Today we’re going to talk about getting started with a client and managing it. If you’ve taken on a project, you need to manage it well. You need to find out and agree on all the aspects that will concern your work and can affect the quality of cooperation.
As an experienced professional you need to:
1) Draw up a brief where the customer will answer questions
Here are a few of them:
– field of activity,
– logo,
– your competitors,
– The features of your offer (what’s good about it),
– what problems it solves,
– reviews, promotions,
– who your client is – gender, age, etc. (there are niches where the target marketer thinks that the target audience, for example, women, and the client says men buy more often)
– what results do you want to achieve from advertising,
– product margin, KPI, % applicability, % redemption/closing in a deal,
– material for ads (photos/video, etc.).
You can create briefs in Google Forms, Google Docs or a regular Word document.
2) Clearly and intelligently figure out what budget the customer is willing to spend in test mode and after the tests are completed
3) Agree on the launch time of the first advertising campaign and deadline, possible delays and other organizational issues
4) Decide clearly and in writing how much the services cost
Briefly about the cost of services. Probably 99% of the targeting work for a % of the advertising budget, but not always the size of the advertising budget and earnings from it are equal to the efforts made, so it is worth taking a fee for setting up advertising campaigns and maintaining them during the first two weeks. This also applies to LinkedIn marketing strategies.
5) If you see that the result may be negative, it’s better to let the advertiser know right away
There are B2B projects or just niches that don’t get much traction in the FB/Instagram targeting. Then tell the customer right away that the result can be dramatically negative, or vice versa.
It’s simple – if you’re showing an ad to an end user on FB or Instagram and the audience size is over 50,000, you’re likely to get results. If you show your ad, for example, to people who, in turn, have to sell your products or services to their customers, then the results will be weak. In the first case you will get to your end client, in the second – to the intermediary, and it will bring rather poor results because of the longer sales chain.
6) Make a plan for launching advertising campaigns
By doing this, we let the person see exactly what work is being done, and you will have a clear TO DO LIST.
7) Reporting
This is a very important item regardless of budget constraints. A person can, of course, open an advertising account on Facebook and see how much money was spent. But it is very important to show that X amount of money was spent and Y leads were received. And it’s easier for you and for the customer. And since most marketers, in one way or another, work for a % of the budget, then it will be easier to calculate the cost of the work.
Some customers require that the project be handed over – that is, to show what audiences and approaches were used, what worked better and what did not have time to do. Thus, it will be more convenient for the client to delegate these responsibilities to another specialist in the future. This should be taken into account and discussed in advance, whether you provide such information or not.
In order for the work with the client to be productive and everyone to be satisfied as a result, it is advisable to work out the following points:
– Discuss exactly what hours you are on call and when is your personal time. Because the person who buys your time and your work wants you to always be in touch, which is a priori impossible. So it’s better to say, “I’m on call between 9 and 18, and then it depends on the workload.”
– When something new is done, for example, the first 3 campaigns did not give good results, and you change the plan launches, it is better to inform the customer about it immediately. So that the person is aware that there are changes in the plan and in the launches.
– Take responsibility for your “punctures”. There are times when, because of the multitude of tasks, you have made a mistake in the text, pictures, or you have not scrutinized the launch of such a marketing plan. Okay, if it gives a positive result, but if it gives a negative result, it is desirable to write it off as a “penalty”. And you as the head of a small team better know right away, from whom you take the money – from the designer or an assistant.
Always try and experiment and in the end you will find the ideal strategy for working with the customer.