12 Tips On How To Increase Your Agency Clients

Not all clients are created equal. Some clients are a breeze, while others can be a real headache. As an agency, you know that your clients directly impact your bottom line. So, the more you can do to improve your client relationships, the better. This is especially true for agency clients, those who pay you to deliver a service, such as a business’s marketing, design, or web development. Not only can good agency clients make your day-to-day operations easier, but they can also help you grow your agency.

For example, they can provide valuable testimonials, case studies, and referrals for your business. They may even let you document your work with them and use it for marketing purposes to attract more of the same type of clients. Of course, only some agency clients will be a good fit. But with the right approach, you can improve client relationships and create a better experience for everyone involved. One way to do this is with the best agency management software.

This solution helps agencies organize client work, automate tedious processes, and enhance communication. As a result, it can help reduce the stress that often comes with working with agency clients. In this guide, we’ll look closely at agency clients, how to identify the good ones and ways to improve your working relationships with them.

What Do Clients Look For In An Agency?

1. Targeted Expertise is King

In recent years, many businesses have begun seeking agencies with specialized knowledge rather than relying on a single full-service firm. For instance, when Ford cut ties with WPP, it didn’t simply reassign the work to BBDO. Instead, it introduced Wieden + Kennedy as an “innovation partner” and added over 100 in-house marketers to perform essential duties.

Today’s clients want multiple sources of talent to move to a multi-agency model where they can tap into different partners for different skills. In other words, clients now want narrow expertise, not broad knowledge. These changes are primarily due to the internet. Businesses aren’t limited to the five agencies located within their hometowns. They can reach out to millions of agencies worldwide for specific skills. The increasing complexity of marketing doesn’t help either. Two decades ago, adding a handful of meta tags and writing 500 words of content was enough to ace your SEO.

You need half a dozen team members and a six-figure budget for the same results. In this environment, expertise always wins. Clients don’t want an agency partner that can do everything. They want partners that can do one thing well. In an ultra-competitive environment, narrow expertise gives them the confidence that the agency can pull off audacious, result-generating campaigns.

2. Be a Problem Solver, Not an Order Taker

Most agency-client relationships follow the same pattern: The client comes up with a problem, the agency develops a solution, and the client goes away happy. If you can do this consistently, you will have a successful agency. However, this approach limits your growth potential. It reduces your agency to a single-purpose ‘shop.’

Not only will your profits be lower, but you’ll also be one deliverable away from being fired. Your goal should be to become a partner. And to do that, you need to identify problems proactively. Suppose a client comes to you requesting a new YouTube campaign. If you’re offering services, you’ll simply ask for a brief, create the campaign, and cash my check. If you’re a partner, however, you’ll dig deeper.

You’ll try to identify why the client even needs a YouTube campaign. That might reveal that the client is struggling to attract younger customers. Which, in turn, can help you pitch a much broader - and profitable - campaign. Remember that clients might hire you for work, but they want solutions. If you can proactively identify these problems and offer solutions, you’ll give clients precisely what they want - even before they have an ask.

3. Be Strategic, Not Just Tactical

Agencies often need to catch up on tactical work - the daily ins and outs of producing creative and placing ads. While this is undoubtedly crucial and will be the bread and butter of your billings, clients need more from you. Take a look at Forbes’ survey of what agencies and clients consider to be necessary. Clients prioritize media strategy greatly, while for agencies, it’s only 10% of the pie. There is a gap that needs to be filled.

Strategy, especially concerning your expertise (such as media strategy), helps you stand apart. Anyone can buy an ad, but only someone who understands trends and creative work can map a long-term media strategy. By offering strategic advice, you can also move beyond the one-off campaign shop and become a true partner to your clients. It’s a win for everyone involved - clients get better advice, and agencies get long-term, trusted clients.

4. Increased Transparency

There’s nothing clients love more than receiving an unexpectedly inflated bill for a service they weren’t even sure they needed. Not! Agency operations are a mystery to most clients (and, to be fair, to most agencies). They can’t understand why something requires X number of hours to create or a project needs Y number of resources. Clients used to accept this lack of transparency in operations (especially billing) as a by-product of working with agencies.

