Do you know how to be a great client? I have had the honor of working with many amazing companies and people over the more than 30 years of my marketing communications career. Below are 10 tips on how to be a great client for an external marketing partner. (If you are reading this, cheers to you for your willingness to learn!)
Treat them like partners. Respect them as much as you want them to respect you. Don’t treat them like a “vendor” but rather like a valuable member of your team.
Keep them informed on roadmaps, company updates, etc. Don’t make your marketing partner ask each time. They will be 10x more valuable to you if you proactively keep them informed of company direction and status changes. Several clients in my past asked me to attend their monthly business strategy meetings or weekly company meetings.
Know what you don’t know. Do you have no, or only a few years, of experience in marketing? It takes academic training, excellent mentoring in the workforce, high-level opportunities at major companies, and experience with countless scenarios to become great at marketing. Don’t fool yourself that you know it all. Delegate the marketing work to people who really do.
Use them for their expertise. You hired them for their expertise, to fill some gap or augment your team. You are going to get the best ROI if you truly use all that expertise. Think of it as an educational experience as much as a one that builds your business. Ask them lot of questions.
It is okay to disagree, but do it respectfully. There may be times when you don’t agree on something and that is okay. Have a respectful debate, decide and move on. Don’t resort to being unpleasant.
Teach them what you know. It is exciting to learn about interesting new technologies, details on how a specific technology works, commentary on other companies in the industry, etc. I had a client once who very actively taught me about the mid-size drone space. He invested energy in me and that was highly motivating.
Share your travel info ahead of time. If you plan to be out of the office for more than a day for work or vacation, give your marketing person some advance notice. That enables them to plan all the marketing activity and communications around that (and possibly even their own much-needed vacations).
Try not to blindside them with anything. This goes back to the respect point. If there are going to be directional changes, you are going to hire additional internal help, you’re not able to get funding, the company is going under, whatever it may be, share that with your marketing partner as soon as there are inklings of this. They need to make their company’s financial plans accordingly.
Pay your invoices early. In our digital world, paying an invoice takes 5 seconds. Don’t make your valuable marketing asset wait. I can’t tell you how extremely motivating it is when companies pay early. It also is another way to show respect to the person and be a great client.
Have some fun. Working with a marketing person can be good fun. Sharing some laughs together goes a long way in making everybody’s workdays a little more enjoyable.
As always, thanks for reading. You are appreciated.
