Marketing is an essential function for the success of every business, but when you don't have a fully devoted internal marketing team, it can be hard to keep up with the giants in your field. That's why more and more businesses are working with media partners.

Some of the benefits of working with a media partner include: 

• Access to time-tested marketing strategies and marketing plan templates 
• Using structured approaches to find and define your target markets 
• Experienced marketing consultants that can help you navigate new media for marketing 
• More cost-effective media purchases that are more targeted to your core market 
• Analytics and insights that provide solid recommendations for future actions
• The workforce to keep your marketing efforts going during beak busy seasons or turbulent markets

However, you can only access these benefits when you work with a media partner that's the right fit for your organization. If you're looking between a couple of options, ask potential partners these questions before hiring them. 

What Are Your Core Values in Business? 

This is a great question for getting the feel of your potential media partner. You'll learn how they treat their employees and clients and what causes they believe in. Choosing a company with core values that align with your own, such as eco-friendliness or focusing on service rather than pushing deals, can make your partnership much stronger.

What Services Do You Offer, and How Can They Help My Team?

Not all media partners offer the same services. Some specialize in OTT/CTV channels, which others may focus on digital marketing. Other companies provide comprehensive services for omnichannel marketing efforts. Know what answer you're looking for; after all, you may only want digital channels instead of a broad-spectrum approach.

Follow up by asking how the media team thinks their services can help your team specifically. While they shouldn't have a fully customized plan ready to roll out, their answers can show the amount of research they've done into your business and their familiarity with your industry.

How Do You Define and Measure Success?

Look for companies that have performance-based goals — and the ability to measure them clearly. Learning about how a media partner determines the degree to which a campaign is successful can teach you a lot about their work process, if they're invested in helping your organization, and if their fees correspond with results. Ask about the KPIs they tend to establish and how they use KPI metrics throughout marketing campaigns.

Their ideas about success should turn into a conversation about unique goals for your business and how they can methodically establish milestones that get you closer and closer to those final goals. If there's not a back and forth of ideas but instead just a flat answer, their business may be too unconcerned with providing a personalized media plan.

What Will Our Working Relationship Look Like?

This question can provide easy insight into how your day-to-day operations will change with a media partner. 

This can cover elements: 

• Will communications be over emails and calls on an as-needed basis, or will there be regular check-ins? 
• Will there be transparency about snags, delays, and progression week over week? 
• What points of contact need to be involved? 

Use this question to gauge the level of attention and one-on-one communications the media partner wants to provide and if that aligns with your needs. 

What Are the Expectations for Us Both During Our Partnership?

This question is very different from asking about working relationships. When you're hiring a third-party service instead of managing everything in-house, there's a chance you won't notice what's slipping through the cracks. 

Create a list of all the tasks and responsibilities you think a media project or marketing strategy will involve. Then sit down with a prospective partner and discuss which tasks will belong to them and which ones will belong to you. This approach can cut through promotional fillers, so there's no risk of you still having more responsibilities than you thought.

You can also gain a deeper understanding of everything you need to provide for the partnership to succeed, from access to media assets and business information to the time requirements a member of your team will still need to provide. 

Get Answers to Your Questions Today With KCTV5 Marketing

When you know you need to scale up your marketing efforts. Still, you can't manage the additional task load in-house; working with a media partner is one of the best ways to accomplish your goals without overwhelming your organization. 

Asking these questions can help you learn more about how a prospective partner operates and how well they'll fit into your long-term business strategy.