• Innovation agencies should prepare and manage effective programme oriented towards their professionalization/ raising competences and at the same time avoid over-loading IA staff with training courses, finding balance between fulfilling their daily operations (mainly providing to companies services which are already part of their portfolio) and gaining new competences, developing new services.
• Innovation agencies should continue to convince businesses and academia that they are not just another bureaucratic institution, which function as simply as the acquisition of budget funds for some projects which are not necessarily aimed at the stimulation of innovation processes and the creation of entrepreneurial relationships in the cooperative system (clusters and networks).
• Innovation agencies should keep using effective ways of promoting their services among target groups. The new ideas on how to stimulate/organise a pro-active approach of innovation agencies towards their clients should be generated on a regular basis. Any solutions relating to definition of the target group and identification of potentially innovative companies as well as start-ups are of interest.
• Policy makers should cooperate with innovation agencies on a regular basis as they know the needs of the entrepreneurs, their gains, pains and barriers of development. The policy changes and new tools should be based on all the information from IA experts and conducted researches and then implemented.
• All the innovation agencies should pay more attention to building brand awareness. The main problem is the reputation among SME enterprises. The IAs are not perceived as business institutions with specialised services supporting business development. They are more associated with public administration or universities whose values proposition is completely different from business values. That’s why communication strategy is extremely important in a proactive approach towards the business sector, including SMEs.
• In professional innovation agency, communication strategy is developed, goals are defined and based on this marketing campaigns are organized. The efforts to promote a specific goal, such as raising awareness of the brand or specific services capturing positive customer feedback or beneficiary acquisition. AI aims to reach clients in a variety of ways and involve a combination of different available channels and tools such as: media, newsletters, print materials, online marketing, social media, event marketing, influencer marketing. Successful campaigns tend to be carefully planned, focused on details, good quality visuals, and execution, rather than ad hoc activities. Planning a marketing campaign starts with understanding clients’ needs and ends with details such as tailor made messages.
• The constant communication of the innovation agencies activities and success stories to the key stakeholders group is very crucial. It will be important for this action to identify the individual stakeholders’ needs and most desired effects of the IA activities. Then the value proposition for each stakeholder (both internal as well as external ones) should be built. The next point is the focus on enhancing customer relationship management in order to be more perceived as the professionals, not only non-commercial or EU project oriented institution. It will be important as well as to acquire new customers through non-profit activities and encouraging commercial clients to use the non-profit services. To achieve the expected results, this action needs to be analysed on a regular basis. The important tool of this action is CRM, that lets for monitoring of the process and effects of cooperation with customers.
• Joint promotion of the agency and the other innovation ecosystem actors results in synergy for the parties, enhances communication and the ability to compete on the market.
