One of the greatest challenges facing digital agencies is the ability to retain their client base and sustain long-term collaborations. To run a successful digital agency, the first step is to cultivate a group of satisfied, long-term clients, but this can sometimes be quite a challenging task. A client retention strategy should not be something applied only when we feel a client is drifting away or expressing dissatisfaction; rather, it should be an integral part of the client relationship from the very beginning of your journey together.
When you align expectations with clients and define measurable goals and targets (such as monthly lead volume and cost per lead) and begin the work, it is usually easy to demonstrate the value of your activity and the return on your service fees at a relatively early stage. You perform your work properly and manage to achieve results that meet—and sometimes even exceed—the targets, and it is clear to your clients that they are getting good value for their money during the initial months. However, once the advertising accounts are in good shape, running smoothly, and generating strong results, it becomes nearly impossible to improve at the same rapid pace as when you first started working together. As a result, the client may begin to feel less satisfied, become more impatient, and sometimes even consider leaving.
Client Retention - So how can you actually retain your clients for the long term?
1. Align expectations with your clients regarding goals and the work process
Beyond understanding your clients’ numbers and business goals, you must understand how they measure success. In addition to studying their plans and product offerings, it is critical to learn how they define success. We typically work with success metrics based on KPI (Key Performance Indicators) targets and measure ourselves accordingly, but often our clients fail to look ahead. We need to explain the process they will go through once they invest in paid advertising (e.g., as the volume of inquiries/sales increases, the cost per lead/conversion also rises, etc.). The client has a specific expectation for progress (for example: during a certain period we managed to triple sales, but the client expected a 10x increase). The client needs to understand how things will look, what the work pace will be, and the challenges that might arise, and of course, they must feel that we are one team with the same interests and goals. When the client succeeds, we succeed too, and vice versa, as long as the goal and process are very clear to both sides.
2. Maintain frequent communication with your clients
The relationship with the client takes place across various communication channels (phone, email, WhatsApp, Zoom meetings, and face-to-face meetings). It is important to initiate frequent contact with clients (not just to provide a status update, but also to learn what is new with them). Such interest and involvement can ensure that your clients stick with you even during periods of lower account performance, as they will be more patient while you work to get the accounts back on track. Clients know that you are engaged, caring, and working on their behalf. It is recommended to hold regular in-person/Zoom meetings to strengthen the relationship. It is advisable to decide in advance on the primary communication channels and define the operating hours during which you are available.
3. Always strive to lead and innovate
Regular conversations with clients and your involvement in their business provide you with the perfect opportunity to strengthen your relationship with them. When you have established trust with clients, they are likely to be more open when you present and propose new ideas. (It is very important not to make clients feel that you are just trying to get more money out of them, but rather make them understand that you simply want to propel them forward.) When you guide the client and lead them forward through new initiatives and ideas, your agency will be perceived as client-focused and aimed at improving results and allocating the right resources accordingly. This way, you will encourage your clients and engage them to invest more, trust you, and maximize mutual success together with you.
Another way to ensure that you are always leading in your field is to occasionally perform a price comparison between you and your competitors, in order to assess market costs and explain your company’s pricing and its rationale in detail to your clients. Many companies in the market use price comparisons on their websites to highlight the price advantage to clients when choosing them. For example: when a potential client wants to leave their current internet provider, they search Google for the phrase home internet price comparison, in order to find the best competitors of their current provider. To view price comparisons of popular services and companies in Israel, visit the website Mishtalem Li Price Comparison.
4. Select your clients carefully
One of the best ways to keep client churn rates low is to be selective about the new clients you onboard. Even during the initial phone call with a prospective client, you can ask why they left their previous provider, understand precisely the client’s goal and expectations regarding both results and achievements as well as the joint work process. A thorough evaluation of their budget against their industry expectations must be conducted (ensure their expectations are proportional to the relevant domain). Established digital agencies should dedicate time to reflect and look for common patterns among clients who left after a short period; this will help identify problematic issues and may highlight specific client traits that signal a high-risk engagement.
5. Make sure to ask for feedback from your clients
Make sure to ask for feedback from your clients to check their satisfaction with the service (in writing or via a phone call). This serves as both a great opportunity for your agency to receive feedback on company performance and a chance to make your clients feel your commitment to providing them with the best possible experience. Clients appreciate having their voices heard, and when you do this, you win them over. If they are dissatisfied with the services, you will know in advance that there is an issue requiring attention and rethinking, giving you the time to plan and make necessary adjustments.
6. Report your work to clients as transparently and thoroughly as possible
One of the best ways to show clients that you are doing a good job is to prove it with numbers and progress in their advertising accounts. Highlight your achievements in regular reporting and take ownership of the results (leads, website conversions, revenue generated through advertising). A good report should be easily understandable and relevant to the client while also highlighting your work and achievements. Of course, it is important to first understand the goals that matter to the client, after which you can provide reports showing how you impact those metrics. Explain in simple terms what you have done in the accounts and what you plan to do in the future. Your clients are likely not well-versed in the terminology, language, and process of your work. Even if they have picked up the basic terminology, they might not understand how each metric correlates with one another. Therefore, your reports should help them connect the dots. Sometimes there will be situations where you fail to achieve the desired results; therefore, it is important to be completely transparent about the circumstances, and it is recommended to add as much detailed information to the numbers in the report as possible. For example, presenting Google Ads reports, Facebook, and Google Analytics together to paint a fuller picture of what is happening in their business. It is also important to provide as much contextual information as possible because, in certain cases, disappointing results may be beyond your control (election periods, landing pages/website issues, seasonality, etc.).
7. Include a minimum commitment period in the agreement
A professional and serious digital agency views itself as a partner in the achievements of the business it guides. Sometimes the fruits only ripen after a certain period of working on the ad accounts, and clients do not see results immediately. Therefore, a clause should be included specifying a minimum commitment period during which your work has enough time to bear fruit. It is recommended to include a minimum commitment of 3 months in the agreement and collect an advance payment for the first month of work to filter out uncommitted clients. A solid agreement and adherence to the clauses will maintain sound and fair working relationships with your clients.
In Conclusion
We all know that client retention is far more profitable than acquiring new clients for the company. It is essential to conduct customer retention processes on an ongoing basis, as marketing to new clients and attempting to acquire them requires far more costs and resources than investing in retaining existing ones. Therefore, a client retention strategy should not be applied only when we feel a client is drifting away or dissatisfied; rather, in a competitive environment like ours, we must provide the client with value-added service beyond the basics to make them feel great about being a client of our agency and to minimize churn rates.
About the Author:
Hadar Geva, Business Development Manager at “Fialkov Digital”, is responsible for business development, partnerships, and acquiring new clients for the company.
