Are Status Meetings Important?

Project Status Meetings

If you don’t yet have a standing appointment on your calendar to meet with your marketing agency each month, consider the following six reasons why it is important to add such an appointment on your calendar.

1. You Get Guaranteed Facetime. Granted, in this day and age you very well might not be working with a marketing agency that’s local to you and that’s okay. But a Google Hangout, Skype, WebEx, or pick your favorite video conference format will give you some dedicated time to connect. Solid marketing is born out of strong relationships where both the clients and agencies understand each other. Taking an hour each month to connect simply to talk not about one specific project, but all of your marketing in a holistic fashion, goes a long way to strengthening your relationship. Trust me, start having these meetings and spend time together, your job will be easier and more enjoyable as a result.

2. Projects Don’t “Fall Through The Cracks”. Everyone has their own way of keeping track of what’s going on with marketing projects and even if you and your agency share a project management system, a routine meeting gives you that time for a “pulse check”. The thing you mentioned needing to tackle next month, well you should be able to talk about it and tackle it. Otherwise, it may simply get listed as “pending” or “inactive” and in my experience that just means it eventually goes away. Running down your list each month together keeps all of your projects top of mind.

3. You’re Out Of Touch. I’m often working on campaigns or projects with my clients that span months. Sometimes there are stretches when the agency is simply cranking on the work and there’s no input from the client needed. These voids of contact with the project are filled during status meetings. Even if it’s a simple update from your account manager that tells you the creative team is on track, it keeps you in the loop.

4. You Have a Default Due Date. I imagine in the Mad Men era things must have been simpler; there were only three TV networks after all. But now in our society of surplus with social media, the internet, cable and everything else, I know prioritizing everything and making sure you deliver input or feedback to your agency in a timely manner can at times be challenging. But, with a monthly status meeting, you have this one time each month when you have to be ready. This is true for your agency too, they’ll be sure to have the project estimate, revised layout, concepts or whatever for the meeting. You’ll get in the habit of making the status meeting very productive because you’ll be handing off comments, approving concepts and estimates and your agency will leave with a list of things to do.

5. Your Agency Can’t Avoid “Facing The Music”. Nobody likes it when things go wrong, but it happens. If this happens, it definitely should be handled with an in-person meeting. This goes back to fostering a good working relationship. When your agency is taking risks to help set your marketing apart from the crowd, in all honesty it doesn’t always work out. When things get side tracked, your month status meeting will give your agency the opportunity to talk through whatever happened and get things going in the right direction again. You’ll be armed with whatever information you may need to deliver the bad news to your boss and hopefully all can be right with the world again soon.

6. You Have Good Cost Accounting and Visibility . With projects that last for many weeks or months, you have a forum to talk with your agency about expenses as you go. If something has changed during the course of the project that might have your agency 60% complete but 80%through the budget, you can know this each month and a change order shouldn’t come as a surprise. Estimates and billing of course are topics you should be discussing with your agency frequently as open communication about money is one of the foundations of a solid working relationship.