You’ve been here before. It’s time to find a marketing agency partner. So, you send out an RFP and a few weeks later, the proposals start rolling in. Now,you’re buried in polished decks, strong case studies, and big ideas.
At first, that feels like a huge win. You can’t go wrong with all of this new thinking and momentum. You feel like you’re making progress.
But then, you’re pressed to make a decision, and things get challenging.
Every agency sounds good. Great ideas start to blend together. Every timeline seems either ambitious or uninformed. Pricing is all over the place. Your team members can’t agree on a front-runner.
You’re sorting through details, trying to figure out who actually understands your business and who simply wrote a stellar, yet potentially empty, proposal. You’ve shifted from excitement to uncertainty.
That’s the inherent tension behind RFPs. They can bring structure to the process. But they can also create confusion when priorities aren’t known.
The difference comes down to how the RFP is written and what it asks agencies to solve.
A strong RFP should give you more than proposals. It should show you how agencies think, how they approach problems, and how they’ll work with your team.
Why RFPs Exist
RFPs exist for a reason. For many organizations, especially enterprise teams, they’re the framework that generates timely decision making.
RFPs create structure in complex situations. Choosing a marketing partner often involves many stakeholders, a significant budget, and internal pressure to justify the decision. A formal process creates consistency and a clear path for evaluation.
They also support procurement requirements. In many companies, vendor selection must follow a documented process. Even when a preferred agency is already in mind, enterprises still require teams to go out to bid. Procurement often mandates formal bids, multiple vendors, and a documented audit trail.
RFPs also create a sense of fairness. Every agency responds to the same questions, in the same format, using the same criteria. That makes comparison easier on the surface.
And for many teams, RFPs reduce perceived risk. They show that options were reviewed and decisions were supported.
All of that matters. But the inherent tension still exists. Because even at the enterprise level, the best marketing strategies may not follow a standard format. When every agency responds within the same structure, the differences in how they think can be even harder to see.
Start With the Business Problem, Not the Scope
One of the most common mistakes in writing a marketing RFP is jumping straight into deliverables.
You ask for a campaign, a website, a brand refresh, or a media plan, without clearly defining the problem those tactics are meant to solve.
So, agencies respond accordingly. They build proposals around outputs instead of outcomes. This leads to confusion on both ends. Agencies don’t understand your goals, and you don’t understand how the agency typically addresses a business problem.
Strong RFPs start with clarity around:
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What’s changing in your business or market.
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Where you're seeing gaps in performance.
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What’s not working today.
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What success looks like in measurable terms.
For example, a brand campaign can mean different things. It might involve market entry, repositioning, product support, or re-engagement. Each requires a different approach.
Defining the problem first gives agencies room to strategize. You also increase the likelihood that their recommendations are relevant and thoughtful rather than generic.
Provide Context That Agencies Can Actually Use
Agencies do their best work when they understand the full picture. Yet, due to time constraints or internal silos, many businesses issue RFPs with limited context.
The results are predictable. Agencies resort to safe ideas, surface-level strategies, and assumptions that may fail to reflect reality.
To improve the quality of responses, include:
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Business context: your growth goals, market forces, and competitive landscape.
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Customer insight: who you’re targeting and what you know about them.
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Brand positioning: how you currently show up and where there may be confusion.
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Past efforts: what you’ve done in the past and what the results were.
This context doesn’t need to be perfect or overly polished. Even directional insight helps agencies focus their thinking. Without it, your proposals will most likely reflect market patterns rather than a bespoke strategy.
Define Success in a Way That Guides Strategy
If your definition of success is vague, the proposals you receive will be too. Don’t include broad goals like “increase awareness” or “drive engagement.” While directionally correct, these don’t help agencies prioritize or measure effectiveness.
Clear success criteria should answer:
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What metrics matter most?
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What timeline are you working within?
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Where do you need to see results first?
Also, clarify priorities:
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Are you valuing speed to market or long-term brand building?
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Is lead volume more important than lead quality?
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Are you testing new channels or optimizing existing ones?
This level of clarity enables agencies to make more informed recommendations and align their approach with your priorities. It also prevents misalignment later when you’re evaluating both campaign and agency performance.
Ask for Strategic Thinking, Not Just Tactics
A strong RFP invites agencies to demonstrate how they think, as well as what they produce. When your RFP focuses too heavily on outputs, agencies respond with:
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Campaign ideas
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Channel recommendations
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Content plans
That can look impressive, but in reality, it lacks strategic depth. Instead, structure your RFP to request details about:
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How the agency approaches problem-solving.
