How to Win More Clients by Offering Email Marketing Audits [Contributed Blog]

April 16, 2019 - 7 minutes read - Email Marketing

Here’s a quick dose of reality for 2019: there are over 70,000 advertising agencies in the US. And that doesn’t even take into account more niche agencies. There are agencies specializing in web design, PPC, marketing automation and everything in between. This oversaturation means that agencies are vying for the same clients – and that means your agency needs to find a way to stand out among the noise.

Before you can win clients and get them on retainer, you need a way to get your proverbial foot in the door. That means differentiating yourself from all of those cold emails they’re getting and making your value proposition more clear and more enticing.

Offer Them Something Unique

At Hatchbuck, we see immense value in giving resources away for free as a way to cultivate relationships with potential customers who aren’t quite ready to buy. We spend time nurturing them with relevant email content and marketing resources until they’re ready to take the plunge. We always practice what we preach so the resources we’ve put together are actual strategies we have experience developing and executing.

But as a marketing agency, you have the unique opportunity to take those resources a bit further to use in your sales process. Rather than giving away free, one-size-fits-all resources, you can offer customized, in-depth “foot in the door” offers that give your team insight into a potential client’s processes and give the potential client an idea of what they can expect if they decide to work with you long-term.

Crafting Your Offer

The offering can take any shape: a strategy, discovery or a process audit. Taking on a mini-project like this (which you should always charge for) before signing a long-term contract is a surefire way to set the relationship up for success. You’ll be able to take a deep-dive into their processes to see where they stand now, what their goals are and understand how to get them there. This gives you the time to learn everything that’s going on in their business before you put together long-term pricing.

So what should this “mini-project” look like? For example’s sake, we’ll outline the steps for building an email marketing audit for a potential agency client.

Put together a process survey: A short survey will give you a deep understanding of what they’re doing day-to-day in their email marketing process. Ask about the components below to make sure all of your bases are covered:

– Email tools they’re using (What type of email client are they using? Do they have any sort of automation to accompany their ESP?)
– How frequently they’re sending emails (Are they sending drip campaigns or one-off emails?)
– Who their radical buyer is (Do they have their list segmented by industry, interests, business size, etc?)
– The type of email content they’re sending (Is the content personalized or sent like a mass email?)
– The budget they’re working with
– What sort of inbound/outbound marketing funnel they have in place (What type of follow-up is in place after they’ve sent an email? How is their email list being built?)
– What their goals and KPIs are (How are they measuring the ROI of their email marketing efforts?)

Lay out best practices.

– Using the information from that process survey, your agency can put together a customized, actionable list of best practices. If the client really understands who they should be emailing and how frequently emails should be going out, they’ll simultaneously see where they need to make changes in their process.
– Before you hit them with the hard sell, make sure they understand the why behind your recommendations. Otherwise, they won’t see the value in shelling out their hard earned dollars for your agency’s services month after month.

Put together the scope of work, pricing, and timeline.

– Demonstrate how your agency is uniquely qualified to help them make those changes.
– Outline exactly what they can expect when entering a partnership with your agency which includes the team they’ll work with, the processes you plan to put in place, the budget it will take to reach the goals you’ve set.

While these points will give them a great idea of what to expect, they’ll also help your agency figure out the real scope of the partnership to understand the manpower needed and to avoid undercharging the client from the get-go.

Every business has different goals and different processes for achieving those goals. Rather than offering a price quote for your services right off the bat, take the time (and a minimal fee) to put together an in-depth review. Not only will the client appreciate you putting in the time and legwork to give them customized advice and pricing, but your team and your bottom line will thank you for properly scoping out the job.

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Jonathan Herrick is the co-founder, CEO and chief high-fiver of Hatchbuck, an all-in-one sales and marketing platform based in St. Louis. His extensive experience in digital marketing and sales strategies has been a driving factor in growing Hatchbuck’s sales by over 2,000 percent. A purpose-driven leader in all aspects, Jonathan has a passion for cultivating his team’s culture, spending time with his family and working to make a difference in the St. Louis community.

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Tags: agency, agency growth, email audit, email marketing, inbound marketing, outbound marketing, value proposition, winning clients