So, you’ve heard about affiliate marketing and how it can help your business reach new heights. You’re ready to take the leap and start an affiliate marketing program, but where do you begin? That’s where effective affiliate marketing management comes into play.

In simple terms, affiliate marketing management refers to the process of overseeing and optimizing an affiliate marketing program to ensure its effectiveness and profitability. It’s like being the coach of a sports team, making sure everyone is playing their best game and working towards a common goal.

Now, you may be thinking, “Why do I need to manage my affiliate marketing program? Can’t I just set it up and let it run on its own?” Well, as with any strategy, effective management is crucial to achieving success.

Effective affiliate marketing management can help you recruit the right affiliates, set objectives and goals, provide support and training, and monitor and test your campaign. It can also help you save costs by paying only for the desired actions and establishing long-term relationships with your affiliates.

In short, effective affiliate marketing management is like the secret sauce that can take your affiliate marketing program from good to great. So, if you want to take your affiliate marketing game to the next level and achieve your business goals, buckle up and get ready to dive into the world of affiliate marketing management.

What is Affiliate Marketing Management and Why Does It Matter?

Affiliate marketing management involves coordinating and managing all aspects of an affiliate marketing program to ensure it’s effective and profitable. It’s about taking the right steps to create a successful program that generates the highest possible ROI for your business.

It’s like baking a cake – you need to combine all the right ingredients (such as affiliate recruitment, goal-setting, support, and monitoring) and follow the recipe closely to create a delicious and successful program.

Without effective management, your program may not reach its full potential, which is why it’s crucial to understand the various aspects of affiliate marketing management and how they can contribute to the overall success of your program.

Which Type of Management is Best for Your Business Needs?

When it comes to managing your affiliate marketing program, there are different ways to go about it, depending on your goals and resources. Here are the most common types of affiliate marketing management:

First up is in-house management, where you manage the affiliate program yourself within your business. You handle everything from recruiting and onboarding affiliates to tracking their performance and paying commissions. This is a good option if you have a team to handle it or if you want complete control over the program.

Next, is outsourced management, where you hire an affiliate marketing agency or specialist to manage the program for you. They take care of everything from recruitment to optimization, freeing up your time to focus on other aspects of your business. This is a great option if you don’t have the expertise or resources to manage it in-house.

Then there’s hybrid management, which combines both in-house and outsourced management. You handle some aspects of the program, like recruiting and onboarding, while the agency or specialist handles the optimization and reporting. This gives you more control while still benefiting from their expertise.

Lastly, there’s network management, where you join an affiliate network that manages the program for you. They provide a platform for tracking, reporting, and paying commissions to your affiliates. This is a good option if you want to tap into a larger pool of affiliates without having to manage it all yourself.

Remember:

The type of affiliate marketing management that you choose will have a significant impact on the success of your program. Each type has its advantages and disadvantages, so choosing one that fits your business goals and resources is important.

In-house management gives you complete control over your program but requires a dedicated team to manage all aspects of the program. On the other hand, outsourcing management can save you time and resources, but you’ll need to find a trustworthy agency or specialist to manage your program effectively.

Hybrid management can be a great option if you want to have more control over your program while still benefiting from the expertise of an agency or specialist. Finally, network management is a good option if you want to join a larger pool of affiliates without having to manage the program yourself.

Choosing the right type of affiliate marketing management can significantly impact your program’s success. Consider your business goals and resources to determine which type of management aligns best with your needs.

Who’s Who and What Do They Do?

Affiliate marketing management involves the coordination of various stakeholders to ensure the success of the program. Here are the key players involved in affiliate marketing management:

Merchants/Advertisers

These are the businesses that offer the products or services being promoted by the affiliates. They are responsible for setting up and managing the affiliate program, recruiting affiliates, providing promotional materials, tracking affiliate performance, and paying commissions.

Affiliates/Publishers

These are the individuals or businesses that promote the merchant’s products or services through various marketing channels, such as websites, social media, email marketing, or paid advertising. Affiliates earn commissions for driving traffic and sales to the merchant’s website.

Affiliate Marketing Agencies/Specialists

These are third-party agencies or specialists that provide services related to affiliate marketing management, such as program setup, recruitment, management, optimization, and reporting. They help businesses save time and resources by managing their affiliate program on their behalf.

Affiliate Networks

These are online platforms that connect merchants with a large pool of affiliates, making it easier for merchants to find and recruit affiliates. Affiliate networks provide the tools and infrastructure for tracking, reporting, and paying commissions to affiliates.

Effective communication and collaboration between these key players are crucial for the success of an affiliate marketing program. By working together towards a common goal, businesses can achieve their objectives and maximize their ROI.

Why Effective Affiliate Marketing Management Matters for Your Business

As we have established, effective affiliate marketing management is crucial for businesses to achieve their marketing goals. In addition to driving more traffic and sales, affiliate marketing can help businesses build long-term relationships with their affiliates and access valuable expertise and resources. But what are some of the specific benefits of affiliate marketing management? Here are some key advantages that businesses can expect to see when they effectively manage their affiliate program:

Increased Revenue: Affiliate marketing can help businesses generate more revenue by tapping into a wider audience and driving more traffic and sales to their website.

