As a digital agency, you face tough competition. Standing out is all about proving your value and providing clients with an amazing experience and even better results.
Client reports are a key part of the process. They offer a moment of connection between you and your customers, bring them up-to-date on what’s happening, and offer a chance to open up discussions about your services and potential improvements.
But a lot of digital agencies don’t make the most of their client reports. They simply pull together a few numbers, make them look pretty, and send them off. Instead, try leveraging these incredibly powerful resources to prove your value. As a result, you can reduce client churn rates, upsell new services, and automate reporting to save time and energy.
Here’s how you can prove your value with client reports.
1. Customize Reports
Every client is different and should be treated as an individual. Rather than bulk generating reports that all look the same and cover the same information, cater to individual client needs instead.
Consider the key metrics each client wants to track and put them at the forefront of your reports. There’s a high chance these won’t be the same for every client, and personalizing your reports in this way makes you stand out and show you truly understand your clients.
2. Set Goals And Constantly Track Against Them
Start by identifying the goals of your clients before generating your first report. This will help determine what information to include in your reports, but it will also ensure you can show improvements and changes to the metrics that matter the most.
By setting individual goals for each client and using them to prove results and value, you’re again showing that you understand their specific needs and are working hard to increase the numbers they care about the most.
3. Hone In On Metrics That Really Matter
Some digital agencies share every single metric imaginable with their clients. As a result, their client reports are lengthy and filled with irrelevant numbers that the client doesn’t really care about.
Instead of going all in, cherry pick the metrics that really matter to your clients and eliminate fluffy metrics entirely. Even though your reports will be shorter, they’ll be far more powerful and engaging.
4. Focus On The Value And Impact Of The Outcome
Presenting a load of numbers might look good, but it doesn’t necessarily give your clients the real information they need. Sure, stats and metric increases are powerful, but to really prove your value, you should share the impact of the results with your clients.
Ask questions like:
- What do these numbers mean for my client’s business?
- What story do these stats tell?
- How can we leverage these results to make improvements?
- What do we need to do to get these numbers to where they need to be?
Asking leading questions like this can help you uncover the impact of the numbers you’ve achieved for your clients and, as a result, will prove your value as an agency in the process.
5. Work Closely With Clients
Your relationships with your clients are incredibly important. These are the things that drive your business and ensure that you have repeat customers and can build a solid client base – after all, research shows that 68% of sales come from existing clients. The relationships you have are what sets you apart from cold, clinical agencies that don’t personalize their client experience or work to create deep connections.
Work closely with your clients by sharing regular updates and keeping them in the loop with the work you’re doing. This will help them understand the value you’re offering and put the work you’re doing for them into context.
Instead of simply sending client reports out each month, what about creating a video that walks the client through each finding or a video call to explain the different metrics and what they mean?
6. Use Client Reports As A Chance To Upsell
Make your client reports work harder for you by incorporating them into your marketing strategy. Use them as a chance to offer upsells and additional services to your clients that will prove your value.
For example, you can show clients the search engine rankings of their competitors and use that to upsell your SEO services. As well as educating your clients on key metrics, client reports are an excellent place to present the costs and benefits of other strategies and services you offer.
7. Present Data In A Meaningful Way
Different clients place importance on different metrics. Presenting your data in a way that highlights the metrics that matter the most to them will show you have a deep understanding of their needs.
Creating visualizations and telling a story through data can help your clients understand the report and use it to fuel future decisions. What this looks like might be different for each client. For example, one client might benefit from a graph format, while another might prefer a linear graphic representation of their data.
8. Choose The Right Tools
Creating engaging and compelling reports can be time-consuming if you’re trying to do it all manually. Instead of generating each report from scratch, use the available tools out there to automatically pull in data and translate it into key performance information.
There’s a high chance you’re used to using spreadsheets to do this and we know it can be tricky taking a leap of faith and stepping outside your comfort zone. But you’re probably wasting a lot of time putting together your reports if you’re not using tools to help, not to mention the other challenges that come with generating manual reports. We’re talking things like the inconsistent way different platforms present data, the need to pull each platform data separately, the potential human errors that come with cutting and pasting data, and a lack of strong visualizations to depict data in a meaningful way.
Tools make it much easier, and there are tons out there that make gathering and translating data seamless – and beautiful. Swydo helps you do exactly this.
Generating on-brand, beautiful reports packed full of useful data is a surefire way to prove your value as an agency.
Are You Making The Most Of Your Client Reports?
Your client reports present a multitude of opportunities; not only do they let you connect better with your clients, but they allow you to showcase your value. However, in order to do this, you have to approach them in the right way.
Start by investing in some relevant data-capture tools, finding out what your clients actually want and need from you, and presenting their reports in a way that’s easy to understand and hits their main goals.
BIO:
Ryan Gould, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing Services, Elevation Marketing
From legacy Fortune 100 institutions to inventive start-ups, Ryan brings extensive experience with a wide range of B2B clients. He skillfully architects and manages the delivery of integrated marketing programs, and believes strongly in strategy, not just tactics, that effectively aligns sales and marketing teams within organizations. You can reach Ryan on LinkedIn.