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50+ Free June Marketing Ideas for Sizzlin’ Hot Campaigns

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60+ Free June Marketing Ideas for Sizzlin’ Hot Campaigns

June. School is out. No more warm weather teasers. Accordions abound (What? We’ll get to that later). June is filled with freedom and fresh air, so you can’t afford stale marketing campaigns! While it’s important to identify and harness content types and topics that resonate with your audience, it’s equally as important to step out of your comfort zone and add some color and authenticity to your communication.

And thankfully, June has tons of great causes and holidays to make your summer marketing campaigns hot!

In this post, we’re going to set you up for free and easy June marketing wins so you can stay connected with your customers and attract even more of them.

Without further ado, let’s kick this thing off.

Here are the overarching focal points of June that you can use as a compass for your social media posts, blogs, emails, and promotions.

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There is an observance day for just about every niche out there, from gardeners to homeowners, dog owners to runners. The full list (with dates) is at the bottom of this post, but here are some notables:

Diversity, equity, and inclusion in your marketing should be a constant throughout the year, but here are a few observances you can include specifically in your June content plans:

The LGBTQ+ community is one of freedom, creativity, and expression. So why not corporate those themes into your associated campaigns?

And why not with a pride art or pride flag contest? Encourage your social media followers, or even other businesses and nonprofits in your neighborhood, to create their own pride flag or pride art and post it to social media. Make sure they use a specific hashtag so you can gather all entries and pick the winner(s).

Also, depending on your business, you can give away a couples-themed service, such as a couples massage session or photoshoot.

Black Music Appreciation Month

Black artists have had unparalleled influence and impact on the music industry. Amplify the voices of Black creators this month by creating a shareable playlist of songs you love from Black artists.

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This unique trick is sure to help your business stand out while also fitting diversity and inclusion into your marketing. It’ll also help to make your brand more memorable as the playlist will cause your audience to think of your business while they listen You could even take it a step further and host an event where you and your customers can listen to the playlist together.

Juneteenth (June 19)

While this June holiday has over 155 years of history behind it, Juneteenth has just become federally recognized back in 2021. You’ll want to close down your regular operating hours for this day, and give your employees the day off to process and learn from Black history. In the meantime, partner up with a local Black-owned business or organization for the day. Whether you’re volunteering at a nearby Black history resource center or cross-promoting with a Black-owned brand, you can post about the partnership on social media to help inspire and educate your customers.

june marketing ideas - small business shouting out black owned businesses and organizations on facebook for juneteenth

Additional observances in June that help promote diversity, equity, and inclusion include:

  • National Caribbean American Month
  • National Soul Food Month
  • PTSD Awareness Month
  • National Loving Day (for interracial marriage) – annually on June 12
  • Anne [Frank] and Samantha [Smith] Day – bi-annually on the summer solstice

June marketing ideas for monthly themes

June is home to National Safety Month, National Great Outdoors Month, and more. Let’s go through some great ways to market your business in June with these June awareness causes.

Safety Month

Safety is a versatile topic that can apply to just about any audience. For example, here are some evergreen blog post ideas for different audiences:

  • Cyclers: 10 Must-Have Features for your Child’s Helmet; 10 Deadly Mistakes to Avoid When Riding at Night
  • Parents: Quiz: Are You Truly Keeping Your Baby Safe?
  • Businesses: 5 Ways to Safeguard Your Network Against Hackers
  • Millennials: 8 Social Media Safety Tips You Didn’t Know You Needed

You could also take a more seasonal approach by creating content around staying safe in the summer, or by handing out travel-sized sunscreen bottles in your store or with online orders for a limited time.

