Agencies often focus on long-term growth strategies and ignore small tactics that can have a massive impact on business. We spoke with 3 successful agencies to find out how they’ve increased their revenue, streamlined their sales funnel and won over more clients by making minor changes to the way they work.
Their top recommendations:
Tackle projects in phases
Simplify price quotes
Prioritize client communication
Diversify client communication
Cater to a range of budgets
Here’s how to apply these micro-strategies and why they can help you grow your business.
1. Tackle projects in phases
“We saw a big impact from splitting clients’ needs into small phases,” said Mauricio Alanis, Founder and CEO of Cincodemayo Branding & Marketing. Based in Laredo, Texas and founded in 1992, Cincodemayo’s services include web design, branding and digital strategy.
In the past, Cincodemayo found their projects getting drawn out longer than planned as clients added on additional services. While this benefitted Cincodemayo’s bottom line, Mauricio found there was a better way to accomplish the same goal while allowing their clients to see results faster.
“We focus on clients’ immediate goals first and resolve those quickly,” said Mauricio. “Then, we can move to their secondary needs.״
"Clients love seeing that they’re moving forward, even if it’s just a small task, like a 30-minute design fix.״
How to put it into practice
The next time you’re headed into a project kickoff, work with your clients to prioritize their needs in tiers, with a focus on quicker wins first. You can still upsell additional services to help meet their needs when relevant. Just make sure those add-ons are accounted for in your project timeline.
2. Simplify price quotes
In the time it takes you to get a lead, schedule a discovery call or go back and forth over email, a prospective new client may have already gotten a full, detailed estimate from someone else. Mauricio suggests answering these 2 questions as quickly as possible to increase your competitive edge:
Will you be able to help?
How much will it cost?
“Agencies make this step so complicated. We simplified the way we offer leads effective and quick answers to these common questions. 2 specific tools helped us with this challenge: A visually appealing price list with assorted package levels and a price quote template,” Mauricio said.
How to put it into practice
You can create a price quote template that matches your agency’s brand and leave space for the client’s business info. This will save you time, provide leads with the information they’re looking for faster and give your agency a chance to beat competitors.
3. Prioritize client communication
Dave Place, Founder of Let’s Design Your Site, a full-service digital agency based in Boston, recently hired a client liaison.
“Before we had a client liaison, I often felt like I was trying to do 100 things at once,” Dave said. “Clients always want to check in, see how their website is going, ask questions, make changes. Before you know it, you’re fielding 20 emails a day before you actually start working on a website or pick up the phone to call new leads."
“Having a client liaison takes the pressure off of me to focus on the important rather than the urgent.”
How to put it into practice
If you don’t have the budget to hire more people, there are a couple other ways to liaise with your clients. You can delegate this responsibility to your existing team, or check in with clients using automated emails that run as frequently as you want. And of course, if a client responds, you can just pick up the phone and troubleshoot right there, right then.
4. Diversify client communication
Once you decide how to manage your communication, Mauricio from Cincodemayo recommends offering leads and clients as many channels as possible. In addition to email, phone and social media, Cincodemayo lets people contact them by text, WhatsApp, Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, Facebook Messenger and Instagram direct messages.
“We used to send all our clients to one communication channel only. We opened all possible channels, and it turned out that some markets simply love WhatsApp,” Mauricio told us.
“We offer instant WhatsApp consulting and have been able to solve simple tasks in 10 minutes. People end up very pleased and impressed by how fast and simple their free consultation could be.”
How to put it into practice
Talk to each client and ask them how they prefer to communicate. If they don’t have a quick answer, you can run them through all the channels they can use to get in touch. Their preferences might surprise you.
5. Cater to a range of budgets
“For someone starting with a staggeringly low budget, it can be challenging to get their website up to par,” said Celine Kir, Founder and Creative Director of Gallant Avenue, a boutique agency based in Toronto, Canada. “The quality of work we offer is simply not always a fair match for the low budgets some clients have."
Celine and her team overcame this challenge by bringing on a junior web designer to handle smaller projects.
“Now we have the capacity to take on lower-budget projects and increase our sales without bottlenecking bigger projects," Celine said.
How to put it into practice
While Gallant Avenue hired an additional designer, you don’t necessarily need to bring someone on full-time to cater to a range of budgets. Consider building a relationship with a freelancer who can handle lower-budget projects as needed. You can also work with prospective clients to show them what you can provide under their financial limitations. Whichever option you choose, just make sure you set realistic expectations.
The year ahead may be another challenging one for agencies and small businesses. Everyone will need to keep adapting. And by making these minor changes, you’ll be able to meet—and even exceed—your business goals for 2021.
Aviva Mandell
Wix Partners Product Marketing Manager
Sophie Miller
Wix Partners Marketing Writer
Living and breathing the world of web creation. Passionate about promoting agencies’ success.