A lot of people that are in business don’t understand that bringing on a client is a two-way street. Some people act like they owe everything to the client just because the client is paying them. You need to work with clients who treat you with respect and value what you do, or you’re going to have a terrible time in business and in life. You’ll probably burn out and hate your business.
If you’re in digital marketing, you need to select clients who have the budget to pay you, appreciate the value that you bring to the table, and have a growth mindset about their business.
Many beginners work with low-hanging fruit. These clients are already failing in their business and expect a marketer to come and save it. Once you add advertising to a business that doesn’t work, it’s just going to fail even faster. For a business that already works and has a product that people need, putting in marketing money will make it grow even faster.
You have to work with businesses that are already succeeding and are too busy to do the marketing themselves. They’ll value what you do for them, respect you, and will be more than willing to pay your fee because they want an expert in every piece of their business.
A couple of months ago, I brought on a client and thought everything was going great. I set very clear terms and expectations at the beginning. A couple of weeks into it, they were emailing me six times per day and making my life miserable. I was providing great results, but they were bringing in all these problems with their business structure. They also had an unrealistic expectation on what their return on ad spend should be.
If somebody is bugging you, taking up your time, and messing with your ability to grow your own business, it’s time to fire them. You want to be very respectful, leave things on good terms, and not burn too many bridges. Send a very clear email saying that it’s time to part ways.
Find the clients that are high performers. You can make their business even better.
To learn more about getting digital marketing clients, visit https://www.christianmartin.org/podcast