How We Build Trust As An Agency

Quality, Weekly Communication

Regular communication may be the most important thing that builds trust between an agency and the brand they represent. Digital marketing strategies require a lot of detail, planning, and execution. Those things simply can’t happen without regular check ins, updates, reports and collaborative communication. One email per week helps build trust by providing consistency. It also shows determination on the part of the agency. A succinct and strategically targeted email sent once a week will help both the brand and the agency stay on track. Whether it’s the brand manager who relates directly to the agency, or if it’s another member of the team, regular updates allow fluid communication between the agency and the company involved. Here are a few key elements that can make your client communication go from okay to excellent:

• Keep it short. No one wants to spend a lot of time reading an email that’s more than just a few lines. The communication needs to get straight to the point in a few words.
• Recap your last meeting next actions. Follow up from the most recent meeting next actions and a status report of what has happened since then always keeps momentum going.
• Provide context to the main goal of the brand. Always remind the client what is most important about their marketing. This should always be the agencies “gospel”. One example is if they are looking for inbound contact forms filled out on their website, provide recent stats on those forms, and where their referral sources.
• Add data. Look for successes in the data and suggest ways to build momentum with new tasks that have similar elements to what was successful.
• Always focus on deliverables. Agencies must always be transparent about their contractually-obligated deliverables in order to build trust. In your regular communication, be honest and open about deliverables. If you’re behind (it happens), schedule a meeting that provide solutions that will get you back on track. Do it sooner rather than later in order to not fall too far behind. Weekly reports are a great way to monitor deliverables.

Providing Industry Awareness and Best Practices

As much as every agency would like to consider itself the greatest agency in the world, it’s probably not the case. That means, it’s probably a good idea to regularly connect to what other agencies, brands, and top influencers are doing in the digital marketing industry. Insights gained from from this regular connection provide excellent opportunities to build trust with brands. Share fresh stats, content, ideas and other information from other sources beyond your own agency. This makes the brand feel more confident about the agencies ability to think beyond themselves, and use best practices from around the industry. Marketers who are learners will always outperform those who aren’t in the long term.

Customized Experiences

An agencies value is in its ability to quickly, and expertly provide deliverables to their brands. The problem is, each brand is different. They may need particular things as services that don’t necessarily fit into your agencies processes. There’s no real rule here. But, whenever possible, make it a priority to provide a few extra things that they will find useful. Maybe it’s a video, an idea, or a little more email communication. Whatever it is, the small things matter to brands. When they feel like they can depend on their agency for more than just cut-and-copy services, it reinforces trust.

Have more thoughts? Share with us in the comments!