When you work in the field of digital marketing, it's imperative that you are going to come across some clients who see digital marketing agencies and their practices as dubious – supporting their arguments with baseless justifications. It doesn't come as a surprise that many agencies pitch themselves as SEO magicians to their clients and claim to pull high rankings out of thin air. The problem with this certain approach is that it ends up in a rut; why? Because real, sustainable organic growth takes time and professional expertise. But time and expertise independent of gimmicks seem not enough to some and are considered more like dilemmas. However, in reality, they are pillars of strength to both build trusting relationships and provide impressive results to the clients.
The beginning of a client-consultant relationship is just like courtship. Both parties are rightfully sizing each other up, determining whether they're a good match. Trust-building enters the picture right from the first interaction (or doesn't). There's a lot of cross-questioning and briefing involved on both sides, as it's highly important to be on the same page concerning results, processes, timelines, and budgets, of course.
The more both parties are clear about their needs, welcoming to listen to each other, and agree on sharing their strengths and weaknesses honestly, the better chance they have for starting off their relationship on the right foot.
What Needs to be Done?
The number of businesses and website owners allocating their marketing budget to search engine optimization is growing at an astounding pace.
Parallel to this growing trend, the number of SEO firms and agencies is also growing, taking industry competition and client expectations to a new level. Amid all this, an SEO company should commit to being transparent and authentic and focus on bringing more value to their target market.
While all the transparency, work-ethic, and authenticity bits sound apparent, they are much bigger of a challenge than it seems like. When it comes to partnering with a professional SEO marketing agency, there are few basic agency-side and client-side hacks that lead to building a cohesive relationship, benefiting both the parties.
Tips for "The Clients"
It is indeed believed that the customer is the king. But for a king, it's always better to be known and aware of what's happening around his kingdom. As a client, one should go for marketing partners who have a simplified approach towards their business. Maintaining a good relationship with the hired service agency has a much more positive impact on the business. Here's what clients can do to stay on clear terms with the agency.
Commit to Transparency
Transparency in marketing is the only right way to build success with this new generation of people. Today, nobody likes to do business with brands and services they can't trust -- and the trustworthy brands are rewarded with loyalty (and dollars, of course).
To think of appearing transparent in marketing without actually being transparent is nothing but a false belief. There's a major fundamental shift needed in the prevailing marketing strategies that extends all the way to professional agency partnerships.
The actual transparency and authenticity with a partnering SEO agency are essential because they need to market the brand to the target audience in an open, truthful, and straightforward way. Often, companies resist being forthcoming wholly with agency partners, perhaps out of distrust in the people working with them or even fear that it might put their business in jeopardy.
So, to begin with, promise transparency in all online marketing across the board, even when it comes to external agency partnerships.
Cut the Crap
The clarity in business nowadays is a lost art. There's so much clutter in the consumer society, and people are getting bombarded with ads and junk media messages constantly. To get highlighted for real, one needs to NOT add to the noise. Customers like to engage with the brands that give them a moment of clarity.
While a brand wants to be unfailingly transparent in its communication with the SEO agency (and customers), you also need to remove vagueness at all costs. Making sure to be clear about company goals, and most importantly, the performance indicators (KPIs) plays a part in simplifying the client's expectations from the agency.
If a marketing agency is getting clear-cut instructions, an unambiguous message from the brand team, they'll be able to deliver a more cohesive, on-point brand story to the target audience that doesn't add to the noise.
Trust in People
One part of fostering transparency is trusting the people working for a brand. Because, at the end of the day, every relationship comes down to trust. Holding back any privileged information demonstrates a lack of trust. This hinders the way of smooth communication between the client-agency. Brand management teams and company professionals should focus on carrying out the day-to-day communication and collaboration with the contracted SEO service agencies to make sure everything is synced and going by the plan.
Surprisingly, the art of precision is an act of trusting people with their jobs and believing in the fact that the hired team has expertise and are better at their jobs. After all, that's the foremost reason why you hired them. As clients, it is needed to remove the guesswork and put clarity and transparency above all because that's what helps in avoiding blind spots.
It's crucial to understand that backing for support and clarity matters because two brains are better than one. It removes the inevitable disappointment of people who think mindreading is a legitimate thing.