Great Outdoors Month

Ah, out of lockdown and into the outdoors! People will be particularly excited to get outside this year after so much time inside. Here are some ways to apply this theme to your marketing:

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  • Create a blog or social media post on the best places around your state to get outside and experience nature. Ask your followers to share their favorite spots too.
  • You could also run a month-long email campaign that points out new ideas and places to visit each week.
  • If you hold indoor classes, host them outside!
  • Run a sidewalk sale (because hey, outdoors doesn’t have to mean sitting atop a mountain).
  • If there’s a local business near you that sells outdoor gear, see if they’ll donate some products for an “outdoors essentials” kit or even just a discount that you could offer in a giveaway. In return, you can promote their business on social media or even offer to donate your products at a relevant time.
  • Keep it simple and post a beautiful image with some outdoor inspo.
june marketing ideas great outdoors month inspirational post

Summer vacation/graduation

Celebrate the end of the school year with specials geared toward high school or college graduates. Some marketing ideas for you:

  • Moving companies can run special promotions for college grads.
  • Restaurants can offer a gift card to graduates who post a picture of themselves at your restaurant wearing their cap and gown.
  • Catering and events businesses can post the dates in which their services are still available.
  • Don’t forget about running sales for graduation and teacher gifts!

Marketing ideas for June holidays

Before we get into the sillier of observance days, let’s take care of the two major holidays in June: Flag Day and Father’s Day.

Flag Day

Celebrated every June 14, Flag Day is a great way to continue to celebrate America, after Memorial Day has passed and July 4th is still a few weeks away. It commemorates the day that the stars and stripes were adopted for the flag. Here are some marketing ideas for this day:

  • Incorporate an American flag theme into your offerings: American flag cookies, jewelry, clothing, and more.
  • See if you can find a creative way to incorporate stars and stripes into your content.
  • Offer discounts on red, white, or blue products you offer, whether that clothing, paint, or in the case below, fabric:
june marketing ideas flag day discounts

Father’s Day

Of course, you can offer discounts and sales on this day, but here are some other ways to promote your business. We’re always looking for ways to think outside the [tie] box when it comes to Father’s Day gifts.

  • Father’s Day gift guide: Compile some great gift ideas into a blog post, some of which can be your offerings. See if you can create a persona for the dads of your target audience. Are they young fathers? Old-timers? Gardeners? Gadget lovers? Readers? There are tons of Father’s Day gift guides out there, so keep it targeted for your audience.
  • Gift baskets: Spare moms and kids from having to come up with ideas and put together creative gift baskets or combinations. Seeing everything together and artfully arranged gives added appeal.
june marketing ideas fathers day gift basket

Image source

  • Restaurants: Supply gift cards to your restaurant with a bottle from a local distillery or winery.
  • Spa or salons: Run specials on men’s grooming supplies. Moms who come in to redeem their gift certificates from Mother’s Day will love the one-stop shopping!
  • Don’t forget about last-minute shoppers! While diligent shoppers make careful decisions to find the right brand or product, last-minute shoppers are looking to make the fastest decision with the lowest risk.
  • Make your flexible return policy prominent in your marketing copy, such as with “No hassle returns!” or “No return deadlines!”

RELATED:  39 Inspiring Father’s Day Instagram Captions & Ready-to-Post Images

Marketing ideas for June national days

These observance days provide opportunities to stand out to customers and show your creative side. Let’s dive in!

Flip a Coin Day

The first day of June every year is Flip a Coin Day. This holiday was made to celebrate math, but you can have some fun with it in your marketing content. Here are some ideas:

  • Run a coin flip discount day: For each purchase, have customers flip a coin and call heads or tails. If the customer wins, they get a percentage discount based on the value of the coin. Quarter flips = 25% off, dime flips = 10% off, and nickel flips = 5% off. Of course, you can adjust the discounts depending on your budget and customer volume.
june marketing ideas run a flip a coin discount
  • Create content about decision-making. You can use the below blog post title formulas for just about any industry:
    Don’t Leave It to Chance: How to Choose a [X] Wisely
    It’s a Toss-Up: Should You Use X or Y?
    Can’t Make Heads or Tails of X? Read This
    Don’t Flip a Coin When Deciding on Your Next [industry] Partner.
  • Gyms and trainers can share or run a coin flip workout.
june marketing ideas coin flip workout

Image source

Donut Day

People love Fridays. And people love the donuts. And on the first Friday in June, they come together on National. Donut. DAY.

