How to Maximize Client Retention In Your Digital Marketing Agency

This Is The Transcript

How To Retain Your Marketing Agency Client Base

Retention is key. It’s one of the most important—if not THE most important—aspects of a digital marketing agency. If you can’t retain your clients, you’re going to feel like a gerbil on a wheel. You’re running as fast as you can, but you’re not going anywhere. You land a client, and then you lose a client. As soon as you land another new client, you lose a client.

This is Not Only Frustrating, It Can Also Be Damaging To Your Reputation

When you’re niche-focused, then “the word” about your work spreads quickly. That can go one of two ways. It can be fantastic because when you get one or two wins, the word spreads quickly in that focused space. Like, “Wow, Josh and his team at Plumber SEO were really good. They get great results.” And then other people hear about it and want you to work for them. But it can have the same impact if you do poorly.

Maybe you get a client and something goes wrong on the account. The client leaves you because they didn’t get the results they expected. The (negative) word spreads like wildfire in that little group. So it’s really important that you’ve got a great process to retain your clients at the highest level possible.

You Need To Have A Proactive Onboarding Process

I’m going to talk about a couple of things and unpack them for you.

► First of all, you’ve got to have a proactive onboarding process. This has to be thought out in advance, planned, and thoroughly fleshed out. You have to think about the client experience, and engineer the experience that you want the client to have.

• Here is how we’re going to get the information from them that we need to get a strong start.
• This is what we’re going to send to them to make them feel great that they’ve chosen to work with us.
• And then we have to engineer wins into the results.

You Have To Engineer Client Retention

I’m going to talk about engineering client retention. This is some new information I want to share with you.

► You need to prioritize having strategic monthly review calls with your clients. You can’t just get the client, do the work, and expect them to stay. We learned that the hard way here at Plumbing & HVAC SEO. We really did. Dean and I at the beginning, would get the clients and we’d do the work. We’d get great results for the clients. But neither of us really wanted to deal with the monthly calls, responding to client questions and doing the back and forth with them.

We were like, “We’re just gonna let the work speak for itself.” And we had a retention problem. We would get a client and then lose them. Then we’d get two new clients and then lose one.

And finally we asked, “Man, what in the world are we doing wrong?”

• It took a while, but we realized that the clients wanted a relationship.
• They need to know what’s going on in their account.
• And they want to see the vision of what you’re going to do for them in the next month, the next quarter, and beyond that.
• When they get that, they’re more likely to stay.
• Not only that, they do stay much longer.
• Our retention rate went up quite a bit.

You’ve Got To Get Results For Your Clients

We’re all digital marketing agency owners. We’re all entrepreneurs. But, at the end of the day, we exist to get our clients a tangible, measurable Return On Investment. Clients need to be able to confidently spend a dollar with us and get three to five dollars in return. That’s our function as agency owners. “We’re going to help you generate more leads, make more sales, and get more revenue.” We have to be able to demonstrate greater Return On Investment by getting the client’s Internet marketing strategy right.

I mean everything that we do for them—from SEO, pay-per-click, social media, and adwords—the bottom line is we have to get our clients a result. If we can’t do that, then we really should either rethink what we’re doing or rethink what we’re offering and what our packages are. That focus on client ROI is fundamental to everything that we do.

But Great Results Do Not Ensure Client Retention

I’d love to hear what you guys think is the number one reason that a client leaves.

• Why would a client cancel your services?
• Is it because they’re unhappy with results?
• Is it because they don’t have the money?
• Is it because they’re broke?

{Reading participant comments}

So we’ve got a lack of communication, lack of communication. Josh says perceived indifference. Mike says, “Low-value return on investment. They leave when they feel ignored.” I would say, actually, all of these are right at some level, but really, statistically speaking, (and there’s been lots of research done on this)…

The Number One Reason That A Customer Leaves Is Perceived Indifference

When clients start to feel ignored, they believe that you don’t care, and that you’re not there for them. That’s why they’ll leave. That’s exactly the experience we were having. We would get great results for the clients. “Hey look, you’ve got a great website. It ranks, and you’re getting calls. That’s better than you were getting before we started working together.” Yet they would leave us anyway. Finally, we discovered they were leaving because they just felt like we sold them, and then we didn’t really care whether they stayed or not.

