s their brand, after all!

Does this mean that we plop a client in front of a computer to do their own hands-on designing, or pat them on the back and say, “Good luck writing your own copy and taking ownership of the process!” Absolutely not. What kind of agency do you think we are? We involve clients in a way that helps thoroughly understand the direction that their brand is going in without just being talked at, an approach that fosters transparency, trust, and a sense of shared purpose, ultimately leading to a better degree of innovation and more effective marketing strategies.

 

The agency-client relationship was often defined by rigid structures and clear boundaries, which sometimes stifled not only an agency’s precious creativity, but hindered effective communication between client and creative.

 

Understanding Client Needs

A Deep-Dive Discovery Phase

At Dovetail, the discovery phase of any project is one of the most important times for us. Spending quality time with our clients, understanding their brand (and vision and goals) is crucial for us to gather valuable insights that will eventually inform our strategic direction.

And guess what? Our clients are people! And unless we would only be communicating with clients through non-verbal methods such as smoke signals, or morse code, it’s a priority for them to be comfortable with the Dovetailers as people, as well as creative entities.

Tailored Solutions

Every brand is unique, and so are its challenges and opportunities. By fully understanding our clients’ needs from the start and keeping track of how they might shift throughout the process, we can tailor our solutions to align perfectly with their objectives. This personalized approach ensures that our strategies are not only effective but also resonate deeply with the target audience, whoever that may be!

 

Every brand is unique, and so are its challenges and opportunities.

 

The Power of Brainstorming

Diverse Perspectives

One of the hallmarks of modern marketing is the emphasis on diverse perspectives. Without having too many cooks in the kitchen, getting a variety of opinions on strengths, weaknesses, and everything in between provides a lot of value. At Dovetail, we bring together a multidisciplinary team of experts to brainstorm ideas, then brainstorm practicality, impact, and implementation. This diversity of thought between our internal professionals who touch a range of industries leads to more creative and innovative solutions that might not emerge in a more siloed environment.

Why keep projects secret from each other when we can all grow as one?

Client Involvement

Stay active and timely to current events. Tweet regularly, engage with trending topics, and use relevant hashtags. Interacting with followers and influencers can also boost your visibility.

Examples of Winning Twitter Strategies

Before Dovetail has gotten involved with a brand, the clients are already engrossed in that brand. In many cases, they were responsible for building the initial brand and giving it life. This is quite literally their brainchild. Therefore, it makes sense that a client can be the best source of inspiration for their brand’s evolution.

By actively involving a client in secondary brainstorming, we can tap into their unique insights and experiences to ensure that not only are the strategies coming together cohesively, but respect the roots of the brand’s identity.

 

Why keep projects secret from each other when we can all grow as one?

Implementing Innovative Strategies

Agile Execution

In the olden days, marketing strategies were often set in stone, with little room for flexibility. Today, agility and the ability to pivot is key. We employ an iterative approach, constantly refining our strategies based on real-time feedback from clients and their customers and shifting market conditions. This finger on the pulse allows us to stay ahead of trends and deliver exceptional results for our clients, without scrambling to recover from unexpected and uncontrolled bumps.

Data-Driven Decisions

With the advent of today’s advanced analytics tools, data-driven decision-making has become a cornerstone of modern marketing. We leverage these tools to measure the performance of our campaigns, making informed adjustments to optimize outcomes continually. This data-centric approach ensures that our strategies are not only creative but also effective.

 

Today, agility and the ability to pivot is key.

 

Building Long-Term Partnerships

Mutual Growth

The new professionalism in marketing is all about mutual growth between client and agency. We view our clients as partners and are deeply invested in their success — not just for the time that they’re our client, but in the years beyond. By fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement, we help our clients achieve their goals while also evolving and growing alongside them. Don’t you love a good symbiotic relationship?

Celebrating Successes Together

One of the most rewarding aspects of our work is celebrating successes with our clients. Whether it’s a significant increase in organic search traffic or a successful brand reimagining campaign, we take immense pride in our clients’ achievements and see them as a testament to the power of collaborative marketing.

 

By fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement, we help our clients achieve their goals while also evolving and growing alongside them. 

 

It’s The Dovetail Difference

Our signature REV Process is designed to reimagine what’s possible for our clients. It combines in-depth brand discovery, innovative brainstorming, and agile execution to deliver exceptional results that resonate with clients and their stakeholders. Through the entirety of a project, we want to make sure that every strategy we develop is rooted in a deep understanding of the brand and is executed with precision and flexibility.

The new professionalism, as we see it, is defined by collaboration, innovation, and mutual growth. By forging strong partnerships with our clients from the start of projects and involving them every step of the way, we at Dovetail create campaigns that elevate brands to their goals, and beyond.

We pride ourselves on not only getting to know a client’s brand as well as we know our own, but making clients comfortable as people as well as professionals. Rejecting feedback? Not here, partner.

Ready to reimagine what’s possible for your brand? Get in touch with Dovetail and let’s create something extraordinary together.

Let’s Get To Know Each Other