Digital marketing is a wonderful thing. The tools we have at our disposal to help our clients (and ourselves) are endless. Now, we have the ability to remarket to people that leave websites to entice them to come back. We can display different phone numbers based on where a user is coming from and track their activity. We can see demographics of users on different websites (who knew that so many visitors on Atilus’ website consisted of Movie Buffs?).
Traditional advertising can’t do that. Can you track the route of a driver that saw your billboard? Negative. Can you find out how many people called your company from a radio ad? Sure, you can if you ask. But how many actually do ask?
Now more than ever, being online as a marketer is one of the greatest things there is. We’re able to show our clients the results of a great website and digital marketing – most of the time. However, the relationship between digital marketing agency and client still requires some communication about results and leads.
For example, many of our clients don’t sell products/services over the web. We have access to their reporting to see how many people contacted them, but we don’t know how many of those turned into actual, solid leads. Why is it important for us to know this? We need to know what’s working. Some of the best – and most successful – projects we’ve worked on have been the ones where we’re talking to the client several times per month.
Growing Your Business Online…By Telling Us How We’re Doing.
This is our mission statement. It’s drilled into our heads multiple times a week (sometimes per day) and it’s on a poster in each one of our rooms. We love fancy designs and new marketing trends, but at the end of the day, we just want to know what WORKS for our clients. This doesn’t just go for existing Atilus clients; this applies to clients of any digital agency.
We encourage our clients to tell us how business is doing, and more often than not, we don’t get the information. We understand what it’s like – days fly by, weeks come and go, and before you know it, 6 months have passed. You have more to do than sit with your web company and discuss marketing tactics, but trust me when I say your business will thank you.
Bridging the Client/Vendor Communication Gap
As the Client Services Manager for Atilus, I want to make sure we’re doing everything in our power to make your website and marketing a success. However, communication needs to be a 2-way street. When it can’t be, we have some solutions.
Call Tracking
The latest new thing we’ve implemented at Atilus is call tracking for our clients. As a marketer, using Call Rail is like opening gifts on Christmas morning. We have the ability to dynamically replace phone numbers so that if one user visits from Google and another visits from Bing, each of them will see a different phone number. Both will be directed to the same main line, however, we’re now able to track where they came from (organic search, a paid ad, referral).
Another great (and slightly scary) feature is the ability to record phone calls – and this is where it gets interesting. Referring back to the lack of communication mentioned above, we’re now able to listen to phone calls our clients receive. Granted, there are some privacy concerns surrounding this, but now, we can listen in on phone calls and address things through marketing or on the website.
For example, say you were a company that works on commercial construction. Your website is fantastic. But you find that each time someone calls, they think you do residential construction. If Atilus – or your digital agency – is able to proactively learn this information, they can then double-check all marketing and website content to ensure there is no mention of residential anywhere. This, in the end, saves you time (no more wasted phone calls) and marketing dollars.
Monthly Reporting – Now Enhanced!
Another thing we’ve struggled with is communicating all the great things we do behind the scenes for our clients. Much of what we do is a technical to explain, but we’ve found a way to alleviate this with monthly reporting.
Gone are the days of our Word document reporting with plugged in numbers. If you’re a client of ours, you’ve seen these new reports trickling in over the last few months. Now, we’re setting monthly or quarterly meetings with our clients to review their performance in full detail.
In closing, communication with your digital agency is imperative to your success. There is a lot we can do with minimal guidance from our clients, however, some face-to-face or phone communication – even in a fully digital world – is key.
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