Here are some tips for digital marketing agencies: What can digital marketers do to improve their customer support and the market performance of their clients?

Present-day business challenges affect every single entity involved in modern business. No matter if your business is big or small, offline or online, the rules of the game are pretty much the same.

For various business ventures, there’s a market out there that has some demands. Reaching success in that arena requires a set of strong personal and professional skills. Even if you possess them, you still need to master the essence of the market you’re working in – marketing skills.

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Analyze And Revise Clients’ Goals

Let’s say that your digital marketing agency has just started working with a new client. They’re an ambitious startup with some innovative ideas, but they lack marketing experience.

The initial steps you make here might determine the fate of that startup, so be extremely cautious. For starters, analyze their business goals. It’s much easier to bring a marketing strategy when you know what business direction the client would like to take.

Your next step should be advising them on the number and range of their marketing goals. However, don’t take the role of a business advisor here, but strictly hold to their marketing goals.

What you can to is refer them to an informative piece on goal-setting techniques, published by the Harvard Business Review.

Narrowing down the number of goals is extremely important for startups, so take just a pinch of advisory responsibility here and prevent your clients from making any hasty decisions they will later regret.

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Establish Clear Communication Channels

Your collaboration with different clients should follow the same pattern.

On the one side, it’s important that teams take part in creating and implementing marketing strategies. On the other, such an approach can lead to diffusion of responsibility.

Since too many cooks spoil the broth, some parts of communication with your clients should be centralized. For instance, suggest your clients to name their communication officers.

You should appoint yours, as well. Those people will be in charge of dealing with your common daily business tasks as an agency. When every single individual in your communication pipeline knows their roles and obligations, it will be much easier to pursue your goals.

Also, using some cutting-edge project management solutions will improve business communication and planning between your marketing agency and your clients.

Deepen Your Business Relationships

In 2015, 27% of brands stated they didn’t outsource their marketing services, but opted for a special in-house team [source].

This is something that should worry digital marketers. The main cause for abandoning digital marketing agencies is the change happening on the global Web market. Namely, the number of active businesses is rapidly rising, leading to a fierce battle for survival.

What your potential clients want aren’t mere social media strategies anymore. They can use a variety of software tools to measure and improve their position there. On the contrary, they need seamless nurture and support.

In line with that, modern marketers should be a shoulder to cry on, as well as someone who will inspire their clients to broaden their horizons.

Let your clients become your business partners. Connect them with your contacts and expand their professional network.

Also, show your customers how to improve their public image through appropriate PR-campaigns. When you push the envelope, and offer your clients a different approach, you’ll manage to retain your old customers and attract new ones.

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Improve Their Rational Thinking

Many small and mid-sized enterprises go bankrupt because they fail to meet their financial obligations.

An experienced and insightful marketing agency should warn their clients when they notice they’re planning to make unnecessary marketing expenses. For instance, imagine that a startup client of yours is developing in a desired way and there’s a high demand for their products on the market.

This will lead to an increased number of customers, which will further result in greater need for proper customer support. Here’s where things will get tricky. They will probably jump on hiring more workers and forming a new in-house team.

What you should do is advise them to think twice and show them some other solutions. According to Office HQ, outsourcing your customer support leads to increased productivity and reduced costs.

Similarly, if your client expresses a desire to win new markets, due to such steady growth, give them all the pros and cons of such wide market thinking.

You should study together the situations on those markets and take into consideration all the relevant factors. Best-case scenario, you’ll advise them to expand to one or two new markets, instead of scattering both your and their energy in too many directions.

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Providing a service for another business requires a deep understanding of their position and business objectives.

Being a digital marketer makes this task even more demanding, since your main goal is directing their marketing moves. This is why it’s essential that your clients share as much information with you as possible.

Only open and continuous communication will give you proper input for creating marketing strategies that will make your clients stand out from the crowd.

Many digital agencies have a “client is always right” mindset. It’s great to be customer focused, but directing your entire digital agency to meet every client’s whim is a good way to add stress, dysfunction, and failure to your agency projects.

Sometimes you have to say “no”. Maybe you don’t have the manpower, the hours, or the skills to deliver what a client wants. It’s ok to say “no” as long as you handle it well.

To decide if a client is a good fit for the agency, try asking yourself these important questions:

1. Is it your ideal client?

Before you take on any clients, you need to establish what an ideal client looks like for your digital agency. Do you want to focus in a certain industry? Do you want to only work with companies that are a certain size? What are your red flags or non-negotiables?

Once you have established what an ideal client looks like, you can better determine whether it is a good idea to take on a new client.

There are some fairly universal red flags to watch for that could indicate a client will be problematic.

Clients that are unreliable straight from the beginning of communication are ones to avoid. If you can’t get a response or they don’t make time to discuss the project, it shows lack of commitment and reliability.

Another red flag is a client who has unrealistic expectations or wants to negotiate a price that is way too-low.

2. Have you had success in their industry?

At the beginning of communication with a new potential client, take the time to understand their industry. If the industry is new to your agency, this might be a time when you want to say “no” for both your benefit.

It can be difficult to turn down new business, but taking on a client that you can’t serve properly will only end in disaster. Ask yourself, “have we had success in this industry before?” If the answer is no, reconsider taking on a new client.

It makes good sense for each agency to define the industry or industries they want to pursue. Spreading the agency too thin across too many different industries will ensure that no one becomes an expert in any one area.

Finding a target audience of clients within a smaller pool of industry is the best way to serve them. Once you identify your niche, it will be a bit easier to turn away clients that are outside your realm of expertise.

3. Is the budget big enough?

The size of the minimum budget necessary will vary depending on your specific agency, but it’s best to define what is the smallest budget you can allow.

