clients

The changing relationship between clients and agencies

What do clients want and value in their agency relationships? What level of digital sophistication can be seen client-side? How are clients transforming in the light of increasingly digital customer experiences?

These are the questions asked by the 2014 Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) Report and its Digital Marketing Outlook survey conducted in partnership with Econsultancy.

In this post I’ve rounded up some highlights from the report, looking at changes in the agency-client landscape.

Selling your agency’s services is like making love to a beautiful woman…

Anyone familiar with the brilliant sketch show, The Fast Show, will know used car dealer Swiss Toni. He compared everything to “making love to a beautiful woman” especially selling….cars in his case.

Although a fan of Swiss Toni, I tend to disagree with his New Business philosophy. The smooth salesman façade is thankfully rather dated and there are a lot more….well, nicer ways of developing partnerships with clients.

This blog post will discuss a few things I’ve learnt over the years.

Pay-for-performance for agencies: perfect arrangement or bad idea?

There’s a long history behind how agencies are compensated for their efforts, but that doesn’t mean that everybody is satisfied with agency compensation.

At one time, agencies were typically paid a commission. Clients didn’t like that. Today they’re generally paid by the hour, something that both agencies and clients alike find reason to complain about.

12 things every freelancer should have

Being a freelancer can be a fulfilling and profitable career path.

In digital industries, where job mobility is high and five years with a single employer is ‘a long time’, many professionals view freelancing as a viable and attractive career path.

But make no mistake about it: freelancing is a business and as with any business, starting up, surviving and thriving can be difficult to do.

Here are 12 success-promoting things every freelancer, new and experienced, should have in place.