After signing in new clients to your agency and gathering all the information you need to start working on their campaigns, you will need to keep in touch with your clients through periodic reporting. The format and the frequency may vary significantly from one client to the other.
Client reporting presents you with the best opportunity to demonstrate your services’ value. If your client doesn’t get the whole picture, they may start questioning the worth of their investment. But worry not, as this post highlights five ways of proving your agency’s value through reporting.
1. Get The Right Tools
Creating compelling reports begins with using the right tools. If you are a startup and managing only a few clients, spreadsheets can do the job. But as your business grows, you may need to shift to better tools that can help simplify your reporting process, such as client reporting templates, some of which are free.
But if you are looking for speed and accuracy, you may want to consider an automatic client report template. Automated templates eliminate the need for manual data entry, which has high chances of error by updating the data automatically at the end of the month. If you are unsure where to start, you may want to look at this post on how to use a monthly client report template to get some ideas.
2. Customize The Reports
Having a standard report for all your clients may seem like a good option because it’s convenient and saves you some time. However, that may not be a good idea. Every client is different and needs to be treated as an individual.
For example, the metric that may matter to one client may not matter to another. The best approach would be to consider the metrics that matter for every individual client and ensure that those metrics appear at the top of their reports. This way, your clients will feel that they are getting value and that you understand their needs.
3. Disintegrate The Channels
When preparing a report, you can opt to report all the data from different channels in one report. Data presented in a single report is easier to digest even for clients with little data literacy.
Alternatively, you may want to create multiple reports for different channels. Doing that helps clients see the channels working for them and those that are not, so they know what to concentrate on or where to make changes needed to ensure value.
4. Use Your Reporting as A Chance to Educate Your Clients.
Not all clients you will get understand what digital marketing is all about. Some are in it because they heard it works. While the client may not be interested in complicated marketing lessons daily, your report creates the best opportunity to educate them on what your agency is doing and the results you have helped them achieve.
You can achieve this by encouraging your clients to ask questions about any aspect of the report they do not understand. If your client can see and understand the benefits they get from your services, they will likely stay for the long haul.
5. Be Close to Your Clients
One of the most common mistakes digital marketing agencies make is neglecting their relationship with their clients. One way of standing out from your competitors is to focus on making more money to establish a solid relationship with your clients.
Update them on what you are doing; rather than send out reports every month, you may also consider creating a video that walks them through the report explaining the different metrics and what they mean to their business.