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How they connect insight to execution.
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How they adapt their strategy over time.
To do this, you might ask:
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How would you approach this challenge in the first 90 days?
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What questions would you need answered before finalizing a strategy?
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How do you measure and adjust campaign performance?
These details give you a clearer view of their strategic capabilities and shift the conversation (and expectations) from outputs to partnership.
Evaluate Fit Beyond the Proposal
The strongest partner rarely stands out solely on a presentation. It’s more often the one that fits the closest with how your company works.
Successful marketing requires coordination across channels, teams, and timelines. Performance depends on how well strategy, execution, and data work together over time, not only in a single campaign. That same principle applies to agency partnerships.
When evaluating your RFP responses, look beyond creative ideas, case studies, and pricing. Instead, assess each agency’s:
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Communication style: Are they clear and direct? Are they offering one single point of contact?
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Operational fit: Can they work within your timelines and team structure?
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Collaboration mindset: Do they act like a partner or a vendor?
The strongest agency partnerships are built on operational alignment and culture fit, more than capability.
Be Transparent About Budget and Constraints
Many leaders feel they need to be circumspect about their budget during the RFP process. They treat it as a variable to protect. But that makes the process even more confusing.
When the budget is unknown, agencies are forced to guess, which leads to proposals that are either:
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Unrealistic for your investment level, which means you’ll throw out perfectly good agency partners without giving them a chance.
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Overbuilt to cover all possibilities, which can cause confusion
Transparency helps agencies recommend the right level of effort and prioritize what matters most.
If full disclosure isn’t possible, provide a range or define constraints around:
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Phased investment
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Fixed budget with flexible scope
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Priority initiatives vs. future opportunities
Providing clear budget parameters will lead to more practical and actionable proposals and better alignment with the final agency.
Our article titled "Six Reasons Why You Shouldn't Hide Your Marketing Budget" provides more insights into the significant importance of budget transparency with your marketing agency.
Structure the Process For Better Outcomes
One of the more common challenges agencies face during the RFP process is the inability to ask questions. This often results in an agency making incorrect assumptions that lead to inapplicable solutions in their response.
To improve the process:
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Allow time for questions.
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Share answers across all participants.
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Include conversations with shortlisted agencies.
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Clarify timelines and decision criteria.
These best practices will simplify and clarify your selection process.
Think Beyond Selection: Plan for Partnership
Winning the RFP is only the beginning. Many leaders struggle to maintain their agency partnerships because there’s no clear plan for how the work will start, evolve, and scale. It’s just as important to plan for the work ahead as for the selection process.
Before sending out the RFP, consider:
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Team structure
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Onboarding process
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First 90 days
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Communication and reporting
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How the strategy will evolve
Include these details in the RFP and ask each agency to provide concrete plans for each point. The more clarity you have here, the faster the partnership will become productive.
Read more about the importance of building a strong agency partnership by reading this article, “The Agency Mindset Shift That Changes Everything."
A Different Approach: The Plan on a Page
At a certain point, the RFP process starts to feel the same, no matter the goal, project, or agency. It’s just huge documents to read under tight timelines and with limited context. Every time, you’re left with a stack of proposals that’re difficult to compare.
At Phase 3, we take a different approach. Instead of leading with a full RFP response, we start with our “Plan on a Page.”
This is a focused view of how we see the opportunity. It brings together the key elements that matter most:
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The business challenge.
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The audience and insight.
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The goal and success measures.
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The strategic direction.
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The recommended next steps.
The plan on a page connects strategy, tactics, and execution with a clear point of view from the start.
For business leaders, this makes evaluation simpler. You’re not sorting through dozens of slides. You’re seeing how Phase 3 defines the problem and where we would take the work.
It also creates space for real conversations. You can react to our thinking, ask questions, and work together to shape the direction before we start the work.
This leads to stronger alignment from day one.
Avoid the RFP Pitfalls
RFPs bring structure. They can also create misalignment, unclear thinking, and decisions driven by presentation over strategy.
If you want a more focused way to evaluate a marketing partner, start with a Plan on a Page. At Phase 3, we use this approach to clarify the business challenge, align on priorities, and define a strategic direction before developing full recommendations. It helps you move faster, ask better questions, and make decisions with more confidence.
Schedule a discovery call with Phase 3 today. We’ll start with a Plan on a Page and build the right path forward together.