When times are tough, it can be tempting to take a low-ball offer because some money is better than none. The problem with that mindset is, if you don’t have a proper business plan for your digital agency you could get stuck in low-wage work.

Also take into consideration if their budget is enough to complete the work they desire. This comes back to keeping expectations realistic.

If a client wants you to perform more work, but not pay the premium, it’s time to move on to a different client. If you know of an agency willing to work within their budget restrictions, refer the client.

4. Is their request within the agreed scope of work?

Even if you have clearly defined a project at the start, there will always be clients that want to make changes mid-project. This isn’t a deal breaker, but it has to be handled effectively.

If a client asks you to make major mid-project changes, be certain to charge them for additional services. Doing work for free devalues your agency.

If for some reason you decide not to charge more, at least communicate to the client that you are making an exception for them. Even quote an exact price so they can see the savings they are receiving.

Some friction can be avoided if all terms, like clearly defining marketing strategies you will use, are laid out at the beginning of the project. Outline to the client that anything additional will come with an additional charge.

5. Does it add value to your client?

As an executive to your digital agency, your main responsibility lies with keeping both the agency and clients profitable.

Sometimes what is going to work will not make the client happy, but it will make them profitable. Evaluate all actions with the question, “Does it add value to the client?”

A common thing for clients to do is come to an agency with something they have seen elsewhere and ask for a reproduction. Your job as the expert is to identify the valuable messages from whatever the client brings you, and then mold that into something new that fits the client better.

Sometimes this means saying “no” to the idea the client brings you. Clients have hired you because you are the expert and they value your opinion. Explain your reasoning for the “no” and there is less likely to be friction.

Tips on how to say “no”:

Validate their feelings

No client has ever proposed something because they thought it was a bad idea. Practice empathy when interacting with clients and remember that they are human too. They’re under deadlines and pressure on their end, so be helpful not hurtful.

Validate their feelings by repeating their frustrations, wants, etc. back to them to show you understand. Then explain with facts why you disagree.

Offer an alternative

“No” is a hard word to hear. The client can be seriously hurt by you shooting down their ideas, so it’s important to reframe that “no.” Always offer an alternative. Replace what you “can’t” do with what you “can” do and the “no” will be received much better.

Educate them

A good percentage of misunderstandings and disagreements between digital marketing agencies and clients comes from miscommunication. Keep in mind that a client is hiring your agency because they are not well versed in your area.

Educate your client throughout the project process to ensure they understand the reasons behind all your actions. Coach them on the results their business will receive. Manage their expectations by setting realistic goals.

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It might seem counterintuitive to progress to say “no” to a client, but sometimes that “no” is what propels the project forward. A “no” is a great way to avoid wasting time, money, and energy on projects that don’t add any real value.

With simple empathy and lots of open communication, saying “no” to a client doesn’t have to be a negative thing.

If you want to land that digital marketing job, you need to learn how to market yourself.

Writing a resume for a digital marketing position involves really putting the spotlight on yourself, which is difficult for many people to do.

After all, you don’t want to seem boastful, but at the same time, you don’t want to look like you don’t know what you are doing. If you can’t properly sell yourself, how do you expect anyone to think that you can market anything else?

Before you start sending out your resumes, take a look at these tips that will help you create the ideal digital marketing resume:

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• Find Your Target

The first thing you need to do is figure out who it is who will be reading your resume, what they want to see, etc.

Then you can work on creating just the right message that is targeted toward them, which keywords you need to use, the skills and experience you need to highlight, etc. Give the resume that they are really going to want to look at.

• Keep the Resume Short

Employers don’t want to spend a lot of time reading long resumes. They want to be able to scan it quickly and see all of the main highlights on a single page.

If you need help crafting a one-page resume, you can go online to see a number of resume examples that you can use as guides for your own resume.

Make sure that you specifically look for examples of digital marketing resumes so you can create a resume that is going to help you land that dream job.

• Define Your Value Proposition

You need to figure out what sets you apart from every other person who is applying for the position you want. Look at your own unique talents and skills that apply to the job and company in question.

Keep in mind that large and small companies often look for different skill sets, and you need to craft resumes that will show off the skill sets the company you are applying to is looking for.

• Show Your Digital Marketing Results

Focus on numbers throughout your resume that show results you have achieved in this field. Try to avoid using round numbers.

They may look great, but for example, if you use 39% instead of 40%, it is going to seem a lot more realistic and believable. Using round numbers can actually look like you are making up those numbers.

• Provide Links to Your Work

It is always a good idea to provide links that recruiters can click on to see working examples of your past successes in the field of digital marketing.

For instance, if you created a blog post on a topic that performed better than other posts on the same topic, make sure that you highlight this and provide a link.

• Mention Awards and Certifications

If you have received any awards or certifications for your work, make sure that you include information about them in your resume.

For instance, your resume will instantly be strengthened if you can show that you have professional certifications in the field, and awards show that you have excelled in your chosen profession.

• Show Your Personality

While it should be professional, your resume should not be all business. You need to show a bit of your personality.

Look at company blogs, social media pages, etc. to see what tone they are using, and then use that same tone in your resume.

Keep it professional, but make sure that you add your own voice so they get to know who you really are.

Here you can watch the video to learn a few tips on getting a job in digital marketing:

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Once you have prepared your resume and it is ready to go, it is time to find companies and agencies to send it to.

It is best to take your time and research many companies, and find out which ones are looking for professionals in digital marketing who can show that they have what it takes to get the job done.

Go online and take a look at various job-search sites, as well as DAN Job Board for digital agency jobs and search for digital marketing jobs available in your area – unless you are willing to relocate, and then you can widen your search area.

Once you have done your research and know which companies are in need of your skills, it’s time to dazzle them with your resume.