Growth is a problem that most marketing agencies have to deal with or will face at some point. Growth is bringing in more customers to the agency. Customer acquisition is not the problem.
You will need to invest significant time, money and resources in finding the right clients and nurturing leads. The real challenge when growing your agency is to do all this while keeping your existing clients happy and satisfied.
You will lose your clients if you invest all of your resources and time into new client acquisition.
Imagine this: You put in all of your effort and time to bring new clients into your agency. Your agency booms when you have a large number of new clients.
Your attention, time and focus are now on the shiny new clients. Soon, your loyal client base, who have been there for you since day one and with whom you have worked tirelessly to build strong, mutually beneficial relationships, will feel forgotten and unimportant. They will feel as though they are at the bottom of your new client list.
And because-unfortunately for you-it’s a buyer’s market, there are way too many other agencies out there for anyone to be at the bottom of any pile for too long.
Before you know it you will be back at square 1, with new, unfamiliar and demanding clients you need to please. It will be necessary to understand their individual needs, manage client expectations, communicate with them, and smoothen out any misunderstandings. It will be a hard, long grind.
Guess what? And you won’t have gained a millimeter.
What’s the solution? How can you increase client loyalty and decrease churn while still achieving growth?
Rachel NulmanSchapiro, ambassador to agency communities at vcita’s business management platform, and Mike Allton (head of Partnerships at Agorapulse), are about tell us all in this episode of Partnerships Unpacked.
They will share their ideas about how they can increase our cash flow and reduce churn.
How Agencies can Grow (and how to Reduce Churn) simultaneously
Let’s look at the three ways agencies can grow and reduce churn.
Increase growth and reduce churn with #1: Diversify your services
Diversifying services requires you to expand your offering.
You need to find additional products to sell to your current customer base. This is effectively adding another revenue stream to your existing customer base.
“Diversifying services is really expanding your existing proposition and being able o deliver additional value at an additional cost.” (Rachel NulmanShapiro).
When considering what additional services and products you can offer to your client base, the key point to remember is that any additional revenue streams you add should not consume budget, time, or resources.
You run the risk of losing your acquisition efforts and ruining your retention strategy.
How can you diversify your services without consuming time, resources, or budget?
Look for a tool that simplifies the process of offering your product.
Consider vcita as an example. Vcita is an all in one business management platform. It has everything a small business needs, from payment collection and billing features to client administration and SMS marketing capabilities.
vcita sells their product to small businesses, but not just to them. They also sell to agencies that use the software to manage clients’ day-to-day activities or whitelabel it and resell to their clients.
A tool that manages all of the client’s core business activities is a great way to add value to your clients.
You’re not only building a website for your clients, but also running their lead-generation campaigns and maintaining their SEO strategy. But you are expanding your services to include daily management of their businesses without sacrificing your time, budget, resources, or personal time.
You become more than a marketing agency. “Every time your client gets a message, every booking they make, or every invoice they issue, they will be using this platform delivered by you, their agency.” (Rachel NulmanSchapiro).
You’ll suddenly be more than a website-building agency.
Similar story for Agorapulse.
“We have a huge agency summit in June, and a lot the content we release there is designed for agencies to diversify their services. You’re an SEO agency, I say. Great! Great! Agorapulse can be used to manage multiple client accounts with minimal effort. (Mike Allton
It all comes down to perceived value. Finding a solution like Agorapulse, or vcita that fulfills a client’s hidden need without costing you any time, effort, or money is key.
Increase growth and reduce churn with tactic #2: Show your worth
“Being able prove your worth and show the direct impact you have on your client’s businesses is a great way to demonstrate your value.” It’s going to help with retention for sure.” (Rachel NulmanSchapiro).
Success or failure in agencies will always depend on whether your clients get a return for their investment. They will never stop asking themselves if the agency fees they pay are worth it. They will never stop asking if your work is worthwhile.
They will never stop asking if you are moving the needle towards their key objectives. Or not.
Clients will want to see proof they are getting enough value from you services in order to continue using your services. As we said, you will always be scrutinized because there will always another agency watching, ready to replace you if yours doesn’t deliver. It is the only certainty in life, aside from death and taxes.
“Nothing can be done in the dark anymore [with only the exception of dark social]. Every click and every traffic source are your responsibility. Clients want to know the net value of your services, since everything is quantifiable.” (Rachel NulmanSchapiro).
This pressure will be even greater if you are diversifying your client base and offering additional services to them.
If you charge more for your services but promise your clients that they will be saving money or that your social media strategy will boost their business, then they will want to believe that promises.
In cold, hard cash.
They will need to see that the additional services you offer are worth it.