The Secret To Retaining Clients

Here’s the secret to retaining clients. You have to engineer both getting results for them, and you also have to make them feel pursued, loved and cared for. They have to feel like you’re “in this” WITH them. You understand your responsibilities to generate them leads and generate them sales, but you’re also connecting to WHY they’re in business, what their goals are, what their aspirations are. Equally as important, you show them that you regularly bring new ideas, initiatives, and strategies that are going to help them grow and help them scale.

Here’s How You Make Them Feel Loved And Pursued

A lot of the time, it’s the little things you do that makes clients feel, “Okay, that company, that person that I do business with, cares about me, and cares about my end result.” You engineer this through:

• Your monthly calls with clients.
• With the client touches, and the things that you send in the mail.
• Using personalized videos and communications.

The perception you create is the reason why clients stay. And that’s how you can improve your retention rate and keep it at the highest level possible.

You Also Engineer The New Client Launch Experience

You need to ensure that you start new clients off with a great customer experience.

► First of all, have some kind of new client setup sheet fleshed out in advance. Give some thought to what information you need to know to to have a flawless launch. These are the details that I need from clients and must gather from them immediately. Set it up so you’ve got either a printed document or an online form. Make it easy for them to provide you the information that you need.

► And then you need to engineer a New Client Launch Call. It’s a structured conversation that talks about:

• Hey, welcome aboard. Excited about working with you.
• Here’s the vision.
• Here’s how we’re going to be helping you guys take things to the next level.
• And here’s what we need from you. We need usernames, passwords, pictures, unique selling propositions (USPs).
• And here’s what you can expect to happen next.

The Most Important Thing: Make Sure Clients Know What The Next Step Is

We quickly realized a key thing. The most important thing in the New Client Launch process wasn’t how pretty the launch sheet was. It wasn’t how good the person was who conducted the phone call. It was how clearly the client could understand what the next step was.

They felt more confidence in us when they knew, “Okay, we’re meeting today and I’m going to get your usernames and passwords. And we’re gonna meet again in two weeks from now or one week from now. And next, we’re going to set up your Nearby Now account.” It’s really as simple as that. Knowing what the next step is makes them feel comfortable.

Be Sure You Set Up a Series Of Micro-Commitments—That You Fulfill And Let Them Know About

Let them know that there are things that are going to get done and when they are going to happen. So what you need to do is engineer, especially in the first couple of weeks, what those micro-commitments are and what those micro steps forward look like. Once we mapped out our welcome sequence, it made a remarkable positive difference for us.

You’re planning for more than that one-to-one new client launch conversation. You also build a sequence of emails—a sequence of communications that happens in the first 60 days. New clients are getting touched automatically.

Plan Out The Whole Onboarding Process

You take the time to think about this and plan out, “OK, know that in the first 60 days, this is the series of communications that we’re going to have with new clients. These are the things we’re going to cover.” And you take the time to map this out thoughtfully. It works something like this, “Hey, here’s what we’re working on for you. Here’s what’s going to happen next. Hey, we need these pictures from you.”

If You’re A Member, You Have Access To Our New Client Launch Call and New Client Setup Sheet

In the members area, I’ve provided you with our welcome sequence, our New Client Launch Call, and the New Client Setup Sheet. Once you’ve got some clients, you need to work on improving your retention rate. These tools are here for members of our program.

We Use Strategic Gifting

Strategic gifting has been extremely powerful for us. What this means is regularly sending clients cool gifts to show that you care and that you’re there for them. You want them to think the relationship is more than just a transactional, “Hey, we’re going to generate leads for you.” type of relationship. So, we send a welcome basket, a three-month gift, and other items on a periodic basis. This is above and beyond providing them a good account manager, building a great website, and producing great results for them.

