Case Study: Gaining Back A Long-Time Client

The Goal

At Alt Media Studios our goal is always to do what’s in our clients’ best interest. And that naturally varies from one client to the next. There are standards to meet on every project and some popular trends worth implementing when it comes to custom web design, social media marketing, and effective PPC ad campaigns, but the focus is always on the client–their customer demographics, their business model, their budget, their goals. To put it simply, our goal is our client’s goal. 

When this client decided to leave us, we tried everything to keep them on board. When it didn’t work, we simply kept being us, hoping that they’d see the value they left behind.

The Strategy

The approach we take is based on a general framework that we’ve found to be the most successful and efficient, but it’s just a guideline. Each client’s digital marketing strategy will differ, budget allocations will vary, and specific development and content needs will be unique. That said, our fundamental strategy will always involve data–it tells the story we can’t know otherwise, and it informs everything we do. Data tracking lets us know who is seeing a client’s ads, and whether or not they’re interested in or interacting with them. Data helps us to understand why a site visitor isn’t making a purchase or submitting a form, and what we can do to change that. Data is king in the digital marketing space, and it’s always changing. So our baseline strategy is to stay on top of available data and interpret it accurately so that we can use those insights to inform every aspect of our services. Without that key information, we’d be putting in plenty of effort, yes, but it could easily be misdirected or misguided. And that would be a waste, all around. 

We’d done this work for our client in the past, and we’d made changes based on their requests. For now, all we could do was hope that our past efforts and their experience with us would speak for itself and bring our client back.

The Results

Results will vary! But one thing you can bet on is that we will take what we’ve learned and work to consistently improve those results. We routinely use the data we gather to adjust according to what it tells us, and this is what enables us to help clients get the most ROI, time and again. Now, this process can’t be rushed, and it takes some time to get the gears moving, but we’re always open and up front about that. Once efforts take, however, it’s off to the races and we’ve seen client numbers soar, time and again. That said, our understanding of success may be more measured than some, simply because we’re closely connected with Google and understand the metrics they set and judge by. These are our gold standard, and when incorporated into our marketing plan, they will ensure that a client’s business is being seen online. 

After a year or so, our old client got in touch with us and let us know that they wanted to pick the relationship back up–we were thrilled! All the hard work we’d done for them in the past contrasted with their current agency, and they knew they deserved better.

The Takeaway

Trust and patience. A great deal of growth and success can come from employing these two qualities. 

For this client specifically, they had been with us a long time–we truly hated to see them go. They went their way and tried out another digital marketing agency in Cleveland, hoping that the dazzling promises they’d been made would come true. Spoiler: they didn’t. In fact, after a year or so our old client realized that their new digital marketing team wasn’t really doing much of anything for them - in fact, they were losing progress with SEO performance and seeing sales negatively impacted. They reflected back on the time spent working with AMST and realized what they were missing. When they reached out and expressed the desire to work with us again, that warmed our hearts right up. We were so happy to renew our relationship. 

Here’s what everyone needs to know about the digital marketing space: companies are phishing for your business. They’ll make outlandish promises and wild claims just to get their foot in the door. These promises sound great, and are often exactly what you’re hoping to achieve. They bypass the hard work and the actual time that progress takes, and say they’ll be able to deliver magic. In the end, it turns out to be too good to be true. 

This right here is why we’ll never make hard and fast guarantees–not because we aren’t willing to put in the work, but because after 20+ years of experience (including plenty of bad calls from clients and plenty of learning on our end) we aren’t willing to just tell clients what they want to hear. That approach does no one any favors, and it leads to disappointment in the long run. Instead of being yes-men, instead of implementing every idea that a client sends our way, we use our vast experience to take a measured approach and strike the balance between client requests and industry best practices. Instead of throwing time, effort and client assets at the wall to see what sticks, we carefully collect and analyze data to inform our digital marketing strategy at a granular level. And if a technique or method isn’t a good fit for a client, or if the data doesn’t bear out its merit, we aren’t too shy to say so. We aren’t merely looking to spend a client’s hard-earned assets, we’re looking to improve their return on investment, because as they grow, so do we. 

At Alt Media Studios, we are more than a digital marketing agency in Cleveland; we are marketing consultants. Clients seek us out not just because we can build a snazzy website, but because our well-honed experience and data-driven approach bear out in the results. It’s true that not every single business out there is a good fit for our style of digital marketing, but that’s true in any line of work. Regardless, if we’re hired, we will work for our client’s best interests in both the short and long term. We’ll get it done for you, and we’ll always have your back, we just ask two things: trust and patience.

If you’re searching for a digital marketing agency in Cleveland or beyond who will put in the work and won’t make empty promises, you’re looking at us. The team at AMST would be honored to help your business grow and gain traction, both with clients and in your industry. Contact us today to learn about our full suite of digital marketing and web development services and how we can put our skills to work for you.