Communication can be the sole reason for failure when everything else goes right. At Clix, we have found the following tips to be effective when communicating with our clients:
1. Understand that communication is a two-way street.
I believe Jeremy Girard, a web designer, explains it best in his article Keys to Better Communication with Clients when he says, “the fact of the matter is that quality communication is not one-sided. It has to flow in both directions: from you to your clients and from your clients back to you.”
An online marketing firm needs to be sure to communicate all necessary information to their clients. It is the online marketing firms responsibility to check-in with their clients, but it is also the client’s responsibility to communicate back with their questions, comments, and concerns.
2. Follow-up with a recap of every meeting via email.
It would be ideal for both the client and the online marketing firm to do this, but at the very least the online marketing firm needs to provide a recap of every meeting. This is an opportunity to clarify any confusion from the meeting and provide documentation of all issues that have been addressed.
3. Be sure your online marketing firm responds to your questions/comments/concerns quickly.
If your online marketing firm goes many days without any type of response to you, not even something like, “I will get back to you within x amount of days,” then that shows that you are not a priority to them. Marketing firms should make it a priority to respond to all client inquiries within 24 hours.
4. Clients should provide their online marketing firm with as much information about their business as possible.
The only information that a client should not share with their online marketing firm is their accounting information. Other than that, your online marketing firm should be treated as an internal marketing staff member. This will make for the best results because the better your online marketing firm knows you, the better they can market you.
The new Penguin 2.0 update released by Google has shifted a strong emphasis to content in websites, social media, press releases, and blogs. The more fresh, quality content that can be made relevant for searchers, the better. One of the key ways to produce effective content is for a client to notify their online marketing firm about new updates, events, community involvement, awards, or anything else that could potentially be turned into content.