As an agency, you probably come across your fair share of clients who either don’t know much about data-driven marketing, or aren’t using it to the best of their advantage. When this happens, it’s crucial to make sure your clients understand why this type of marketing will help their businesses, and t0 explain why in easily digestible terms that a novice can understand.
Explaining data-driven marketing to your clients comes down to defining the term, illustrating the problems it can help solve, and outlining the tools necessary to make it happen.
“What is data-driven marketing?”
It’s important to first make sure your clients actually understand what you’re talking about — agency-client communication crumbles when there’s too much jargon, so explain things simply and in terms that are relevant to their businesses.
You can start with a simple definition: “Data-driven marketing is an approach that allows you to use hard numbers to prove your marketing efforts are working, better allocate resources, and find opportunities for growth.” From there, you can narrow your definition to better fit the specific industry or work that’s most relevant to your client.
Explain the problems data-driven marketing helps solve
Once your clients have the gist of it, you can start exploring the specific questions that data-driven marketing will help your clients answer. Depending on how well-versed in digital marketing your client is, these questions could be related to general business goals:
- Was our most recent campaign worth the money?
- Where do our most profitable customers find us?
- Do customers prefer to call our business or fill out online lead forms?
Or, they can be specific to certain marketing channels your clients already use:
- Do Facebook or LinkedIn ads generate more long-term revenue?
- Which blog posts are most engaging?
- Do our trade show leads actually turn into revenue?
It can be tempting to use the same presentation with the same examples for all your clients, but tailoring it to each one’s individual needs is worth the extra effort — you want your client to see how data-driven marketing fits into their business. For example, if your client is generating plenty of traffic but struggling with conversion, your agency could explain how the client can use analytics and heat map tools to determine where (and why) users drop off.
Be sure to avoid vanity metrics when giving data-driven marketing examples as well. Emphasize to your clients that your agency wants to get to the root of things, and help them come up with solutions that really work. This shows your clients that data-driven marketing is an essential tool for them to get the most out of their relationship with you. Trust is everything nowadays, and this kind of openness and transparency is an easy way to build it.
Outline the tools of the trade
Tools are at the end of this post because they’re not a solution in and of themselves — strategy comes first, and tool selection comes later based on what your strategy requires.
It’s easy for agencies and clients alike to get caught up in the latest marketing tech trends, but remember that each client’s needs will vary. Instead, tailor your tech recommendations according to individual needs. Not only is it more efficient, but it will give you more credibility, and strengthen your clients’ trust.
Read: How to build a marketing stack for your agency
Data-driven marketing is standard practice these days, but getting your clients on board isn’t always so easy. By keeping things simple and relevant to their needs, you can help them get on board with data-driven marketing, all while improving agency client communication and earning their trust.
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