10 Things Every Digital Marketer Needs To Do When Dealing with Clients

I have been working in Digital Marketing \ Technical Services in some capacity for the last 20 years. Whether it was working in IT and infrastructure services, managing service and client infrastructure, or digital marketing, managing large digital ad buys, web design, development and a ton of other services; in some way I’ve always been doing it. This business, Dieno Digital has been a business I’ve literally been running since I was 15 in some way or another. Nearly 25 years of freelancing building websites, running ads, doing SEO and a ton of other really geeky business stuff. The last 7 years its been a full-out business, with me managing it part time and having a small team helping me execute under my vision.

I’ve learned the ins and outs of dealing with all personality types, know when to fire clients, and know when to apologize to them. I’ve learned how to communicate with them, and most importantly small tactics in communication that go a long, long, way with providing clients (of any form) with first-class customer service.

Here’s five tips I have for everyone working in Marketing, specifically digital marketing for client relationship management.

Whether you are working in a marketing department in a large organization, a freelancer, or a project coordinator at a marketing agency; I believe these will seriously improve your client relations. If you communicate by email, use a video recording platform to show clients what you are talking about whenever possible.

1. Screen Recordings to ask questions and provide feedback
   Products like LOOM allow you to quickly record a screen recording of you walking a client through something on your computer. Its a simple chrome plugin, is fast, affordable (they even have a free account) and I highly recommend including it with specific questions about projects.
   
2. Scheduling Emails
   If your email service provider allows you to schedule emails I highly recommend using the feature. Gsuite has it (any email that you login to gmail.com to access) and so does Microsoft Exchange (Outlook). As you get to know your clients, start to understand how their days look, what days are the busiest, when do they have meetings, how is your timeline looking for the project you are working on? If you have to send a client multiple emails, space them out a bit. Give them a breather so they don’t feel bombarded. This is a great functionality to use if you work at an agency and they are receiving multiple emails from multiple areas of your business (ie, accounting, sales, project leads, etc..).
   
3. Email Delays
   I personally am an extremely passionate person. To be honest, at the beginning of my career, and in some specific moments even recently I have questioned myself “Why the F#$# do I even do this kind of work?”. The answer is because I truly enjoy it and always have, but sometimes clients get upset, or talk to you in a tone that you don’t appreciate, especially if its in writing through email. Set up a 5 minute delay on every email you send. This way, if you respond quickly, and emotionally, you can think after you typed it out, hit send, and then cancel it or change it. The idea of “taking a breath before responding” sounds good in words, but rarely works. Trust me.
   
4. Spend the extra 2 minutes, let them know you did
   We live in an interesting time. Some of us are bosses and business owners, some of us are team members at a company. We don’t always want to go the extra mile, but the thing to remember is that no matter where you are working, you aren’t just representing the company you are working for, or that specific project. You are dealing with a person, or people on the other side of that phone call, zoom meeting, or email. And trust me, they will remember you. And you there will either be missed opportunities, or opportunies gained in the future that all rely on you represent yourself, not just your company. I always recommend spending the extra couple minutes and letting the client know you did. You don’t need to shove it down their throat that it wasn’t included in the service agreement or original scope, but you can tell them “Hey Willie, I noticed the images you sent over to place on the homepage of your new site were massive in size and not optimized for web. I took some extra time and optimized them before loading them on to the page for you. In the future if you’d like me to provide you with some details for your designer let me know! Happy to help!”…. Trust me, being yourself, authentically, and caring about what you are doing will go a long way. For this specific project, and for future potential.
   
5. Create Boundaries and study Psychology 
   The reality is that when you are working with a variety of different people, from different backgrounds, life experiences and situations, you are going to have conflict. You are going to run into issues with people whether they are long time clients, new clients, or temporary opportunities to work on a project. You need to learn as quickly as possible how to identify personality types, understand your own personality type, and then adjust your communication style depending on the person you are working with. For example, sometimes you will be dealing with someone who appears cold via email. Thay may or may not be a dull person, but thats how they communicate. You don’t know whats going on on the other side of the internet in their life, and the reality is they could just be an a$$hole. Trust me. They exist. If you are dealing with someone who doesn’t appreciate 🙂 ‘s in emails or doesnt respond to questions about how they are doing, don’t put them in and don’t ask them. Just be straight to the point.  I highly recommend you look into “The 4 Personality Types, A, B, C, and D”, it will help you understand how to create boundaries and adjust your communication style.
   Also. Remember. Leave your work at work (even if your working at home, or work long hours). We’re all just people, doing what we want to do and trying to get something done. In the service industry (of any kind) there’s always going to be some BS you have to deal with. It’s life.