However, clients have a far better idea of how agencies work in an era of productized services and on-demand pricing. Moreover, they can compare pricing for different services quickly online. In this context, a lack of transparency becomes a source of distrust. Clients are usually happy to pay for a service provided they a) knew about it from the start and b) know its value.

5. Improved Client Satisfaction

What do clients want beyond strategic advice, great creatives, and quarter-smashing results? Satisfaction. Satisfaction is the warm, gooey feeling clients feel when they know they’re important and their agency partners work day and night to make them richer. Satisfaction is being heard. It is getting a response to a query within hours, not days. It is being given clear, transparent updates on the project’s status.

Outside of results, client satisfaction is the number one priority for clients - as it should be for you. The trouble with client satisfaction is that you can’t easily measure it, let alone improve it. Sure, you can use tools like Net Promoter System (NPS) scores, but at best, it’s a crude measure. To honestly evaluate client satisfaction, you must measure client loyalty, solution, and communication metrics.

12 Tips On How To Increase Your Agency Clients

1. Scale Your Agency with Orchestra

Orchestra’s all-in-one growth toolkit helps creative agencies launch productized services quickly and efficiently. The platform provides a white-labeled client portal, task management tools, real-time analytics, and more to help creatives streamline operations and improve their services. With Orchestra, you can elevate your offering with no coding needed—just your Stripe account. The platform is built to grow alongside you, so you won’t outgrow it as you scale. Try Orchestra for free today to get started improving your productized services.

2. Boost Engagement with Interactive Website Demos

Creating interactive demos on your website dramatically improves user engagement and lead conversion. By allowing potential clients to experience your services through a guided simulation or interactive showcase, you immediately give them a taste of working with your agency. This hands-on approach helps demystify your offerings and builds trust by demonstrating your agency’s capabilities in real-time. To implement interactive demos, identify critical services or products that can be showcased interactively. Work with a web developer to create a user-friendly interface or use an out-of-the-box solution. You don’t have to make a complete platform for this to work! It can just be a fixed scenario prototype that shows critical deliverables.

3. Encourage Referrals from Past and Present Clients

Referrals come from happy clients that introduce your agency to new prospects. That means a referred lead already has some trust in your agency, making it one of the most valuable leads you can get. The first step in generating more referrals is simply to ask for them.

Reach out to current and even past clients and ask if anyone else they know could benefit from the results you’ve provided. But to put your new client acquisition on overdrive, take a page from other high-growth companies and create a customer referral program. To get your referral program going:

Choose The Offer

Pick an incentive, like a complimentary service or future discount, to give to clients that successfully refer a new lead.

Make It Easy

Create a simple form clients can use to refer other businesses.

Promote Your Program

Remind clients during regular meetings and via email so your referral program is always at the top of their minds.

4. Leverage Videos on LinkedIn to Attract New Clients 

Post videos on LinkedIn to showcase your expertise on the go. People don’t expect video content as much; most posts are text content or carousels. But when a video does appear, it makes an impact (since it’s so rare to see them!). In particular, LinkedIn is a platform where people build trust through direct, face-to-face relationships. If you’re not afraid to show your face (You shouldn’t! It’s scary for a few days, and then it becomes a habit), making quick videos showcasing some of your past projects or current ones is powerful.

5. Collect Reviews to Build Credibility

Reviews are like referrals on blast. A detailed review of your services in a place like Google can influence hundreds of would-be clients. And since 88% of people say an online review is as influential as a personal recommendation, reviews are an important method to get clients. Of course, providing excellent service is the first step in getting great reviews. Assuming you have that covered, you’ll want to attract new reviews in many ways. Here are a few tactics you can use:

• Directly ask (here’s a list of templates to ask for reviews by phone, email, and more)

• Add a link with a call to action on your website

• Hand out physical “leave us a review” cards

• Include review opportunities in customer satisfaction surveys. Remember to respond to reviews since most people reading a review also see your response. It’s a chance to celebrate great reviews and rectify the less-than-flattering ones.

