Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Marketing Partners was founded on the principle of partnership. When we refer to a client-agency partnership, we mean that people from both the client and the agency work together as one collaborative team. We have found that for the partnership model to work well, the following elements need to be in place:

• Both parties are responsible for and passionate about a shared goal.
• Both parties feel ownership of and pride in the work produced.
• The project hierarchy or organizational chart is established.
• A clear decision-making process is in place.

It helps if both parties have a vested interest in achieving the goal, with metrics for success clearly defined at the outset and reported on regularly.

Successful business partnerships are built on trust, confidence, understanding, and mutual success. These relationships take proactive effort on both sides to sustain, and they are critical to future growth. Client-agency relationships are widely recognized as among the most complex in business, requiring a sustained and substantial level of collaboration to be effective. We are proud to enjoy many successful collaborations with our long-standing clients.

The Certified Management Consultant® (CMC®) designation is awarded to a select group of consultants (about 10,000 worldwide) who have demonstrated consulting experience, client satisfaction, technical competence, industry or disciplinary knowledge, consulting skills and behaviors, and adherence to rigorous and enforced standards of ethics.

The CMC credential is recognized and respected globally as a mark of professionalism, competency, and ethical standards. The CMC designation is recognized in nearly 50 countries, including the U.S., and is the only consulting certification that has been ISO-accredited and recognized by the insurance industry as reducing risk.

The CMC program is a public service of the Institute of Management Consultants USA (IMC USA), the professional association and sole certifying body for individual management consultants in the U.S. Its mission is to promote excellence and ethics in management consulting through certification, education, and professional resources. The CMC program was established to ensure that certified individuals have been tested and found to meet or exceed those standards. The certification lets users of management consulting services select consultants or employees with greater confidence in the quality and reliability of the services they will receive. It is also formal recognition by their colleagues, acting through the Institute, that an applicant is well qualified to carry on the work of a management consultant.

Social marketing is an audience-focused approach that uses commercial marketing tools to “sell” behaviors and ideas for the benefit of the individual or society. Today, social marketing is often confused with social media marketing and cause marketing. Social media is one of many channels, digital and traditional, that a social marketing program may use — it is not the approach itself. To learn more about social marketing and how it differs from commercial marketing, see our longer explanation of the social marketing approach or our many blog posts on the subject.

Here are some of the ways working with Marketing Partners can help you:

• We bring fresh eyes and new ideas to help you achieve your goals, and then we collaborate with you to make them happen.
• You can call on a team of creative, specially trained, and experienced people when you need them — at a cost far less than hiring that talent for your own organization.
• Our advice and strategic planning are evidence-based and focused on what’s best for you, not swayed by a cookie-cutter consulting process or the latest, greatest marketing trend.
• Projects are completed on time and on budget, based on your customized work plan.
• You have access to professional-grade resources that are expensive to license on your own: research and media databases, website and marketing analytics, search engine optimization (SEO) tools, media and social media monitoring, competitor profiles, social media management, collaborative web-based tools, and the latest benchmark reports and evidence-based results research across industries and sectors.
• On your behalf, we negotiate the best price possible on production materials and collateral pieces. We share these cost estimates with you. We then hold our subcontractors and vendors to their estimates, avoiding overcharges and budget overruns. We will not approve an invoice for more than the estimated amount, plus ordered changes.
• When we receive agency discounts on media purchases, printing, promotional items, or production expenses (video, photography, etc.), we pass them on to our clients, unlike commercial agencies that often keep the discounts and markup expenses.
• We work on our relationships with our suppliers. We give them information in a timely manner and in the format they prefer. We supply background briefs that describe the goals and tone of a project and a timeline for production, eliminating surprises. We make it as easy as possible for them to work with us efficiently to provide the best possible materials, on time and on budget.
• We evaluate media based on your needs, across digital and traditional channels. We are creative in our approach to buying paid space and time, from search and social media to broadcast and print. We look for frequency discounts, matched opportunities with editorial, and sufficient size or length to break through with your message. For digital placements, we look for the targeting and tracking that show what is working. We also look for alternative media outlets and often use small, local publications and opportunities that other agencies overlook.
• Even the best plans sometimes end in unexpected results. If there is a problem, we work on solutions, not blame. We evaluate, analyze, and develop options for our joint team.
• Most importantly, we save you time to do what you do best because we've got your back — smoothly integrating your marketing, public relations, digital, social media, and traditional media work to support your mission.

