How to Choose Your Business' Creative Service Partner (Ally)
While there are common drawbacks and guidelines to any internet search, finding a creative service partner for your business online comes with its own unique risks and rewards to consider as well.
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A Question Too Important to Simply “Google” for an Answer
One of the most stressful decisions that a business can make is choosing another business to partner with on a particular project. Whether you’re in need of accounting services, SEO optimization, or just a reliable landscaping company to keep your company headquarters looking pristine, finding the right company to put your trust in is no easy endeavor. Typically, this problem is exacerbated even more when choosing the right creative service partner as this is a whole new world that many businesses are stepping into for the very first time, not fully aware of how effective their services can be. Details regarding cost, quality, and delivery timelines can vary drastically when comparing one creative service partner to another. What one company calls their “standard delivery timetable” may be considered an “expedited post-production process” that incurs additional costs by another. Company A may present a quote that is based off their standard prices whereas a similarly priced quote from Company B is their “bargain budget” and the quality of work can vary from that.
Like any product or service you’re investing in to support your business, you want to get the best value for your dollar with minimal stress. You’re relying on this creative partner to help your business either launch, expand, or redefine itself so you’d like to find the one that offers you the best return on investment. You’re also looking for a company whose quality of work is reflective of the quality of your business’ product or service. The last thing you want for your top-of-the-line product is for it to be killed in the crib due to bad marketing. While some of life’s problems are a simple online search away from an answer, it’s a little more complex when it comes to choosing a creative partner. The online search engine can be either your greatest resource or the quickest means to ensure your project’s failure depending on how you navigate it. People can and do utilize the internet to deceive people…I’ll give you a second to not pick up your jaw.
Finding Out Who’s an Amateur, Who’s a Pro, and Everyone in Between
While it is still flattering and humbling to get high marks from our clients on our professionalism, it is a little strange just how frequent that compliment has been shared as of late. Initially, we assumed that the compliment was reflective of the final product but then we heard things like, “we appreciate you responding to the email” or “we’re just so glad that you were able to arrive on time” so we were pretty taken aback at first. I mean, we’re charging people money for our services, who wouldn’t communicate effectively and show up as scheduled? Then we had a project where we had to prospect a collaborator from outside of our network and we began to understand the perception of “professionalism is the exception” these days. From polite and professional responses declining the opportunity to being straight ghosted, we saw the entire spectrum of how creative service providers are carrying themselves as of late. Some of those better responses came from vendors who had a simple one-page website and some of those who ghosted us have multiple crews on their roster (maybe we ended up in a spam folder?) so first appearances can be deceiving when trying to gauge the professional courtesy you can expect.
An unfortunate side effect of the amazing advancements that have been made with smartphone cameras is that more people now than ever are branding themselves as professional photographers and videographers, regardless of their actual commitment to the craft. While it’s not impossible to find a creative services partner through social media, it’s not exactly where you want to source your search. They may be a less costly option but creative services, for the most part, is a “you get what you pay for” kind of industry so turning to one of these less established entities can often lead to shoddy or indifferent work. I don’t mean to paint with too broad of a brush but for a lot of social media content creators, their main focus is raising their own profile, sometimes at the expense of their collaborator’s goals for the project.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that going to a large company with a long work history is your safest bet either. While these companies may be more reliable in general they do still have their common pitfalls. Some companies are so established that they may become less flexible in terms of creative approach and execution. Maybe your story doesn’t require or would be elevated with a dynamic slow-motion shot but it’s a trademark shot for this company so in their mind, it has to be included. That kind of attitude can leave you feeling that there is less personal care for your project and is just a number in the ledger somewhere. Some companies reach a certain size and feel inclined to include unnecessary bells and whistles to justify their relatively higher costs. Not to mention that some larger companies may turn your project down if they feel that it isn’t an undertaking worthy of their valuable time. While there can be viable options on either end of this spectrum, most companies will take the “Goldilocks Option” and go with a company that fits somewhere in the middle.
What to Look For (and Ask For) When Choosing a Creative Services Partner
Don’t let the all of the worse case hypothetical scenarios dissuade from starting your search. There are a few simple guidelines and boxes to check that can help you save time, money, and that one thing that we all don’t want to run short on: sanity. First step is weeding out the amateurs that haven’t weeded themselves out already by not even responding to your inquiry (it happens) by checking their business credentials. Now, while not every creator worth their weight has their own website, A LOT of them do so that’s a good place to start your qualifying process. Find out if they have any work examples that they can share with you, any established pro should have at least one at the ready. These examples may not directly relate to your project but you can still get a sense of the quality of the creator’s work along with finding out the effectiveness of their execution. Did the intended message of the video land with you? Were you interested in the video’s narrative? And just on a base human level, did you feel something? Ask follow up questions about the examples, too. What was the result of this collaboration? How long did the process take, start to finish? Once again, every pro should be able to answer these questions for you and be comfortable doing so.
Once the collaborator’s work history has been shared and established, it’s time to finally start talking about the reason this whole conversation exists: your project. It is absolutely in your right to be speculative of your collaborator’s processes so ask any and all questions that come up. Find out beforehand how they would approach a project like yours. Don’t expect a full script and storyboard for free as those take time and in some cases, money, to produce but a general approach should be outlined and discussed with you. If they don’t have a general idea of how to approach your project, they should at least have the conversation with you to formulate one jointly. Anything short of that, they may not be the best fit for your project (and that’s fine, simply thank them for their time and move on to the next one). These conversations are where you begin to set a standard of expectations for one another along with discovering how (and if) you fit as collaborators. Some businesses search for creative service partners that will “handle everything” for them and require the minimal amount of participation or input while others are more in search of a firm where their voice has a direct impact on the final product. On top of the benefit of setting standards for each party, knowing your level of involvement ahead of time will make you best prepared to execute the task before you (I can’t tell you how many sighs of relief we have heard from clients after finding out they don’t have to write a script for their video).
Lastly, before making any commitment, you should have at least a general idea of what the project will cost. The creative service provider may not be able to tell you exactly what you will pay in the long run but they should be able to provide a rough estimate. I say “rough estimate” because very often there are factors that can affect cost that weren’t foreseen in the original estimate. It’s best to get an understanding of what these factors are and how they impact the budget of your project. Is it a big deal to add another microphone into the mix that incurs an additional cost or is it just an extra two minutes of work that they’re happy to do for no extra charge? What would it cost if you wanted to expand your 30 second ad into a 2-3 minute company overview video? Are there package options that yield a different set of deliverables or maybe even a different delivery timetable? Once again, an experienced and reliable service provider should be able to provide this information for you without hesitation.
The simplest advice I can give any business owner or marketing manager searching for a creative service partner is to expect the level of professionalism that you demand from yourself throughout the entire process, from first contact to project commitment an eventually, final delivery. While things like business credentials and work history are important, keep an extra eye on the potential collaborator’s attitude towards your project. You don’t want someone who is coming off too cold about the project as they may not give it the full dedication it deserves. On the other hand, someone who is coming off as really hot on the idea may have their own ulterior motives for the project. Just like the previously mentioned Goldilocks, you want to find something in the middle that is just right for your project.