How To Create The Best Onboarding Experience

What's up, digital marketing agency owners? On today's video, I want to talk about how to craft a world-class onboarding experience. There's one thing I know for sure, it's that how you start in a relationship with a client will dictate whether that client stays with you a year, 2 years, 3 years down the road. So, if you're interested in learning ideas and strategies on how to improve that onboarding experience, you're absolutely going to want to watch this video. So when we think about onboarding, really there's, there's a couple of different things that come into play, but it's really part of your overall client retention strategy, right? There's 3 things you can do to truly maximize your client retention. Number 1 is world-class onboarding. It's really making sure that that experience out of the gates is nice and tight, is super professional, and it has an impact. It makes the client say, "Yes, I made the right choice. I'm with the right company, and I'm going to give this the time until it starts to bear fruit." fruit. After that, you have to have really, really good ongoing communication. You wanna have a great communication rhythm in terms of your monthly check-ins with the clients and showing them what you're doing and seeding the vision for where things are headed. And then of course, you have to have proactive success management, which is how you manage the relationship, manage the team to keep those clients engaged, to keep them excited, and to keep them on board. Now, what we're gonna focus on today is just this piece right here. The, the world-class onboarding. And so really the way that you come out of the gates, and I consider onboarding to be that first 30-day relationship with the client, but you really want to be proactive about the first 24 hours, about the first 7 days, and not just about kind of how you talk to the client, what means you have scheduled, but all the touchpoints, right? If you do this correctly and you craft a true experience You can be communicating with the client via email, via mail, via text message, via live calls, via interactions. And so what I'm gonna have you guys do is a, is an experience mapped out on paper. So you've got a really good 7 days, an amazing 30 days, great return on investment within the first 90 days, and then an ongoing relationship that ideally lasts into perpetuity. So if that sounds pretty good, hang with me here. We're gonna get into details on on this. And so what we do with our 7-figure agency members, um, and as we're really thinking about the retention side of the equation, is we have them map out that first 2 weeks and all of the touch points that go into that experience. If you think about the client, they've just said yes to whatever it is, right? Your monthly retainer service for $3,500 per month where you're gonna do the website, the SEO, the pay-per-click, the social media, whatever the mix of services is. They've just said yes, they've filled out the credit card authorization form, they've pressed submit, and now they're a client, right? Really what we want to do is make sure that we've got a lot of touchpoints that make great sense, that really wow the client. And so these are the touchpoints we found to be most effective. I want you to pay close attention to this, but I also want you to be thinking proactively about what you do that's unique, about what you can add to this to make it even more impactful, right? We really want the client to feel they're getting what they just signed up for. Any of the buyer's remorse that they might have gotten, like, "I just signed up, I don't know if this is going to work," take all the pressure off the client by over-communicating here in the first couple of days. So what we like to do is send a personal thank you. We do this via email, we do this via text message, we also do this via personal message, right? We want to connect with that client on their personal profile, whether it's on Facebook or LinkedIn, and say, "Hey, you just signed up. Really excited about working with you." Right? We want that personal communication. From there, we want to get the onboard form to them as quickly as possible. Right? None of the work can happen on our end until we have some of the basic details. Really want to think about what that onboard form looks like. That's not the, you know, what we're going to be covering on this particular video, but make it as seamless and as simple as possible to get the access to the website, access to their Facebook profile, access to their USPs, and all that other stuff that you need to get from the client. But you want to get that to them as quickly as possible, whatever step 1 is, so that you can get the ball in motion. From there, I really believe you want to have a welcome sequence mapped out for the client. As agencies, we usually think marketing automation for our marketing process, right? If you think about your client acquisition funnel, you've probably got a place where somebody can opt in and they can get a like a lead magnet or a cheat sheet, and we got this amazing sequence that touches that customer or that prospect until they schedule in, until they become a client, right? But we often don't do that same thing when a client comes on board, and there's no reason not to, right? There's no reason not to put a sequence in HighLevel or in whatever marketing automation you have in place to automate the communication flow with the client. Hey, here's what we're up to. Hey, here's what you can expect next. Hey, here's something we're gonna need from you in the next couple of days. When we did this little piece right here, we mapped out a 2-week onboard sequence for all of our clients, we started getting less complaints and we started getting better retention. So this might be a big opportunity to put a, a marketing sequence in place for your new clients. You wanna have a scheduled launch