Sometimes agent-client relationships are very productive, and some aren’t. I know many clients are always wondering:
“Is my investment in marketing paying off?” or “What is my agency doing to earn the fees we pay them?”
These questions are legitimate. If the answers leave you with some doubt, then maybe you aren’t managing your marketing agency as effectively as you could be.
Five Hints for Keeping Control of Your Digital Marketing Firm
Here are some tips for helping you get more out of your investment in marketing, and minimize that feeling of uncertainty, which is just as important.
Set clear, measurable and meaningful goals for your marketing campaign.
Good objectives are reasonable but not too easy, has a timeline attached, and if it’s met, will produce or contribute to achieving crucial business results. Just “increasing our website traffic” isn’t a strong goal for your SEO campaign.
Insist on regular, in-depth activity reports from your SEO firm.
Warning bells should sound loud and clear if a firm hides its work. Transparency and integrity are common traits of the top rated agencies (in any industry, to be honest, not just marketing). It is equally important to be able to digest the data on those reports. A reputable firm will provide reports in language and formats you understand.
To be fair, the amount of work completed does not always equal immediate results, but is a strong indicator that effort, not chance, is steering your campaign forward. Regular monthly reporting also provides a vehicle for constant campaign assessment and collaborative modifications, which also happen to be fundamental components to a successful (and profitable) SEO campaign.
Control the flow of information.
There are occasions where excess enthusiasm is the downfall of a campaign, and not a lack of effort. For larger organizations in particular, it’s imperative to prevent sharing relevant information from turning into chaos. Though it may be unintentional, lapses like this can cause people to work at cross-purposes, diluting results, wasting time, and demoralizing your staff. In most symbiotic client-firm relationships, the firm and the client each has a single point of contact through which all communication can be channeled.
In the most successful relationships, all parties view it as a two-way street, and resolve to work together instead of separately – and that takes effective communication. Share on XBe professionally confrontational.
At AdInfusion, we want to hear client compliments, concerns, criticisms, frustrations or any other feedback they have to give. Forcing a firm to guess whether their clients are happy sets the odds against them. The trepidation that ensues is detrimental to a good performance. Provided communication occurs in a professional manner, clients should never hesitate to ask questions or voice concerns. In the most successful relationships, all parties view this as a two-way street, and resolve to work together instead of separately – and that takes effective communication.
Expect excellence, not perfection.
Marketing, by its very nature, has an element of ambiguity. No matter how precise or detailed the data collection or analysis are, it is impossible to be 100 percent positive where every website visitor came from, where every lead came from, or where every sale came from. (We know this from experience; our data management tools are pretty hot.) You will never be able to calculate your marketing ROI down to the penny, but you should be able to get into the ballpark (did I mention I’m antsy for baseball season?) for any digital marketing campaign you run.
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