Maximizing Agency Value: Tips for Demonstrating Results to Clients

The Best Of

Oct 3, 2023, 2:13 PM

Hey all. I run an agency but feel like we don't do a great job of communicating our value to clients - mostly because we're so focused on executing/the day job rather than results we get. Anyone have any tips/advice on how to better demonstrate our value on a regular or ad-hoc basis?

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Jameson Treseler

Oct 3, 2023, 2:50 PM

We've artificially split our conversations with our clients in 2. 1) project progress updates, and 2) performance, what we learned, what we want to adjust.

Jonas Sickler

Oct 3, 2023, 3:04 PM

Hey Jon. There was a great discussion in this thread about it. Here’s a link to a longer comment.

I was speaking more broadly about applying SEO skills to marketing, but I think the soul of the comment applies here too.

As SEOs, we often undersell our value. The work we do can be extended across the entire marketing dept to drive more value

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Jonas Sickler

I think you should expand your SEO skills into marketing. Not because SEO is going anywhere, but because it helps you use your SEO knowledge to drive value across multiple marketing function areas.

How can you leverage the content assets you created for SEO through paid search? - Google Dynamic Search Ads

How can you help the social media team connect with a broader audience? - atomize blog content for organic social and run paid retargeting ads

How can you help the customer success team identify potential pain points with your product? Use search data to identify common questions and errors your customers ask

How can you support sales? Use search data to identify top competitor comparison queries

How can you strengthen your brand and control messaging during and after a crisis? Optimize your brands online assets beyond Your primary website.

The point is, the value of SEO extends far beyond organic search. It supports marketing, customer success, sales, product, and brand.

And as SGE and Bing evolve, the role of SEOs will need to as well. We will need to better understand consumer journeys, how searches evolve through the funnel, and how Google predicts needs and serves related “next step” content in the SERP

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Dana DiTomaso

Oct 3, 2023, 9:14 PM

Connecting what you do to your client's business goals is really critical. This is a 9 year old talk at this point but something we still do all the time:

MozCon 2014 - 26 - Dana DiTomaso - Prove Your Value

Jon Holt-Thomas

Oct 4, 2023, 1:50 PM

@jameson.treseler this makes sense as a great framework - do you think it's helped clients understand your value?

Jon Holt-Thomas

Oct 4, 2023, 1:51 PM

@jsickler this is great, thanks for pointing me to it. I agree, that SEO skills expand into other areas. Personally I'm pretty much a jack of all trades, but definitely focus more on SEO these days. Thanks for the insights!

Jon Holt-Thomas

Oct 4, 2023, 1:52 PM

@dana I must watch this! Thanks very much for the share!

Jameson Treseler

Oct 4, 2023, 2:28 PM

@jon yeah. It’s done three things:

1. Our points of contact can easily explain what’s going on, making them look like heroes.

2. Executives understand what’s up, and can make the right decisions/give us more priority

3. Devs aren’t combative. Cuz they know what we’re doing, why it’s important, and context, with a specific suggestion on a fox, they can work with that to find a better solution than what we propose, which often works way better