If you are going into a client report for the first time, then you are probably worried. There are so many metrics that you can use to present a client report, and even more metrics by which you can be judged. When you are just starting out, it is so easy to not have a plan.
But client reports are not arbitrary. Ideally, you and your client have a series of agreed upon terms for what they are looking to get out of you and your agency. And even if you don’t have that, there are ways of determining what is important to them.
But beyond that, the difference between a good client report and a bad client report does not come down to telling them what they want to hear. Let’s talk about how the top agencies in the world handle client reports, and what they try to do when the numbers aren’t in their favor.
Table of Contents
What are Client Reports?
The term “client report” is its own worst enemy. It does not tell you what you are reporting to your clients, only that you are reporting to them. But in that sense, it is also highly instructional: A client report does not mean delivering specific data. It is a chance to communicate with your client. That is because a client report is a presentation of what your agency does for the client.
If you want an idea of what the best agencies do for their clients, track down some marketing report examples. What you will notice is that there is a lot more to a client report than just talking about what numbers are going up and why (though those are important).
The What, Why, and How of Client Reports
The first two things big agencies look at when they deliver client reports is, as we mentioned, what metrics are adjusting, and why they are adjusting. If there are more Instagram followers, more YouTube subscribers, more customers at an online storefront, that is one thing.
But understanding why those metrics are increasing—and how to reproduce those results—that is another thing entirely.
On top of that is the third thing you need to be ready to examine: How you are going to respond to the changes in those metrics. This is how you turn water into wine when the economy is going south: Are sales going down? Good. That’s an opportunity to save the client.
Crafting Perfect Responses
Once you know what metrics are going down and why they are going down, then you can focus on presenting your solution for that problem. This is where you can really shine.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Clients don’t want an agency that only shines when the sky is clear. They want someone who can play with their hands. Facebook followers down?
Pitch a new ad campaign. Site traffic lower? Introduce a new automated mail service to pick it back up. Sales in the pits? Present a new sales campaign with proof of how it will work.
Conclusion
The real key here is to not think of client reports as an impossible task. Lots of people get it stuck in their minds that a client is always going to be irrationally fixated on unchangeable metrics. That is sometimes true. But you are never trying to change the metrics.
What you are trying to do is let your winners ride and pick your losers back up. If you treat your losing metrics as brands of shame that shouldn’t be acknowledged, then that is exactly what they will become.
About Carson Derrow
