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We’ve all heard that first impressions matter, you shouldn’t need us to tell you that it’s true. After years of partnering with digital marketing agencies and end-advertisers, it’s useless to deny the importance of the introduction call to new clients and more than that, a client’s confidence.

A team’s welcoming message and approach help set the foundation for the relationship that will unfold. An organized, upbeat call will leave a client feeling that they’ve picked the right agency for the job. Your welcome call can ensure clients that your PPC agency is completely committed to meeting expectations and achieving results.

Our years as a PPC agency provide an outline of a rigorous onboarding process, including an “Introduction Call” to new clients. As new hires come to the organization, they learn this process too.

Today’s blog will enable digital marketing agencies with proven processes by PPC agency strategists. Each section will enrich their preparation, presence, and follow up on introduction calls to new clients in the world of pay-per-click.

Why Is the Welcome Call So Important?

If first dates and interviews are important, why wouldn’t welcome calls be? First, let’s in a little deeper on why the welcome call is such an essential factor. To truly understand, we must put ourselves in the client’s position.

It’s safe to assume that your clients have had a bad experience with other digital marketing agencies. Common occurrences include agencies that failed to deliver on their promises or set unrealistic expectations when the client had their hopes high.

Previous encounters with agencies trying to close deals and providing mediocre services will allow you to set yourself apart. Your digital marketing team can advance a great deal in early conversations by keeping these points in mind. Avoiding these common errors will have the client confident that they’ve finally found “the one.”

It is because of past experiences that many advertisers may be skeptical about their purchase decision. Anticipating these issues before writing your welcome call script is essential to address their doubts about PPC’s effectiveness or your digital marketing agency.

Let’s Set a New Standard for All PPC Management Agencies to Benchmark Against

Over the last eight years, our team slowly formulated a set of core values to break down these client barriers. We’ve learned that each of these values has helped us provide top-notch service to our end-advertisers and agency partners.

We aim “to have beyond satisfied partners & clients.” This addition to our blueprint contributes to making White Shark Media the PPC equivalent of the Zappos website for retailers and strengthening our team’s confidence in our support of their work.

The welcome call is the first step to” having beyond satisfied partners and clients” because it helps set the tone for conversations.

How to Prepare for Introduction Calls to New Clients

Now that we understand everything that the welcome call has to offer, let’s review the necessary steps to execute one properly.

Preparing for client interactions will keep you “lucky” on every occasion.

Our team prepares by going through the following nine steps for their welcome calls with clients:

When you schedule an introduction call with new clients, be sure to loop in all parties; this helps avoid redundancies, and displays transparency. Send out a preliminary plan to the client and ask for feedback. They may have last-minute concerns or questions. Send an updated policy with those points before the call.

Be on Your A-Game During Welcome Calls

As you’ve seen above, the steps taken to prepare for the call will render an excessive volume of data to share with the client. However, this is simply for your preparation. The client should get all this in purposeful, summarized doses.

Listen, even as digital marketers; we get it—SWOT analysis and marketing strategies aren’t sexy or emotional topics. When you include what they reveal or what they can offer, it makes them as attractive as possible.

Moreover, sharing information builds rapport, shows professionalism, and sets add a human touch to all the cryptic intel received daily.

There are factors that we all must consider when we are eager to connect with someone else. Each involves the human touch; let’s see what elements make up communication:

Awareness of each of these will help you communicate what you intended to share positively.

Hot Tip: When you call, stand up when you greet someone over the phone. Motion creates emotion, and your posture will spark up the energy required for these welcome calls.

Hotter Tip: Place a mirror in front of you, so you smile while communicating. Smiles trigger visible changes to a person’s face and audible changes to the human voice.

Notes From PPC Agency Strategists for Optimal Performance

Once you have established contact, you have to know how to greet customers on the phone. There’s a certain phone etiquette you must adhere to:

Quick Intros

Though many people will walk you through how you should greet your customers on the phone, our strategists recommend being yourself and interested in the person you are speaking to.

Additionally, give a quick intro that refers back to the sales representative to establish a link between the sales process and yourself. Have the purpose of the call top of mind and be wary of the length of this conversation. Our strategists always ask the client if it is a good time before they get into details.

As mentioned before, share the plan that you have prepared for the call in advance so everyone can review it.

Sell Yourself First

You are the first product your client is receiving. It may sound a little odd, but you should have an “Elevator Pitch” about yourself in place. Practice it to perfection. Having this will give you the confidence that you are worthy of managing your client’s hard-earned marketing dollars.

Record your elevator pitch and play it to yourself and your manager.
Would you two hire this person you are hearing? If no, go from there.

Areas you can highlight are:

• What certifications do you have? Google Ads Advanced Search, Display Advertising, Google Analytics, Microsoft Advertising, etc.
• What are your areas of expertise? Lead generation, local marketing, e-commerce, or they’re specific verticals.
• What drives you? This personal contributor adds value because the client can connect with or rely on the factors that fuel your work’s passion. If you aren’t comfortable sharing this point, think of something else to relate to you.

These things should set you apart from the many marketers that they have dealt with in the past.

Get to Know Their Business

Though you’ve reviewed everything there is to know about your client; there are times when many questions remain unanswered, here are a few questions that you can touch on to grasp their business model and marketing objectives.

Our strategists typically add a few of these to their account questions during an introduction call:

Summarize the Conversation and Define the Next Steps

Let’s assume you’ve just wrapped up your call, and you have probably chatted with the client for 45-60 min. The call helped uncover small details that will help you craft a purposeful digital marketing campaign.

After such a lengthy conversation, it often happens that the smallest things can fall through the cracks. While you are on the call, keep the follow-up you will be sending in mind.

The email should include a detailed summary of the conversation. In it, you can summarize your goals, including the key takeaways and next steps.

This practice keeps everyone accountable to the call and strengthens a healthy client relationship as you demonstrate follow-through. If there is any confusion about a specific item, the email will serve as a quick reference for all parties. So, again be sure to review this carefully yourself.

The major takeaways reflected in your summary should be:

• Summarize the campaign goals that you have established together. An example of this is the target CPA/CPL.
• Define your plan-of-action. Here you should include expectations and timeframe. What can be expected during months 1-3? 3-6? +6 months?
• With these in mind, discuss future opportunities for campaign expansion: Remarketing, Display advertising, Bing Ads, etc.
• Explain the next steps: When can they expect to hear from you again, what follow-up emails will they receive, and what they need to respond to so you can get something back to them.
• Finally, before you say goodbye, reiterate how excited you’re about working on this project! Excitement goes a long way.

Leave No Stone Unturned

On a final note, a pretty solid rule that all of our strategists follow is never to assume that clients understand everything that you send over or that things are ok if there is silence.

What you invest in keeping the conversation going will come back tenfold and secure a client for the long term.

Despite what many think, this does not require extraordinary effort. It’s true that just doing your job will not suffice. Adding proactivity on touching base will show the difference between someone who wants to make sure the client is satisfied with someone who wants to keep an account.

Within the first few months of your relationship, don’t let assumptions eat away at the link you’ve established. As we mentioned earlier, you never know what kind of experiences the client has had to deal with, and constantly checking the temperature on their satisfaction is key to keeping them on board.

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