3 Easy Ways to Retain Clients

by Tara DuBois | Oct 6, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Sales Funnels, Strategy

When you’re in a service-based business, one of your biggest goals should be to retain clients — and that’s a huge goal and huge deal to us at System Envy. The longer you can retain clients, the stronger your relationship can grow and the deeper your roots can, too.

Plus, what’s more, exciting as a business owner than to know that people want to work — and KEEP working — with you?

I have a Business Management degree that has helped me a ton along the way, and one of the biggest takeaways I learned is that it is not difficult to keep people happy. Even when you don’t produce a desired result or mess something up (which happens! That’s life), you can still always manage and maintain a solid relationship with your clients.

Promise.

Here are our go-to methods for retaining clients within our agency.

3 Easy Ways to Retain Clients

I can assure you that retaining clients is really and truly not as hard as it might sound. While there are always things you can’t control, there ARE things that you can control — and these are 3 of your biggest.

1. Keep regular communication at the forefront of EVERYTHING.

Strong communication is the bedrock of everything you do as a service-based business, and it is the absolute best way to cultivate and keep a beautiful working relationship. By keeping your clients plugged in and letting them know what to expect, you’ll cut down on questions AND increase client trust — two very, very important things. Our rule at System Envy is to always respond to clients within 24 business hours, and to check in with our clients on Slack every 2-3 days (if not every day).

The goal? To never, ever have your clients reach out to find out where you are on a project.

I cannot tell you how many phone calls I’ve had with new clients who have told me their previous ad manager left them hanging or would take days and weeks to respond — and this blows my mind. It’s just so easy to send a quick email or Slack message, even if it says “I received this and want to give it some thought, I’ll respond soon.”

2. Set (flexible) expectations.

Everyone likes structure and knowing what to expect, which is where setting expectations comes into play. By setting expectations, having everyone crystal clear on what each person’s responsibilities are, and sharing detailed schedules and FAQ’s, it’s so much easier to stay on track and to keep your clients happy.

When it comes to setting client expectations — and team member expectations, but that’s a whole other post — let your clients know what’s included, let them know what’s not, and then go above and beyond where you can. Also, flexibility is part of life as a small business owner — so always leave room for that, too!

3. Professionalism is key.

When all else fails, professionalism should never. Ever. By creating a professional, personable, and empathetic persona and client experience, you can promise that you’ll always behave the right way and feel good about any response you’ll need to make. It’s also just a good reminder that you and your clients are HUMAN. People get moody, they go through things, and they have bad days — which is where professionalism has to continually show up.

I’ve had two clients in 11 years that went south… and fast — and it was a really important lesson for me, personally, of how important it is to stay professional. It’s not fun to feel particularly vulnerable as a business owner, and staying professional is how you can cover your arse (we don’t want nasty remarks floating around the interwebs, right?!) and know that you reacted in a way you can be proud of.

—

It’s not as hard as you might have thought to create really great working relationships, huh? If you’re intentional about how you run your business and treat your clients, you WILL keep and retain clients for a long time — and I already know you can do it!

What you’ll find behind the curtain of my Facebook™ Ads business, is someone who loves systems, strategy, family, fishing, flipping houses, interior design, everything Southern, animals, a hefty dose of sarcasm, Instagram stories and some of the most amazing clients on the planet.

Search

Entrepreneurship

Facebook Ads

How To

Launching

Sales Funnels

Strategy

0 Comments

3 Ways to Supercharge Your Ad Strategy

by Tara DuBois | Sep 22, 2021 | Facebook™ Ads, How To, Strategy

When it comes to your Facebook ad strategy, your mission should be this: to constantly, constantly level it up. We live in a preeeeeetty much ever-changing world, and Facebook is an ever-changing social platform — so learning to supercharge, level up, and mix up your Facebook ad strategy is KEY to growth.

Luckily, though, leveling up doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel. Instead, you just need some go-to methods for switching it up and expanding your Facebook ad techniques (think: engagement ads, optimizing your ad audiences, and being you).

Luckily, that’s what I’m here for! You ready?! Here are the processes and techniques I implement with my clients.

3 Ways to Supercharge Your Ad Strategy

Before anything else, remind yourself that the key to Facebook ad strategy is to learn how to pivot and grow, no matter what. When you can remember that you’ll always want to switch it up with your Facebook ad strategy, it’s way easier to get yourself in the mindset.

1. Run engagement ads.

When you want to constantly grow your audience and excite the people scrolling your ads, you have to hook ‘em in — and that’s where engagement ads come in. Not sure what engagement ads are? They’re just what they sound like! Engagement ads are specifically built to draw people in and encourage them to click, usually through methods like video, polls, or imagery.

My fave way to run engagement ads is video… allllll the way. Video ads are super engaging, they’re cheap to run on Facebook, and they’re instant — i.e., they don’t require people to drop an email or take a click. All they have to do is watch, making it the best way to introduce people to your brand or re-engage custom prospects.

Pro tip: don’t forget to create a custom audience based on the viewers who watched your video so that you can re-target them with a new ad. That way, they keep learning from you + engaging with your content. It’s like magic.

2. Combine your Facebook ad audiences.

Based on the current state of the Facebook algorithm, the more people the better. Enter: combining your audiences to maximize your conversions and your reach. This is the best way to reach a bigger audience and optimize your results, and it doesn’t require as detailed of targeting or segmenting as the past.

Wondering how to do it? It’s easy! If you have several different client or email lists of warm audiences, try combining ‘em all and using them in one ad set. If you have a bunch of Lookalike audiences, combine those together and use them in one ad set. It’s simple, really: the wider the target, the more room the algorithm has to find your people. Give it the room to find your people!

3. Be. Yourself.

Here’s the thing: people want to do business with PEOPLE. They don’t want to do business with faceless brands and engage with super dry ads, especially on Facebook. Your job? To remember this, because the more personality you can infuse in your ads, the better! Regardless of whether or not you’re trying to be the face of your biz doesn’t matter — just work to add in voice and joy and fun wherever you can.

The goal? Humanize, humanize, humanize. Unless you’re a massive business with tons and tons of recognition (like Gap or Coca Cola), odds are that not everyone is going to know who you are! Find ways to bring your (or your business’s) humanity into your ad sets, whether it’s by using a signature character a la Flo from Progressive or simply by intermingling in a non-corporate sounding voice.

—

No matter who you are or what kind of business you’re in, you know that trying new things and new methods is part of life — and that goes for your Facebook ad strategy, too. Instead of being worried about constantly needing to do something new, just try out different things and see what works. It’s that simple!