Agencies: Avoid client drama with these elements in your digital marketing contract or service agreement
Sometimes, situations can arise that make the day-to-day of running a digital agency challenging. Issues that get in the way of you being able to run your business smoothly. Not all digital marketing contracts or client service agreements are equal, and they can make all the difference in saving agency owners and managers, like you, from headaches like these:
Receiving an unwarranted negative review online
Clients who are slow to respond, blowing out project timelines
Not getting paid on time (or having to follow up!)
Managing clients who have misinterpreted the scope of the work
It will come as a comfort to know that there are steps you can take to reduce the risk of issues like these happening to you in your agency.
Do you run a digital agency? Our contract and service agreements have been designed for you to use with clients:
Reduce the likelihood of unfair negative reviews
Negative reviews are any business owner or manager's worst nightmare. They can feel unfair and aren't always reflective of the service and quality that you have provided (let’s not even get into how hard it can be to get them removed!)
Imagine this scenario…
You spend hours of your time perfecting a social media management service for a particular client, only for them to post a poor online review. You learn they believed that a service you provided them included Facebook ads, despite it never being part of the package they had agreed to, and therefore it was not included (or specifically excluded) within the scope of the service. Now, instead of putting your time and effort into high value activities in your agency, you’re instead having to deal with the aftermath of this negative online review.
Even though you may believe your digital marketing contract or service agreement is clear, it isn't until issues like these arise, that you could even contemplate how a client could become confused. Keep in mind that you’re doing this work every day. They have done a lot of research and may have their own interpretation of the details.
To avoid any chance of confusion, it is crucial that you clearly scope the specifics of each and every service you offer and those excluded from your scope in a digital marketing contract or service agreement. This ensures that you can easily bring up the idea of a new quote for any ‘additional extras’ that come up. It also goes a long way in ensuring that your clients are aware of the boundaries when it comes to the scope of every service you offer.
Keep project timelines on track
Ensuring that project timelines can be kept is a crucial step in running a successful agency. You will want to avoid having allocated time for a project, only for your team to be twiddling their thumbs because a client hasn’t provided content or feedback. We know that when an approval sits with a client for an extra month (or three), this can blow your allocated time out to three to six months, making it costly for you and very challenging to manage.
Drawn out timelines also open up room for client expectations and obligations to shift. Perhaps your client speaks to a business coach in the interim, and their goals for the business now look very different. Significant delays can also mean that the work you have done to date could need to be reworked entirely because of the ever-changing nature of algorithms or your client's decision to change platform and preferences.
It is wise to set monthly check-ins with clients to establish regular approval intervals. This can assist in keeping your client engaged and help you to sort out any future issues at their earliest stages. Being clear with your client about what is and what is not included from the very beginning, is crucial in ensuring that the client is engaged and neither of you are blindsided at the tail end of your project.
The best way to do this is to have detailed terms and conditions alongside your quote or proposal. These terms should dictate all of their obligations, and ensure that they know that if they do not keep to the timeline agreed, there may be additional fees involved or timelines will need to be renegotiated. Adding set deadlines and check in meetings into your digital marketing contract or other service agreement assists with this.
It is also up to your discretion to charge a rush fee if there is a request for your team to make up the time and prioritise their work. Any element of a project must be included and clearly explained within the structure of your service agreement or digital marketing contract. Generic terms and conditions won’t protect you nearly enough.
Avoid copyright ownership issues
As a digital agency owner or manager, we understand that you make your money by creating things for other people. So much of what you create is transferred to the client for them to use at their discretion. But, what happens if, for example, you provide draft concepts that were ultimately not approved? Do you require your agency to be able to potentially upcycle them or repurpose them for another client in the future? It is important for clients to know that all versions or drafts that are not selected, are owned by you and your agency to use as you wish.
What about the content a client provides? For example, words, photos, video, sound, images or illustrations? Who owns that, and what happens if the client had copied them from someone else (unknown to you)? Who is responsible when the copying comes to light?
You must cover your agency when it comes to the repurposing of content, branding, logos and a client's promise that the content provided is their own to use freely. It is critical that you are free of any liability attached to copyright infringement, so your digital marketing contract or other service agreement must identify this issue head on.
Make sure you get paid on time
Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. You need to ensure your agency gets paid on time, all the time. As discussed above, there can be extensive timelines involved in delivering certain projects or services. Delays in approvals, feedback and replies, can significantly delay your income and put a kink in your cash flow.
If you don’t do this already, consider getting a deposit at the very start, and structure payments by instalment or monthly retainer payments to keep funds coming in.
These consistent payments will allow you to operate your business without fear of running out of cash, and it’s also easier to identify if someone isn’t going to pay on time. Before you’ve done all the work. It is crucial that your digital marketing contract or agency service agreement outlines the terms of payment. It must also include provisions outlining that you are able to terminate or pause service until payments resume. It should also detail that this can affect the original timeline that was promised.
As a busy agency owner, it is not uncommon to believe that instalment payments are continuing to flow in, but monitoring payments is essential. This can be easily overlooked given how many hats you wear, but not checking in routinely can be a disaster.
Managing unhappy clients
As they say, communication is the key to any relationship. Recently, I appeared on a podcast about avoiding legal issues associated with producing a podcast. One of the comments on the podcast over on Instagram was that the episode was ‘more about communication than legal issues’. My response was, “yes, communication is the extra layer required to help you avoid legal issues, which is why it was the focus of the podcast!”
Unhappy clients can be created because of a disconnect in client expectations, there is no right or wrong, just different expectations.
Disclaimers will assist you in managing client expectations early on and make your audience aware that there are no guarantees that your service will lead to an increase in the business’s revenue. Disclaimers can assist in managing client expectations when it comes to things like performance outcomes. For example, just because you create content and help your client put out digital content, does not mean their business or revenue is guaranteed to increase as a result. It is crucial to make these boundaries clear in your digital marketing contract or client service agreement from the outset.
When a tricky issue comes up, it is best to tackle it head on. Ideally, you should cover off potential issues in your contract, but if things come up post-agreement that could not have been foreseen (such as delays from Covid etc.), it is best to get on the phone and sort it out with clear communication, followed up with a confirmation in writing, so you have a record of the conversation and any other post contract agreements so you can rely on that if things go pear-shaped. This is preferable to letting things fester like an untended wound that then requires crisis treatment, which can often have an impact on your reputation.
Make your digital agency life easier
Delayed timelines, slow or delayed payment, drawn out project timelines and misinterpretation of expectations can be avoided. These issues take your focus away from the high value activities you need to be working on in your business.
Any digital marketing contract or agreement you provide a client should cover off all items including your obligations, the obligations of your client, disclaimers to protect you, notice periods and periods of time to approve drafts and how to end things if neither of you are feeling the love with the client relationship.
To have an agency that runs as smoothly as possible, requires you to proactively get ahead of these common issues. The digital marketing contract or any other service agreement you provide should be well-structured, clear and cover all the elements covered above. Copying terms and conditions found online or using generic terms and conditions won’t protect your agency sufficiently. Taking into account the specific issues that can arise for each service is essential to running the most successful of agencies.
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To make sure that your client agreement or digital marketing contract saves you from these client issues, take a look at our Digital Agency Service Agreement Template. If you want to check if this template is right for you, or if you have specific questions relating to your agency needs, book a time to speak with us here.