  • Create a new tradition: Local bakeries, if you want to do something beyond just discounts and coupons, announce to your audience a week or so prior that you’ll be coming out with a brand new, never-seen-before donut on this day—with a limited supply! Post little teasers on social media and your website to generate some excitement and mystery. Better yet, continue the tradition annually. Your patrons will look forward to it every year!
  • Fitness businesses can offer or share an after-Donut Day workout. Donuts are delicious but not exactly marketing materials for the fitness industry. Host or post a Day After Donut Day workout.
  • Show customer appreciation: Bakeries can post pictures of your loyal customers, tagging them (with their permission)
june marketing ideas loyal customers on donut day

Or, do a Google search for “incredible donuts” and prepare to be amazed.

june marketing ideas incredible donut on donut day

I feel like this should be called the Batman donut.

World Environment Day

We know that consumers look for businesses that support causes they care about—one of which being environmental protection. Here are some ways to show your support for this cause, which occurs every year on June 5:

  • Collect donations for a charity or offer limited edition eco-friendly items.
  • Offer waste-reducing freebies with purchase, like a reusable bag or metal straws.
  • Even just creating visuals with appealing and earthy tones for your June 5th Instagram post can make a mark.
june marketing ideas world environment day earth colored post on instagram

Best Friend Day

National Best Friend Day, which occurs annually on June 8, is a relatable holiday and a great excuse for a sale. Run buy-one-get-one sales, promote your referral program, or run a tag-a-friend social media contest.

june marketing ideas - best friends day

Image source

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Iced Tea Day

While not everyone drinks it, National Iced Tea Day (every June 10) is a reminder that summer is here and the weather is beautiful, which puts everyone in a good mood. Here are some simple ways to celebrate:

  • If you collaborate with a local coffeehouse or bakery that specializes in tea, you can host a pop-up at your business and offer free tea for guests, or a coupon for a free tea with purchase.
  • If you have a brick-and-mortar location, hand out iced tea samples to get foot traffic and spread brand awareness!
  • Simply engage your audience on social media with questions about their iced tea preferences. Alternatively, you could share iced tea fun facts or recipes to get plenty of likes, comments, and reactions.

june marketing ideas - iced tea day tweet

Image source

Nature Photography Day

Nature Photography Day, which occurs annually on June 14 is more than, well, nature photography. It’s about using images to raise awareness and advance conservation and protection efforts for plants, wildlife, and landscapes.

Post some of your best nature photos on social and accompany them with an eye-opening stat pointing to the need for conservation.

june-marketing-ideas-nature-photography-day-photos

Summer solstice

The summer solstice is the first, and longest, day of summer. This is the perfect time of year to launch a summer collection, throw a beach-themed event or sale, or offer a beach blanket or koozie with a purchase.

june marketing ideas - summer solstice

Take Your Dog to Work Day

This excellent day is observed annually. on the Friday after Father’s Day. Invite employees to bring their pooches to the office and don’t be shy about advertising their presence on Facebook. The promise of a puppy is enough motivation for people to brave the summer heat and stop by your shops.

june marketing ideas bring your dog to work day

And of course, this is the perfect contest opportunity.

june marketing ideas bring your dog to work day contest

Insurance Awareness Day

Not the sexiest of national days, but a very important topic nonetheless—and occurs every June 28. You can post a video with tips on how to assess your insurance, like with the example below:

june marketing ideas insurance awareness day video idea

Image source

Other ideas:

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  • Lawyers and accountants can blog about the benefits of insurance for individuals and business owners, or resurface old posts on the topic.
  • Doctors and dentists can encourage patients to check out their insurance to make sure they have adequate coverage, or provide tips for connecting with insurance companies about procedures.
  • Massage therapists, chiropractors, and fitness centers should encourage clients to check their insurance benefits—many insurance companies offer coverage for massage and chiropractic treatments or subscriber discounts for joining a fitness center or gym.
  • Travel agents, bed and breakfasts, and hotels can use this day to blog about the benefits of travel insurance.