How can clients see your value?
This type of measurement is usually very easy when you partner with SaaS providers like vcita. This data will allow you to track how much revenue your new service is generating. These products can also be integrated with existing tools like reporting dashboards and etc.” (Rachel NulmanSchapiro).
It can be a bit more difficult to prove revenue using a channel such as social media.
This is because your data has intangible metrics, such as shares, likes and follows, which demonstrate engagement, rather than cash.
It is possible, but not impossible.
Agorapulse is the answer. Agorapulse, the only social media management platform, connects to Google Analytics. It auto-adds UTMs for every link you publish.
This allows you track user journeys and determine what content is driving Social Media ROI.
You also have the option to access a built-in ROI calculator, which allows you to calculate how profitable your social media activities are in monetary terms.
Improve growth & reduce churn tactic #3: Keep them engaged
The engagement score is a popular metric in the SaaS market.
Rachel NulmanSchapiro says, “We calculate activities which are occurring on the platform.” We know the time the user has been on the platform. We can determine their engagement level at any time by knowing what they are doing on the platform. The platform allows us to group users based on their actions. This allows us to say that these guys are extremely engaged. They are very knowledgeable about what they are doing. They should be encouraged and engaged and given more ideas on how to use the platform.
“On the other hand, you will find users who are completely disconnected. They might not have logged in in a while. We adopt a more targeted approach and strategy to them.
You can create a plan to avoid churn by understanding the levels of engagement clients have with your company.
Mike Allton says, “We also pay attention to our customers at Agorapulse.” We have an engagement score and know exactly what they need to do within the first 30-60 days of using us. This helps us determine if they will become a paying customer. Are they still engaged at six, twelve, and eighteen months? Is the app still being used by them? Do we reach out to them via text messages, email, or phone calls?
How can you ensure your clients stay engaged?
Nulman-Schapiro says, “We have an automated system that allows us to see when users are abandoning adoption.” If someone is super engaged on the platform but suddenly slows down, we receive a red alert and can jump in to ask the customer: ‘How come have you not logged in for several weeks? These leads are being sent to you. Is anything happening? Are you in touch with them? Are you gaining any real value from me?
“If we don’t catch them early, then they’re going to be less engaged in platform, they’re not going to see the value and they’re going to churn.”
The same applies to agency professionals.
Sometimes accounts can be so quiet that you don’t know if they are engaged.
It’s not clear if they are getting the leads they desire, if their website is performing as well as they would like, if the campaign is converting correctly, and if anything is being done with the leads that you generated.
Ask your clients.
To keep your employees on the forefront of your thoughts and to catch any issues before they become serious, set up regular communication channels, such as weekly or monthly updates calls, or automated weekly email messages.
It can be difficult to reach out and ask customers if they are satisfied with your service.
“I believe that a lot people might be afraid of reaching out to customers who seem to be distancing from you.” (Rachel NulmanSchapiro).
People fear that asking a client about something will encourage them to cancel.
This is what we think about whenever we send an email blast to people who haven’t engaged. We are concerned that they might be encouraged to reevaluate their services and ask themselves if it is bringing them any value. If they feel it isn’t, they will simply say “You know what?” “We don’t need it.” (Mike Allton).
You can’t stop them leaving once they cancel. If you had the conversation about perceived benefit earlier, it could have helped them see the value of your services and convinced them to stay. Because people are more interested in receiving the value they have signed up for than they are looking to leave, this is a common phenomenon.
Clients expect the same service that they have paid for. These clients want additional leads. They need help in growing their business. They become disengaged if they don’t get what they promised.
“Small businesses are passionate about what they do. Their passion for their product or service is the only reason they started a business. They want your product or service because they want their business to succeed. “They just need to get what they promised.” (Rachel NulmanSchapiro
Make sure that your clients receive the value you promised.
If they don’t know if they are, you’ll be able to make an effort to find out.
Nulman-Schapiro says, “Speak to them using their language.” It’s not about you. “It’s not about you, ‘Oh! We are committed to helping you achieve that dream. Let’s talk about how we can help you.
Bring them back to the engagement pool. “Keep them interested, keep them close, don’t let them churn, and don’t allow them to move on to our competitors.
Here are some tips to increase growth and decrease churn
You can grow without churn if you pay attention to your clients.
Consider ways to expand your product and increase value. You must be able to prove that your offering brings you a return on their investment. Keep an eye on their engagement levels.
Ask your agency clients if they are happy. If they’re not happy, have a plan for re-engagement.
Remind them why they fell in Love with you.
Register now to get a free trial and discover all that Agorapulse can do for you agency!
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