Cost-Effective Marketing: Affiliate marketing is a cost-effective marketing strategy as businesses only pay for the desired actions, such as clicks, leads, or sales, instead of paying for ad impressions or clicks that do not result in conversions.

Long-Term Relationships: Affiliate marketing can help businesses build long-term relationships with their affiliates, which can become loyal brand advocates and drive recurring revenue.

Access to Expertise: Outsourcing affiliate marketing management to a specialist or agency can provide businesses with access to the expertise and resources they may not have in-house

Data-Driven Optimization: Effective affiliate marketing management involves monitoring and analyzing data to optimize the program for better results. This can help businesses make informed decisions and improve the performance of their affiliate program over time.

In short, effective affiliate marketing management is crucial for businesses to maximize the benefits of their affiliate marketing program. By understanding the key players involved and the benefits it brings, companies can make informed decisions about how to manage their affiliate program and achieve their marketing goals.

12 Essential Steps for Successful Affiliate Marketing Management

Having a clear understanding of the fundamentals of affiliate marketing management is essential, but it’s only the beginning. To achieve success in this field, you must also take a strategic approach and follow a set of essential steps:

1. Define Your Affiliate Marketing Goals

Before starting your affiliate marketing program, it’s crucial to define your goals. What do you want to achieve? Do you want to drive more traffic to your website, increase your sales, or build brand awareness? By having a clear idea of your goals, you can develop a strategy that aligns with your objectives.

Tip: Use a goal-setting worksheet to help you define your goals and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your progress. Be specific about your goals and make sure they are realistic and achievable.

2. Create a Marketing Budget

Like any marketing strategy, affiliate marketing requires a budget. Determine how much you’re willing to spend on your affiliate program and allocate your budget accordingly. Keep in mind that you’ll need to pay commissions to your affiliates, and you may need to invest in tools and resources to help you manage your program effectively.

Tip: Use a marketing budget calculator to help you determine how much you should spend on your affiliate program based on your business goals. Set a budget that allows you to achieve your goals without overspending.

3. Choose Your Affiliate Network

There are many affiliate networks to choose from, and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. Research different networks to find the one that best aligns with your goals and budget. Look for networks that have a large number of affiliates in your niche and provide robust tracking and reporting features.

Tip: Consider joining multiple affiliate networks to diversify your affiliate base and reach a wider audience. Compare the commission rates and features offered by each network before making a decision.

4. Set Up Your Affiliate Program

Once you’ve chosen your affiliate network, it’s time to set up your program. This involves creating a program description that outlines your commission structure, promotional materials, and guidelines for your affiliates. You’ll also need to set up tracking and reporting tools to monitor your affiliates’ performance.

Tip: Provide your affiliates with a comprehensive onboarding package that includes a program overview, promotional guidelines, and tips for success. Set clear expectations for your affiliates and provide them with the resources they need to succeed.

5. Recruit and Onboard Affiliates

To run a successful affiliate program, you’ll need to recruit and onboard affiliates who are a good fit for your brand. Identify potential affiliates in your niche and reach out to them with a compelling offer that motivates them to join your program. Provide them with the tools and resources they need to promote your products or services effectively.

Tip: Use social media and other marketing channels to reach and build relationships with potential affiliates. Offer personalized support and guidance to help your affiliates succeed.

6. Activate and Engage Your Affiliates

Once you’ve recruited affiliates, it’s important to keep them engaged and motivated. Provide ongoing support and training, create a community through regular communication and engagement, and offer exclusive promotions and incentives to keep them motivated.

Tip: Use gamification and rewards to incentivize your affiliates and create a sense of competition and excitement. Encourage them to provide feedback and suggestions for improving the program.

7. Monitor Your Affiliate Program Performance

To ensure your program is effective and profitable, you must regularly monitor your affiliates’ performance. Use tracking and reporting tools to track clicks, conversions, and sales, and analyze the data to make informed decisions about optimizing your program.

Tip: Use A/B testing to experiment with different commission structures, promotional materials, and incentives to see what works best for your program. Identify your top-performing affiliates and provide them with extra support and incentives.

8. Pay Your Affiliates

One of the most important aspects of affiliate marketing management is paying your affiliates. Choose a payment system that is fair and transparent, and make sure you pay your affiliates on time and in full. You can use payment methods like PayPal, wire transfer, or direct deposit.

Tip: Use automation tools to streamline your payment process and ensure accurate and timely payments to your affiliates.

9. Provide Regular Performance Reports

Regularly providing performance reports to your affiliates can help them understand their progress and identify areas for improvement. This can also help you build stronger relationships with your affiliates and increase their trust in your program.

Tip: Use reporting tools provided by your affiliate network to generate performance reports for your affiliates. Consider providing personalized feedback and coaching to help them improve their performance.

10. Stay Up-to-Date with Industry Trends

Affiliate marketing is a constantly evolving industry, and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and strategies can help you stay ahead of the competition. Attend industry events, read blogs and forums, and network with other affiliate marketers to stay informed.

Tip: Join affiliate marketing groups on social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to connect with other affiliate marketers and learn from their experiences. Follow industry leaders and influencers on social media to stay informed about the latest trends and best practices.