And let’s not forget about pet insurance…

june marketing ideas insurance awareness day pet insurance post

Final June marketing ideas

And why not throw in a few more for good measure?

  • Repeat Day (Saturday, June 3): Re-run past promotions and campaigns that were popular among your customers.
  • Cancer Survivor’s Day (Sunday, June 4): Spotlight a team member or customer who is a cancer survivor, or simply post inspirational articles, quotes, and photos.
  • Selfie day (Wednesday, June 21): You know the drill!
  • Public Service Day (Friday, June 23): Feature a prominent member of the community on social media or offer a discount to those in the public sector who show ID.
june marketing ideas national selfie day photo

Can you top this?

Try out these June marketing ideas

And there you have it. A basketful of ideas and examples to keep your brand creative, attractive, and authentic!

For more monthly marketing ideas, check out these:

Full list of June holidays and observances

And as promised, here’s the list of June holidays and observances.
June 1

  • Go Barefoot Day
  • Say Something Nice Day
  • Penpal Day
  • World Milk Day
  • National Nail Polish Day
  • Global Day of Parents

June 2

  • National Leave The Office Early Day
  • Donut Day – First Friday in June
  • National Rotisserie Chicken Day

June 3

  • Repeat Day
  • Bubbly Day – First Saturday in June
  • Trails Day – First Saturday in June
  • National Black Bear Day

June 4

  • Clean Beauty Day
  • Hug Your Cat Day
  • SAFE Day
  • Cancer Survivor’s Day – First Sunday in June

June 5

  • National Veggie Burger Day
  • World Environment Day

June 6

  • D-Day
  • Eyewear Day
  • Higher Education Day
  • Gardening Exercise Day

June 7

  • National Running Day – First Wednesday in June
  • World Caring Day
  • World Food Safety Day

June 8

  • Best Friends Day
  • World Brain Tumor Day

June 9

  • National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day
  • National Movie Night

June 10

  • Iced Tea Day
  • Herbs and Spices Day
  • Rosé Day – Second Saturday in June

June 11

  • Making Life Beautiful Day
  • Children’s Day – Second Sunday in June

June 12

June 13

  • Kitchen Klutzes of America Day
  • Random Acts of Light Day
  • First Lady’s Day
  • Weed Your Garden Day
  • Sewing Machine Day
  • Call Your Doctor Day – Second Tuesday in June

June 14

June 15

  • Smile Power Day
  • Nature Photography Day

June 17

  • Garbage Man Day
  • Eat Your Vegetables Day
  • Mascot Day

June 18

  • National Splurge Day
  • International Sushi Day
  • Father’s Day – Third Sunday in June

June 19

June 20

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June 21

  • Summer solstice/first day of summer/ longest Day of the Year
  • Daylight Appreciation Day
  • Selfie Day

June 22

June 23

  • National Hydration Day
  • National Pink Day
  • Take Your Dog to Work Day – Friday After Father’s Day

June 24

  • National Take Back Lunch Break Day
  • National Pralines Day

June 25

  • Global Beatles Dazy
  • National Catfish Day
  • National Strawberry Parfait Day

June 26

  • Beautician’s Day
  • National Barcode Day
  • National Chocolate Pudding Day
  • International Day Against Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

June 27

  • Sunglasses Day
  • PTSD Awareness Day

June 28

  • Logistics Day
  • Insurance Awareness Day

June 29

June 30

  • Meteor Watch Day
  • Social Media Day

And for a year’s worth of marketing ideas, check out this marketing calendar template from our friends at LocaliQ.



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PPC

11 Actionable Ways to Build Client Relationships That Last

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11 Actionable Ways to Build Client Relationships That Last

Some agencies manage to build a steady client base that strengthens over the years, while others ride roller coasters and eventually close up shop. What’s the difference? Client relationships. Strong client relations make for greater success with projects and campaigns, loyal clients who stay with you longer and refer new clients, and a better reputation for your brand. Even better, they make everyday work more enjoyable for all.

