5 steps to attracting high-value clients

High-value clients. Every marketing agency wants them. We’re talking clients with big budgets and the power to bring big revenue for your agency.

Of course, high-value means different things to every agency. You may be looking for clients with huge spending power, or simply the clients that offer the best opportunity for account growth.

Whatever your definition, a high-value client is your ideal client. And you’ll want to attract as many of them as possible.

So, how do you strategically attract high-value clients for your agency? Firstly, you’ll need to spend some time honing your offering and the messaging around it. High-value clients come with high-value needs, and they’ll be looking for an agency that goes above and beyond to meet them.

Top tips to attract high-value clients

So let’s dig into it. Here are our five top tips to help you bag more profitable and valuable clients for your agency.

1. Define your target audience

To attract the big budget, big opportunity, clients of the world, you need to be clear on who they are, what benefits they want from a marketing agency and what specific services they’re looking for. Start by creating a ‘high-value client’ persona profile, defining things like the marketing challenges they face day-to-day and their marketing and business goals.

Next, think about the individuals you’ll be targeting: the directors, heads of marketing and business owners themselves. Gather together useful psychographic information, such as their personality traits, opinions, values and emotional responses. Basically anything that may impact their decision making.

Include as much detail as possible for each of these elements as it will help you build a comprehensive picture of your ideal high-value client.

If it seems excessive to include so much detail in your persona profile, remember: in order to attract a specific sub-section of clients, you need to fully immerse yourself in their way of thinking.

Doing this work thoroughly will go a long way in helping you define your high-value client marketing strategy and make the right marketing decisions to attract the best possible client leads.

2. Develop your USPs for high-value clients

Next, it’s all about you and your agency. Your services will only trigger a response from high-value clients if they see that you can help them solve a problem.

Therefore, your marketing strategy needs to focus on your unique selling points (USPs) and the real-world benefits your agency can bring to this level of clientele.

When a potential new client discovers your agency for the first time, they will likely ask themselves “What can this agency do for me that others can’t?”.

It needs to be very clear to a prospective client exactly how they will benefit from working with your agency – over and above what they would get from the competition.

To help with this, try these starting points:

• List five specific ways that high-value clients will benefit from working with your agency.
• Define three things the client should be able to do once they start working with you.
• Write down how the client would be missing out if they chose not to work with you. Think about the potential lack of results, the challenges and any frustrations they could face.

Building your high-value client marketing strategy around benefit-led USPs like this will make your offering much more compelling to the target audience.

3. Show off your big wins

As an agency, the proof of the pudding is always in the results you deliver. In other words, you need to clearly demonstrate how you’ve made a difference for other high-value clients.

If you haven’t already, start building a bank of high-value client case studies that show off your results.

Tell your clients’ stories from start to finish – explaining the challenges they faced, how you helped to solve them and the benefits the client gained. Make it relatable – you want prospective clients to see themselves in the story.

As with your USP messaging, focus on the benefits to the client, and use real-world numbers and statistics as much as possible. Saying a client achieved a 20% growth in leads is far more compelling than simply ‘we helped our client increase leads’.

If you can demonstrate how your agency has an ‘edge’ over the competition, even better. Perhaps you’ve pushed the marketing boundaries with a challenger brand client, or delivered great results for a brand in a new category.

Shout these wins from the rooftops and your agency will stand head and shoulders above the rest.

How Mediahawk helps:
In Mediahawk, you can use sales reporting data to link marketing campaigns directly to revenue. This means you’ll always have data-backed evidence of the activity that brings results for clients. And with automated reports, you can present your big wins to clients with minimal effort, too.

4. Give social proof

While case studies tell the story and show the results, social proof is where you showcase the client’s own thoughts and feelings.

We’re talking testimonials here. Those nuggets of in-their-own-words wisdom that show just how enraptured a client is with your service.

Here’s a simple formula to follow: whenever you have a campaign win or client success story, get a testimonial. They do wonders for your credibility (more on that below) and help other prospective clients feel safe in the knowledge they are choosing a trusted agency.

Here are some places you can use testimonials to their greatest effect:

• Peppered throughout your website
• In email signatures
• In new business proposal documents
• As call-outs in case studies
• In social media posts

If you can get clients to agree to give a video testimonial, even better. The power of a client singing your praises on camera is second to none.

5. Build your credibility

Trust is crucial in business, especially when it comes to agencies and their clientele. Since a high-value client is likely to be investing thousands in your services, they need to know they are dealing with a trustworthy agency that can deliver on its promises.

When clients are happy with their agency, they tend to stick around. But they also tell their peers. And as the word gets out, it can mean referrals aplenty and big business for you.

When your agency is referred to other high-value businesses that are looking for results-driven work and services, it’s much more likely you’ll earn their trust and land them as new clients.

How Mediahawk helps:
Once you’ve got a high-value client onboard, you need to keep them. Giving them regular, transparent and consistent communications on campaign performance is key. With Mediahawk, you can automate your campaign reporting and keep your clients updated with actionable insights and results. It all helps build your credibility and reputation further.