Always Send A Welcome Basket

I always say, send a welcome basket. We send a gourmet gift basket for 75 bucks. It’s literally on automatic. Once the client signs up, an email goes out to gourmet gift baskets that tells them, “Send this new client this basket.” It happens automatically, and a couple of days later they get a basket and a note, “Hey, thanks so much for signing up with us. We’re so excited about working with you. It’s going to be awesome.” That really improves our stick rate.

Think about it. They just gave us a $2,500 monthly payment, and now a couple of days later they get a basket solidifying the relationship. We show them how excited we are to work with them. You can see how this sets the tone for the relationship. Make a nice basket. And that’s the beauty of this. We build it into our launch process, and it’s done.

We Also Send Documents To New Clients

We also send a document in a binder with an overview of what they get for the money they are paying. The y also get a copy of our book, and testimonials from successful clients. Overall, this is to get them really excited about what the roadmap is over the next 12 months. We always include a handwritten note from someone from the team. “Hey, thanks for your business. We really appreciate the opportunity to serve you.” That’s a rare touch nowadays.

Send Them Surprises In The Mail

Send them stuff in the mail. I think this often gets overlooked. Think about it this way, “These people spent $1000, $1500, $2000 with me.” You can send them something physical in the mail for $50 or a couple hundred bucks, and that will make them feel amazing. Like, “Wow, nobody does that. How happy am I that I hired this particular company?”

Members Get The Launch Call Materials

Members get the launch call documentation—the exact materials we use to train our account managers. Here’s how this launch call should go. This is what the language should sound like. Here is a list of the information we gather from new clients. The new client launch sequence covers some of the following (and more):

• Welcome aboard.
• Send our welcome basket.
• Set up their box folder for documents.
• Let’s schedule a quick call to talk about the next steps.
• Here’s what you can expect to happen.
• I’m introducing you to the whole account team that’s going to actually be dealing with you.
• Meet the rest of the team. It’s not just me. There’s a whole organization behind this. Sing our whole team mantra.
• Take a quick tour of our office.
• We need some additional photos and this is what we recommend they look like.

All of this information is also provided for members to swipe and deploy in their own businesses. These are engineered touches that we mapped out in advance (from our own experiences). So when a new client comes in, yes, our team touches them. Yes, we have thought out the process, but we’ve also included automatic communication which helps to carry the process a long, long way.

If You’re A New Agency, You Have To Start Where You Are

Some of this would be overkill for a new agency, and that’s not lost on me. What you need to factor in though is that you have to have something that is beyond just email and phone to really solidify the relationship from the get-go. You want to let new clients know that you’re excited about working with them and that they made the right choice in hiring you. When you’re a startup, your funds are limited, but think creatively.

Here’s Some Of The Stuff We Do With New Clients

I’m just going to show you guys some of the new stuff we do in my own agency. Clients get the welcome basket, right, so the welcome basket shows up in their mailbox or hand courier and they’re very  excited about that.

► The next thing we made is this welcome box. This goes out a couple of weeks after they sign up. This is a branded box.  They cost about $15 each to send out. And it’s just some cool stuff. Our team ran with this for the most part.

• We welcome them to engage in the Facebook community.
• Here’s a member card. This is to develop that online community on Facebook.
• Enjoy this branded t-shirt saying, “I’m a plumber, I can fix it.”
• We made this cool pamphlet that explains what the process is gonna look like for them.
• Meet the team.
• A few tchotchkes like a cool flashlight.

So the purpose is to show you that you’ve got to be thinking a little bit outside the box. If they spent a couple grand with you, don’t do the bare minimum email stuff.

We Really Focus On Retention

We really focus on retention. We’re always asking, “How do we ratchet the retention rate up more? How do we make it so they have a great wow experience?” We want them saying, “Yeah, man, these guys are the bomb.” And yes, great results help. They’ve got to have a great website. They’ve got to have great online optimization. But it’s the little things like the extras that nobody expects that go a long way.

Plan these items to automatically go out to everybody as they sign up. In addition to helping with retention, can you see how this would also help with the probability of them feeling like they had a wow experience and referring other people to us. You want them saying, “Man, these guys are really cool. These guys are awesome, that they care that much about creating these little surprises and things. They must really care about us as a client.”