So what makes for a strong client relationship? The same traits that define any good relationship: awareness, communication, empathy, dependability, accountability, honesty, and the list goes on.

In this post, I’ve compiled 11 ways your agency can demonstrate the above and more to achieve the best possible outcomes for you and your clients. I’d say happy endings, but good relationships don’t really end.

Table of contents

Why are client relationships important?

It’s easy to skim over the importance of creating a strong relationship with your clients—you know you have to do it. But when you dig into how it helps your agency grow, you can be more strategic about it.

Reduces churn

It can be 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. You also have a much higher probability of selling a new agreement to a current client than closing a deal with a new one.

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A strong client relationship helps you weather rough patches and identify clients who are at risk of leaving. Both will help you reduce customer churn.

Increases referrals

Customer referrals are an extremely important source of new clients for your agency. That’s because referred customers are more likely to buy, are more loyal, and spend more on average than non-referred customers.

When you have a strong relationship with your clients, you can ask them to give reviews and refer other businesses. That’s especially helpful if your agency serves a niche industry where everyone knows everyone else.

Provides opportunities to learn

Have you ever wanted to know how a new regulation would affect your clients? Or how to best sell a service like PPC? When you have a rock-solid relationship with your clients, you can ask them.

It takes time to build that sort of comfort, but when you do, your best clients become your agency’s de facto advisers.

📣 Learn how 300 marketing agencies manage services, pricing, and challenges in our State of the Digital Marketing Agency report.

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How do you build client relationships that last?

In the following list, you’ll find actionable ways to improve client satisfaction and build mutually beneficial partnerships, with input from PPC agency experts like Mark Irvine, Francine Rodriguez, Akvile DeFazio, and Susie Marino.

1. Gather “hard” and “soft” information

A strong agency-client relationship starts before the client even becomes one. You know that you need as much information as possible about your client to come up with a winning proposal. But the solution you come up with isn’t going to establish a meaningful connection between you and your potential client. It’s how you present that solution with respect to both the business’s goals and the personalities and values of the team you’ll be working with.

This means collecting “hard” information like:

  • Products and services they offer
  • Target audience and the end-users of their product or service
  • Top three competitors
  • Prioritized list of goals and challenges
  • Strategies that have worked and not worked in the past
  • Software are they currently using
  • Budget

But also “soft” information like:

  • What they define as success
  • Their future hopes or anticipations, like scaling, adding on new offerings, etc.
  • The company’s mission, beliefs, and values, and unique selling proposition
  • What makes them different from their competitors
  • Hobbies, interests, and preferences of the individuals you’ll be working with

strengthen client relationships emotional vs logical intelligence

Think with both sides of your brain when gathering information about your client.

Building emotional intelligence about the team you’ll be working with will help you to make communication more personalized as you move through these initial phases of your journey together.

Side note: Be prepared to answer their questions too! Even their non-PPC questions.

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2. Internalize that information

This is the information you’ll be not only including in your proposal, but applying throughout your actual execution and ongoing communication with your client. Take the time to really internalize it so that it shines through organically in everything you do.

  • Gather the information in person (or video): Body language and facial expressions tell a lot. Take note of what gets them excited (and not so excited). Also, be sure to send out a list of the questions you’ll be asking far in advance so the client can have time to think about answers and produce follow-up questions.
  • Iterate back: As you listen, iterate back to your client what you have interpreted so you can make sure you’re crystal clear on the information you’re receiving. Remember, incorporating the tiniest details into your proposal and execution is what will give your clients confidence that you truly understand their needs.
  • Templatize: Have an internal templated document where you can collect all of the information you’ve gathered in one place. This gives every team member something to continually refer back to, and the uniformity makes it easier to internalize.