call, and for us we like to do that within the first 48 hours, right? They've said yes, they filled out the form, the salesperson has connected the account manager or the launch coordinator, and we're scheduling that call where we can be live with the client to get the usernames, the passwords, reset expectations, and kind of set proper, um, expectations in terms of how the— everything's going to flow. I think it's really important if you're going to craft a world-class onboarding experience that you've got this launch call scripted and that it actually happens live. I know a lot of agencies wanna try and remove live interaction. It's like, hey, let's use automations, let's use forms. Well, the reality is if we wanna craft a world-class experience, we're gonna need to get live with the client, right? Ideally on Zoom where they can see us and we can see them. And we wanna have crafted this. As the owner in the agency, maybe you've got a pretty clear idea how you want this to go. But oftentimes as we put account managers in place, as we put team in place, if we don't show them and tell them exactly what should be covered and exactly how that call should flow, It's not gonna be what you're thinking, right? So you wanna have a script and a checklist. Here's how we introduce the call. Here's what we talk about first. Here's how we reset expectations for the client and get them excited. Here's how we gather the usernames and passwords and the information we need. Here's how we set the vision and kinda how things are gonna play out over the next couple of months. Here's the things that they're going to wind up frustrated about or starting to second guess and seeding what they need to do in those exact situations. You wanna craft that launch call, right? And I've got a great training we share with our 7 Figure Agency members on how to kick off that call and really train your account management team to kick that call off really, really well. Um, from there, what we found works really well, and I'm a big fan of, is dropping something in the mail, right? So often we get emails and we get text messages and we get phone calls and we get Zoom meetings, but all of that exists in a digital world, right? It's not tangible. And so to the extent you can drop tangible things into the mail for the client, That's great. So the first thing we like to drop is a gift basket. We literally drop like a basket of goodies from a basket company saying, "Hey, we're so excited about working with you. Welcome on board." They're excited about that. Then we also mail out a welcome box, which also kind of sets the expectation, gets them excited because it stands out. I'll talk about that here in a minute if you're interested. I'll kind of walk you through what that is and how it works. This is the first week, right? In that first week, they're getting lots of communication, they're getting lots of touchpoints, they're having a great launch call, and they're receiving something physical in the mail. I encourage you on that gift basket piece, do it. Especially if they're paying you more than $1,000 per month, your investment of $75 to $100 out of the gates is going to buy you grace. It's going to buy you time. It's gonna buy you confidence that they're, they're with a good company, 'cause in the most agencies, Don't do something like this. Now, also I want to encourage you to do it quick, right? Don't make this one of those things where it's on a checklist, it's like after the first week we're gonna order it, and then it takes a week to get there, and they're like 3 weeks in before they receive it. Ideally, find a gift basket service or something like Sherry's Berries where that can arrive at their office like 2 days later or less, because that's like, "Wow, I just signed up and now I've got this thing in the mail, and I feel good about that." So that's the first week. From there, we want to think about some of the touch points and some of the quick wins we can engineer for the client. Really, what can we do that's gonna show them some results? Within the first 2 weeks, what we like to do is launch the pay-per-click campaign. We want to launch a pay-per-click campaign so we're starting to drive some traffic, we're starting to drive some opportunities. Ideally, we're starting to make the phone ring. We're starting to generate leads. Now, this isn't the core of our strategy. It's a piece of the strategy, and when you are creating a great experience, and you have great communication, and the client's excited about the big picture, but you also engineer quick wins— uh, pay-per-click campaign, retargeting, um, database reactivation— they start to see some results right out of the gates, right? So, um, we launched the pay-per-click. From there, like, there's lots of other things we can do to create that communication process, to make them feel like they're part of what's going on, they feel like you're communicating effectively. They know what's going on. They're excited about where things are headed. Um, we like to do a call to review all of the tracking. Hey, so this is the ranking report we ran. This is where you're at today. We're gonna be tracking this on a month-over-month basis. Maybe analytics. Here's how much traffic you're getting today. Make this a formalized meeting in your process where it's like, hey, here's where we're at. Here's our benchmarks. Here's where we're gonna be going on an ongoing basis. If you're doing a website design and you're gonna build out a new version of the website for the client, have a design call, like where you're gonna show them, hey, here's what we built, homepage, internal page, here's the concept we came up for you. Sell them on why you did it that way, why this is gonna have the highest conversions, why this is gonna work really, really well. That is a great experience for the client. It's not a win like in terms of, hey, we just made money, But they're excited, right? If