11. Continuously Improve Your Program

Don’t settle for a “good enough” affiliate program. Continuously look for ways to improve your program, whether it’s through optimizing your website, refining your commission structure, or providing better support to your affiliates.

Tip: Solicit feedback from your affiliates and use their suggestions to improve your program. Consider conducting surveys or focus groups to gather more detailed feedback.

12. Stay Compliant

Last but not least, it’s important to stay compliant with relevant laws and regulations governing affiliate marketing. This includes disclosing affiliate relationships to your audience, adhering to advertising and marketing standards, and ensuring your program complies with data protection laws.

Tip: Familiarize yourself with the Federal Trade Commission‘s advertising disclosure guidelines and ensure your affiliates are aware of these guidelines as well. Also, keep updated with relevant regulations and laws in your industry and location to ensure your program remains compliant.

By following these steps, businesses can establish an effective affiliate marketing program that drives traffic, generates sales, and builds brand awareness. Effective affiliate marketing management requires continuous monitoring, optimization, ongoing communication, and collaboration with all key players involved. With dedication and effort, businesses can maximize the benefits of affiliate marketing and achieve their marketing goals.

Key Tools and Resources for Effective Management

Managing an affiliate marketing program requires various tools and resources to keep your program running smoothly. Whether you’re tracking performance metrics, managing payouts, or communicating with your affiliates, having the right tools can help streamline your workflow and maximize the effectiveness of your program. Consider utilizing affiliate tracking software, which allows you to track performance metrics, manage payouts, and communicate with your affiliates.

If you need project management software that allows you to create tasks, assign them to team members, and track progress in real-time, consider using Teamly. With Teamly, you can easily collaborate with your affiliates, set deadlines, and keep everyone on the same page. This can be particularly helpful in managing your affiliate program and increasing its efficiency.

Another important resource for affiliate marketing management is industry news and updates. Staying up-to-date with the latest trends, strategies, and regulations in the affiliate marketing industry can help you stay ahead of the competition and make informed decisions about your program. You can subscribe to industry newsletters, follow industry leaders on social media, and attend industry events to stay informed and connected.

Finally, it’s important to have access to financial and accounting tools to manage payouts and commissions for your affiliates. You can use accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero to keep track of your finances and manage payouts to your affiliates. Consider using payment processing services like PayPal or Stripe to make payments to your affiliates more efficiently.

Utilizing these tools and resources ensures that your affiliate marketing program runs smoothly and efficiently, allowing you to achieve your business goals more effectively.

Overcoming Challenges in Affiliate Marketing Management

While affiliate marketing can be a highly effective way to drive traffic and increase sales, managing an affiliate program can also come with its own set of challenges. In order to make the most of your program and overcome these obstacles, it’s important to be aware of the common challenges that arise in affiliate marketing management. Here are some of the most common challenges you may face, along with strategies for addressing them:

Recruitment

One of the biggest challenges in affiliate marketing is finding and recruiting the right affiliates. It can be difficult to identify potential affiliates who are a good fit for your brand and have the right audience. To address this challenge, consider reaching out to affiliates who are already promoting similar products or services or use social media and other marketing channels to connect with potential affiliates.

Compliance

Affiliate marketing is subject to various laws and regulations, including disclosure requirements, advertising standards, and data protection laws. Ensuring compliance can be challenging, particularly for marketers who are new to the industry. To address this challenge, familiarize yourself with relevant laws and regulations, and provide clear guidelines to your affiliates. Consider using disclosure templates and providing training or resources to help your affiliates comply with regulations.

Performance

Measuring and optimizing affiliate performance can be challenging, particularly if you are working with many affiliates. It can be difficult to determine which affiliates drive the most traffic and sales and which are not performing as well. To address this challenge, use tracking and reporting tools to monitor affiliate performance and experiment with different commission structures and promotional materials to see what works best.

Communication

Effective communication is crucial for managing an affiliate marketing program, but it can be challenging to keep in touch with a large number of affiliates. To address this challenge, consider using communication tools such as email marketing, social media, or project management software. Provide regular updates and support to your affiliates, and be available to answer questions or provide guidance.

Fraud

Affiliate fraud can be a major challenge for marketers, as it can lead to wasted resources and lost revenue. Common types of fraud include cookie stuffing, ad stacking, and click fraud. To address this challenge, monitor your program for suspicious activity, and consider using fraud detection tools or services. Be vigilant and take action against affiliates who engage in fraudulent behavior.

By understanding these common challenges in affiliate marketing management and taking steps to address them, you can create a successful affiliate program that drives traffic and sales while minimizing the risks and challenges associated with the industry.

Everyone knows that being an entrepreneur or running a small business is hard work. This is especially true when it comes to getting leads, moving them through your funnel, and closing deals. It can feel like a cycle that never ends! But what if we told you there’s something you might be missing that will make everything that comes after the sale run smoothly? We’re talking about systems you can set up once that lead to easier projects, happier clients, and repeat business (see: fewer new leads required). That’s where an organized and efficient client onboarding process comes in.