3. Go above and beyond with your proposal

    From a project standpoint, your proposal shows what you’re going to do to achieve your client’s goals. From a relationship standpoint, it’s your opportunity to reinforce, once again, that you have a deep understanding of your client—both the business and its team members. Speak to both the client’s business goals as well as the more personal pain points and desires of its employees.

    To do this, think in terms of “what,” “why,” and “so that.”

    • The what refers to what you’ll be doing from a process standpoint.
    • The why ties the process to one of the business’s specific goals.
    • The “so that” speaks to the pain point it will address for the business’s team members.

    For example, we’d like to ramp up ad spending in the latter half of the month to drive more signups so that your sales team isn’t scrounging for leads. Just be sure to use the language that your clients used in the initial information-gathering process.

    This strengthens that partnership feel. You’re not just looking to achieve goals, you care about the individuals impacted by them.

    how to strengthen marketing agency client relationship with a winning proposalhow to strengthen marketing agency client relationship with a winning proposal

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    4. Have an onboarding process

    This is one of our customer retention strategies as well. Once you get started, there will be more points of contact added to the roster for both sides. A streamlined onboarding process will set the stage for the clear communication and seamless execution needed for a strong and long-lasting client relationship to form. During this process, you may want to:

    • Mail them a welcome kit: Send along some giveaways like branded swag, a greeting card, and additional goodies based on the more personal information you’ve collected.
    • Take care of housekeeping: Make sure each of you has the access needed for tools, accounts, and dashboards.
    • Have a kickoff meeting: This is to ensure everything is lined up for perfect execution. You’ve also become pretty familiar with one another at this point. This is a good time to have a more informal atmosphere.

    🛑 Free guide >>> The 6 Absolute Best Strategies to Grow Your Digital Marketing Agency

    5. Treat clients like partners

    Treating your client like a business will make your relationship purely transactional (i.e., no relationship at all). Treating them like family leaves too much room for miscommunications and unmet expectations.

    Treating your clients like partners, on the other hand, sets the stage for a healthy mix of personal, purposeful, and transactional encounters where both your and your client’s identities are preserved, and each of you supplies the essential ingredients for success.

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    • Embrace the truth: Remember that at the end of the day, both of you are businesses that want to make money. There’s no need to skirt around that. They need your service to generate revenue, and you need their continued business to generate yours.
    • Maintain structure with some fluidity: Keep deliverables clear and stick to the intended plan as much as possible, but always leave the door open for input and feedback.
    • Let them in: While some of your tools and processes may be proprietary, give them access to dashboards and data when possible. Let them in on (non-confidential) tidbits about your agency that “outsiders” wouldn’t know. Their earning your trust is just as important as you earning theirs.
    • Stay honest: This means giving pushback on your client’s desires or requests that may not be best for long-term success (wants vs needs). A good partnership is not one where both parties constantly agree; it’s one where the two parties come together with different perspectives to bring to the table, resulting in better output than either one could have achieved on their own.

    6. Be proactive rather than reactive

      Akvile DeFazio, President of AKvertise, makes this a priority with clients.

      Her team makes sure to proactively:

      • Share ideas and propose new campaign strategies.
      • Forewarn about upcoming platform changes and any action required.
      • Educate the client to empower them further.

      “This shows care and builds trust, and our clients share that they appreciate our diligent proactivity,” she says. “When we work with clients, we aim to be a seamless extension of their team and genuinely embed ourselves as so. When they win, we win, and proactive communication is the key to success for all.”

      7. Be empathetic rather than defensive

      This recommendation from Mark Irvine, Director of PPC at Search Labs Digital, ties back to the partnership mentality in tip #5. The scenario here is that your agency is doing great work. Performance metrics continue to climb. But the client is upset. They aren’t seeing new business come in.

      “A wrong response here is to dig your heels in,” Mark says. “Telling them that their business is doing fine is at best tone-deaf. Instead, let them talk it out and listen to them. This may even lead them to discover the problem is in their other marketing or sales teams.”

