If you expect your clients to always defer to your expertise, you should rethink that strategy. In 2024, clients are becoming well-versed in marketing. They are staying current on trends and learning marketing software, building strong internal teams, and diligently assessing their marketing needs.
They are tuned into agency services, at least on some level, and they’re also becoming knowledgeable about marketing and advertising. Not to mention that clients often have deep industry expertise that we cannot compete with.
Knowing your clients have upped their game is essential for your relationships with them. In this blog, we’ll talk about client marketing acumen and what it means for your agency. What role can marketing and advertising agencies play in 2024? We’re about to find out.
Let’s Start at the Beginning: 2014
Even 10 years ago, most agency clients (71%) had some level of marketing expertise and wanted agencies to complement what they already knew.
“We don’t need agencies; we’ve got this.”
In our 2014 study, the Single and Satisfied client segment (33% of clients overall) preferred to write their marketing plans and were adept at marketing strategy; they only leaned on agencies when they needed creative ideas they could execute independently.
“We can’t do it all; we need specialists.”
The Playing the Field clients (38% of clients overall) used agencies to fill the gaps in their expertise, hiring specialists and opting for tactical support services. You’d find these clients hiring agencies with a niche, such as an agency that serves one industry or comes with extensive experience in paid search.
“We love agencies! We need their expertise.”
The Looking for Love segment (29% of clients overall) was the only segment to seek long-term relationships with agencies and overwhelmingly trust their expertise. They didn’t expect agencies to know everything, but they’d often reach out with questions, knowing they’d receive helpful answers.
Have In-House Teams Eliminated the Need for Agencies?
Our 2023 Agency Edge study focusing on building revenue from existing clients, one segment emerged that can tell us a lot about client expertise and how clients want to be treated.
Meet the largest client segment from 2023: Staff Prioritizers.
Staff Prioritizers (43% of agency clients) feel they have more expertise than agencies and struggle to find true experts in their space to work with. They wish agencies spent more time getting to know their employees and are frustrated with coordinating efforts between in-house employees and agency partners. These clients are significantly more likely to believe their organization would have a better marketing ROI with an in-house team only.
This suggests that the more expertise clients have in-house, the more frustrated they’ll get if you fail to:
- Recognize and embrace their expertise.
- Bring plenty of your team’s deep expertise to the table.
- Lean into collaboration fully; get to know their people.
The 2023 study was a hint of things to come when we surveyed agency clients about how they choose agencies, and why.
2024 Segments: Expertise Is a Defining Feature Clients Want
To have successful relationships with your clients, you need to understand their perceptions of their expertise and the expertise they look for in agencies.
Each of the three segments that our 2024 study identified has different perspectives on what expertise means.
Agency Advocates (29% of clients overall) want agencies to be integrated into their organizations. They look to agencies for new ideas, answers to their questions, and to hold their hands through a wide range of marketing initiatives. Whether they have the expertise or not matters less than their want for an immersive experience with an agency partner they can rely on. If you work with them, you’ll need to carry a lot of expertise across marketing domains.
Begrudging Buyers (43% of clients overall) lack confidence in their marketing expertise and think marketing is too complex to do by themselves. They believe agencies with more employees have more expertise and like to agency-hop. Compared to the other segments, these clients have big budgets; agencies who work with them should expect a professional, transactional relationship. You’re providing them a necessary service, they know it, and that’s pretty much it.
Exacting Experts (29% of clients overall) pose a unique challenge for agencies. These clients have marketing expertise but lack the time to do the work. They know what they need and how it needs to be done; they expect agencies to defer to their direction. Most (83%) have an in-house marketing team they have faith in. In agencies, they want somebody to almost compete with their expertise, bringing novel ideas and fresh strategies they can decide whether to implement.
While your approach will need to match the segment, a few attitudes were fairly universal in 2024.
- Clients expect agencies to know where to find the best answers.
- Clients say the main value of a marketing agency is performing the marketing activities their staff doesn’t have time to do (NOT that their staff is incapable of doing).
- Clients say they stay up-to-date on new marketing approaches and tactics (so talk to them like they’re in the know, not like you’re the sole keeper of this intel).
2024 has also confirmed that client perception of their own marketing acumen has increased overall – but so has the extent to which they need the help of outside experts.
Clients Are Leveling Up Their Marketing Acumen
Since 2019, we’ve seen double-digit percentage increases in client’s perception of their marketing acumen across segments.
Five years ago, only 39% of clients said their organizations stayed up to date on new marketing approaches and tactics; now, most do. Similarly, while a minority of clients said their organizations knew the best tactics for their needs, most do now. Less than half felt they needed outside experts to check their work; more than half do now. One in two now understands today’s marketing environment well, a double-digit percentage increase from 2019.
Clients have spent the last five years informing themselves about their marketing needs, environment, and trends. They’ll need relationships with agencies that have kept pace with their growth.
- That relationship might be purely tactical: Come in and get the stuff done we don’t have time to do.
- It could be deep and involved: Give us feedback, inspire us with ideas, and embed your agency in our organization.
- Relationships in 2024 could look like letting clients lead with agencies becoming a dynamic sidekick.
How to Embrace Client Expertise (and Show Your Agency’s)
Whoever your clients are, it’s vital to talk to them. Open up the lines of communication. Ask them what kind of relationships they want. Pay attention to what they know, what they can do, and how you can best help them as an agency, whether that’s doing a one-off project or developing a deep long-term relationship with them.
Now that you know clients have increased their marketing acumen, it’s truly time to listen to what’s been written in the research over the last 10 years: You’re not the only expert in the room.
Have thoughts about this blog or burning questions you’re dying to ask? Email us at questions@audienceaudit.com. While you’re waiting for us to respond — don’t worry; it won’t take long — check out the full results of our 2024 agency client research. Stay tuned! We’ll share more insights and actionable takeaways from this Agency Edge study in our upcoming blogs.
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