We recently wrapped up a two-year engagement with a customer and instead of being upset or anxious, our team feels validated for a job well done. Let me explain why.
When I say “wrapped up,” we lost a customer, which has thankfully only happened three or four times. Still, there are usually feelings of upsetness, sometimes there are hurt feelings, and just wondering what you could have done differently or if you misunderstood what the objective was.
In this case, none of that happened and we here at Heard are actually pretty proud of how the relationship went and how it wrapped up.
First of all, marketers have a reputation of trying to hook customers on a never-ending cycle of services and big ideas that will keep customers on a retainer for the foreseeable future. This isn’t meant to be nefarious, that’s just how a lot of marketing relationships work, including this specific relationship.
They were on a retainer, we were acting as their content marketing agency across a number of different executions. We also began training their internal team through weekly calls that had a lot of educational and strategic conversations on how we do the tactical execution.
We did that for two years, essentially teaching the internal team how to execute at a very high level to the point that they felt comfortable enough to hire an entire full-time team that we also helped train over time.
All of this validated a couple of things.
#1 — Our original strategy was 100% on-point
Two years after we began our relationship, they were only doing more of what we originally prescribed. In fact, our core service for them became the center of their business offering.
They changed their business model and evolved as a company over the two years that we worked together to the point now that the services we were providing them is their core product in and of itself.
That’s super validating because when they first started out we were like, “Hey, if you do these things, they can grow into something bigger than just a marketing exercise. It could actually be your brand,” and that more than came true.
#2 — We did our jobs well
We were good enough at our jobs that this customer saw so much benefit that they wanted to double down beyond what we could provide as an external agency, which is what prompted them to hire full-time team members.
Our strategic success and the level of execution we provided showed them how much they can continue to do in the podcast world, to the extent that they wanted someone to specifically focus on increasing their ability to develop their brand through content creation.
That celebrates the work our team did in setting them up over those two years, so this should be celebrated as a victory for both sides.
- We proved the value of our work
- The client further invested into this operation
- Our strategy and execution was validated
- The client’s audience and aspirations outgrew our original objective
That’s really, really validating and something we can share with other customers or prospects who want to know how this type of content strategy can work. We also still have a great relationship with this former client and they would be willing to advocate for us as well.
Sometimes doing this every day, day in and day out, you have to find ways to see the glass half full. This is one of those times and we are thankful that we got to work with them.