Why do Digital Marketing Agencies Struggle to Gain Customer Trust?
The biggest asset for any business is the consumer trust. Without customer trust, a brand is nothing but just a dead presence online. After all, digital trust in a brand is the main driving force towards its success. When a brand is trustworthy, it will have a greater impact on the target audience. And will also attain better word of mouth amongst your customers. This way, the chances of acquiring more customers increase.
Consequently, it all works as a cycle where your brand performs well, exceeds the customer expectations, and the customers shop again. This is how one gains a loyal customer base. Though, it is not as simple as it sounds.
Trust marketing requires dedication, consistency and lots of patience. It is a result of endless hard work and practices that never fail to exceed the expectations of your target audience. But why do businesses struggle to gain customer trust?
According to stats, more than 80% of customers aren’t willing to do business with a brand they don’t trust.
This lack of trust is even more amplified when you are a digital marketing agency. Businesses rarely trust a soul when it comes to handing the key to their success in someone else’s hands. Thus, the big challenges faced by digital marketing agencies. Hence it becomes tough for a digital marketing agency to acquire customers and keep them patient enough to witness the results.
Importance of Customer Trust for Digital Marketing Agencies
The importance of online presence for even a big brand cannot be ignored. Especially when we have a hint of the entire world going digital in the recent past. This shows that the virtual world is even more important than the physical world.
Probably this is the reason why many businesses are reluctant to trust a digital marketing agency. As they are afraid to compromise their image and integrity in the digital world while performing amazingly well in the real world.
But the truth is, without digital marketing agencies, even the biggest of the businesses are going to suffer. This is because businesses are not aware of the modern-day SEO and marketing practices – which digital marketing agencies ace.
Unfortunately, several marketing surveys have proven to be bad news for digital marketing agencies. When it comes to trust, digital marketing agencies are still somewhat at the bottom spot. Without trust, a marketing agency cannot acquire customers.
But what are the reasons behind this lack of customer trust? And why do digital marketing agencies suffer the most from it?
Reasons for Lack of Customer Trust in Digital Marketing Agencies
The urge to still opt for traditional modes of marketing such as SMS, television commercials, Radio ads or billboards – over modern digital marketing is baffling to us.
These common man marketing tactics might be amazing and hold a great spot in your heart (old is gold) but let’s take a look at the reality of both sides.
On one end, there is a TV commercial which runs on every channel from sports, entertainment, and kids to news channels. The commercial is viewed by millions of people worldwide and is ignored by thousands every single day. Even the marketer isn’t aware of the target audience hence the commercial is reaching many eyes and ears that are remotely interested in it.
On the other side, the digital aspect of marketing is aware of each individual’s preference, the type of content that appeals to them, their search intent, common keywords used and what they are looking for. Hence the content that reaches them can be curated just right. A personal experience per se.
So, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to opt for the latter form of marketing for your business?
Before any snap judgment towards the businesses, let’s review the reasons behind the lack of trust in digital marketing agencies.
Transparency Issues
Getting into business with any brand requires a lot of work. Both upfront and behind the curtains. The trouble arises when a brand isn’t ready to give up all their information, expectations, future projections and schemes openly. However, this is understandable considering how the internet has got every piece of information at stake with high chances of fraud and duplication.
But this is where business formation between a brand and a digital marketing agency may experience a roadblock. It is thus important for a brand to trust a digital marketing agency to get personalized solutions to their problems.
How can digital marketing agencies help in this?
Well, the one-word answer would be transparency. Besides communicating your vision, goals, and business policies, digital marketing agencies should be clear about the strategy they have thought about the business. This calls for an initial consultation – which top-notch marketing agencies provide free of cost – and a discussion regarding the goals and plans the agency has for a business.
Start by explaining why and what information you will need from a business. Also, make sure to explain the privacy and protective measures your agency takes to protect the customer’s data from any breach. Secondly, it is equally important to win the trust of your customer and prove yourself to be their loyal partner towards business growth.
Here are some ways to address transparency issues between a business and a digital marketing agency:
- A clear discussion regarding the information you will need initially
- Sharing the constant progress with the customer regarding their brand
- Sketching a long-route strategy and explain your plans towards the business growth
- Detailing all how the customer information will be used
- Being honest about your agency’s capabilities
- Draw a clear time frame required for your strategies to work
Poor Employee Retention
A big challenge many digital agencies face is the loss of employees. this is because many employees shift towards independent marketing practices after gaining some experience. Also, an employee working with a business can form a relationship with the client and move independently from the agency. This affects the marketing agency’s image negatively. Due to this fact, businesses also find it hard to trust an agency with their confidential information.
How can digital marketing agencies tackle this?
Rather than giving control of a client to a single employee, it’s better to create departments. This way, a single client will be worked upon by a team and hence the information will be scattered. Also, by doing so, you are not risking your client’s information by keeping it all in the same place. Here are some additional ways to retain clients:
- A strong entrepreneur-client relationship
- Distribution of tasks among team members
- Rotating the client with different employees for multiple projects
Unclear ROI
Probably the biggest challenge a digital marketing agency faces in business. According to stats, 80% of marketers struggle to prove their competency via measurable ROI. This doesn’t mean that an agency doesn’t have any measurable plan regarding ROI. However, the nature of different campaigns and clients is what poses the challenge. The need for ROI is integral because even though a campaign is giving realistic success, without any data it is sceptical for a brand to trust an agency.
Thus, the ability to showcase your performance via ROI plays a huge positive step in proving your ability as a digital marketing agency.
How to Set a Clear ROI Expectation?
Obtaining customer trust without a Return on Investment is tricky, thus a simple formula can give a figure to expect.
ROI = Gross Profit – Marketing Investment / Marketing Investment
For a new client, the initial investment subtracted from the expected profit shows the net profit earned. The higher the value of ROI, the higher the business success. Another way to prove your ability via ROI is to use ‘customer lifetime value’ instead of the net profit.
Although, this only works for clients who have been in business with your agency for a long time. Here are some other ways to gain customer trust through ROI measures:
- Asking the client’s expectations.
- Discussing the entire cost required for a campaign.
- Take current industrial data into account.
- Set realistic expectations.
Overpromising
As the famous concept goes; in a business world, always under promise and overdeliver. Especially, if you wish to keep a customer’s trust. Instinctively, when acquiring a customer, the expectations are always set high. While a promising future is necessary to secure a client, it can often damage your reputation negatively.
Because if you are constantly speaking highly of a service/product but fail to deliver even once, the whole pyramid of trust falls. This can affect your business image and ruin the business with a client in the long run.
What you Should be Doing instead?
When getting into business with a new client, ensure you are open about your capabilities. It isn’t necessary to speak openly about your company’s flaws. However, when it comes to the positives, the expectations should be set at a realistic level. Rather than highlighting every flaw your client might face, explain the roadblocks that could occur. Here is how to avoid overpromising when working with a new client:
- Know your product – this means knowing every feature your product offers.
- Being aware of the industry .
- Setting a realistic rate for your service.
Why Is Trust Important in Digital Marketing?
Trust is the major foundation in any business-customer relationship. However, mainly for digital marketing agencies, trust is the cornerstone of successful marketing. This is because businesses that hire digital marketing services are in fact trusting an agency to deliver results for them.
Customer Trust: An Asset for Digital Marketing Agencies
You might have all the tools, and marketing tactics in your mind but if your agency can’t execute them well, they are undeliverable. Building customer trust isn’t a one-day job but a life-long commitment to deliver quality and put a customer before your interest.
That doesn’t mean that worrying too much about customer trust will ruin your revenue but isn’t satisfied customers the best business strategy of all times?
