As an innovation-driven performance marketing agency, the experience of working with clients is always an eventful one. We constantly strive to churn out results, wherein the entire team works towards excellence - from creating graphics that stand out to crafting empathetic content, to end-to-end client management to compiling monthly statistics and reports, it is a perpetual cycle of efforts and perseverance. Things work out well most of the time - however, even when everything seems to be heading in the right direction, all digital marketing agencies in India get that dreaded e-mail or phone call wherein the client isnโt content with the value you have provided to them in a certain project/campaign.ย
Creating Value and Standing Out
How can agencies go into the cycle of creating value for clients? Creating detailed month-end reports to sum up your performance is not enough - the problem with typical statistical reports is that they only tell half the story. Statistical reports typically reflect what is really important to the customer, such as agreed key indicators.
Let's say you offer a pay-per-click (PPC) service, but your potential customer has a specific need to increase brand awareness, traffic and sales. There are thousands of agencies, freelancers and consultants who could design and manage a campaign to achieve this goal, but few do so. There is very little to distinguish one supplier from another, and as a result, a cheaper solution is likely to be sought.ย
How Can You Make A Difference?
The difference in performance between the worst and the best providers may be considerable, but there is a huge middle ground where the difference is marginal, as there are so many different providers that there is little opportunity to distinguish between them.
Let's say your agency has a lot of experience in the industry and prospects, and what you offer has added value. In combination, you can also demonstrate how proprietary tools can deliver a better ROI than your competitors. Start to achieve this now, but in a different way, with the help of the expertise of your team. This may not be enough to do business, but it is invariably a hygiene factor. A ton of USPs are on the market today, and the vast majority of them are not USPs at all, according to a recent study by the Institute for Business Research.
Here, the right side of the value spectrum can make the difference, even if the market is saturated with providers offering roughly the same. This is because the value is not a one - size - fit - all, expected minimum standard. Rather, it is something that is unique to the client - the relationship between the agencies.
What Value Addition Truly Means
Part of the value, of course, is the ability to deliver tangible results, such as better customer service, faster response times and greater customer satisfaction. The fact that they are not readily interchangeable, no matter how good the results are, suggests that the extent of the value created for the customer is up to you and yourself.
The mistake many agencies make is that they only want to understand value in the context of the economy. This is important, of course, but companies do not buy services from you, and you can be sure that it will be different every time. It is therefore just as important that you understand the various actors involved and the specific results they want to achieve through cooperation.
An important contact who, for example, wants to build on his knowledge and present an award-winning campaign will have no interest in an important promotion taking place under the RFP. Likewise, it is unlikely that someone will give you up simply because of a lack of interest in your product or service, but rather because they are not sure of your value. As yourself the following:
- Where do you want to be in six months' time and what obstacles are you going to face along the way?ย
- How will you measure the success of your cooperation with them and where will they measure their success with you?
- How can you make life easier for them and make them look good, and how can they make life easy for you?ย
- Can you appreciate your value in terms of your ability to work with them, not only your skills and abilities but also your personality and type of personality?
Building Trustย
In order to ask such questions, one must build a degree of trust in the relationship and ask someone to open up and disclose their needs, desires, motivations and concerns. Once you understand client motivations and desires, you will find it as a source of value as opposed to an easily exchangeable commodity. Hence, building trust and delivering on your promises becomes paramount in every client-agency relationship.ย
Where do your customers stand in relation to their relationship with your company and in particular the relationship between the company and the customer? Do let us know in the comments below.
