How to Lose Clients and Alienate People?

This article is brought to you by Adverity, the integrated data platform.

5 Top Tips for Losing Clients to More Data-driven Agencies

I do know, the “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” shtick has been done to death. But hey, if it sparks a little bit of righteous indignation at yet one more Toby Young knock-off pretending to offer groundbreaking advice, at the very least you’re sticking around for the intro.

Besides, the points below are so painfully obvious that they rival the litany of character flaws Young parades in his memoir. The truth is, in today’s data-saturated world, in case your agency ignores or disrespects its clients’ data, you might as well don a tuxedo, gatecrash a Vanity Fair party, and drunkenly dive into the pool.

So, without further ado, listed below are my top 5 tips about how to lose clients (and revenue) with poor data management. If you’re eager to drive your clients straight into the arms of more data-savvy competitors, you’re in the precise place. Enjoy!

1. Manually integrate your clients’ data in spreadsheets

You know that Excel was first released in 1985, right? That was almost 40 years ago. If you’re still using spreadsheets to manage your clients’ data, you might as well just give them a link to your competitor’s website. Or perhaps fax it to them. 

Ok, that’s a bit harsh. Excel continues to be an ideal tool, and even essentially the most data-driven company goes to be using it (or an equivalent) in some unspecified time in the future. But the reality is that a depressingly large variety of agencies still use spreadsheets to manually integrate their clients’ data – that’s, they spend hours upon hours each week copying and pasting numbers into spreadsheets before manually adjusting every part to be consistent with one another. In fact, some 41% of marketers say that manually integrating their data in spreadsheets is their biggest struggle.

And yet, it needn’t be. There are loads of automated data integration platforms, like Adverity, that may do that for you quicker, higher, and with rather more accuracy. We live in a world with self-driving cars and artificial intelligence – so why are so many businesses addicted to using outdated tools?

2. Base all of your decisions on dodgy data

Who really needs accurate data? Why spend time verifying it when you may make daring decisions based on guesswork and crossed fingers? Data entry mistakes, inconsistent formats, and outdated information can all add a fun layer of unpredictability to your campaigns. Plus, the joys of realizing you’ve misallocated your client’s budget due to flawed data is solely unmatched. 

It should go without saying that you just need accurate data to get proper insights. And yet, remarkably, 41% of analysts don’t trust the information that drives marketing decisions. A serious perpetrator here is, again, manual data integration, which is just not only an infinite time sink—time higher spent actually delivering value to your clients—but in addition runs the chance of introducing inaccurate data via human error. 

Data entry mistakes, inconsistent formats, or outdated information all contribute to flawed datasets. Merging campaign performance data from multiple sources without proper cleansing or standardization will lead to misleading insights, skewed evaluation, and ultimately ineffective strategies that severely undermine the worth you bring to clients.

3. Bombard Clients with Useless Data

Quantity over quality! Flood your clients with mountains of meaningless data. Who cares if it’s irrelevant? The more spreadsheets, the merrier. Overwhelm them until they will’t tell what’s necessary anymore. If you would like to lose clients quickly, bombarding them with irrelevant information is a surefire way to do it. In fact, some 67% of CMOs say they’re overwhelmed with data.

That said, you do need to do greater than just show them Google Ad spend. The most data-driven agencies today are those that construct an entire view of their clients’ cross-platform campaign performance. And then, they integrate this with other, relevant, datasets —from website analytics, sales figures, social media metrics, inventory data, and even weather data – that generate genuinely game-changing insights for his or her clients.

Here’s a stellar example from a recent roundtable discussion. By leveraging Google search term data alongside public transportation figures, one agency advised their pharmaceutical client on the optimal times to allocate their marketing spend.

“We saw bus ridership and metro ridership go down several days before the flu symptoms began to be Googled. And swiftly that gave a really interesting combination of tools that we could use to predictively prescribe marketing money based on markets that we’re starting to see dips in public transportation ridership. That gave this company incredibly cool tools to work with to completely crush the competition, who weren’t pondering of anything like this.”

So, if you happen to want to lose clients to more data-driven competitors, definitely don’t follow this approach. 

4. Rely on spreadsheets and PowerPoint for reporting

What’s worse than using spreadsheets to manage data? Using them to construct client reports, after all! Shockingly, greater than half (58%) of marketers and analysts still depend on spreadsheets for routine marketing reports, and an astonishing 61% manually transpose these reports into PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Why cling to such outdated practices when modern marketing dashboards provide fully automated, real-time data? If you’re still wasting hours manually compiling monthly reports, you’re practically inviting clients to jump ship to competitors who leverage the newest technology. There’s an abundance of dashboarding software available, from Tableau to PowerBI and even Google’s Looker Studio – which is free! So, really, there’s no excuse.

Moreover, the time spent on manual reporting is just not just inefficient—it’s detrimental. By only reviewing client data a few times a month, you miss countless opportunities to optimize your clients’ budgets. Agencies that fail to quickly analyze real-time data and adjust ad spend accordingly are leaving money on the table. This inability to integrate data in real-time means missing critical adjustments to campaigns, leading to reduced effectiveness and ROI. Embrace the technology that enables you to deliver timely, accurate insights, and stop sabotaging your client relationships with outdated methods.

5. Make sure your client data is as insecure as possible

Why trouble with GDPR or CCPA? Sure, ignoring data protection regulations might lead to hefty fines and a tarnished repute, but consider the thrill! Nothing says “reliable agency” like a juicy legal scandal and just a few headline-grabbing penalties.

But seriously, as a data-driven marketing agency, it’s absolutely essential to comply with data protection regulations. Yet, some agencies still overlook this critical aspect. Non-compliance with GDPR or CCPA isn’t only a minor oversight; it’s a glaring failure that may lead to severe penalties and clients fleeing due to legal risks. How are you able to expect to maintain client trust if you happen to’re careless with their marketing data?

And let’s discuss data privacy breaches. Failing to protect client data can lead to devastating legal consequences and irreparable damage to your repute. A single data breach exposing sensitive client information can lead to lawsuits, hefty fines, and a mass exodus of clients. Imagine explaining to a client that their marketing data was compromised since you couldn’t be bothered to implement robust security measures. It’s not only embarrassing—it’s business suicide.

You need to understand that adhering to data protection regulations and safeguarding client data isn’t optional. It’s a fundamental requirement. If you’re not taking these issues seriously, you’re setting yourself up to lose clients to competitors who do.

Perfecting the Art of Losing Clients

Congratulations! If you’ve successfully followed the following pointers, you’re now a master at losing clients. In today’s data-driven world, your blatant disregard for data sets you and your agency apart.

Honestly, though, mismanaging or being lax along with your clients’ data isn’t just a fake pas; it’s a guaranteed way to destroy your agency’s repute and bottom line. So, in case your goal is to filter your client roster and make room for some much-needed alone time, you’ve nailed it.

Now, all you would like to do is get that tuxedo on and go swimming.