Marketing Retainers for Engineering Firms: When They Work & When They Don't

A client emailed us last week with a simple request: "Have attached some very basic accessories info we have pulled together for accessories tab – is there anything you can do to jazz this up?"

On the surface, it's straightforward. They've got some product information that needs turning into proper web content. Probably a few hours' work.

But here's where it gets interesting.

Because this client isn't on a retainer with us, that innocent question triggers a whole process: back-and-forth emails to clarify the scope, a quote to prepare, approval to wait for, a purchase order to raise, and probably a week or two before anything actually happens.

If they were on a retainer? We'd discuss it in our weekly meeting on Friday, and it would be done by Tuesday.

This scenario plays out constantly in B2B marketing, and it raises an important question: when does the retainer model actually make sense for engineering and manufacturing firms?

What We're Actually Talking About

A marketing retainer is essentially a pre-agreed budget (often monthly) that you allocate to ongoing marketing activities. Rather than getting a quote for every individual task, you work with your agency on a collaborative basis – discussing priorities, tackling work as it arises, and maintaining momentum.

For many engineering firms, it's a fundamentally different way of working compared to how you'd approach capital equipment purchases or project-based engineering services.

When Retainers Work Well

The "jazz it up" example illustrates the first major advantage: friction removal.

Small tasks that add up to meaningful progress – updating product pages, creating case studies, optimising PPC campaigns, tweaking landing pages – happen without administrative overhead. Your marketing maintains momentum rather than stopping and starting.

For a technical products company, this matters. You're not quoting separately for every product page update, every new application note, or every datasheet that needs turning into web content. Things just progress.

There's also the strategic benefit. Weekly or fortnightly meetings create space to discuss what's working, spot opportunities, and adjust direction. Your agency isn't just executing tasks; they're learning your business deeply enough to suggest things you hadn't considered.

And perhaps most importantly: consistent visibility. SEO doesn't work in bursts. Neither does content creation, social media, or email nurture campaigns. Retainers enable the steady, unglamorous work that actually moves the needle over time.

When They Don't Work

Here's the honest bit: retainers aren't universally applicable, and they certainly aren't magic.

The biggest issue we see is when engineering firms are simply too busy to engage. If you can't spare an hour a week for a marketing discussion, if emails go unanswered for a fortnight, if priorities keep shifting because of urgent customer issues – the retainer model fizzles out. We're ready to help, but we're hamstrung by lack of input.

Marketing isn't something an agency can do to you. It requires your involvement, your product knowledge, your understanding of customer problems. Without that engagement, even a generous retainer achieves very little.

The second challenge is psychological: many engineering firms have neglected marketing for years, sometimes decades. Going from effectively zero spend to perhaps £5,000 per month is a significant leap. It can feel like a huge commitment, especially when you're not entirely sure what you'll get for it.

This is where project-based work often makes more sense as a starting point. A website rebuild, a pilot PPC campaign, or a defined content project gives you a chance to understand how we work together before committing to ongoing collaboration.

The Flexible Approach

The reality is that most successful agency-client relationships don't fit neatly into one box.

Our retainers operate on a price-per-deliverable basis discussed in weekly meetings. It's not just "here are some hours, use them somehow" – it's collaborative planning with clear deliverables. And importantly, you're not contractually locked in. If your engineering firm wins a massive contract and marketing needs to pause for three months, that's fine.

Sometimes we're doing project work alongside ongoing retainer activities. A major website overhaul might be quoted separately, while monthly SEO and content creation continues as usual. Or retainer work pauses while we tackle a defined project, then resumes afterwards.

The model should serve your business reality, not constrain it.

How to Know What's Right for Your Firm

Ask yourself a few questions:

Do you have someone internally who can engage regularly with marketing? Not necessarily a marketing manager – often it's a technical director or MD – but someone who can spare an hour a week to discuss priorities and provide input.

Are there ongoing marketing activities that need to be maintained? If you've got PPC campaigns running, regular content being published, and SEO work in progress, these benefit from consistent attention rather than stop-start project work.

Is your marketing moving from "project" to "programme"? One-off projects (build a website, create a brochure) are straightforward to quote. But if you're trying to systematically improve visibility, generate leads, and grow the business, that's programme work, and retainers often serve it better.

Can you commit to the budget? Not just afford it – but actually commit to it consistently. Stop-start marketing, especially in technical B2B sectors where sales cycles are long, rarely achieves much.

Final Thoughts

There's no moral superiority to either model. We work both ways, often simultaneously with the same client.

The retainer approach removes friction and enables momentum – but only when both sides can commit to regular engagement. Project work gives clarity and defined outcomes – but can make incremental, opportunistic improvements frustratingly slow.

The "jazz it up" email is admittedly a trivial example. But over a year, dozens of these small improvements – acted upon quickly rather than quoted separately – can make a material difference to your marketing effectiveness.

It's worth thinking about, not least because some of your competitors are succeeding even though their offerings are inferior to yours.