Over the years, marketing tactics have changed. The words like customer retention, marketing growth, and acquisition of new clients are no longer just words used by high-profile corporates. It is, instead, has become the cornerstone for marketing agencies. But to make these terms relevant, there are a few things that every agency needs to follow, i.e., the marketing agency best practices.
If you are wondering why customer satisfaction and acquisition are essential, then maybe these couple of figures would be able to shed light.
A study revealed that 44 percent of brands believe their success is based on focusing on the successful acquisition of customers. On the other hand, in another study, 57 percent of marketers stated that one of the crucial parts of their marketing expenditure was ensuring turning leads into customers.
The process of targeting the audience, getting the leads, and then converting them into loyal customers requires different game plans at each stage. It involves understanding data, customer experiences, analytics, and trends and then deploying them to get the result. At the same time, all these, along with the marketing tools, work as a guide to help any marketing agency flourish. But the element that sets you apart from the crowd and propels you to move ahead is the best practices of the marketing agency.
In this article, we will look into six such best practices that a marketing agency should follow.
Table of Contents
1. Putting Your SLA In Place
One of the critical areas that you need to take care of is your SLA (Service Level Agreement). It would help if you were proactive with it, where you should be setting the right expectations for the clients. It will include the services you will provide and other related details.
Any miscommunication or unaligned expectations by the client will result in losing the business and negative word-of-mouth, which will impact your marketing firm in the long run. With the SLA, you can itemize the services you will offer, the targets you will meet, and other backup and reimbursement strategies, along with deadlines for a project and so in detail.
2. A Lead Scoring System
Just bringing in leads that are also in bulk is not good enough to be a successful marketing agency. It is vital to convert those leads into a successful business. Part of the lead scoring system is to build a scoring method that will quantify the rating of the leads numerically. It can be based on the data of the marketing. Also, ensure that the lead scoring document is integrated with the SLA.
By using the scoring system, you can filter the unresponsive leads and generate quantifiable results for the agency. In addition, it will allow the sales representatives to work on products and customers who will bring in better revenue and be loyal clients.
3. Choosing the Right CRM
If you have not implemented CRM yet, it’s time to do so if you have over a handful of clients. The use of correct CRM software, when used across the agency, will boost productivity by streamlining and automating the work process. It will also improve the ROI and help you have a profitable business.
4. Referrals and Partnerships
Any marketing agency’s core is to forge a long-term relationship with its clients. While word-of-mouth is key to the success of a marketing agency, developing a sustainable and profitable relationship with existing clients is vital.
It can be easily achieved by introducing the good-faith referral program where the current customer gets a commission or a huge off from their bills when they bring in new clients. The process not only helps you get new customers and increase your business repertoire but also provides an incentive to the customers to develop a long-term partnership with you.
5. Complementary Referrals
The part of best practice is all about being helpful to your customers while you also benefit from the process. You can offer complimentary referrals to your clients for the services they require, but you don’t provide or intend to offer. The process helps you to partner with other agencies that can refer their clients to you for the services you provide, and they don’t.
But remember to send clients to companies you are sure about, and also, you need to vet the clients before sending them. After all, you don’t; want to jeopardize your reputation either with the referred company or the client.
6. Setting Achievable New Goals
When you want to succeed in the marketing world with your agency, you need to have a team set on SMART goals. Part of developing this Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely) target helps keep the team motivated and boosts them to work to achieve these targets.
One of the best practices to ensure you have SMART goals is to understand the audit of the part marketing year and the sales performances and, based on those, create a new plan that is metrically centered. It can be a reference guide for the marketing and sales staff to measure their achievements.
Wrapping Up
The objective of any marketing agency is to form a cohesive and effective brand that will bring the customers closer to the product or services so that it improves and drives sales for the better. Since most agencies will do this, you would need to stand out in the competitive market, and it is only possible when you follow the marketing agency’s best practices. It needs to be embedded into the philosophy of the agency. So, when you work with the client or the people helping build the brands, as the influencers, you have a transparent and faithful relationship.
Read more: Why Every Business Needs A Website