By definition, client onboarding is the process of welcoming new clients into your business. But it’s more than just a welcome email or kickoff call! An impactful new client onboarding process begins in the sales stage and continues throughout every touchpoint a client has with your business.

Today, we’re covering what client onboarding is, why it matters, and walking you through some easy steps your business can take when onboarding a new client that will supercharge your business. So, let’s get into it.

What is Client Onboarding?

Let’s start with an essential question: what is new client onboarding? Client onboarding refers to the process of welcoming new clients into your business. You can think of it in four phases: pre-onboarding, onboarding, maintaining, and offboarding.

The Client Onboarding Process at a Glance

Pre-onboarding. This is typically the pre-sales or sales phase. During pre-onboarding, you’ll define your ideal client, set the project scope, agree on pricing, and create a contract. By streamlining parts of the pre-onboarding process with templates and tools, you can ensure that every new client’s first contact with your business runs smoothly.

Onboarding. Once you have agreed, you can begin onboarding a new client. This second stage is about relationship building and gathering what you need for the project. Some client onboarding steps in this phase are introducing yourself and your team through a kickoff call or welcome packet, gathering more details for the project, setting expectations, affirming the sale, and the more technical aspects of onboarding.

Maintening. Onboarding your new client is only the first part of your business relationship. The maintenance phase is about everything that happens during the project. Keeping trust and delivering on expectations. By building in consistent check-ins, project updates, delivering on expectations, and staying open to feedback, you’ll set yourself up for more straightforward, more successful projects.

Offboarding. You can think of this as a bonus. While offboarding isn’t technically part of onboarding (quite the opposite, actually!), it’s one last opportunity for you to affirm your relationship with the client, confirm the successful completion of the project, and increase the chance of referrals or ongoing business.

Why does client onboarding matter?

Following client onboarding best practices ensures that clients have a positive experience working with your business from the start. And the benefits of that are many.

Benefits for your business of client onboarding

More efficient projects. With a consistent onboarding process, you can better collect and organize the information you need. Your business will be better able to collect information upfront using a questionnaire or kick-off meeting checklist, which means less time setting up projects and less time chasing clients.

Less scope creep. Scope creep is one of the most challenging parts of client work. Your client has agreed on a proposal, the budget is fixed, and suddenly the expectations and list of tasks keep changing and growing. While this is an inevitable part of client work, a better onboarding process can effectively eliminate this by setting clear expectations and being very specific about what’s included and what is not. Create your onboarding process once, and you can use it repeatedly to avoid issues with new clients. But, before you do, check out this article on 7 ways to avoid scope creep to dodge any common pitfalls.

Better compliance with processes. Like scope creep, a client may come into projects with a different understanding of how to collaborate. This might include miscommunications about who is responsible for what, timelines for response, or which channels you use to communicate changes.

By creating a tight pre-onboarding and onboarding process – more on that below – you reduce the risks of misunderstandings and refine processes, making it easier to work together.

Relationships and repeat clients. The importance of the client relationship can not be overlooked in a smoothly running project. By establishing a positive, trusting relationship with your client initially, you earn more credibility throughout the project. Fewer client edits and more confidence in your judgment are positive for everyone! And suppose you’re successful in maintaining that relationship. In that case, your client is more likely to be satisfied with the project’s outcome and more likely to come back for repeat business.

Was it more of a one-off sale? There are plenty of businesses that run off of word-of-mouth alone. Even if you don’t have ongoing contact with your client after onboarding, it’s worth nurturing the relationship since it could mean more referrals or brand ambassadorship without much effort. Win-win.

The New Client Onboarding Process

Pre-onboarding

Let’s start with pre-onboarding – everything that comes before you onboard your new client. Since this is the stage where all the project details are determined, it’s a crucial step to get right. Here are some of the topics to consider in the pre-onboarding process.

Know your ideal client.

Ideal client. Avatar. Persona. Whatever you call it, the key to effective sales and marketing is understanding your ideal client down to the detail. Who are they? What frustrates them? What are some of their ideal outcomes? And you guessed it – how will your service help them get there?

By understanding your ideal client, you will not only save time and money. You’ll have happier clients who are a good fit for your business.

Know your offer

Knowing your offer can also be an important part of client onboarding. Why? It helps create clarity with clients about what you do and what you don’t do. And this is a time when being very clear works to your advantage.

By drawing clear lines around your services, you’ll be better able to estimate timelines, set the scope, and define the deliverables of your projects. When you work on projects of a similar nature, you’ll also be able to streamline every step of your process. Fewer customizations – from contract to final presentation – mean more time for all the other stuff you’d like to work on in your business.

Timeline, Scope, and Deliverables.

The next step towards effective pre-onboarding is creating explicit agreement around the timeline, scope, and deliverables. For example, when does your client need the work done? What exactly do they need support with, and which of these things can you provide? And at the end of the project, what will you actually hand over to them?

By covering these things in the pre-onboarding process, you can start the project on the same page and avoid future misunderstandings.

Pricing.

Sales and pricing is a divisive topic for entrepreneurs and business owners. Some enjoy sales, while others see it as getting in the way of what they actually want to do.

