Your clients are your money source. Train them and they'll stick to you and obey you.

So many agencies and much more clients! Look at the companies and see the trend: getting new media managers, having teams for online marketing, etc. But what happens if you’re an agency and they come to you and tell you what they want done? You know what they want might be wrong, so what do you do: are going on with their ideas to get the paycheck or are you trying to explain where they’re wrong? Because, remember clients don’t always know what online actually represents. That’s why I compiled a short list of preconceptions among the clients. Let’s see it and find the solutions

Those suits with the bags full of money. Those are their clients. Your goal is to get what’s inside the bags, right? But how do you actually get them? What is there to do? You just listen to them and obey or are you giving them some piece of advice for better results? Because, remember clients have some preconceptions. They want “that and that thing only”. And if you know that’s wrong, what do you do? Take their money anyway or are you trying to educate them?

What do corporate suits know?

It’s well known that guys corporate managers don’t really understand the online presence and what online marketing really means. For them, the internet is mostly perceived as e-mail and mobile e-mail. And, once in a while, some Google to find out where they should spend their vacations. Their knowledge about online marketing are limited to almost none. Usually, clients come with three or four examples in mind, some stuff they have seen once and they want something similar. Let’s see a few of these preconceptions:

1. I loved that Flash site! Can you make me one just like that?

   Usually, when it comes to presentation sites, a corporate manager – let’s say, the marketing manager, if you go to them to purpose a project – is going to show you some Flashy website. He knows it’s glowy and if he liked it, everybody will like it. This kind of managers are the ones that believe that advertising is irrelevant for their business, but hey!, it’s something you have to do either way. For them, people should come buy their products, even if their products are unknown. Those are the guys that give you headeacks and the ones you have to explain why they should have a web presence. They are the guys that will spend the money on a website that will never have enough traffic and then they’ll ask themselves why. Because Google’s bots and spiders don’t read Flash content? Duh!

2. Can we have a social network? I heard it’s cool for companies to have networks

   If you’re a small agency that works strategy as well as creation, design and development, then you should know that some of the marketing managers that still have some time to read the papers must know about successful online campaigns powered by Nike or Reebok. They will remember about social networks created for these brands and they will want one of their own, though nobody will be interested in yet another socialization website.

3. I think you should create it from scrap, even if we’re going to pay $100.000

   The point is some companies have a tendency to pay a ton of money on nothing. Yes, it’s good for you, as an agency, because it’s good money. But if the product is not exceptional – and this usually happens because after the launch no one will take care of updates or marketing the product – and people will find out the price the company payed you, it’s your image that will be burned.

4. Have you seen that overlayer? I want two of those!

   Company marketers don’t usually know that online advertising means. They take newspapers articles as guiding base. They don’t usually know what metrics mean. If they read an article about overlayer efficiency, they will take it for granted, not knowing that more than 40% of those clicks are by mistake and the time spent on their website is equal to none.

What should we do? It’s a crisis, for God’s sake!

The simplest way to deal with this kind of problems is called education. Educate your clients! Don’t be some slave obeying to any order just to get more money. It’s your image we’re talking about. It might happen that after taking five, ten, twenty projects payed with big money, someone will find out the prices. Tigh that to the lack of success of the projects you worked on and no one will want to work with you again.

What you can do is charge for consultancy. Advice your clients, train them and get their money. Then help them build a successful project. You might not get $100.000 for the first three projects, but those clients will stick with you. And if it’s successful, you’ll get new clients that will eventually pay you those money.

Educate your clients!

I know, that’s hard. But the general perception in the eyes of the marketers is that everyone knows everything about online advertising, online marketing strategies and they can handle it anyway. I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in two years for relaunching the same website three times in a row, just because someone who had no idea about the internet industry thought his a better online strategist.

If you don’t educate your clients, no one will. They’ll always do the same stupid mistakes and they’ll take you as the guilty one, though it’s not your fault. Get ready to change something! It’s in your best interest!