Another Important Area For Retention Is Handling Transfer To An Account Manager

You’re going to have to transfer a client from one Account Manager to another. It’s a fact of life at an agency. We sell the client, it goes to a launch coordinator who launches the experience, and then eventually it goes to an account manager. And as you grow, there’s going to be account management changes. It’s critical to handle these kinds of changes with special care

These Types Of Transfers Can Cause Clients To Quit

Clients don’t like that kind of change. They like consistency. They like to know who they’re dealing with. These kinds of transfers are a point of potential breakdown of client confidence. So you’re going to find that there’s a  “hot potato dance” that can happen with this kind of transfer.

We noticed that—every time we had to transfer a client—it created issues. We engineered a process where when the client gets transferred to somebody new, there’s a specific call process that goes into it. “Hey, welcome, I’m your new account manager. Let’s get to know each other a little bit. Let’s understand your goals and your philosophy.”

We’ve Turned Transfer To A New Account Manage Into A Positive Experience

We’ve now turned this into something that’s actually positive for retention. We’ve reframed it as, “Hey, you got a new person. Oh, they’re thinking even more strategically. Oh, they’re really connecting with me on a personal level.” And then we send a gift out from that new Account Manager saying, “Hey, I’m so excited about working with you. We wanted to send you a Miami Cuban coffee box.” It says Plumber SEO. It’s got a Plumber SEO mug and some instructions on how to make Cuban coffee. We found that works well to get the client re-engaged, re-excited, and then anchored into the long-term business relationship with the new Account Manager.

Here’s an example of what happened with one client. The Account Manager sent him the gift, and the client took a picture of it and posted it on their Facebook page. Here’s what their post said, “Thank you to our friends at Plumbing & HVAC SEO. They sent us a cool Cuban coffee kit and let us know it’s strong. We appreciate what you’re doing for our company, it’s all about the relationship. Caffeinated.”

It’s All about The Relationship

Do you think that this client (who’s been with us for quite some time), and just got transferred to a new account manager, has a sense of perceived indifference? Or do they feel like our company cares about their business and that we are pursuing them? Yep, they want to continue to do business with us and are more likely to stay long-term.

So look, we got great exposure on this. Not only did they post it, they tagged us. I was able to comment on it. I thanked them and they said, “Oh, it’s an amazing gift. We appreciate your business.” There was some cool back and forth, “Josh Nelson, Plumbing & HVAC SEO, having you on our team is a game changer. Know that your role is important to our success. We can’t improve further without you.”

Okay. How cool is that? And their friends see this and it creates a bonding experience with the client. Also, public affirmation like that makes them more likely to stay with us and send us referrals. It also gives us positive exposure in the marketplace.

Engineer Strategic Touches Throughout The Relationship

You want clients thinking, “Wow, this company is going beyond the basics in terms of retaining us.” And this isn’t just at the launch. You want to be engineering strategic touches that they’re getting in the mail that makes them feel, “Okay. Yes, they’re going above the basic expectation of just doing my internet marketing, and generating some results for me.”

I know. I know. It almost feels like you shouldn’t have to do all this. But,I’ve done enough of these review calls with you guys to know that you do have to do this.

• At the beginning you have to reach out a lot.
• If clients don’t meet with you to do a true review, you should be touching them with an automatic email, “Hey, here’s your monthly review, your monthly report right now.
• Clients should also get a personalized email from you saying, “Hey, I just wanted to reach out. I know we haven’t scheduled our monthly review yet. Love to jump on a call to talk about your progress and what we’re going to be doing next.”

You Can’t Retain Clients By Putting Them On Autopilot

We find that the reason our clients leave is that they feel like the relationship ran its course, whatever that means to them. They had an intention when they hired you. It was to get more leads, to get more exposure, to get more revenue. And they had a belief that, at a certain point in time, you were going to get them a better result. So they hopped on board with you, and committed to whatever it was that you were charging them every month. This is not the time to just do your setup stuff and let the run in the background, and hope that will retain them.