Regardless of how you feel about sales, discussing pricing upfront will ensure that it’s a good match for both the client and your business. Have the conversation early and in detail. Get clear on the scope of the project and set a price that includes some flexibility should the scope change. Set payment timelines and make these conditional for your work.

Proposal, Contract, and Payment

Time to make things official. With all the critical details covered in your pre-onboaring steps, you should have the information you need to create a proposal and contract for your client. This is also a time when you might collect a deposit.

Regardless of the relationship, ensure every pre-onboarding process includes these checkpoints. It will help protect your business if anything goes wrong and ensure everyone is on the same page before beginning the project.

Onboarding

Your proposal was accepted. The contract is signed (… right?). Now it’s time to begin the onboarding process. While pre-onboarding is about determining compatibility and expectation setting, onboarding is the phase to affirm the sale and collect all the details you need to complete the project.

Welcoming your new client: The welcome phase of onboarding a client might depend on the size of your team. If you’re a one-person business, you might have been the one that handled all the pre-onboarding steps, and this is just a formality. However, this could be the first touchpoint if the client is being handed off to another person or team.

An introduction would typically include a kickoff meeting or welcome packet. You can look at these touchpoints as both a chance to gather new information and an opportunity to educate the client or reinforce the relationship.

What is a kickoff meeting? The goal of a kickoff meeting is to reach a shared expectation around the purpose and objectives of the project. You can also use the time to firm up deliverables, timelines, roles, communication channels, and other terms agreed upon in the sales state. The purpose and goals of the project should be articulated, along with any key deliverables and timelines. This is an important opportunity for both sides to ask questions or give input to make sure you’re aligned before the project begins.

To run a successful kickoff meeting, go in with a fixed agenda and a list of topics you must cover. Then, take time to review what you already have and fill in the blanks.

What is a welcome packet? The purpose of a welcome packet is to provide new clients with information and resources, as well as to affirm the sale and set the tone for a project. Most often, your welcome packet will be PDF, but it also might be an email or webpage. Some things you might include in your welcome packet are a welcome letter, an overview of your business and what you do, key contacts, timelines, deliverables, any necessary forms or contracts, and an overview of the project. It also includes FAQs, resources, or anything else your client needs to access throughout the project.

Create a standard welcome packet with fields that you customize for each client. If you use a CRM tool, consider making this part of your automation, so clients automatically receive a welcome email when they enter a new project phase.

Project Information

With the introductions out of the way, you can move into collecting more project information. Think information about the business or more specifics about the project. Depending on the nature of the project, you can get this information in the kickoff meeting or with a more detailed questionnaire.

Let’s say it’s a development project – an onboarding questionnaire might include basic things like contact details and a business bio, but it also could consist of a place for your client to drop login details, content, or feature requests.

Review Expectations

While you are hopefully aligned on expectations in the pre-onboarding phase, reviewing these expectations is important once all the project details are out there. Some questions to ask:

• Has anything changed regarding the timeline or resources since the initial proposal?
• Does everyone have a shared understanding of the scope and deliverables?
• Do both parties know which means they need to communicate, collaborate, and request edits?

Take the time to go through your processes and deliverables in more detail and make revisions if needed. As you have more experience, you might list common sources of confusion that you address directly in the pre-onboarding and onboarding stages.

Technical onboarding

And, finally, the technical onboarding. This might be what you consider onboarding in the first place—sharing access to technology and tools and creating shared folders and processes. The technical onboarding of a new client is where the real collaboration begins.

To ensure the technical onboarding goes smoothly, have a plan in place. Understand the technical requirements in the kickoff meeting to know what access you need. Come prepared with all the tools and the team resources you need to complete the project successfully.

And since tools are kind of our thing, here are our recommendations for organizational tools and collaboration tools you might consider for your next project.

Maintaining a Relationship

While there’s an art to sales and onboarding, the greatest business skill is learning to maintain a good relationship with your clients. It doesn’t even have to be so complicated! You can maintain confidence throughout the project through simple touchpoints like check-ins, quick responses, and regular updates. You can delight customers and drive referrals and repeat business by delivering on expectations (and even exceeding them sometimes!). And finally, by staying open to feedback, you’ll have the opportunity to improve your onboarding and workflow moving forward.

Check-ins, regular updates, and timely communication

This advice applies not just in business but in every relationship. Communicate clearly, often, and consistently.

From the beginning, you might build check-ins and updates into your process. Decide on a cadence that makes the most sense for your project – weekly? After certain milestones? – and do your best to stick to these. Consistent check-ins are vital for building trust and keeping the project on track. You also might create standard updates (in the form of presentations, phone calls, emails, and reports) so the client can see how the project is progressing. Rather than making them come to you, be proactive with this information.

Another easy win in maintaining a relationship is communicating promptly. Again, this will vary depending on your communication channels and expectations, but setting a standard can take a lot of stress off the relationship. Create a set of criteria about how quickly you’ll respond to emails, messages, or phone calls, and communicate this to the client. When you don’t have the time, you might quickly acknowledge that you got their message and set an expectation on when you will address their issue. And since boundaries are essential, you can also be clear about when you’ll be offline, or your communication will be further delayed.