there's one thing they're excited about in this process, usually, it's their website, and it's when the phone starts to ring. And so might as well make a big fuss about the website that you've built, about the design that you've come up with. Now, we like to have a special meeting to review the tools. We put a lot of tools in place for our clients. We put reputation tracking in place, we put call tracking in place, we put NearbyNow, which is like a tracking heat map, like content generation strategy. And so a specialized session to walk them through Here's the tools, here's how they work, here's how this is gonna be part of the overall strategy. And then of course, once the website launches, usually within the first 6 weeks, we launch that site. And that's a big to-do. Hey, excited, the website's live, here it is, it's gonna be big, it's gonna rank better, it's gonna convert better. So this is just a high-level idea, right, of what you can do and kinda what those touchpoints would look like within your agency. The big idea is don't just go radio silent, right? If we're trying to craft a world-class onboarding experience, what you don't want to do is get the credit card and get to work. And you might be hustling and doing amazing work behind the scenes, but if the client's not hearing from you, if they're not seeing what you're up to, if they're not in the process at some level, they feel like you went radio silent and they're going to be worried and they're probably going to be thinking about that cancellation. Come month 2 or month 3. Versus a world-class experience like this, they're bought in, they're excited, they're communicated with, they're definitely giving you at least 3 months. They're giving you at least 6 months because you've created such a great experience out of the gates. Would love to know in comments, out of these, like, what are some things you could implement? What are some things you will implement? And what are some ideas that you have in terms of your onboarding that you— maybe you're doing that you think would add, that the rest of the group could benefit from, or the other people watching this video could benefit from? Put those in the comments. Now, I'm just going to show you some quick rapid-fire versions of this. I've got some deep dive training that walks you through how to create a world-class onboarding experience, but visually, right, we've got a welcome email like this that goes out. We've got an onboard form with a video. Hey, welcome aboard! So excited to have you. Please fill out this form below. So they start to see the owners, they start to see the team that's involved, and we make it as simple as possible. From there, we launch that onboard communication process, right, where they're getting communicated with Throughout the journey, in addition to our live calls, in addition to our physical emails that are manually happening, we have some automation that buys the experience. We get them booked into the schedule, right? They're getting touched every step of the way. And then we drop the welcome basket and we drop this, this new client onboarding box that they get in the mail that creates excitement, that creates enthusiasm, and You know, you can get creative with this, but this is where you wanna brand yourself up a little bit. If you got a copy of a book, if you got a nice t-shirt, if you've got like a padfolio and a, like a thermos that you can put in place, these are things that they just like, "Wow, I was not expecting this. It feels like fun to get a box like this in the mail." And it absolutely stands out from the crowd. So think about putting a customized box in place that automatically hits all of your clients as they come on board. Um, for our 7 Figure Agency members, we have resources for all of this stuff. We have the, the client welcome sequence, which is all of the emails and the timing of those emails and the timings of those communications. Um, our client welcome box with where we source this stuff out, how we get it, what we put inside of it, how you customize it so it can be very turnkey every time you get a client. Um, a scripted onboarding checklist and onboarding call along as well as recordings. That way you can train your account managers and really think through, man, what should be on that initial call? In addition to just like, what are we gathering? What's the experience that we're creating? How are we crafting that conversation? And then being proactive about the stuff that you mail and the welcome basket that you get in the mail. So this is all big, right? If you create this and you put it together, you're gonna create a great world-class experience. The next level up is to be very specific by engineering quick wins. Really being strategic with what you do to generate wins. I've recorded a video all about how to create quick wins in your onboarding process. I encourage you to go check that out. Hopefully you got value, hopefully you got some ideas here on this video on how to craft a world-class onboarding experience to wow your customers, to get them excited, which is going to generate better retention, it's going to generate more referrals, and it's gonna generate like more, more success in your agency. If you liked it, if you got some ideas, hit the like button, be sure to subscribe, share this with another digital marketing agency owner that could benefit. And if you want more, I've created a complete step-by-step checklist of how to maximize your client retention from the onboarding to the ongoing communication all the way through to client success management. You can access that by going to 7figureagency.com/checklist. Retention-workbook. 7figureagency.com/retention-workbook. That's all for now. Cannot wait to hear your wins and how you're helping your clients generate better results. Be sure to stay tuned for other videos just like this on how to grow and scale your agency, and I'll talk to you soon.