How to Deliver Creative Marketing Assets That Your Overworked, Overwhelmed Clients Will Actually Implement
Does Getting on the Same Strategic Wavelength as Your Clients Feel Impossible?
As a Marketing Consultant or Creative Agency, you know from firsthand experience that when communication with a client breaks down, even slightly, it can be nearly impossible to deliver results that satisfy your client. It’s all too common for clients, especially those who are new to the business and marketing world, to look for a consultant because they want someone to come in and completely fix their marketing. Often, small business leaders and founders who don’t believe they have skills in marketing wish to pass this responsibility off to someone else to handle for them.
When that someone else is you, it’s rough because no single person inside your client’s organization takes ownership for the outcome of the project, and it’s far too easy for communication to suffer. Over time, communication breaks down as the client forgets to respond to your emails and you don’t get critical information you need to complete their projects. Deadlines are missed, invoices go unpaid, and clients begin to question what they are actually paying for - despite all your high-quality work!
If your clients aren’t holding up their side of the project by getting clear with you on their goals and buying into the strategy you’ve pitched, it’s nearly impossible to produce work that will make them happy. How can you churn out strategy and/or creative work when you’re not quite sure what they’re trying to accomplish? In this scenario, clients may ask you to jump from project to project without allowing the time necessary to really get results. It’s also far too common for small business owners to ask marketing strategists and creative advisors to boost their traffic without getting clear on a solid conversion or follow-up strategy, which you know is a disaster waiting to happen (not to mention a waste of money!)
When that someone else is you, it’s rough because no single person inside your client’s organization takes ownership for the outcome of the project, and it’s far too easy for communication to suffer. Over time, communication breaks down as the client forgets to respond to your emails and you don’t get critical information you need to complete their projects. Deadlines are missed, invoices go unpaid, and clients begin to question what they are actually paying for - despite all your high-quality work!
If your clients aren’t holding up their side of the project by getting clear with you on their goals and buying into the strategy you’ve pitched, it’s nearly impossible to produce work that will make them happy. How can you churn out strategy and/or creative work when you’re not quite sure what they’re trying to accomplish? In this scenario, clients may ask you to jump from project to project without allowing the time necessary to really get results. It’s also far too common for small business owners to ask marketing strategists and creative advisors to boost their traffic without getting clear on a solid conversion or follow-up strategy, which you know is a disaster waiting to happen (not to mention a waste of money!)
Dealing With Clients Who Don’t Want to Own the Results of Their Marketing Strategy Is an Industry-Wide Problem.
Getting clients to do their part in the relationship is difficult for most consulting businesses and creative agencies.According to Sara Rotman, Founder and CEO of MODCo Creative, one reason for many rocky agency-client relationships is because most clients do not pay enough attention to whether an agency is the correct fit for their needs. Rotman says, “More often than not, a client will seek out a company that has done a good job for a competitor or for the newest ‘shiny penny’ in the industry -- regardless of the client's own point-of-view, philosophy or needs. So it's hardly surprising that these relationships often fail.” When a client does not share your philosophy of what it takes to achieve success, it’s harder to get them to buy into your plans and pull their own weight when it comes to the actual implementation process.
Why is it so Tricky to Stay on the Same Page?
According to the Bedford Group, maintaining a good agency-client relationship “requires a substantial level of collaboration from both parties to make it effective and sustainable, especially in these trying times where patience is thinner, loyalty is weaker and understanding is more shallow.” Small businesses and entrepreneurs today have a huge number of challenges to deal with all at once. Trying to wrangle a bunch of complicated, technical systems, deliver a stellar product or service to their clients, and manage dozens of chaotic internal processes means your clients might not have the time or mental energy to maintain an appropriate level of communication with you.
So if this sorry state of affairs isn’t your fault, or really your client's’ fault (due to the hair-on-fire norm of overwhelmed entrepreneurs in the age of technology), is there actually a way to fix it?