Deliver on expectations and exceed where possible

We’ve all heard the expression “underpromise, overdeliver.” And this is both true and powerful when it comes to client relationships. Since you’ve done all the hard work of setting expectations during pre-onboarding and onboarding, the maintenance stage is about delivering what you promised.

Delivering on expectations means presenting work you said you would do on time. But going above and beyond is often appreciated and can help drive client satisfaction. This might look like creating an excellent report or presentation, providing additional work free of charge, and adding features or customizations just beyond the scope. You might even consider building this “above and beyond” work into your standard package without telling the client upfront. People love to feel like they’re getting additional value, and if you can bake this into your offer without raising your rates, you’re well on your way to satisfied and repeat clients.

Receiving feedback

Feedback can be so much more than a generic, automated email that goes out at the end of a project. Good feedback is feedback that is achievable, specific, and constructive. However, for it to be valuable and nurture the relationship, it should be carefully designed.

Rather than asking for feedback only at the end, create an open channel for receiving it. This might look like asking your client directly on a call or via email, giving them comment access or agency to create tasks in your task management tool, or sending them a survey they can complete part way through the project. By collecting feedback during the project, you’ll have the chance to understand how things are going and course correct if necessary.

A tip for collecting helpful feedback is to be more specific. Rather than asking a yes or no question, give clients open-ended prompts. What specifically do they feel is going well, and what could be improved? Can they quantify their satisfaction? Is anything not aligning with their expectations? Suppose you can make changes without significantly modifying the project scope. In that case, this is an excellent opportunity to maintain confidence while you work on your client’s project.

Offboarding

You just completed a big project. Everything went great. Now what?

This is where your onboarding process kicks in. You can think of this as the last scene of the movie. Regardless of how every other part of your onboarding process went, this is the moment that your client will remember most! A good offboarding process should define the endpoint of your project, remind the client of the work you’ve done together, ensure they have what they need, remind them of additional services, and give them a final chance for feedback. When done effectively, it can be the thing that determines whether your clients work with you in the future, refer you, or come away from the relationship with a positive image of the experience.

All that said, this is something so few businesses do well! So set yourself apart by creating a solid offboarding process.

What is an Offboarding Meeting? An offboarding meeting is much like the kickoff meeting, only in this case, your objectives are to ensure you hit the project’s expectations. Your offboarding meeting is also an opportunity for both sides to ask questions or give input before the project officially ends.

What is a Goodbye Packet? Like a Welcome Packet, a Goodbye Packet is a customized document that might include a thank you note, an overview of the project and the outcome, a request for feedback or testimonial, resources or FAQs, any project files, and next steps. This is important because while a client might have received these things in bits and pieces, this is one centralized document that covers it all in one place. It gives them a place to reference should they need maintenance or additional services or want to refer you to a friend.

Create a template with customizable fields, and get in the habit of sending this out at the end of any project as a bookend on the relationship.

Client Onboarding Checklist

Phew! That was a lot of information. That’s why we created this client onboarding checklist. Use it to review the suggested processes and templates you can create once for smoother client onboarding.

Introduction:

Data drives decisions, and as a marketer, your job is to make a measurable difference to the business with your creativity.

Whether the goal is to drive conversions or sign people up to a mailing list, tracking what’s working helps the team to focus on the right things and avoid wasting money on what doesn’t work.

KPIs (key performance indicators) are a simple and effective way of doing just that.

Put simply, a KPI helps you to track some aspects of your marketing efforts to present a positive or negative result. It’s a method of data collection that’s been used in many departments of a business.

In this article, we’ll look closer at KPIs and their place within your marketing campaigns. We’ll also share our picks of the most important KPIs to consider.

What is a KPI?

A KPI (key performance indicator) is a fancy term for tracking progress toward specific goals.

It’s like keeping score in a game, but instead of points, you measure website traffic, conversion rates, or customer satisfaction.

The great thing about KPIs is that they help businesses and marketing teams to see what’s working and what’s not, so they can focus their efforts on the things that are making a difference. It’s like having a roadmap to success – you know where you’re going and can see how far you’ve come.

For example, a KPI for a marketing team might be the number of leads generated or the percentage of website visitors who end up making a purchase.

Choosing the right KPIs is important because they should align with the organization’s overall mission and objectives. Effective KPIs are also measurable, relevant, and timely – meaning you can track progress, relate to your specific goals, and are updated regularly.

What Are KPIs In Marketing?

As a marketer, you know your job is to help grow the business and increase revenue. And to do that, you must ensure your campaigns are working effectively.

That’s where KPIs come in.

KPIs are like a compass for marketers, helping them steer their efforts in the right direction. With KPIs, you can see whether your campaigns drive the desired results and adjust your strategies accordingly.

This helps you avoid wasting valuable ad dollars through methods like A/B testing, incremental testing, and retargeting.

Since the implementation of regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, marketers can’t rely on third-party data acquisition as much and, therefore, must rely more on their first-party data and be able to interpret those results through KPIs. This means that it’s more important than ever to understand the metrics that truly matter and how to track them effectively.

According to recent studies, businesses of all sizes agree that first-party data collection is the most important aspect of a digital media strategy. In fact, 85% of small businesses and 86% of medium to large businesses agree that first-party data is critical to success.

