For Agencies
What to Look For in a White Label Content Partner
The questions that matter are mostly not about writing quality, which is the easiest thing to check.
Judging writing quality takes ten minutes with a sample. What takes longer to discover, and costs more when it goes wrong, is everything around the writing — how the relationship behaves when something is late, contested, or awkward.
Questions About the Relationship
- Will you ever contact my client: The answer should be an immediate no, without qualification.
- Do you sign an NDA before the brief: After the brief is too late, and the difference matters.
- Will you name us as a client: A supplier who wants you in their portfolio is not white label.
- Who writes it: Whether the work is written in-house or passed on again, which you would be the last to find out.
- What happens if we stop: Whether you keep the style guide and the assets, or whether they were never really yours.
Questions About Commercials
Minimums and subscriptions are where white label arrangements most often stop suiting an agency, because they invert the logic of the arrangement.
- Is there a minimum monthly spend, and what happens in a quiet month.
- Is there a notice period, and how long.
- Is revision included, and does that cover feedback that came from your client.
- Is there a volume tier before the price becomes fair.
- Is the first project priced the same as the hundredth.
A minimum turns your supplier's quiet month into your problem. The whole point of outsourcing is that it scales down as well as up.
Questions About Failure
Every supplier performs well on a good week. What distinguishes them is what happens on a bad one.
Ask what they do when a deadline is not achievable — whether they say so at the quote stage, or the day before. Ask what happens when a piece misses the brief entirely. Ask who you speak to when something has gone wrong.
A supplier who has never turned down a brief is either much larger than they appear or about to disappoint you. Knowing what they do badly is a good sign.
Test Small
A real project of modest size tells you more than any sample pack. Samples are the supplier's best work, chosen by them, with unlimited time.
Send something real, with a genuine deadline, and see what comes back. Our agency service has no minimum specifically so a first project can be that test.