Last week I had the pleasure to present at SMX West in San Jose, CA. Great audience, great speakers and all around a good time. Now that the conference is over and I am resuming the daily grind, I’ve had a chance to reflect on my topic. Bottom line, any topic that details agency/client process is important and should be discussed more often. The nuts and bolts PPC topics are necessary, but those topics aren’t the only ones worth discussing (or presenting). Process is important – new client onboarding, account and campaign audits, how to hire the right people and how to handle clients (or how to handle agencies!).
As for onboarding, my biggest goal was to stress that granularity is key. It’s a big puzzle and it requires both the agency and client to put all the pieces together. Understand the past. Understand the future road map. Who makes the decisions? Who will be reading your reports? What data matters beyond the usual clicks, conversions and revenue? What has worked, what hasn’t and why? How will we test new channels, features and creative? Above all, planning is the anchor of making onboarding work and building a sustainable relationship.
How do you prepare for new client onboarding? And frankly, this question is open to both our agency peers, but also those folks working in-house! These topics flow both directions and are equally important for everyone.