KPIs are also an excellent way for marketers to track professional work goals and show how their efforts contribute to the business’s overall success. By setting clear and measurable KPIs, marketers can demonstrate the impact of their work on the company’s bottom line.

So, what are some of the top objectives for marketers?

According to research, increasing customer loyalty, improving conversion rates, and optimizing the customer journey are among the most important goals. And with the right KPIs in place, you can ensure that your campaigns drive towards these objectives and ultimately help to grow the business.

The Most Beneficial KPIs for Marketing

Now that we’ve discussed KPIs and how they can benefit marketing teams, it’s time to take a deeper look at the most important metrics.

Here are the best marketing KPIs to create data-driven decisions:

Return on Investment

When measuring the success of your marketing campaigns, there are few metrics as important as return on investment (ROI). Consider it the ultimate test of whether your marketing efforts are worth the investment.

The beauty of ROI is its simplicity. It’s just a matter of taking the revenue generated by a marketing campaign and, subtracting the cost of that campaign, then dividing the result by the cost of the campaign. The resulting percentage is the ROI.

Suppose you spent $10,000 on a marketing campaign and generated $50,000 in revenue. Your ROI would be 400%. That’s an impressive figure that shows you’re getting a great return on your investment.

A high ROI clearly indicates that your marketing efforts are paying off. It’s proof that you’re generating significant revenue relative to your investment.

When tracking ROI, it’s essential to remember that it’s not a static metric. ROI can change over time, depending on the state of the market, your competition, and your own marketing efforts.

Conversion Rate

Conversion Rate is another important KPI for marketing. It measures the percentage of website visitors or ad viewers who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

Essentially, it measures the effectiveness of your website or ad in converting visitors into customers or leads.

To calculate conversion rate, divide the number of conversions (e.g., purchases or form submissions) by the number of visitors or ad viewers, and multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

For example, if 1000 people visit your website and 50 make a purchase, your conversion rate is 5% (50/1000 x 100).

Conversion rate is an important KPI because it can help you understand how well your website or ad is performing in terms of converting visitors into customers or leads.

A high conversion rate indicates that your website or ad is effective at convincing visitors to take the desired action, while a low conversion rate may suggest that you improve your messaging or design to better persuade visitors to take action.

Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) measures the cost of acquiring a new customer. This metric is important because it can help businesses determine the return on investment of their marketing and sales efforts.

Calculating CAC involves adding up all the costs associated with acquiring a new customer, including marketing and advertising expenses and sales and support costs.

Once you have a total cost, you can divide it by the number of new customers you acquired during a specific period to get your CAC.

For example, if you spent $10,000 on marketing and sales efforts in a given month and acquired 100 new customers, your CAC would be $100 ($10,000 divided by 100 customers).

If CAC is consistently high, it may indicate that changes need to be made to the sales process or that the marketing message is not resonating with the target audience.

Customer Lifetime Value

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a crucial KPI for any business, including those in the marketing field. It measures the total value a customer brings to a business over the entire relationship duration.

To calculate CLV, businesses can take the average value of each customer’s purchases and multiply that by the estimated number of purchases a customer will make over their lifetime.

For example, if the average customer spends $100 per purchase and makes an estimated 10 purchases over their lifetime, their CLV would be $1,000.

Having a high CLV is important because it means a business generates more revenue from each customer throughout its relationship. This is often achieved through effective marketing strategies focusing on customer retention and loyalty.

Churn Rate

Churn rate is a KPI particularly important for businesses that rely on recurring revenue, such as subscription-based services.

It’s calculated by dividing the number of customers lost during a specific period by the total number of customers at the beginning of that period.

For example, if you had 1,000 customers at the beginning of the month and lost 50 customers by the end of the month, your churn rate would be 5%. A high churn rate can indicate that a business needs a change to retain its customers, which can be a significant obstacle to sustainable growth.

Traffic-to-Lead Ratio

The Traffic-to-Lead Ratio is a KPI that measures the percentage of website visitors who turn into leads by taking action. This action can be anything from filling out a form to signing up for a newsletter.

For example, if 1000 people visit your website in a given period, and 50 of them fill out a form to download a whitepaper or subscribe to a newsletter, your Traffic-to-Lead ratio would be 5%.

A high Traffic-to-Lead ratio suggests that your website is doing an excellent job of attracting the right kind of visitors and getting them interested in your business.

On the other hand, a low Traffic-to-Lead ratio indicates that you may need to make some changes to your website, such as improving the design, making it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for, or creating more compelling calls to action.

Landing Page Conversion Rates

When it comes to online marketing campaigns, landing pages play a critical role in converting website visitors into customers. That’s where landing page conversion rates come in as a key performance indicator.

This metric measures the percentage of visitors to a landing page who take a desired action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to a newsletter.

A high conversion rate means that the landing page is resonating with visitors and compelling them to take action, while a low conversion rate suggests that the landing page may need some optimization to improve its effectiveness.

Marketers can improve landing page conversion rates by testing headlines, images, and calls to action to determine what resonates best with their audience. By continuously testing and optimizing landing pages, marketers can increase their conversion rates, which leads to more customers and revenue for the business.