In their true essence, agencies and clients are not two opposing forces playing a chess match but, rather, two sides of the same coin striving to work together on a project of mutual interests.
Gain Advocates
As the holy grail of customers is "brand advocates," the right marketing agency is the one that is filled with advocates. They have to believe in their client's products and services enough to recommend then and actually use them.
Since clients pay an agency partner for their expertise and services, they should also expect them to advocate on their behalf; but that doesn't mean they don't have to sell the agency on what they do. When the partnering agency truly believes in its client's products, they are able to represent them in a much more authentic and legitimate way.
Once a client convinces an agency of their company's value, it's the agency's job to convince them of theirs. They can do this most efficiently by avoiding to hoard information and insights that would benefit their client's business.
Agencies that like to think in favor of the product they are working on should never hesitate from doing anything that is in the client's benefit – and this is the ultimate 101 for everyone looking to become #1.
Tips for "The Agency"
While the agencies are believed to have the most creative, fun environment and pro-level results and strategies, they must paint a clear picture of the campaign's analytics for their clients. Here are some initial agency-side hacks to crack the client-agency relationship and buck the trend of failure and mistrust that seems to be trending some agencies seem to be following.
Strict No Gimmick Policy
Search engine optimization reputation has fostered a 'black hat' reputation over the years. For a long time, the SEO marketing tactics were all about playing dirty games, and it worked. Until it didn't.
Today, SEO and digital marketing as a whole have reached a point where gimmicks and shortcuts do more harm than good. Consistent, precise, and proven tactics that drive real results over time, demand agencies to ditch the promise of a silver bullet – and go for complete honesty.
Agency people need to stop marketing themselves as the rockstar whiz kids with a magic wand that'd get top rankings to their clients in the blink of an eye. Honesty and transparency are the only two things to keep the clients happy, and onboard.
Be Realistic and Truthful
Effective SEO is time taking – this is one naked truth that SEO service agencies need to tell their clients. Many agencies put themselves in an ugly spot by promising impossible results and over commitment and end up losing the trust that was built initially.
Setting realistic expectations concerns setting objectives, identifying achievable KPIs, outlining workable timelines, and keeping a room for some flexibility. To make this all work, the best SEO service providers aim at building a relationship with the client based on mutual trust and clear communication. Agency people must work to align their values with those of their clients, check their ego at the door, and let their unique personality win the showtime.
Stay in Touch
Walking a client through every step of the process is the only way to prove excellent communication. While it's true that agencies understand the technical nuances better than clients themselves, keeping the client in the loop and practicing thorough communication shouldn't be neglected.
The first step to good communication terms is listening. It's absolutely the most critical part of the initial building rapport with a client. Listening also plays a significant role during the feedback stage, after the roadmap and SWOT analysis has been shared with the client.
Restating is also essential, whether it's restating what the client has said so the agency experts can be sure of clearing themselves, or sending an email recapping the minutes of a pivotal meeting.
Only digging deeper with lots of follow-up questions (read "why" questions) is the ultimate way to collaborate and find sound creative solutions to complex problems.
Create Elaborative, Detailed Reporting
Regular reporting is the agency's opportunity to show off the work their teams are doing, hopefully, all the rankings and outstanding results they have been getting. A good report doesn't have to be technical only – make it visually appealing, focus on the key points and KPIs that matter, and use the verbiage that is easily digestible at a glance, even for a layperson.
Brownie points are for those only who choose to be unflinchingly honest in their reporting. Transparency in the reports means shining a light on the lacking(s) too because the whole point of detailed reporting is highlighting what matters, impressive or not.
It's an agency that gets to handpick the data points they aim to pull together for a report. But if they mean to hide something negative, it will come out eventually one way or another, which won't do any good to an agency's relationship with their client. So, it's always better to own it right from the start. There's no harm in being honest and direct with the client. If any tactic isn't working or the expected results are not coming forth, it's the agency's ethical responsibility to address it and find a workaround.
Wrapping Up!
In 2020, there are more tools than ever to track, analyze, and share data. SEOs can communicate and collaborate with as many teams across the world in no time. But to hack the mystery of successful client-agency relationships, agencies need to focus on the similar traits that matter in their personal relationships, i.e. trust, communication, and transparency.
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