Let’s face it: digital marketing is hard. There are so many moving parts and you need to not only stay on top of your day-to-day tasks but also know what each member of your team is doing. If you’re working with a digital marketing agency, then it only makes sense that things get even trickier—and the stakes higher!
While there are plenty of ways that clients can make our lives easier (and vice versa), there are also some huge mistakes that we’ve seen time and time again when working with clients. Here are three client flubs we see often from both small businesses as well as large corporations:
Not answering phone calls or emails
- Contact the agency. If you need to get in touch with your digital marketing agency, make sure you know the best way to do so. Is it best to email them? Call them? Both?
- Set up a call with the agency’s team member. This is also important if you aren’t sure who your main point of contact is within the agency. Make sure that person knows what you’re looking for and can help facilitate communication between all parties involved in executing your campaign or project.
- Communicate well—with everyone! Once on the phone, communicate clearly and concisely so there are no misunderstandings about where you want things to go or how things should be done (for example, asking questions like “What did I just say?”). Also remember: The person on the other end of this call might not be familiar with all digital marketing terms or industry jargon either! While they may understand some concepts better than others, everyone has different levels of knowledge when it comes down to SEO vs PPC vs social media vs conversion rate optimization vs email marketing etc., so keep this mind when speaking with any one individual specifically about these topics as well as any other details related specifically by whatever topic happens at hand (eCPA data analysis report updates from last month’s meeting maybe?).
Not Communicating with Your Team Member
Make sure you understand your project, and ask questions if you don’t. Don’t be afraid to say no if something doesn’t meet your standards; the goal is for everyone involved in the project to feel comfortable with it. Lastly, keep an open mind! Your team member might come up with some great ideas while they’re working on your campaign that are better than what you had originally planned on.
Ignoring the Invoice
If you’re a client and we’ve worked together, there are some things you should know about invoices. It might seem like a simple task, but paying your invoice on time is actually an incredibly important step of the relationship. You can set up auto-pay so that the money will come out of your account automatically each month, or you can pay off the invoice by check (or credit card) in one lump sum. Either way, make sure that money gets where it needs to go!
Payment history also shows how much faith your agency has in your business—and it’s not just about making sure that everyone gets paid on time! We’re talking about trust here: if we don’t trust that our clients will pay their bills when they’re expected to do so, then how are we supposed to work together? We’ve had situations where clients delayed payment for weeks at a time because they thought their agency was going under (which isn’t true), and those delays took up too much time and energy for us both when all we wanted was our pay checks so we could move forward with business as usual!
Do yourself a favor by paying on time every time; this will go far toward building good relationships between agencies and clients alike
Working with a digital marketing agency should go smoothly, but to make that happen, you need to avoid these mistakes.
Working with a digital marketing agency should go smoothly, but to make that happen, you need to avoid these mistakes.
- Being unclear about what you want
Digital marketing agencies are not mind readers; they can’t read your mind and know what it is that you want or need. You’ll get better results if you’re specific about your goals and expectations upfront instead of waiting until after the fact to complain about their work or ask for additional things. Be clear so there’s no room for miscommunication!
Conclusion
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and learned something new about how to best work with a digital marketing agency. If you’re looking for more tips on how to get started with an agency, check out our blog or contact us today!
