Moving to a creative retainer is a boon for marketing agency clients
Wheelhouse Creative LLC’s Joe Monahan knows.
The agency’s creative director has seen clients balk at signing retainers. It frustrates him because he truly understands they are beneficial to both the client and agency – especially the client.
If you don’t know, a retainer is essentially an agreement between a company and a full-service marketing agency that includes a monthly or quarterly budget in exchange for a wide variety of services. Retainers tend to be over longer time periods and are not project specific. This long-term relationship allows an agency to become very familiar with a brand and help execute long-term business goals.
The benefits are great for clients. They know their monthly expense will be unvarying and access to the agency’s resources are at consistently lower prices than usual.
Yet…
“The phrase ‘creative retainer’ sometimes turns some clients off,” Monahan said. “They sometimes view it as a recurring expense that eats at their budget when exactly the opposite is true. The creative retainer is designed to save you money when you have a need for consistent work, whether that be design, photography, public relations or video. You are pre-paying for a set number of hours per month, and those hours are discounted below the standard hourly rate. This is much more budget-friendly over time.”
Monahan expounded.
“Hourly rates coupled with pay as you go often give clients the false sense of being able to control the costs,” he said. “If you have no need for new creative in your advertising on a month-to-month basis, then hourly is likely the way to go, but why would you pay full rates month to month when you can get those same hours at a discount?”
Retainers work best for a multitude of reason. Aside from the cost, they enable both parties to cut down on administrative work and increase productive time. In the case of Wheelhouse Creative, clients can work more with our passionate team of professionals who are committed to delivering excellent work at a competitive price.
“Creative retainers are carefully crafted to each client based on the number of hours they might use in a month,” Monahan said. “If they don’t know how many hours they might need, we’ll work with them on a short-term arrangement to help figure it out. The goal of the retainer isn’t to cost a client money, it’s to help them figure out how to get the most out of their budget, and we’re pretty good at it.”
We have our clients’ backs. We want what’s best for them. And if you want what’s best for your business be sure and call us at 304-905-6005.
