How do you show the value of working with an inbound marketing agency?

As I said in my first blog, one of the best things about working with an inbound marketing agency is the variety that every day brings. You walk into work with an idea of what’s ahead, and leave the office having had a completely different day…. I present to you “the perks of Client Services”!

Things are really starting to ramp up here at Six & Flow - my third week was another busy one, so much so that I ran out of time to write this blog! (*rolls eyes*)

Now I’m entering my fourth week at Six & Flow and it has been really interesting shadowing various members, being in a variety of meetings and phone calls and most importantly, familiarising myself with all of the clients. There is no cut off for when when I will be fully ‘up to speed’ with everything client-related. I consider the working relationship between the agency and the client as something that continually evolves - which is why it’s imperative to have the regular touchpoints.

We are fast approaching the end of June (HOW??!!) and this week I am going to put all my spare time and energy into working on how we present and demonstrate the value in what we do - AKA the monthly report.

Reporting for an inbound marketing agency

Here at Six & Flow, we have and use many tools in our arsenal, in terms of what we do for clients. Utilising platforms like HubSpot and Moz.com (for example), means we can be comprehensive in what we show and tell clients.

As digital evolves and varies, so to does the knowledge of the client. On one hand, we might have a client who, in the nicest possible way, doesn’t care what we do as long as it translates to leads. On the other hand, we may have a client who wants to know the ‘ins and outs’ and expects a detailed breakdown of what we have done, why we have done it and the results we have gained from these actions.

It’s my job to find these metrics and translate them into a clear and concise format for the client to digest.

I find the best and easiest way to do this is to go back to square one and review the objectives of that client.

• What do they want to achieve?
• Do we have targets?
• What have we been doing to reach these targets?

Laying the foundations for long term results

As with all things marketing, unless you’re prepared to put money into paid media campaigns (i.e. Google PPC and Facebook advertising) results don’t tend to happen overnight, so it’s a case of ensuring that all work we carry out lays the foundations to long term brand growth.

A website acts as the ‘shop window’ to online business and much like the high street, there’s a lot of competition out there. We need to understand how people are finding, interacting and engaging with the website. Collating this information will paint us a picture of how the website is performing overall.

Addressing questions like ‘how long are they spending on the page?’ - too little would tell us it’s not doing the job, too long might seem good, but it also might indicate an unclear purpose and a page in need of a better call-to-action. This is just a basic example of the kind of things we want to cover.

We know that online buyer behaviour is constantly changing. For example, if someone had told me five years ago that my purchases would be influenced through Instagram, I’d have laughed!

Today, people are less swayed by celebrity endorsements in favour of realism. Online businesses are dealing with ‘savvy shoppers’ who know where to look prior to making an informed purchase. And it’s down to us, the agency, to make sure we are present at every stage of that buyer journey.

Six & Flow works across multiple channels and platforms for clients, taking care of all things content, social and biddable (paid media). There’s a big story to tell when it comes to showcasing what we do….so wish me luck!