Currently the e-commerce market on the Internet moves around 4.5 billion dollars. It is very important to position and stand out among so much competition, which is why having a digital strategy is essential.

Digital marketing agencies send proposals to their clients, RFPs.

This is a time-consuming process due to the extensive research required for an effective proposal, although it can often be ineffective because the resulting contracts do not lead to long-term business agreements.

Selling digital marketing strategies to clients is one of the best ways to foster an equitable relationship, with clear goals that allow growth, both for agencies and clients.

According to Agency Spotter, there are currently more than 120,000 advertising agencies in the US market. 

Digital marketers feel that in recent years the industry has become increasingly competitive. 

• If your business model depends solely on one-off projects like web development or social media marketing, your agency won't be able to compete, without a recurring revenue stream.

The key for digital agencies is recurring revenue and the ability to provide ongoing services to existing clients.

Agencies that provide digital marketing strategies or SEO services to clients survive and thrive in this competitive environment. They manage to become the strategic partner and this leads to a series of considerable benefits, especially in improving the ROI of digital marketing and companies.

Why do most clients not consider the importance of the digital strategy you offer?

• When agencies give the opportunity to put a strategist in front of a client, they can use these strategies to justify an idea that the creative team has already fallen in love with. But, many of these ideas have no strategic logic, and this is why it ends up being just another "sales pitch." No customer wants to pay for that.

• Strategists should not just focus on justifying a broader “channel mix” for client marketing, or on the agency's existing competencies, or justify activities that help the agency win new clients and awards. Put into consideration  The agency in the first place always decreases the value of the strategy results for the client.

• Agencies get caught in the trap of being “production houses'' for their clients. They must always avoid being stuck in that position, adding value to the business. Agencies must work to change the perception from being project-based, to strategy-based. Digital marketing strategy requires looking beyond your client's entire marketing scope, you must investigate the core business, sales process, CRM management, automation and tools to find ways to leverage the strategy into a strong revenue case.

Digital marketing strategies and campaigns

It is worth clarifying something: there is no confusing a digital strategy with digital marketing campaigns, there is a big difference:

Your digital marketing strategy is the series of actions you take that help you achieve your main long-term objective.

Your digital marketing campaigns are the fundamental elements or actions within your strategy, which are applied to achieve that objective.

For example, you could launch a campaign sharing your content on Instagram, with the aim of generating more leads through that channel. That campaign would be part of your strategy.

Even if a campaign lasts a couple of years, that does not make it a strategy, since it is still a tactic that is linked to other campaigns. to shape your strategy.

7 keys to selling your digital marketing strategy to your client

• Clients will only be willing to pay for strategy when agencies demonstrate that they are willing to make strategic recommendations that do not advance their own agenda first. We must avoid the strategy that only serves resource capacity and sales objectives. The client would only be considering their business objectives, not their package.

• Investigate business objectives, structure and process. Not all customers understand the real value of digital marketing and how it can increase sales efficiency and customer service. Highlights the impact of digital marketing strategy on real-time analysis that can benefit decision makers.

• Business leaders are always interested in scalable tactics while expanding into local and global markets. Focus on building a strategy that is reliable for different markets and is easily implemented in a multilingual and multichannel environment.

• Speak the language of numbers. Without numbers on future revenue forecast, business ROI, and advertising ROAS, your strategy will not have profitable returns for business owners. The digital strategy is an investment decision for entrepreneurs and they make the decision based on that.

• Moving from “Why” to “How” is what makes a solid strategy. Convincing your clients about the potential success of digital marketing is just the first step, while providing an actionable plan with progressive KPIs is the main goal.

• Deep deeper into the client's business, understand the challenges, speak their terms and learn their methodology. The digital strategy must be, detect the right approach and provide real solutions to your problems.

• Be realistic and avoid generic details like the importance of content marketing or infographics about the rise of mobile marketing, we all know these are included no matter what. Your strategy should focus on the situation and not a book with elaborate graphs. It will take approximately 30-40 minutes to convince the business managers, so you have to hit the nail on the head directly.

If you want to learn more about digital marketing strategies to apply them in your businesses, contact us. We will advise you.