Frequently Asked Questions

What are your specialties?

We are highly experienced in healthcare, financial & legal services, marketing to seniors, higher ed, tech and human services. But really, we’re specialists in problem solving. In creating solutions that make you want to jump out of your seat and give us hugs and high fives. We love that kind of thing. That’s our specialty.

What are your rates?

There was a magazine that used to pay its writers by the word. Do you know what that magazine was famous for? Long articles.

Billing our clients by the hour is not in anyone’s best interest. It creates the wrong incentive. The agency wins when it has a very big team that takes a very long time to solve your problems. 

We look at it this way: should a mediocre idea cost more, just because it takes months to develop? Or is a brilliant idea that gets results quickly more valuable?

So, at Kleehammer Communications, we bill based on the overall value of the service we are delivering, rather than how long it takes. That starts by sitting down with you to understand the scope of work and then developing an estimate that is fair and reasonable.

Once we agree on it, we stick to it. No surprises. No extra charges. No problem.

Can a small agency like yours handle a business like mine?

You might also ask, “Can a large agency handle a business like mine?” Because in our experience, they usually can’t.

They get bogged down in communication and process. And you don’t even want to think about all of the people billing hours on your project just to fill those dreaded timesheets. If a good idea is discovered, it’s often smothered by agency overthink before it can see the light of day. Or it gets set aside, because while it might be right for the client, it doesn’t feed the agency machine. (This may all seem preposterous, but we saw it again and again in our big-agency days.) 

But to get back to your question: yes, absolutely, we can handle big clients. Because we have and we do. Because every one of our clients has our A-team working on their business. And because we’re kind of crazy about making each one of our clients fall absurdly in love with us.

Still need convincing? We’d be happy to put you in touch with clients who can tell you all about what it’s like to work with us.

You lack experience in my exact field. Is that going to be a problem?

Yes, it might be – for your competition.

Can we give you some homework? Check out a few websites for advertising agencies that specialize in a particular field. Like health care, or higher education, or almost anything.

What do you notice? Right. All of their work looks pretty much the same due to cookie cutter solutions. What we have discovered is that too much experience in a certain industry gives an agency tunnel vision. They keep doing the same thing and often, they don’t even realize it.

On the other hand, coming in fresh without preconceived ideas and attitudes is incredibly liberating. It leads to better, less expected, more effective solutions. And—important side-benefit—it lets our team use our cookie cutters for something way more satisfying – making actual, delicious cookies. 

What is your process?

Of course, we have a process for getting to good work. Every agency does. The truth is that no matter how you package it, at the end of the day the processes are all pretty much the same. 

Understand your client’s objectives. Listen to what their customers are saying. Check out the competition. Maybe do a little research. Mix it all together and then come up with awe-inspiring ideas that move hearts and minds. You see, it’s that last part that makes the difference. Because all the process in the world is only as good as what you can turn it into. 

So, if you want to know all about our process, we’ll be happy to oblige. But if you want to know whether it’s any good, we suggest taking a look at our work to see how that process has turned out for others.

Should I include you in our RFP?

A lot of times, clients are looking at FAQ sections like this to determine if the agency seems like a good fit for an upcoming opportunity. And if you’ve made it this far and are thinking about including us in your RFP, please do. 

However, here’s another idea you might want to consider. RFP processes tend to be imperfect and impersonal — to say the least. And we never feel like they give the client a true feeling for the kind of work an agency can do or the people they’d be working with to do it. We’d much rather sit down and talk about a real project you need help with and how we might be able to work on it together. Sort of like a test drive – for both of us – instead of a long, drawn-out process where you’re not really sure what you’re getting.