Is your marketing and PR agency a vendor, or a partner?

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What kind of service are you getting from your marketing and PR agency? Is it vendor service, or partner service? When you want to buy something as simple and off-the-shelf as a can of Coke, a vending machine will do the job just as well as a corner shop. But say you want a decent pint of local ale – or the ingredients to attempt your first Thai curry – or say you’re selling a house, or trying to manage your pension and investments portfolio?

Partner Service

These are all examples of how partner service can add more value than “off-the-shelf”.

  • The IFA, who asks you questions about your future you hadn’t even thought about
  • The owner of your local Asian supermarket, who asks to see the recipe before filling your shopping basket
  • The knowledgeable landlord, who steers you towards that great beer you’d never heard of (and maybe tells you when you’ve had enough!)

There’s nothing wrong with vendor service – at its best, it’s friendly, efficient and reliable. But partner service can reach the parts vendor service can’t reach. It’s about more than “the extra mile” or “service with a smile”. It’s about trusting a service provider to help you find out what you really want.
Marketing and PR is no different. Of course, sometimes you just need those brochures printed quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. But when you find a marketing and PR agency you can really trust, your whole marketing and PR strategy can blossom in ways you never expected.

Why partner with us?

At Oxygen we aspire to be more than a vendor to our clients. We believe our clients get the most out of their marketing and PR spend when we are able to build true partnerships. This means:

  • Taking a step back to ask if your PR approach properly aligns with your business objectives
  • Asking challenging questions about the strength or focus of your marketing and PR messaging (and making sure the two don’t get confused)
  • Putting long-term relationships first: advising against tactics that we don’t believe provide the best ‘bang for your buck’, even if we lose fees in the short term
  • Understanding what your senior management or board expects from your marketing and PR activity
  • Knowing you so well that we can anticipate your needs and search proactively for opportunities

This level of client/agency trust is what we always aim for at Oxygen. It’s not something we can expect, it’s something we have to earn: we know that the onus falls on us to prove that we are worthy of our clients’ trust. By putting the same hard work, diligence and imagination into every project we deliver – from a one-off press release to an annual comms plan – we hope that we will convince more and more of our clients to broaden their relationships with us and trust Oxygen as their marketing and PR agency partners. Get in touch with us today on 01884 255 999 to find out how we can take your business reputation forward.