Focus Designs · Agency engagement
Brisbane Marketing Agency
Appoint one properly and the work goes faster from week one.
Whether an agency relationship produces good work is decided largely before it starts: how the brief is written, who can approve, what counts as finished and who owns the accounts. This page sets out how Focus Designs prefers to set that up, and what to insist on from any agency you appoint.
Selection
Criteria that predict the work, and criteria that do not
Pitch processes tend to reward presentation. These are the questions that correlate better with what the following year is actually like.
AskWho is actually assigned to the work
Instead ofHow many people the agency employs
Team size says nothing about who opens your account on a Tuesday. Ask for the names and how much of their week you get.
AskWhether they will describe a failure
Instead ofA wall of awards and logos
An account that did not work, and what they learned, tells you how they behave when a quarter goes badly — which is the situation you are really buying insurance against.
AskWhat they need from your team
Instead of'Fully hands-off' promises
Every good campaign draws on knowledge only your business holds. A supplier who claims to need nothing from you is planning to invent the content.
AskHow they define a lead
Instead ofReported lead volume with no definition
Until 'lead' means the same thing to both parties, every report is a negotiation. Settle the definition before the contract.
AskWhat happens at the end
Instead ofLock-in framed as commitment
Ask what you keep and how the exit works. The answer reveals how the relationship is expected to be maintained — by results or by friction.
The brief
Six things a workable brief contains
A brief is not a specification of the solution. It is everything an outsider would need in order to propose one that fits your business.
- 01
The commercial goal, in numbers you use internally
Not 'more leads'. The line of business you want to grow, by roughly how much, by when, and what that would be worth. If the number is a guess, say so — a stated guess is still direction.
- 02
Who you sell to and who else is in the decision
The buyer, the influencer and the person who can veto. In considered purchases the veto often sits with someone marketing never speaks to, and the brief should name them.
- 03
The single action you want a visitor to take
Quote request, booking, call, sample. One primary action per campaign. If everything is a call to action, nothing is.
- 04
What must be true and what is off limits
Brand rules, regulatory constraints, terminology your industry insists on, competitors you will not be compared with, and claims you cannot substantiate.
- 05
Budget range and approval path
A range is enough. Withholding it produces proposals that answer a question nobody asked. Name who approves spend and how long approvals typically take.
- 06
What already exists
Current site, accounts, tracking, photography, past campaigns and their results. Existing material shortens the work; hidden material gets rebuilt at your expense.
If the brief still has open strategic questions in it, those are worth settling first — the advisory page covers that stage.
Decisions and approvals
Name the roles before the first deliverable
A written approval path helps prevent work from stalling between reviewers.
Decision owner
Approves scope, budget and direction. One person, named.
Common failure: Approval by committee, where every reviewer adds a change and nobody signs off.
Day-to-day contact
Answers questions, supplies information, keeps the work moving between meetings.
Common failure: A contact with no authority and no time, which turns a two-day question into a two-week delay.
Subject expert
Checks technical accuracy of claims, specifications and terminology.
Common failure: Technical review arriving after publication, when corrections are public.
Brand or compliance reviewer
Confirms wording and imagery meet internal or regulatory requirements.
Common failure: An unnamed reviewer surfacing at the last minute with a veto.
Acceptance
What 'finished' has to mean
Written acceptance criteria remove the most common source of friction between a client and an agency.
- 01
Every deliverable has a written description of 'done' agreed before it starts.
- 02
Review happens in one consolidated round, with a stated turnaround, not as trickling comments.
- 03
Tracking is verified with a real test submission before a campaign is treated as live.
- 04
Reporting uses the agreed lead definition, and any change to the definition is flagged in the report.
- 05
Source files, accounts and documentation are handed over as work completes, not at the end of the relationship.
Ownership
You keep the accounts, the data and the work
Advertising accounts, analytics properties, tag containers, the domain and the website should be held in your business's name, with your agency granted access rather than possession. It sounds administrative until the day you want to change supplier and discover the campaign history lives in someone else's account.
We set engagements up that way as a matter of course, and we document them: where each account lives, who has access at what level, and what would need to be transferred if the relationship ended. An orderly handover starts with an access and asset inventory, with any transfer work agreed before the relationship ends.
Beyond that, the practical scope of what an agency covers here spans our services, and where the arrangement is closer to a standing internal function than a project, outsourced marketing describes that structure instead.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Questions businesses ask while comparing agencies.
Contact
Send the brief, or the half of it you have
A partial brief is a fine starting point. Tell us the goal, who buys from you and what is already running, and we will come back with what we would want clarified before proposing anything.
Focus Designs
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia