Back to Basics: What Exactly is a Marketing Retainer?

A marketing retainer is a recurring or long-term contract between a brand and a creative agency that reserves a certain amount of time or a number of services from the agency. The retainer costs a flat fee, which is typically billed monthly or quarterly. The costs for the retainer are negotiated between the brand and the agency, and they do not change over the length of the contract.

Hiring a creative partner on retainer is different from hiring an agency to complete a single project for your brand. Usually, retainers will include a range of deliverables, projects and services over a longer span of time. The services and deliverables included in the retainer are agreed upon by both parties ahead of time. 

All retainers are different, but many include services like branding, media planning and buying, SEO, content marketing, social media marketing and marketing analytics. There is often fluidity in the services covered by the retainer, with the creative partner shifting focus to suit the brand’s marketing needs.

What marketing retainers do is they create long-term partnerships between brands and creatives to bolster the brand’s marketing efforts. Rather than pay for a single project to be completed by an agency or freelancer at varying rates, your brand can turn to the same trusted partner time and time again to complete projects within the scope of the contract.

Marketing retainers offer benefits for both the creative agency and the brand. The creative partner enjoys month-over-month business per the contract. Working with multiple clients at a time allows these companies to keep costs lower for the services you need.

For the brand, many more benefits are in store. First, the cost for a marketing retainer is stable. Brands can forecast their marketing costs more effectively with a routine flat fee.

Second, brands benefit from a consistent partner that delivers high-quality content over time. This helps them maintain brand consistency and content quality, in addition to minimizing the time spent bringing new partners up to speed on the company and its goals.

Third, marketing retainers give brands access to industry experts and creative professionals with a more diverse skillset than the company might have in house. This allows your brand to expand its content production and utilize new and highly effective marketing channels.

Lastly, long-term partnerships under a marketing retainer allow brands to think long-term when it comes to campaign strategy and goals. The services and projects the creative partner works on can be structured in a way to support your overall marketing campaigns.

Marketing retainers won’t be the right choice for every brand. This structure works best for companies that have long-term marketing needs. If you don’t have ongoing marketing needs, you run the risk of not getting the most value for what you pay.

At a minimum, you should have some idea of the marketing campaigns you want to execute and what services and deliverables might be needed for them. 

If the idea of hiring a creative agency on retainer interests you, say hello to Spin Creative! Our team would be happy to answer your questions and see if we’re the right fit for you.

About Us

Spin Creative is a video production company and creative agency helping marketers create winning video and creative strategies that engage, inspire and activate targeted audiences. Spin is headquartered in Seattle with offices in San Francisco and London, serving brands around the globe.