      If this ends up being the case, Irvine recommends that you take yourself out of the problem to prevent it from becoming an “us versus them” situation. Take the approach of teaming up together to come up with a solution. Use language like:

      • “I see what you’re talking about.”
      • “This is a valid concern.”
      • “That really is frustrating, we’re glad you brought this up with us.”
      • “Let’s make a plan to review this and report back with some solutions to remedy this.”

      Position yourself as a partner in their campaigns. Value their feedback. Even if you’re an expert, allowing them to work with you will help build a long, trusting relationship.

      “And remember,” Mark adds, “if you dismiss or fight their concerns, there’s an agency sales rep somewhere else who will be happy to listen to them vent about you all day.”

      8. Establish structure around communication

      Brett McHale, founder of Empiric Marketing, LLC, provides some great tips around communication and setting boundaries:

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      Stay away from being “always available

      Being always available, whether through Slack or other forms of direct communication, blurs the ever-important work-life balance. It can also distract you away from other clients.

      Hold regular meetings with actionable takeaways

      Instead, establish weekly or bi-weekly meetings to check in, review performance, and answer questions. “I always have some takeaway or action item from those meetings,” Brett says. “This keeps me accountable, and when I deliver on things that I say I’m going to do, it helps build trust with the client.”

      Use email and instant messaging

      Brett says, “Email can be very robotic, and I try not to be too professional or polished all the time. Communicating with clients directly via a messenger helps to build rapport and have a more laid back ‘human-to-human’ relationship.”

      He suggests designating instant messaging for urgent matters and email otherwise. This cuts out the back-and-forth emailing and also reassures your clients that while you may not always be available, you will never leave them hanging.

      how to strengthen relationships with clients the seven c's of effective communicationhow to strengthen relationships with clients the seven c's of effective communication

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      9. Share your concerns early

      This suggestion from Mark Irvine is particularly relevant to the many changes happening in the advertising realm lately. The scenario here is that your client has big plans and aspirations, and you want to say yes to everything they want. But in the back of your mind, you’re not sure if they can create that audience in Google or build that campaign on Bing. You’re unsure of how the new iOS updates will impact their Facebook targeting.

      “Don’t nod, say yes, and then stress,” Mark says. “You lose trust with your client if you say you can do something and then can’t, even if that’s not your fault.”

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      Instead, show your expertise by sharing your concerns. Practice saying:

      • “That’s a really good idea. I know that some ad policies might come into play as we explore it, so let me double-check those first.”
      • “This new change could pose some challenges to us. I’ll keep an eye on it as it changes over the coming days.”
      • “It’s tough to say what this means for us yet, but I wanted to make sure we all knew about it in advance.”

      If you really have to put your foot down, try something like:

      “We agree that this is a great idea, but we can’t in good conscience proceed with it until we know that it won’t cost you in the long run.”

      Be transparent and ask them for their trust. Most of the time, you’ll come out as the person who helped them navigate through uncertainty, and they won’t forget that.

      10. Embrace small talk

      Small talk often gets a bad rap, but Susie Marino, WordStream’s Senior Content Marketing Specialist and former Customer Success Specialist, has found that it actually helps with building strong client relationships.

      “I know it can feel cringey or uncomfortable at first, but just go for it,” she says. “You’d be surprised at how receptive clients are. Next thing you know, you’ve got a great rapport going, and the banter at the beginning of meetings becomes more meaningful.”

      “People love to talk about themselves, and clients are no different,” Susie adds. “When you ask them about how that home garden is coming along, they’ll be pleasantly surprised. These conversations reveal how much you truly care.“

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      Clients are people who like to work with real people who also have personalities and personal lives. If you don’t show a touch of personality with small talk, it will be harder to stay connected and to demonstrate your genuine care, outside of campaigns and metrics.

      11. Establish quarterly business reviews

      Francine Rodriguez, former Senior Manager of Customer Success at WordStream, believes that quarterly business reviews are essential for client retention.