6. Form Software Partnerships 

Form partnerships with software providers that serve your target markets. This can open doors to their user base, who might need your agency’s services. For example, if you're a marketing agency, partner with CRM or marketing automation tools like Pipedrive or HubSpot. If the software you like to use doesn’t have a partnership program, don’t be afraid to reach out! Partnering with smaller businesses is bright, as you can form relationships from the very start.

7. Network with Complementary Businesses 

Other businesses in your sphere need clients, too. You can help each other out by trading referrals. Let’s say you focus on content marketing, but one of your clients needs help running PPC campaigns. Offer the lead to a PPC agency you trust and ask that they return the favor sometime. LinkedIn is a fantastic place to build your professional network. Message complementary businesses and let them know you’ll look out for them if they do the same.

8. Use Niche SEO and Blogging to Attract Targeted Traffic 

Combine niche SEO strategies with blogging to target specific segments of the market. Use detailed keyword research to create content addressing your target niche's problems. This helps attract traffic from highly qualified prospects looking for precise solutions, positioning your agency as a specialist rather than a generalist.

Focusing on niche commercial keywords like “saas web design agency,” create an SEO page and then schedule 3 - 4 blog posts about that specific topic that link back to it. One page at a time, rinse, and repeat. Your organic search traffic will skyrocket if you keep at it for a few months.

9. Turn Employees Into Ambassadors 

Each of your employees has a network and a sphere of influence. As they work in their field longer, their influence grows. Tap into this network by helping your employees become ambassadors for your agency. An easy way to do this is to ask your team to post about important company milestones on their social media accounts.

Maybe it’s your 100th client, 10th anniversary, or company retreat. Posts like this help build your brand without pushing a hard sell, something many people would be reluctant to do on their feeds. Another option is to send employees to conferences. Junior team members can benefit from the educational and networking experience, and senior employees could be speakers or panelists. Either way, I’ll have people in the field drumming up awareness for my business.

10. List Your App on Marketplaces 

Listing your service or software on app marketplaces like Shopify, WordPress, or Salesforce can help you reach a broader audience. And you don’t necessarily have to develop from scratch! There are a lot of no-code tools that can help you with this.

Users visit these marketplaces for plug-ins and tools to improve their operations, providing a ripe audience for your agency. For example, Airtable Universe allows you to upload templates of your bases in Airtable, making it easier for others to get started and contact you for additional services.

11. Present Fixes to Prospect’s Problems

This is an underrated tactic for getting new clients. Google companies in your target niche and see what their existing ad campaigns look like. Make a list of what I’d do differently, then email the company with ideas for them to improve. This strategy works great for any type of marketing agency because advertising is, by nature, public.

I can also use tools like Ahrefs or Moz to learn more about what’s working with my prospect’s marketing efforts. Sure, some will take my thoughts and run with them. But many will want my help to ensure their next campaign is better.

12. Create Audiovisual Content 

While gated content can generate leads, ungated audiovisual content helps you build goodwill and establish authority faster. Create valuable resources like infographics, podcast episodes, and templates without requiring email submission, allowing easier sharing and broader reach.

This strategy can attract more visitors to your site and indirectly encourage them to engage with your other gated offerings. For example, while RevOps Automated offers a host of gated content that provides rich value thanks to deep industry insights, they also have a 100% free and open podcast that does just the same.

In the 1st episode, Natalie (CEO of RevOps Automated) interviews Mary Grothe in a gripping tale about why field sales have become so effective compared to digital that, by flipping their company culture, they were able to drive an all-time increase in monthly revenue: +50% more than their best month ever. It perfectly showcases how getting more clients requires thinking outside the box.

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Where To Market Your Agency?

Contributing to a Relevant Blog Boosts Your Agency’s Credibility and Visibility

Make it a top priority to contribute thought leadership blog posts to another company’s blog with the same target audience you’re trying to reach. This will position you as knowledgeable in your industry and open your reach to a new customer segment for zero cost. It’s easy to email editors or content marketers and pitch a story idea because everyone is looking for quality blog content.