So if this sorry state of affairs isn’t your fault, or really your client's’ fault (due to the hair-on-fire norm of overwhelmed entrepreneurs in the age of technology), is there actually a way to fix it?
What If You and Your Client Could Both Get Back to Doing What You Love?
We believe there is. What if you and your client had a shared toolset like ONTRAPORT that made it possible for both of you to get back to doing what you actually love to do and made the implementation of the assets you create as easy as the click of a few buttons?
You can achieve this outcome by developing a set of specialized skills in a hands-on certification program that empowers you to alleviate the burden of technology for clients. In a training program such as the ONTRAPORT Certification Course, you’d learn to create a streamlined process for pitching ideas, collaborating on strategy, and securing final approval for a crystal clear proposal for each one of your creative projects, working together in the same system that paves the way for simple implementation.
What if you had the tools to create email marketing sequences, message templates, Landing Pages, forms and more on behalf of your clients, then automatically implement them directly inside the system your clients use to run their businesses - without waiting on them to find the time to do it themselves? Instead of trying to string together a complicated system for your clients out of a fragmented collection of marketing and business tools, by partnering with ONTRAPORT you would be able to bring it all together into one system over which you had total mastery, and it would be easy for your clients to use themselves.
You can achieve this outcome by developing a set of specialized skills in a hands-on certification program that empowers you to alleviate the burden of technology for clients. In a training program such as the ONTRAPORT Certification Course, you’d learn to create a streamlined process for pitching ideas, collaborating on strategy, and securing final approval for a crystal clear proposal for each one of your creative projects, working together in the same system that paves the way for simple implementation.
What if you had the tools to create email marketing sequences, message templates, Landing Pages, forms and more on behalf of your clients, then automatically implement them directly inside the system your clients use to run their businesses - without waiting on them to find the time to do it themselves? Instead of trying to string together a complicated system for your clients out of a fragmented collection of marketing and business tools, by partnering with ONTRAPORT you would be able to bring it all together into one system over which you had total mastery, and it would be easy for your clients to use themselves.
Working With a Shared Marketing Toolset Is the Proven Solution
Marketing consultants and creative agencies who have become Certified in a toolset like ONTRAPORT confirm that this strategy allows them to serve their clients better and deliver more value.
Todd A. Lay, founder of Simple Back Office, said that “Taking the ONTRAPORT Certification Course has opened me up to the many possibilities of what the system can do, and to where it can be applied in a small business. I felt like after the first day I was ready to start implementing these tactics into my business right away! I highly recommend small business owners enroll in this program. I’m glad I did!”
Todd A. Lay, founder of Simple Back Office, said that “Taking the ONTRAPORT Certification Course has opened me up to the many possibilities of what the system can do, and to where it can be applied in a small business. I felt like after the first day I was ready to start implementing these tactics into my business right away! I highly recommend small business owners enroll in this program. I’m glad I did!”
Why Does Partnering With a Company Dedicated to Lifting the Burden of Technology for Entrepreneurs Make the Most Sense as a Solution to Your Problems?
Using the same system to streamline and automate your business and marketing processes that your client uses eliminates confusion and technological overwhelm.
Gaining the skill set to identify and eliminate unnecessary manual work in your clients’ sales, marketing and business processes reduces distractions and obstacles to the effective implementation of your strategy.
Becoming certified to serve a rapidly growing new client base will create opportunities for you to serve a greater number of clients and increase demand for your services.
You’ll join a vibrant community of other marketing consultants and creatives who freely share leads, marketing strategy and automation advice.
Clients will clearly see the value you’re providing to their organization so you’ll be able to retain them longer and create more rewarding relationships.
Sharing a common marketing toolset will keep you and your client speaking the same language so you can more easily find alignment when it comes to strategy decisions.
Check out the ONTRAPORT Certification Program website for more information about becoming a Certified Consultant.
