Did you know that the brain can more easily recall a task you didn’t complete than something you finished? It’s called the Zeigarnik effect, and incomplete tasks cause a lot of mental tension.
At Firewater we get mental tension from a bunch of things, like people who don’t know how to use a four-way stop, subtitles that don’t sync, and the enduring persistence of Crocs.
We also get antsy when clients don’t close feedback loops. We think that’s partly due to the Zeigarnik effect, but also because when the loop isn’t closed, it’s impossible for an agency to make improvements to a strategy’s effectiveness.
Your digital marketing agency is flying blind if they don’t get client feedback. Many CMOs fail to understand why their agency underperforms, money is wasted, and contracts are cancelled. Often, it’s all because feedback loops weren’t closed.
Time kills deals
In our previous article, we spoke about how sales and marketing alignment drives sales enablement. Just as sales teams and digital marketing agencies need to work together to generate and convert leads, it’s equally crucial for the agency to get feedback from the client.
Lead generation needs the client’s feedback to measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts. When the loop isn’t closed, clients often feel like they are wasting money on their digital marketing campaigns when it’s impossible for the agency to do a better job without feedback.
Lead generation needs the client’s feedback to measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts. When the loop isn’t closed, clients often feel like they are wasting money on their digital marketing campaigns when it’s impossible for the agency to do a better job without feedback.
Once the agency sends the client leads, what happens next? Is a rep following up? What is the quality of the leads, and is the targeting correct? Is there a champion in the business driving the leads effort? Sometimes, an agency sends leads through, but reps don’t contact the prospects, or perhaps the business doesn’t have the capacity to take charge of all the leads sent to them.
For leads to convert you need to strike while the iron is hot – because time kills deals. Remember, a good agency works hard to get those leads to you; not nurturing them and feeding back information to the agency to help them model their efforts better is shooting yourself in the Croc-clad foot.
Dig into the details
In a perfect world, a CRM system solves the feedback loop problem because it takes care of the next logical step in lead nurturing. On a CRM, leads don't float around on emails or aren't printed on pieces of paper (oh, the things we have seen).
We understand that not everyone will use a CRM, as some clients have systems that are difficult to integrate. Whatever you use, you need a consolidated system other than scribbling emails down on paper – even an Excel spreadsheet is still structured data.
Start digging into the details. For example, a client gives us feedback and says that leads are coming in, but the leads are in an area that the client no longer services. So, we can take that information, go back to the source, exclude that area, check targeting, and see the improvement…
From Crocs to conversions
We ask questions to get the correct feedback, and we insist on meeting with clients monthly to go through the insights. Sure, anyone can send you reports, but we go into what we've done versus what we should be doing so that we can continuously refine our digital marketing efforts
We always put ourselves in our clients' shoes (as long as they’re not Crocs). Time and again, we see the greatest successes with clients who have given us feedback, work with us as partners, and are committed to the digital marketing process.
A closed feedback loop is a significant part of digital marketing success. Without it, your agency can’t measure its lead-generation effectiveness, perform better, and help set you up to close those conversions.
Enjoyed this article? Share it with your peers so you look clever. Want to get better leads that convert? Contact us; we can help with that.