Another great strategy is to get a content placement on a top-tier marketing media site such as Social Media Today, ProBlogger, or Moz. These sites have a high traffic volume, and your post will get shared a lot, driving a good amount of traffic back to your business through a placed link. Don’t forget that every time you guest blog, it’s a quality backlink to your site that improves SEO.

Word of Mouth Marketing Builds Trust and Credibility 

According to a Nielson study on consumer trust in advertising, people trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other source. The study found that 84% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust product recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends.

There are two key areas where you can excel that will leave your customers raving—results and service. Ensure you’re producing results that will leave customers telling all their colleagues that they need to hire your agency, too. And make your service shine with surprise and delight moments. Send thank you cards, never miss a deadline, be warm, and communicate often with your customers.

Business Cards Are Still Relevant

Despite being an age-old tactic, business cards still work in the digital world. You never know when you’ll meet someone who starts talking to you about their business and how they need good marketing advice. Whether at dinner or on vacation in the Caribbean, the ability to hand out a business card and give someone a reason to contact you later is never a bad idea. However, if you prefer having everything saved digitally, you can also give digital business cards a shot.

Networking Is Key to Growing Your Agency

An entrepreneurial friend who owns his own video marketing business once gave me great advice on how to grow a business. “Make a point to schedule two networking events weekly,” he said. Whether it’s attending a networking event or reaching out to someone you haven’t seen in a while or have never met, these are all great opportunities to talk about your business and how you might be able to collaborate. Chances are, the next time that person hears about someone needing marketing advice, they’ll think of you and the connection you made over a cup of double-brewed Sumatra.

A Professional Website Is a Must

When someone hears about your marketing agency, they’ll likely search for you online and visit your website to research more about you. Because you’re in the marketing world, the face of your brand is everything. Take the time to assemble a thoughtful brand and a cohesive, professional website. You can find top-notch templates for Squarespace and WordPress that make your site appear like you spent thousands on developers. If your agency’s homepage shines online and features your best client work in a portfolio, it’ll be an easy choice for new potential clients to sign on the dotted line.

Use Testimonials & Case Studies to Your Advantage 

In line with how vital word-of-mouth marketing is, testimonials and case studies highlight what your customers think about you. This helps potential clients build trust with your brand and decide to hire you. Don’t be afraid to ask clients after you’ve finished a project to provide a sentence or two for your website. Even better—ask them to recommend you or your company on LinkedIn, and then you can take out pieces of each recommendation and use them later as a testimonial quote on your site.

Client Logos Build Your Agency’s Credibility 

Featuring the logos of brands you’ve worked with on your website helps build credibility for your agency. When potential clients see other big brands who have said “Yes” to you, they’ll feel comfortable saying yes, too. Take the top six brands you’ve worked with who are the most well-known, and feature their logos in a client list on your home page. You can see an example of this on Hatchbuck’s home page.

Awards & Accreditations Build Trust for Your Agency 

When your marketing agency wins an award, it is a stamp of approval from the credible sources who hand out these awards. This goes a long way in selling your marketing agency as the best in the business since you’d likely beat out other agencies for the award. Enter campaigns you’ve created for your clients in the Shorty Awards or Content Marketing Institute’s yearly content awards. Also, look around online for accreditations highlighting that your agency is knowledgeable. The Google Analytics certification is an outstanding accreditation, which tells others you’re a whiz at tracking and understanding how online marketing works for your customers. Becoming a Hatchbuck Partner is another significant accreditation, primarily if you serve smaller clients.

Guest Speaking Opportunities Establish Authority 

Like the thought leadership guest blogs, speaking at conferences makes you stand out as a thought leader in marketing. Thousands of people attend marketing conferences each year to gain knowledge. If you or your agency’s employees lead a talk at a major marketing conference, people will Tweet about it – expanding the audience that looks to your agency for advice when they need it.

Social Media – Twitter Lists

Social media is a powerful tool, and far too vast to go into all of its capabilities in a paragraph in this blog post. Still, you should start building social media communities for your marketing agency. Regularly share what you’re working on and awards I’ve won, and connect with your clients online.