Unless a client specifically requests otherwise, Marketing Partners operates under the following standard terms and requires any specialists working under our creative direction, such as photographers or illustrators, to do the same:

"Upon full payment by the CLIENT, all products of Marketing Partners' work, including designs, copywriting, logos, slogans, or other marks, and final materials produced become the sole property of the CLIENT and may not be copyrighted or resold by Marketing Partners."

Please note that if you contract directly with a specialist, we cannot be responsible for negotiating what our industry calls "full buyout rights." Copyright and trademark law is a complex area, and we are not attorneys, so please check with your legal counsel if you have questions about your ownership rights for work produced by other firms.

We charge professional fees based on our time and expertise. With Marketing Partners, you bypass the markups and commissions agencies traditionally charge, as well as the overhead of maintaining your own staff of skilled marketing, public relations, and digital professionals. You pay only for what you need, when you need it. You also have the confidence that your marketing partners have no private interest or profit to gain from selling you materials, media placements, or software subscriptions you don't need.

A retainer fee is an annual arrangement based on your expected level of service, payable in monthly installments. This fixed-fee payment plan lets you budget the same monthly fee, no matter how much of our services you use in any given month. This eliminates budgeting surprises and guarantees control over expenditures. Monthly service levels are intended to average out over a 12-month period. The annual agreement lets us reserve time with our staff to meet your needs and guarantees that our services will not be offered to a competitor in your industry.

Our retainer fee includes planning and implementation of an annual work plan of integrated marketing communication activities, including regularly scheduled client meetings; general counsel on strategy, marketing, advertising, public relations, digital and social media, or collateral materials; creative briefs and production estimates for specific creative materials or other projects; background research and industry and issue monitoring; and annual work plan updates and program reporting against metrics and objectives.

When ongoing content marketing or public relations is a priority in your work plan, the fee includes copywriting for news releases, press kits, blog posts, or website pages; development and use of specialized media lists; media contacts and arrangements; consultation to organization principals and designees on media relations, interview preparation, and crisis management; and strategies for using "earned, owned, and shared media" to build your organization's identity and image. It also includes use of Marketing Partners facilities and equipment. Use of professional services such as media databases, news distribution, media monitoring, or social media management varies with your needs and the software services you already have in place.

When your website or blog is a priority in your work plan, the fee includes content updates, monitoring for search engine optimization (SEO) and other best practices, and website analytics tracking and reporting.

For new clients, or for specific needs not covered under a retainer for a long-standing client, Marketing Partners also offers services on an as-needed project basis. Additional projects are estimated and billed separately. These may include, but are not limited to, website design and development, digital advertising campaigns, video, production of collateral materials, advertising production and placement, media planning, and major marketing plans or research projects.

Out-of-pocket expenses are billed separately and without markup. These include but are not limited to printing, photography and video, stock images, shipping and delivery, travel and mileage, postage, online services and subscriptions purchased on your behalf, and supplies. Prior approval will be requested for expenses over a limit set by each client. Digital advertising spend varies with your needs and is generally paid directly by you, once you have approved the campaign media plan and buy.

Many of our clients have designers on staff or have positive, long-standing relationships with a local graphic designer. There is no need to sever that relationship. We form a creative team for each client or project, and your designer simply becomes a member of our team. If, however, you don't have a designer, you are ready for a change, or we all agree there's a need for deeper or specialized capabilities, we can help you. We have in-house designers for print, web, and social media, and we work regularly with other firms in the area for specific needs. No matter how you slice it, we manage the process for you so there's one budget, one schedule, and a single-minded focus on your positioning and marketing objectives.

The communication professionals at Marketing Partners are passionate about the practice of our craft, and we're always eager to share our knowledge and know-how with those who are preparing to enter the field. With this as our motivation, we started an internship program when the firm was founded.

About the internship: Our internship is a college-credit-only educational experience. It is hybrid, combining remote work, time at Hula Lakeside in Burlington, and, occasionally, on-site client work. Students learn about many aspects of the firm's work, including copywriting for public relations, media, and advertising; market and competitor research; digital and social media strategy and implementation; and taking part in internal and client meetings.

Qualifications: To be considered, candidates should be juniors, seniors, or graduate-level students majoring in communication, English, public relations, journalism, advertising, graphic design, web design, media planning, political science, or a related field.

The results have been rewarding — both for us and for the interns who've participated in our program. To date, we've provided an exceptional learning experience to numerous college students from Champlain College, St. Michael's College, Middlebury College, Norwich University, and the University of Vermont, in addition to Vermonters from colleges across the country who come home for the summer. For more information and how to apply, check out Internships.