Does US Digital Partners use retainers?

Many marketing agencies operate on a retainer basis. There are many benefits to both the agency and the client when things are going well, but if the relationship takes a rocky turn, it can be a nightmare.

We value long-term relationships, but we are very aware of the woes of retainers, so we have found a way to structure our ongoing partnerships that best serves both our clients and our team.

Year-over-year partnership

Our goal with every client is to be their long-term marketing partner. Our best relationships happen when we serve as an extension of our clients’ teams for years on end and grow along with them. That being said, not every need is best satisfied by immediately entering into a long-term agreement. If you come to us with a well-defined need, such as a website redesign or a company video, we will scope out a project with clear deliverables, a price point, and an estimated timeline.

During this project we will focus on meeting your specific needs, but our team may identify other beneficial marketing activities that could be accomplished later as a part of an ongoing marketing transformation. If the project concludes and it is clear that we weren’t a good fit, then you will certainly not be bound to these additional projects. However, if all you are looking for is a “one-and-done” project, then we probably aren’t the best fit for you.

Not every client that comes to us needs a specific project. Most digital marketing activities take sustained effort over time to generate measurable results. If you are looking for assistance with digital advertising, SEO, or content marketing, then you will be better served by a month-to-month agreement.

Our approach: Managed Service Agreement

We developed our Managed Service Agreement (MSA) approach to provide our clients with consistent marketing support without the common hassle of agency retainers.

Every agency has their own approach to ongoing work. Here is what makes ours unique:

Non-contractual

While our MSAs are usually written in 12 month terms, they are not contractual and can be cancelled with a 30-day written notice. We know that sometimes relationships just don’t work out, and we don’t want you to end up locked into an agreement that you regret. Of course, if difficulties, budget changes, or other circumstances arise, your account manager will work with you to adjust our approach to better fit your needs.

Flexible Support

When we scope out an MSA with a prospective client, we will first interview you to get an idea for the breadth of your marketing needs and the level of service you will need on a monthly basis. A set number of monthly support hours will then be determined to accomplish the mix of monthly activities you are requesting. Of course, every month brings different needs and challenges, and not everything can be planned for in advance, so we take a flexible approach to our execution. Our MSA clients have regular meetings with their account manager to plan activities, and determine monthly priorities. If certain months have more needs than others, then some support hours can be carried over, but any larger tasks that may go significantly beyond the scope of the MSA will be scoped as a separate project.

Priority Service

Even if you operate a meticulously-planned marketing machine, opportunities and challenges still pop up from time to time that need immediate attention. Our MSAs are built with this in mind. When things occur at the last minute, our team will work quickly to assign the right USDP team member to the job. Pop-up tasks from MSA clients take higher priority than those that come from clients who only need occasional assistance.

What activities are provided through an MSA?

The beauty of a Managed Service Agreement is that it is a custom offering tailored to the needs of each client. One month you may need our developers to make updates to your website, while the next you may need a designer to craft a banner for an upcoming tradeshow. We have helped our MSA clients with a large variety of digital marketing tasks.

Here are some commonly requested activities we accomplish in our of Managed Service Agreements:

• Strategic marketing planning & consultation
• Digital advertising management
• SEO research and monitoring
• Content writing (blog posts, email newsletters, etc)
• Website technology and security updates
• Website code changes
• Company headshots
• Graphic creation
• Website hosting

Our first core principle at USDP is to “Love our clients”. We developed and adapted our MSA approach as a way to hold ourselves accountable to this value and deliver reliable premium service.

If you have more questions about Managed Service Agreements with US Digital Partners, please request a conversation with one of our client leaders.