If you do that, it leaves you open to clients thinking, “All right, s/he did when s/he was going to do, and that’s the end of it. It’s time to look elsewhere.” And trust me, they don’t have to look elsewhere. They’re getting calls every day, emails every day, drop ins at their office every day from people who want to sell them Internet marketing services. If you’re not on your game, there are other people pounding down their door trying to get their business.

They Might Quit If They Believe You’ve Exhausted What You Can Do For Them

If they—at some level—perceive, “Okay, their whole bag of tricks has been poured out. They did everything they could,and they can’t get me any further results.” At that point, it’s an easy jump to say, “Okay, Tommy’s Marketing, let’s give it a whirl.” Or, “Okay, Yodel SEO, let’s give them a shot.” And they’ve canceled your service and they’ve moved on. So you have to review the results with them. You have to explain what it is that you’ve done for them, and what you’re going to be doing.

The Most Important Thing Is To Explain What’s Next With Your Clients

You have to stay on the leading edge and not rest on your laurals. This is what I often see agency owners neglect doing. And it doesn’t have to be something crazy. It could be, “Hey, we’ve noticed some cool things coming out with chatbots. We’re working on some initiatives we can roll out and help you get better results with chatbots.” Or, “Hey, we’re going to test something with a new page on your website in order to help you attract some new services.”

They Need To See That You’re Thinking Innovatively About Their Business

They need to see that you’re going to be rolling out something new on a consistent basis. Retainer-based clients, yes, they’ll stay with you month after month, and sometimes they’ll forget about you and pay for a long time. But eventually, if you’re not bringing new things to the table, they will go elsewhere. So you really gotta be thinking about that in your monthly review call, in your entire communication process. You’re painting the vision for what it is you’re going to do for them next, and why they should stay with you for another couple months. That’s where retention happens.

Whatever You Do Innovatively, It Has To Be Scaleable

But, you have to do it in a scalable way where you’re not having to do things manually. You need to be able to say, “Okay, I developed this process to follow up with your leads. I’ve developed this process to do whatever the next thing is, to generate a tangible, measurable result and return on investment for the clients.” Just make sure it’s scaleable and you can offer it to all your clients.

Members Also Get Access To The Ideal Monthly Review Call Process

We’ve outlined for our members the ideal monthly review call process. I’ve got recordings of me actually doing monthly review calls and how I conduct these monthly review calls on the phone. If you’re charging your clients $1000, $2000, $2500 and more per month, then I think you need to do a monthly review. You need to be proactive, “Hey, I wanted to reach out to see if we can schedule a time to review the progress, go over the results and talk about what we’re going to be doing over the next 30 to 90 days.”

Do Not Hide Behind Technology

You cannot, and I want to emphasize this, you should not, hide behind technology. There’s all kinds of cool reports that will send automatically. It’s easy to be tempted to automate this, but that’s a mistake. That’s not the game to play if you’re focusing on retention. People who are paying at these levels need to feel like they’re doing business with a real person. So whether it’s you or somebody on your team, somebody needs to be showing up, going through the results, going through the plan, and painting the expectation for what’s next.

We’ve found that probably only 60% of our clients say, “Yeah, let’s do the monthly review,” show up to the meeting, and go over the reports. But you still have to be reaching out to the others. They have to feel pursued, even when they’re the ones saying, “Oh, I’m too busy. I’ve got too many calls. I don’t have time to do it.”

Hey, that’s fine, but you still need to show that at least you attempted. You called them. You emailed them. You’ve touched them on social media, letting them know that you’re trying to continue the conversation.

Here’s An Overview About Engineering Your Whole Retention Process

What I want you to think about most is, “How do you engineer retention?” And it should look like this:

► The first 30 days will set the pace for the next 90 days. If you can create a great experience out of the gates with your launch process, with your welcome basket, with painting the vision for what it is that you’re going to do, you’re going to “buy yourself ” at least the next three months.