Cost Per Click

Cost per click (CPC) is a common metric used in digital advertising to measure the cost of each click on an ad. This KPI evaluates the cost-effectiveness of paid search and display advertising campaigns and can help marketers optimize their campaigns for better performance.

CPC is calculated by dividing the total cost of a campaign by the number of clicks generated by that campaign. For example, if you spent $100 on a campaign and generated 50 clicks, your CPC would be $2.

If your CPC needs to be lowered to save on business expenses, you may need to adjust your targeting, ad copy, or bidding strategy to improve your results and reduce costs.

Website Traffic (Organic and Paid)

Website traffic is a term that refers to the number of people who visit a website during a certain period of time. This metric is important for marketers because it gives them an idea of how many people are interested in their brand or product and how effectively their marketing strategies drive traffic to their website.

There are two main types of website traffic: organic and paid.

Organic traffic refers to visitors who find the website through search engines, social media, or other online channels without the website owner paying for it.

Paid traffic, however, is generated through paid advertising campaigns, such as pay-per-click (PPC) ads.

Net Promoter Score

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric that measures customer satisfaction and loyalty by asking customers how likely they are to recommend a company to others.

The NPS survey typically asks customers to rate the likelihood of recommending a company on a scale of 0 to 10.

Customers who give a score of 9 or 10 are considered “promoters,” while those who give a score of 7 or 8 are “passives,” and those who give a score of 0 to 6 are “detractors.”

The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. This results in a score between -100 and 100, with a higher score indicating higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

View Counts and Impressions

View count refers to the number of times a piece of content has been watched, listened to, or otherwise consumed, while impressions refer to the number of times a piece of content has been displayed or appeared on a user’s screen.

These metrics are commonly used in social media marketing, video marketing, and other forms of digital marketing to measure the success of a campaign or piece of content.

They can provide insight into how many people are seeing and interacting with the content and help managers make informed decisions about optimizing and promoting their content for maximum visibility and engagement.

Click-through Rate

Click-through rate (CTR) shows the percentage of people who clicked on a link or ad after seeing it. It can be used to evaluate the performance of email campaigns, paid search ads, social media ads, and other types of online marketing.

To calculate CTR, you divide the number of clicks between a link or ad by the number of impressions (or views) of that link or ad, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

For example, if an ad was shown 1,000 times and received 50 clicks, the CTR would be 5% (50 clicks ÷ 1,000 impressions x 100).

A high CTR is generally seen as a positive indication of the relevance and effectiveness of an ad or campaign, while a low CTR may suggest that the ad or campaign needs to be improved.

It’s essential to keep in mind, however, that CTR should be considered in context with other metrics, such as conversion rate and ROI, to get a more complete picture of campaign performance.

Engagement Rate

Engagement rate is a KPI that measures how actively customers or followers engage with a brand or content.

It tells you how interested and involved your audience is with your brand. This can include actions like liking, commenting, sharing, and other interactions on social media, as well as email opens and clicks and website engagement.

To calculate the engagement rate, you need to divide the number of engagements (likes, comments, shares, etc.) by the number of impressions (the number of times the content was viewed). The resulting percentage is the engagement rate.

A high engagement rate indicates that your target audience is interested in your brand or content and finds value in your offering. This can increase brand loyalty, customer retention, and even more conversions and sales.

Share-of-Voice

Share-of-Voice is a metric that measures how much of the overall conversation around a particular topic or brand is attributed to a specific company or product. It’s a way to evaluate your brand’s presence and impact in a given market.

You can determine your Share-of-Voice by comparing the percentage of conversation that your brand is responsible for. For example, if 1000 social media posts were in your industry in a given month and your brand was mentioned in 250, your Share-of-Voice would be 25%.

Share-of-Voice can provide valuable insights into your brand’s visibility and reputation in the market and help you identify opportunities for growth and areas where you may need to improve your marketing efforts.

Social Shares

Social shares are a metric that measures the number of times a piece of content, such as a social media post or blog article, has been shared on social media platforms. It’s a way to gauge engagement and interest in the content and the brand.

When people share content, it helps to extend the reach of the content and increase brand awareness. It can also indicate the level of loyalty and advocacy that customers or followers have for the brand.
Not every KPI we’ve mentioned today will be directly relevant to your organizational goals but it is important to carefully choose and prioritize the KPIs that align with your overall objectives.

By regularly tracking and analyzing your KPIs, you can gain valuable insights into your organization’s performance and make data-driven decisions to improve your business operations. Remember to keep in mind that KPIs are not static and may need to be adjusted over time as your business evolves and your goals change.

Regularly reassessing and refining your KPIs can help ensure that you stay on track and continue to drive success for your organization.
Not every KPI we’ve mentioned today will be directly relevant to your organizational goals but it is important to carefully choose and prioritize the KPIs that align with your overall objectives.

By regularly tracking and analyzing your KPIs, you can gain valuable insights into your organization’s performance and make data-driven decisions to improve your business operations. Remember to keep in mind that KPIs are not static and may need to be adjusted over time as your business evolves and your goals change.

Regularly reassessing and refining your KPIs can help ensure that you stay on track and continue to drive success for your organization.