There are many things you’d like to say to clients (but don't) and then there are five words I recommend you never, ever say to your clients if you want to rise to the top of your game. Here they are:
Wait
Digital Marketing (all marketing today) is about speed. It's not about waiting to make it perfect. It's not about 100 percent perfection. It's about getting your program out there and not being afraid to make a mistake. Don't wait for the paint to dry.
Viral
I have a big idea for you Mr. /Ms. Client -- let's make a viral video!
How about you first make the video -- make it relevant, make sure it's connected to your brand, make sure it has a solid social marketing and seeding strategy, make sure it's funny enough, sexy enough, cute enough, emotional enough, or offensive enough to warrant pass-along status. Then hope that you get lucky.
Remember: For every Dove or Old Spice campaign (which is the old kind of viral video -- a great TV ad), there are thousands of others that only a handful of people saw.
On the flip side, viral videos can go the other way.
Free
It's true that it doesn't cost a thing to build a Twitter profile or set up a Facebook page. But now what? Your clients still need to figure out three major things:
1. How will you measure and monitor activity?
What tools need to be put in place to adequately monitor activity? It can't be a manual process -- find the best-in-class tools and build the cost into your client's budget.
2. What's the social media and training policy?
Make sure the intern isn't the only client voice on your client's social media front line. Also, you have to help clients understand that they need to clearly define the boundary between personal social media interaction and brand social media activity. Who is allowed to comment on positive or negative posts? How should they identify themselves?
All of these things are pretty heavy, important, strategic questions, and that means it's going to take billable hours to figure them out and then execute and integrate the solutions into your program.
Everything
"No man is an island," and the same should be true of advertising agencies. Collaboration is the future of our industry, so don't set yourself up with your clients as the only agency that could possibly help them succeed. "We do everything" is a promise that will be hard to keep.
Every agency is set up differently, and I know that it's often times a changing landscape in terms of what you can do in-house versus what resources you might need to bring in.
Yes
To wrap things up, don't ever say yes when you really should say no. I'm reminded of this time and time again -- even after almost 20 years in the business. Because things move so quickly in the digital space, we're tempted to forget the basic rules of business when communicating with our clients. For example:
The absence of no doesn't mean yes.
But yes can get you in trouble when used with abandon and without discretion. Sometimes "no" is the strongest, most honest word you can say.
Contributed by : Ms Smartee (Shilpa)
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