Many people believe in soul mates–that there’s one potential partner out there who is uniquely equipped to meet all your needs for the rest of your life. The stakes are high in the game of love!

Choosing an agency partner to serve your business doesn't need to be quite so intense. While many hope to hire a "one-stop shop" for all their current and future creative and technical needs, that's nearly impossible in the changing landscape of business.

Luckily, there’s no moral high ground for monogamous agency partnerships. You don't have to pick just one! In today’s increasingly complex business environment, choosing multiple specialized partners is an easy way to get a lot of great work done fast, while minimizing risk.

In fact, in the 2020 Digital Outlook Study, Forrester and SoDA found that traditional agency leaders consider specialist firms their biggest threat.

For most modern businesses, the best choice is a multi-partner approach.

• Get a range of specialized expertise. With the best from each field, you’ll deliver work that reflects the latest and most innovative practices.

• Use flexibility to change over time. You may decide to bring certain disciplines in-house over time, or identify that you need to make a change in one specific area. In a multi-partner scenario, you can make targeted changes without risking the trauma of a large-scale separation.

Let’s free ourselves from the belief that we can find a perfect one-stop agency partner who will be good at everything we need, forever.

Instead, "swipe right" on a range of compatible agencies with the specialties you need, and get the best of each practice. We discuss our five best tips for multi-agency cooperation in a separate blog post.