Let’s be honest. PPC management at its most basic level isn’t rocket science. You give the platform a budget and they will spend it. Clients could do the work. But there’s a simple reason why clients choose to pay a PPC professional to do it for them…your brain. Inside your head is a network of knowledge and experience that can’t be replicated. You don’t just manage campaigns, you optimize them. You get them running like well-oiled machines. So what happens when your super-efficient, high-performing campaigns just aren’t enough?
One of the best parts about being a digital marketer is knowing that PPC is just one piece of the puzzle. When you have a chance to step back and look at the proverbial 30,000-foot view, you know that even the best paid media campaigns don’t work in isolation. PPC is a part of a larger ecosystem of services and techniques that help your clients promote their business. As a digital marketer, part of your job is understanding how these various pieces work together and educating your client to take the appropriate action. Sometimes, that means cross-selling other services your organization has to offer.
Cross-selling can be scary for some people. They feel awkward about promoting a service the client didn’t ask for or they may feel like they are stepping on toes. Then there’s the dreaded conversation about fees. But cross-selling isn’t something to be feared. It represents a solid reminder of how much you care about your client’s business and success. Here are a few ways you can use cross-selling to demonstrate value to your clients.
- Step out of the box – One of the best parts about cross-selling is that it shows that you understand more than just one aspect of digital marketing. Remember, the client is paying for access to all that expertise in your head. Show off your stuff by connecting some dots for them. The relationship between the services that bring traffic to the website and the services that help what that traffic does on the website are a great example that is easy to understand.
- Demonstrate collaboration – Your client already thinks of you as a team player. You work with them all the time. But when you bring in other partners, be it from your own organization or another vendor, it shows you take the team attitude to another level. You are willing to bring in more brainpower and resources to better your client’s overall success. That does not go unnoticed.
- Take a holistic approach to problem-solving – When you suggest a cross-sell, you are reminding and educating your client that complex problems often require more complex solutions. Increasing sales is the result of a sophisticated process that brings the right consumers to your website and helps them through the sales funnel. Each step is important to the sales process, but they all work in tandem and must stay in sync to maximize their efficiency. Imagine top-notch paid ads leading to a poorly designed website. Not only will the sub-par user experience impact the ad quality scores, but conversion rates are likely to be low.
- Improve performance in other channels – One of the best benefits of cross-selling is the efficiency gained by taking a broader perspective in your digital marketing efforts. As you gain access and insight into other channels, you can improve your understanding of what works and doesn’t work within the channels you do manage. You can test and learn how changes at the top of the funnel impact lower funnel activities and eventually create predictive models to help forecast revenue.
- Increase your knowledge of their business – There is no downside to having a solid understanding of your client’s business. Not only does it show you care about their success, it allows you to develop keen insights to make stronger or more impactful recommendations. Cross-selling gives you access to data and departments that you may not interact with during the course of your normal work efforts. And as your knowledge of the client’s business grows, so does the depth and value of your partnership.
Remember…cross-selling also represents more revenue for your organization and helps further entrench your partnership with the client. Business owners will certainly appreciate your eagerness to help grow the bottom line and keep the sales pipeline full. But in the end, cross-selling is more about delivering value to your clients and building stronger relationships.