• We got their usernames and passwords.
• The Onboarding Call was successful—and scheduled right away.
• They received your welcome basket right away.
• You provided a high level of communication.
• We set the baseline ranking report.
• The call tracking was set up and is generating information.
• You drip out the information about each accomplishment strategically over the first 30 days.
• The client enthusiasm and excitement level is high.
• You’ve got them thinking, “Okay, I’ve hired this company, they’ve got this great process, they’ve really nailed it. I feel good. I have nothing to question for the next three months. I’m going to let this thing run.”
• When you knock it out of  the park in that first 30-90 days, you’ve scored on that critical onboarding process.

► During the next 90 days, you have to be good enough to “buy you” the rest of the year—the next nine months. And the way you do that is by making sure that your service offering generates a tangible, measurable result. They need to know that the first 30 days, the first three months you were setting things up. They had a great onboard experience, but after that, they’re expecting to see results.

• During the three to the six-month range, clients need to get something. They need to see, “Okay, I spent the money and I got a return.”
• That’s where you have to think through the plan to get results for your particular niche. What will you do to get them a financial Return On Investment.
• Will you run a pay-per-click campaign?
• Do you need to run a call-only ad campaign?
• Thinking outside the box, will you build an email database of prospects and do email blast or sequences?
• What can you do to generate a tangible and measurable Rturn On Investment?

► And when you get past the 30, 90, nine-month timeframe, your strategy is to consistently reinforce value. You need to stay in front of clients, showing them, “This is what you spent, and this is what you generated in Return On Investment.” Continue to “pursue” them and show them the love they want to see. That keeps your retention rates high.

The Two Biggest Problems Members Report

Now, two things on this front that I’ve been hearing from some of you.

► One is, client results just aren’t there. “I’m doing the work. I’m doing the website stuff. I’m doing the SEO stuff. I’m running the pay-per-click campaigns. But clients aren’t getting a return on investment. It’s just not there. Either the pay-per-click is too competitive, or there’s not enough search volume for my niche. “And so in those scenarios, I’m going to really encourage you guys to be creative, to think outside the box, to be like, “Okay, what other things can we do for this type of client to get them a return on investment?”

Mark Petree is an amazing example of this. He’s rebranded as limo marketer and he now serves limo companies. He gets great results for his clients on pay-per-click. But, he’s always thinking, “How do I get better results for my client? What do they need?” And that’s what I want all of you to be thinking about right now.

The biggest thing going forward isn’t going to be the little things that you do on SEO, and pay-per-click, and citations. It’s going to be the ability as a marketer to generate revenue for clients—the revenue has to be greater than the expense of your spend and your services. How can you get them to the money? And so what Mark did, he looked at what his average client was doing and what they’re spending money on. They’re doing paid search and they’re generating leads—requests for Limo services. That’s when he discovered the second problem.

► Client leads are not converting. His clients were not converting most of those leads. A lot of those leads don’t get called back! Can you believe it? A lot of the web forms don’t get followed up. When clients do follow up, it’s usually a single email, set-it-and-forget-it, and game over. Mark was laser-focused on the question, “How do we get better results?” And in order to get better results, Mark needs his clients to be able to convert more of those leads into sales.

What mark did was brilliant. He actually developed a lead nurture campaign. He invested his own money, he charged extra for it, but he invested in building a lead nurture process. A lead comes in, now there’s multiple touch emails going out. There’s a whole sequence to convert more of those into sales.

Take that example and think about what you can do outside of the box that would absolutely, unequivocally prove your ability to generate a return on investment for your clients. Just make sure that you can package your solution and provide it to all your prospects in the future. It has to be something you can replicate.

Retention Becomes A Moot Point When You Geneate ROI For Your Clients

Retention becomes easy when you’re doing the followng:

• You’ve engineered a great launch process.
• You provide a great service that generates outstanding results—measurable ROI.
• Throughout the working process, you focus on the relationship.
• Everything in the working process is engineered, especially the communication processes.
• Your focus is always on how to fulfill on your promises.
• Thinking outside the box is the norm for how you work with clients.

I’m gonna wrap the session there. I am available for questions, but I want to hear what were your key insights from this session on retention? Feel free to post in the Comments below. Maybe  some things that were brought to your attention that you hadn’t thought about recently. Hopefully, that inspires you. Let me know your thoughts on how to get better retention and get more referrals.