This is a difficult one to overcome: you’re bound to be hugely invested in your business, but it can cause problems if you are too close to a problem to accept a solution.
At the end of the day, your agency’s job is to make you money – and with that, sometimes you’ll have to accept that their advice is what’s best for you to successfully progress. Problems such as your website not being completely user-friendly, not being properly mobile optimised, or even if you’re charging what we perceive as being too much for your product or service – expect us to communicate this with you.
It’s not uncommon for you to be emotionally attached to the problem (perhaps you like the layout of your old website), but if the agency is telling you it’s a problem, you have to be prepared to take a step back, listen, and ultimately take action on the advice being given.
Likewise, with an advertising campaign, once enough data has been gathered to capture how a product is performing, it may become evident that this product is not profitable enough to advertise on it any more. This information is invaluable, as it gives you an idea of your product performance and inhibits unnecessary spend on advertising.
Your website developer or current agency aren’t doing enough
We routinely assess all online factors that could be positively or negatively affecting your sales performance; a big part of monitoring them is to get a clear picture of the inner-workings of the website. What we perceive to be part of a basic strategy, such as the implementation of conversion tracking or access to Analytics, are sometimes overlooked when web developers or agencies simply don’t know how to implement them.
How can we improve what we cannot see? Your agency should ensure you have everything in place to be able to refine and optimise your marketing strategy. If they don’t, then are you sure they’re doing enough?
You don’t listen to your Agency
Any good agency will have extensive knowledge and experience of what you employ them to do for your business, whether it be Google Ads or SEO. They are the experts in this field; it’s important to keep this perspective and trust their guidance. They will always adhere to whatever strategy is in place for you, and communicate improvements.
Too many times we hear “I don’t want to do that”, “I don’t like it so no one else will”, or “my friend or family member doesn’t think that’s a good idea.” Of course, your opinion matters, but you should recognise that all criticisms will be constructive and driven towards improving your business’ marketing.
You meddle with your account
It can be very tempting to make changes here and there in your account – after all, you’re spending money with Google and you want to maximise your return.
I’m aware that I’m repeating myself, but always remember that you employed your agency for a reason. They are the experts in whatever field you hired them for, and they will be ensuring that everything is running as it should be. If you feel they could be doing more, speak to them and let them guide you through their reasoning for what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. With regular reporting you’ll be able to see patterns and trends, which should ultimately be moving in an upwards direction year-on-year.
If you take action yourself and change things on the account, this diverts from your agency’s strategy and will likely affect the account adversely. It is, after all, your money; but there’s no harm in contacting your agency with your ideas to go through whether they’re sound – then let them implement it. Remember, you pay them for this service.
From the agency’s point of view, it can be incredibly frustrating to go into an account and see something isn’t working, only to find out it’s been changed without them being told. Communication is key!
You are an agency butterfly
Something we see occasionally is a client’s agency history can be very scattered; in other words, they flit from agency-to-agency like a butterfly to flowers.
It’s no secret that there are agencies out there who make bold claims about how they can make your businesses millions for just £99 a month – as you might imagine, this simply isn’t possible.
Another common problem is unrealistic client expectations; in your initial strategy meeting, you should be given a timescale to see achievable results. They won’t happen straight away, but you should know that your strategy is underway from Day 1 and results will show after some time has passed.
An agency should be chosen based on their reputation, reviews and success rate – not necessarily on price and locality. As a rule of thumb, you pay for what you get.
Is online marketing the right move for you?
This might sound like counter-productive advice for us to give, but it’s important to evaluate whether a digital presence is going to enhance your business or not. Let’s return to the very first point in Part 1: whether it be cost, quality or customer service that’s the problem, sometimes a product or service is simply not going to work.
Not every product or service sells online; there are still people who will only buy a product that they can touch or feel before they buy. In cases such as this, you’re fighting a losing battle. This doesn’t mean your business won’t work, it just means you have to look at options that aren’t marketing online.
The point of these blog posts was to help your client-agency relationship, and highlight just how important communication and strategies are.
If you want to talk to someone who understands you and knows how to propel your business online, give us a call on 01244 470067 and let us help grow your business.