Identifying opportunities for growth and advancement for our clients is at the heart of what we do. It can be tricky: sometimes, what a brand leader wants for their organization differs from what they need. It’s more than chasing after trends or doing something easy — it’s finding valuable avenues for growth that are worth the time and effort because of the results they’ll yield.
As a true partner to our clients, we don’t just recommend things for the sake of revenue. We look for avenues that will actually benefit the organization, the brand, and the overall relationship we have with them.
Knowing when and how to find the best opportunities for a client can be challenging, but it all starts with knowing who the client is and what values their brand holds. Here’s how we identify opportunities for brand growth.
Method 1: Discovery
Uncovering new and unique brand opportunities usually begins with our discovery process.
A brand discovery involves carefully analyzing a brand, including its current presence online, its history, the competitive landscape in which it operates, and its competitors. We spend time combing through all of the details — including speaking with that brand’s internal stakeholders to fully understand its goals — so that we can come up with thoughtful, actionable recommendations.
We’ve found that our position as an outside party gives us a unique advantage in spotting opportunities. Our team approaches each new brand objectively: we’re sometimes able to see more than internal stakeholders because we’re approaching the project with zero biases.
Method 2: Reporting & Data Insights
Once a client relationship is established, there are many ways to identify new avenues. Often, they come up organically while reviewing reporting and analytics for a client. Digging into the data is one of the best ways to see the full story: how a brand is performing and where it might be able to grow.
When we see inconsistent metrics from a paid media campaign, a website, or an email campaign, it typically means there is a deeper issue at hand that is blocking success. In these instances, we discuss the issues with the client to see what might be causing the month-to-month changes. Maybe it’s an issue with brand awareness and people not fully understanding who your brand is and what it does. Other times, it might be due to an inconsistent email flow: leads are getting dropped because they aren’t hearing from your brand in a timely and regular manner.
For example, we once provided data and analytics reporting for a client whose paid media campaigns were handled by a third party. By digging into their paid performance and SEO, we found that their search strategy was seriously hindering their SEO because they were paying to go after so many branded terms that they had already ranked highly for.
We took these findings directly to the client and saved them money while improving their SEO score and the effectiveness of their search strategy.
Method 3: Relationship Building
Growth opportunities often present themselves in general conversations with clients.
It’s not uncommon for a client relationship to begin in one way — with a set amount of work or projects — and then evolve into something more extensive. The time and energy we put into our client relationships manifests into bigger opportunities, both for our agency and our clients.
For example, we’ve had a client come to us to execute one specific project, the setup, optimization, and reporting of a paid media campaign. Over time, and many analytics reports, we built trust with the client and they began to give our team more capabilities as they viewed us as an extension of their internal team. As a result, they were able to open up their own internal bandwidth to handle more creative projects.
Keep Your Eyes Open for New Opportunities
Sometimes, a strong opportunity presents itself through luck. But, more often, it results from keeping your eyes open and staying aware of what’s happening in your industry.
