With the world of marketing as large and varied as it is today, ranging from traditional print advertising to the most cutting-edge content marketing, any business with a complete marketing strategy is faced with managing a seemingly ever-increasing, sometimes bewildering array of creative vendors. From copywriting companies to video teams, the modern marketing executive has more to choose from than ever before. Below, we’ll explore some of the best ways to manage many creative vendors.

Centralize Everything

The first step to managing many creative vendors is to address the administrative side of things. There’s no reason for one person at your company to have contact with each creative vendor, but there should be one person or one team who is aware of all of the content that’s coming in. In addition, your company needs a centralized record of all the vendors you’re using and have used, which content they’ve provided, and how that content has performed.

Focus on Consistency

When you’re managing many creative vendors, one of the most important things to focus on is the consistency of branding, style, and message. Consider that even when working from within a single company to create content, having several different writers can result in inconsistent style if the issue isn’t watched.

If you’re working with many creative vendors, the issue is compounded – how do you promote a consistent message when you’re procuring content from many vendors? Practice the best ways to manage many creative vendors by working to remain consistent in the following ways:

• The little stuff – font, acronyms, the ways you break up pages and paragraphs should all remain consistent across your website, all your advertising, and any places where you have an online presence
• Message – give each creative vendor a clear view of your values and strengths as a company, so that they can tailor content towards your unique strengths
• Consistent launches – often, you procure the use of various creative vendors to do a single marketing campaign. For example, your blog posts might include videos. Make sure your launch goes as planned, and that the focus of different content in the same marketing drive is consistent

Use Analysis

One of the best ways to manage many creative vendors is to use data analysis to find out which vendors are more successful. Your overall marketing strategy may be obviously successful, but if it has weak points, those can be teased out using quality data analysis, thus strengthening your company’s marketing and sales as a whole.