Why collaboration is so important in client-agency relationships

As a communications agency, it might not come as a surprise that we highly value clear communication. But it’s not just communication that’s important to us; we value effective collaboration, too. Collaborative communication is more than just a few emails back and forth; it’s about working together to produce tangible campaign results.

And it seems marketers everywhere are aware of the positive impact collaboration can bring to a project. Think With Google revealed that 93% of marketers found collaboration was essential to driving results, which isn’t a headscratcher. People who work together benefit from shared ideas and shared knowledge; it makes sense.

So, what does collaboration look like?

As we’ve already mentioned, it’s more than the odd email or phone call. Since covid, many of us have adopted online conference meetings — which is helpful for 1-2-1s or just quickly confirming some details.

But, when it comes to ideas meetings, talking through strategy, and getting to know your audience and business goals, meeting in person is the best way to flesh out these ideas, at least initially. We talk openly and honestly about our ideas; we can choose to speak to one person or the whole room easily — this isn’t something you can effectively do through a Teams call. 

With that in mind, here are three ways collaboration can help the client-agency relationship:

We get to know each other better

The key to delivering exceptional communication strategies is getting to know you as people. We learn more about the people we’re talking to regularly, and we find out more about your business through natural conversation. Natural conversation to us is meeting in an office, going out for a coffee — basically, just removing that barrier created by remote communication. But we’re flexible — if you prefer conferencing software, we’re all for it.

As we get to know you, we become familiar with your thought process and your vision for your campaigns. Without this ‘get to know you’ session, we’re strangers trying to help you in the most robotic way possible. 

Sharing your knowledge helps everyone

Although we’re pretty sharp at what we do here at Kaleidoscope, we can only take your campaigns so far with little input from your side. We know how to get the best out of you, we know what questions to ask you, but you need to be there to answer.

The nuances of your industry that only you know and understand are something we will need from you to make this partnership work. Sharing is caring, as the saying goes, so both sides need to share knowledge, and you have to be willing to challenge our ideas as much as we are yours.

The best thing about working in a partnership like this is that we strive toward the same goal. We want your communication strategies to be successful, and there’s nothing more exciting than sitting down to listen to everyone’s ideas and thoughts on campaign ideas.

Collaboration breeds productivity

According to reach, 70-75% of our workdays are spent in meetings, and these meetings prevent staff from meeting goals and generally finishing even the most basic tasks. But the more collaborative the team is, and the deeper-rooted it is in the relationship, the more productive (and less frequent) the meetings are. 

If we have just one short meeting with our clients, for example, the chances of us needing to connect with them multiple times over a shorter period is higher because we didn’t get the most out of our initial meetings. So meetings need to be conducted deliberately, with a sense of purpose, and everyone needs to be on the same page to make it work.

Learn more about our relatively new proposition: communications that matter.