The best way to build your marketing agency through social media is by being very active on Twitter. You can create public or private Twitter lists to follow potential clients, competitors, brands, etc. Regularly converse with these brands, share their content, and build relationships so they’ll share your content in return and help spread the word about your agency.

Niche Online Communities 

Social media is really about the power of communities; niche communities are the most powerful. Block out time each week to participate in conversations happening around marketing in subreddits, Inbound.org, or LinkedIn Groups. Not only will you likely learn something new and stay on top of trends, but you’ll also start to build online relationships that will pay back two-fold when you have news to share or when they start recommending you or your brand.

Content Marketing & SEO 

Content marketing is the most powerful marketing tool you can use to market your agency. It is the number one marketing tool I tell everyone to invest in. Consistently writing quality content for your marketing agency’s website does several things: It showcases thought leadership to website visitors, increases organic search results, targets relevant keywords, and exponentially builds website traffic from qualified buyers.

It drives website visits back to your site from social media and gives you content to share on your social media profiles. It allows you to build premium content pieces that can be gated, if you choose, to collect a lead list. It also creates a newsletter list of customers and potential customers, which you can then utilize to spread the news about your agency.

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Benefits of A Strong Client-Agency Relationship

Boost Your Bottom Line with Strong Client Relationships

Growing client-agency relationships directly impact client retention. When clients feel valued and understood, they are far more likely to stay with an agency for the long haul. This loyalty stabilizes the agency's revenue and reduces the cost and effort of acquiring new clients. Consistent performance and understanding client needs are crucial to nurturing a thriving relationship.

Happy Clients = Happy Employees

Happy clients contribute significantly to a positive work environment. When clients express satisfaction with the services, it boosts employee morale and job satisfaction. This, in turn, aids in retaining top talent, as employees prefer to work in a rewarding and appreciative setting. The stability and growth satisfied clients provide create an environment where creativity and productivity thrive.

Reputation and Referrals

A reputable agency draws new clients, significantly fueled by referrals from satisfied existing clients. Positive word-of-mouth and testimonials act as powerful endorsements, reducing marketing spending and increasing the effectiveness of new client acquisition efforts. A strong reputation built on successful client relationships attracts new business and enhances the agency's standing in the industry.

Efficient Operations

Clear communication is a hallmark of a well-functioning client-agency relationship. This transparency leads to smoother operations, with fewer misunderstandings and delays. Efficient operations allow for the timely delivery of marketing campaigns, which can significantly enhance the client's market response and overall satisfaction with the agency's service.

Increased Revenue Opportunities

When clients trust their agency, they are more likely to invest in additional services, seeing the agency as a vendor and a strategic partner. This opens up avenues for increased revenue through upselling and cross-selling, benefiting both parties by maximizing the value of their engagement.

Innovation and Growth

Collaborative relationships are fertile grounds for innovation. When agencies and clients work closely, they can co-develop unique solutions that push creative boundaries and lead to market differentiation. This collaborative spirit is essential for innovation and helps propel both the client's and the agency's growth.

Strategic Partnership

Long-term relationships transform into strategic partnerships, benefiting both parties from deep mutual understanding and aligned goals. These partnerships go beyond transactional interactions and involve planning and executing long-term strategies that substantially impact the client’s business.

Competitive Advantage

Agencies with solid client relationships stand out in a competitive market. Clients looking for new agencies often seek those with a reputation for maintaining excellent relationships, which indicates reliability and quality of service. This competitive advantage is invaluable in a crowded industry.

Try Orchestra for Free to Grow Your Productized Service Today

Orchestra simplifies how to set up and launch a productized service. With this agency management software, you can create a streamlined and organized system for delivering your new service to agency clients. Orchestra helps you do this by providing an all-in-one growth toolkit that includes a client portal, task management features, and analytics.

Everything is white-labeled, so you can brand the service to match your agency. Design and coding skills are optional to get started. Instead, you can connect your Stripe account and customize your setup. Use Orchestra to improve your workflow and organize before you unveil your productized service to clients.

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