What clients want from their agencies | Stats tell the story

As B2B marketers are planning for their clients’ 2017 marketing budgets and strategies, they might want to consider how the services they provide are going to continue to fulfill their clients’ future business needs, as well as position the agency to be an appealing choice to prospective clients.

A recent trends report from Agency Spotter found that while some services remained at the top of the search trends, or even gained more ground in 2016, there are some services that clients are simply not looking for. Check out a few of the highlights below:

Advertising remains number one. Although advertising has remained the ultimate service to search for over the last two years, it’s also the one identifier that most agencies claim — making it a very common service. Also at the top of the list of services were digital strategy, web, social media, marketing strategy and mobile.

Public relations makes a comeback. After a very significant drop in searches for 2015, public relations, innovation and events agencies have rebounded in 2016. It’s not surprising, given the steady, increasing demand for content marketing agencies and their expertise in creating and curating content across myriad social media and digital platforms.

Don’t rule out direct marketing. Several services seem to continue to rise more and more in searches, even from 2015 to the first half of 2016.  These include media, data analytics, inbound marketing and CRM, with the biggest growth happening in direct marketing. We all know direct marketing is more than just oversized postcard mailers nowadays, but the service jumped from number 12 to number three in the number of searches throughout the last two years.

The number of clients searching within Agency Spotter for marketing agencies grew more than 45% from 2014 to 2016, which demonstrates that decision makers are searching constantly for the best solution and service for their businesses. Responding to search trends will help agencies remain accessible and current, especially as their clients’ needs continue to evolve within the marketing services landscape and clients move from one agency of record to many agencies for project-based needs.

How does your agency market its services, and where do you see things changing for 2017? Let us know in the comments below.