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Why Have a Design Team on Retainer

by | May 5, 2022 | Learning

Vector graphics of the Starry Eyes design team

retainer is a work-for-hire contract. Having a design agency on retainer means that you pay them monthly to have their services at your convenience. So, if your site goes down unexpectedly or you want to add a brochure or have a menu made, you just have to contact the agency, and they’ll take care of it for you.

Less Stress

Having a design agency on retainer means you won’t be dealing with the headache of finding someone to do your work—over and over and over.

Contacting multiple design agencies, finding time to chat with each of them, communicating your project needs five separate times, reading numerous estimates, choosing the agency, and working out a contract are all time-intensive, stressful tasks. So do you want to do it once and secure an agency that “gets” you—or do you have to do it every single time? Having a design agency on retainer ensures that you’ll be working with people who have gotten to know your business well through experience. That familiarity makes for a better end result and a more pleasant process.

Your time is valuable. If you expect to need design services regularly, you ideally want an agency that provides the work you want within your budget, so you won’t have to go through the rigamarole of a search every time. 

Having an agency on retainer is just less stressful for you. 

Priority Access

When you have an agency on retainer, you are the priority over non-retainer clients because you have already reserved your time. 

If you don’t have an agency on retainer, you reserve time for your project with a one-off contract. That means that sometimes your project can be done quickly, but sometimes the contract will specify a later due date than you’d hoped because the agency’s time has already been purchased.

With a retainer, the agency will already have built-in time on its schedule for you. You’ll see your projects knocked out much faster than if you didn’t have a retainer set up. 

Budget Planning Improvement

You’re estimating the amount of design work you’ll need and booking an agency in advance so you’ll have priority. That also means there will not be any unexpected expenses when fixing a broken part of your website, for example, or creating your new seasonal menu. Plus, reserving work ahead of time saves money compared to one-off jobs. 

It’s just better business to plan for the future. You won’t be missing deadlines because you didn’t get the contract worked out soon enough, didn’t budget for the costs of the updates, or can’t find an agency with time for you. You won’t have to try to find an agency to do updates at the last minute, either— and you won’t miss being able to make a promotion because you couldn’t get it together. 

Efficient Updates

Having an agency on retainer is a more innovative, more organized method of handling your business. Plus, your agency already understands your marketing strategy and brand identity because they’ve worked with you on multiple projects. So they know where you’ve been and where you want to go.

There’s a lot that feeds into that, too. Especially for website updates, because editing tools and plugins may not be the same between agencies, there’s a lot of extra work—in other words, additional expense—that happens when the agency that builds your site isn’t also the agency that maintains it. In addition, with print collateral, having an agency on retainer means they will already have access to files—such as a high-res logo, fonts, brand colors, or last year’s takeout menu—that you’re otherwise going to have to provide them. 

And even if you have a marketing plan, when you have an agency that knows your business and your goals, they can help advise you on ways to achieve them faster and be more effective with your messaging.

To conclude, working with an agency that knows your needs, your business, and your strategy simply saves your time and money. You’ll get better content faster—contact us today to explore your options.