Embarking on a new journey usually creates a sense of wild exuberance. However, the fear of the unknown can also instill feelings of uncertainty and doubt and at times even be anxiety-inducing. How do you quell the uncertainty and doubt? It is no secret that embarking on a new journey can be a daunting task. Moreover, it is easy to get overwhelmed if you have never done something like this before. The simplest advice is to plan.
Now, you may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with the client discovery process. In short, everything. Deciding to work with a marketing agency, like any relationship, is a decision that usually takes time. Although, like any successful relationship, in addition to time both people must put forth effort for it to evolve and flourish. Similarly, a fruitful working relationship between a client and their agency requires trust, transparency, and effective communication.
The discovery phase is a critical step in developing an effective marketing strategy that is in alignment with your organization’s business goals. So, what does a comprehensive client discovery process entail? Well, that is an excellent question. Let’s dive in and examine this process in greater detail.
1. Determine Organizational Goals
The first step is determining the organization’s goals and reframing those goals into relevant SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) marketing goals. For instance, your organizational goal is to increase revenue by 25% in 2017. How can this business goal be reframed into a SMART marketing goal? By using the research collected during the discovery process, we’ll be able to determine specific marketing strategies and tactics that will help your organization achieve your goals.
2. Obtain Competitive Intelligence
Next, we conduct a thorough competitive analysis of your industry and your competition. By performing a comprehensive competitive analysis, we’ll gain valuable insights into the marketing strategies and tactics that your competitors are using and what marketing strategies you can use to differentiate yourself from the competition.
3. Perform an Internal Marketing Audit
Once we have a firm grasp of the organizational goals and the competitive landscape; we’ll begin to review your organization’s current and past marketing strategies, audit your existing Martech (marketing technology) stack, and identify available marketing resources (e.g., in-house marketers, sales, SMEs, etc).
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Audit
Additionally, we’ll perform an SEO audit to help determine search engine optimization strategies that will improve your organic search engine rankings (e.g., Google, Bing/Yahoo, etc.) and may be able to reduce the amount of spend for paid advertising tactics (e.g., Google AdWords, Bing, Facebook, etc.)
5. Define Benchmarks and KPIs
Peter Drucker, described as “the founder of modern management,” famously stated, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Using Drucker’s maxim as inspiration, we’ll define and establish relevant benchmarks and KPIs (key performance indicators) to help guide the marketing strategy and execution of marketing tactics to help your organization achieve its business goals.
6. Conducting Stakeholder Interviews (BONUS)
Lastly, once the organizational goals are in alignment with the SMART marketing goals and the competitive intelligence has been compiled, you’re ready to begin the stakeholder interviews. Conducting stakeholder interviews will help both the agency and the client discuss the current business situation and how the marketing goals fit in with the overall goals of the organization.
And that’s it for the client discovery process. However, the work is only just beginning. We’re now ready to embark on the new journey. Although we don’t have a time machine or precognition; a completed discovery process is the next best thing and will provide invaluable insight that can be used to develop unique and innovative marketing strategies to position your organization ahead of the competition.
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