Last year, booking.com parted ways with its ad agency, deciding to set up an in-house communications agency instead. Earlier this year, consumer goods giant P&G decided to slash agency and production costs by nearly $400 million, a cost-cutting exercise that’s been underway since 2014. At a time like this, it is best for content and creative agencies to safeguard their interests – on priority. Instead of solely chasing new business, content marketers and agency heads need to be wise and invest in their current clients.

Are you absolutely sure you’re doing everything to keep your client teams happy? Here are a few easy ways to ensure you meet their expectations:

1. Don’t ignore your clients

This may seem obvious, but you’ll be surprised how often content marketers get this wrong.

The key here is to treat your client relationship like any other relationship. Communicate transparently with them and make sure you give their business due diligence.

According to HubSpot’s Marketing Agency Growth Report for 2018, 15% of agencies don’t customise business solutions, nor do they stick to the agreed deadlines. No wonder, then, that 16% of agencies find it hard to retain clients.

Set reasonable deadlines, deliver all the promised tasks on time, and don’t be afraid to communicate last-minute changes if the need arises. And most importantly, don’t avoid responding to the client team’s calls or email!

2. Make their business needs your own

Clients bring agencies on board because they see them as problem solvers. Take the time to learn what your clients’ business pain-points are, dwell on them, and offer marketing solutions proactively whenever possible. This works in building a deeper, more dependable relationship, where the team trusts you to focus on the brand’s best interests.

3. Make realistic promises

Brands often part ways with their agencies when they feel disappointed with the lack of results.

While most will peg clients as unreasonable at this point, it will be a good idea to introspect as a marketer. Have you over-promised leads and results in a very short span of time? Is the brand team (unreasonably) expecting a lot of website traffic in just a few weeks? Did you agree to an impossible task when you should have actually said no?

Clients often want the best services delivered quickly, and it’s up to you to be firm and promise only what you can deliver. Set realistic expectations at the start. Missing too many deadlines or not delivering expected results will lead to a collapse of trust.

4. Learn from feedback

While being proud of your content strategy and creative prowess is absolutely understandable, it might not always be exactly what the client is looking for. This can be due to several reasons: an unclear brief, some miscommunication between your team and the client’s, or even a creative block. Your client might ask you to go back to the drawing board and rethink the whole plan or change a crucial part of the strategy.

It’s never personal. Disagreements happen, but don’t lose sight of the common goal: customer success! Constructive feedback provides a lot of scope to learn, and should be embraced.

5. Keep an eye on the competition

Your client’s business does not exist in a vacuum. It is motivated by what the competition is up to at all times. Hence, study the competition thoroughly before making any plans or charting any strategies. This also helps you fill any gaps the competition may have in its strategies.

Clients appreciate content marketing agencies who think two steps ahead of them – or at least attempt to. Again, they need to know you are involved in the growth of their business as much as they are.

6. Focus on thought leadership

Your client is always looking to be the best in the business. Yet, research by Forrester claims that 87% of marketers struggle to produce engaging content. They need their agencies to help manage their thought leadership initiatives.

This is a good opportunity for you to put together case studies of successful work, help create authored pieces on behalf of the brand’s senior leadership, design beautiful e-books, write research pieces, or create eye-catching infographics. This also increases the reach of your strategy and work within the industry.

In a nutshell

Clients are continually battling their metrics and problems. Partnering them in problem-solving for the long haul will take you places, as opposed to doing just the bare minimum required. If you’re looking at a fruitful association, you’re going to have to invest that kind of time and energy into making the relationship grow!