1.Tracking and data.
Start with the basics and make sure the tracking is done properly. I’ve been working with scale ups to big corporates and even listed companies and I haven’t found a single client that has their tracking set up 100% properly. Sometimes conversions are measured double, sometimes we are missing conversions, a lot of times different tools and measurement systems are used by different departments. Make sure that the whole team (marketing, sales & the board) is looking at the data in a uniformal way. Typically when we start working with a client, our head of data goes under the hood and makes sure that all platforms are tracked and every step in the funnel is properly set up in analytics.
2. Steal with pride.
Reverse engineer competitor strategies: we’re working a lot with scale ups who are launching SaaS in competitive markets and for them, we always do a thorough competitor analysis. If a competitor has spent significant budget in a market that you’re targeting, they are your best option is to see what has worked for them and what hasn’t. These are extremely valuable insights and will make sure you’re spending your budget on proven tactics. We look at their media investments per channel, their keywords and content strategy and their product and offerings.
3.North star metric.
Make sure to define core KPI’s. We want to define the real cost per lead or cost per acquisition as soon as possible, and these will be our core KPI’s to work with. Most clients essentially want to drive as much revenue or leads as possible against a target CPA. So don’t waste too much time on tracking and reporting vanity metrics such as website visits, clicks, impressions. You need them to optimize your content and campaigns, but don’t overwhelm the client with them. Also, the CEO or the board needs to understand how we’re working, so I like to keep it as simple as possible.
4.Board buy-in.
Speaking about the board, the CEO or the main marketing budget decision maker, you will need their buy-in. I always try to help our point of contact (marketing manager or CMO) to create an internal business case. If you have a wel documented case, ‘we delivered XX leads with XX budget by doing XX’, you get their attention. Make sure you have a proven model of getting more of those, this way it’s MUCH easier to get more budget and more buy-in.
5.Budgeting planning.
Budget planning is extremely important, you want to spend when competitors are not spending and in most cases, go for an ‘always-on’ budget. We started working with a travel insurance provider who would spend 90% of the budget in summer, and opted for an always-on strategy to get the low hanging fruit in the market and doubled the ROAS this way. We look at search trends to see when leads are looking for customers’ services or related keywords to pinpoint seasonality as well. I always advise to not fully plan in the yearly budget, but to keep a ‘budgetenveloppe’ in case of a big opportunity or market trend.
6.Educating clients.
You’d think that if you drive great results and provide marketing value for the client, it’s a done deal? Wrong. A big part of our job is education. I didn’t get this right at first and was hyper focused on driving value with campaigns, but didn’t take my clients along with me. If they understand what you’re doing, and especially WHY, you bring them along with you on the journey and it will be more of a ‘we’ situation. This way, you also drive value for them personally, because they can learn and grow along with you. It’s that personal connection that builds relationships of over 5 years (like we have with some clients).
7.Radical transparency.
Radical transparency is the only way. We all make mistakes, we overspend on certain campaigns, have had typo’s in campaign materials, bugs on websites or a tracking issue that was overlooked. In one of my first jobs, as a digital strategist at BBDO, I overspent 20K on a client campaign on Meta. Sucks right? It can happen to anyone, but what matters is what you do next. You need to be absolutely honest about what happened and own it. Don’t try to blame the tool, another department, or claim it’s a ‘technical issue’. Speak about it, apologize, see how you can rectify this and create a solution so that it won’t happen again. Your client will always appreciate this behavior.
8.Implement a test-and-learn culture.
Every idea is a hypothesis until it’s proven by data. This makes sure that you are not forced to implement the CMO’s idea just because he has a bigger paycheck or have to listen to someone just because they are with the company for over 10 years and ‘have always done things this way’. It keeps you looking at your marketing plan with fresh eyes, and all tactics can be challenged. With small budgets, we can test initial market reactions to see if we should launch something on a bigger scale or not. And we only scale proven tactics.
9. Knowledge.
It’s important to keep a logbook of all experiments and tactics for every client and share this with them. Here is where I see a lot of agencies going the opposite direction, they want to keep their ‘secret sauce’ for themselves. In our agency, we believe it should be proprietary information for the client. Why? When they have someone new join the team, we can bring them up to speed immediately. When we have a new member, they will know exactly what we did and why. And in case they want another agency, they don’t do the same experiments twice.
10. Speed.
You can only go as fast as your client. Here is where I fell flat a few times. I saw great opportunities and wanted to move very fast, but you need to move at the speed your client feels comfortable. Marketing usually wants to grab leads and sales and increase market share, but sometimes the sales team can’t follow. We’ve had instances where internal IT was the bottleneck, because they had more important projects to work on than the marketing fixes we needed. Getting things done with your client is like a dance. You need to let them take the lead but follow very closely. You want to be proactive, but not pusy.