      “I think all agencies get into a cycle of monthly reporting and proving that deliverables were completed,” she says. “It is important to take that step back once a quarter and have a focused conversation on high-level strategy.”

      The QBR allows the agency and the customer to reflect on new goals, the efficiency of strategies taken in the past, and what needs to pivot for the future.

      It is also a time to allow your customer to provide insight into how their business goals are changing and perhaps what strategies outside of the agency’s scope they are also planning in the near future. Having that dedicated time to talk without existing action items on the table is a great way to strengthen the relationship, create trust, and become better partners.

      It may also lead to surprising discoveries, where an agency could find opportunities to upsell its customers into new services. If your agency is doing QBRs now and your conversations don’t look any different from your regular monthly check-ins, it is time to change the format!”

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      Start cultivating strong relationships with your clients today

      Strong agency-client relationships are built on virtues like trust, reliability, transparency, and personability, and they result in greater outcomes for everyone involved. If you find that you’re lacking in productivity, loyalty, or the overall feel of harmony with your clients, see if you can adopt or improve any of these strategies for your agency:

      1. Gather “hard” and “soft” information about your client
      2. Internalize that information
      3. Go above and beyond with your proposal
      4. Have an onboarding process
      5. Treat clients like partners
      6. Be proactive rather than reactive
      7. Be empathetic rather than defensive
      8. Establish structure around communication
      9. Share your concerns early
      10. Embrace the small talk
      11. Have quarterly business reviews

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Google change the meaning of “Top Ads”

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Google change the meaning of “Top Ads”

What is Top Ads in world of Google? well it’s changed. Today Ginny Martin, Ads Product Liaison at Google shared a subtle but potential significant change of definition of Top Ads. If your deep in the detail of paid search campaigns on Google this is the kind of tweak that’s easy to miss.

Now Google’s documentation reads;

Google change the meaning of Top Ads

Top ads are adjacent to the top organic search results. Top ads are generally above the top organic results, although top ads may show below the top organic results on certain queries. Placement of top ads is dynamic and may change based on the user’s search.

Google’s official documentation

Ginny clarified on LinkedIn that this is a definitional change (as ads can appear above the organic result or below for certain queries) and doesn’t affect how performance metrics are calculated. And that the definition update clarifies that top ads may show below the organic results for certain queries. Although, for most queries, ads will continue to appear at the top of search results.

Why make the change? Anthony Higman suggested it might be due to the change in how some ads are being presented like in the screenshot below and the general shift towards more SGE on the SERPs and the consequences that change in user experience might have on ad placement. And does seem part of increased amount of experimentation on where ads appear on search engine results pages.

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1711605382 993 Google change the meaning of Top Ads1711605382 993 Google change the meaning of Top Ads



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Dynamic UTM parameters for LinkedIn ads are here!

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A simple graphical illustration of a road with a directional sign pointing to the right against a blue sky background

Praise be. For LinkedIn have just announced the arrival of Dynamic UTM parameters.

A simple graphical illustration of a road with a directional sign pointing to the right against a blue sky background

This is big news because manually configuring the campaign UTM tracking for each URL you use within a campaign can be is a cumbersome, convoluted, time-consuming process. It’s also one which can occasionally (or, let’s be honest, more than occasionally) lead to errors.

Dynamic UTMs automate the process and will mean you only have to get it right once. That’s because you’ll create your parameters once per campaign, instead of countless times.

How they say dynamic UTM parameters work

Marketers – only one time per campaign – will add a dynamic UTM parameter to their campaign and then we’ll automatically pull in the account, campaign and/or creative name into the destination URL so it can be picked up by analytics tools, allowing marketers to more easily analyze results.

If you’re not seeing dynamic UTM tracking within your LinkedIn ad campaigns already, you will soon. They’ll be rolled out globally by the end of this month.

As you’ve almost certainly been deploying dynamic UTMs across your Facebook and Google Ads campaigns for years, it is indeed about time.

But as the famous Chinese proverb goes:

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“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”



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