Here at Sift Media we regularly receive feedback from our advertising clients. More often than not it is positive, and obviously we welcome that with open arms, but occasionally it may be constructive comment on how we can improve things. Occasional back slapping is well and good, but as many businesses will tell you, this kind of insight is often a whole lot more valuable. In fact we specifically ask for this kind of feedback, as those who have previously completed our customer satisfaction survey will know.
On this occasion however, we are sharing one of the outright positive customer comments from 2015. We don't tend to blow our own trumpet too much, letting our campaigns do the talking instead, but here we have been invited to do just that. So please read on for a verbatim piece of feedback from a genuine customer who testifies that we tick all the boxes…
Dear team,
Sincere thanks for your help this year. I thought you might appreciate the following note ahead of the Christmas period…
We spent more on digital advertising last year than ever before – in fact we spent more than £10k with HRZone alone. I'm not sure what the average annual client spend is for a company like Sift Media, but that is not an insignificant proportion of my marketing budget. The purpose of this email is to explain why I was happy to spend it and why I will be even happier to increase this level of spend over the year ahead. (Incidentally, you may chose to publish this by way of some kind of testimonial…Of course, you may also choose not to do so as it may give your competitors some insight as to how they can improve!).
Your brilliant editors. It is your content after all which makes your business community such an engaged audience – something which our brand is able to piggyback on top of – and it is testament to the talent of your editors that they are able to orchestrate content which does this so successfully. A particular highlight this year was the way your HRZone.com Editor, Jamie Lawrence, brilliantly hosted one of our webinars. It is clear that he has a great understanding of the needs and challenges of the HR community, and also how to communicate with this audience effectively.
Your quality audience. I appreciate you guys must have more competition than ever before, but while I won't necessarily stop spending on PPC, I do at least sleep easier knowing that even those who don't click on my campaigns are relevant, engaged and that they are genuinely being exposed to my content in a relevant environment. I may not only have to pay for those who click as I do with my social campaigns, but I honestly feel’ that my money is going further with you guys.
Your attention to detail. I won’t pretend we didn’t try advertising with some of your competitors in 2015, but I can report that it was Sift Media staff that listened closer to us, got to know our industry more (which isn’t a simple one!), understood our needs better and were really able to think laterally when it campaign to campaign planning.
Your results. We have turned to you enough times in the last year or so to establish that you offer reliably good results, but even when campaign responses are coming vaguely close to average your account management and campaigns team step up with ideas to amend activity and optimise results. From editing copy to timing an ad with a newsworthy event, you have a team that thinks on its feet and can really help to improve our return on investment.
I’m a believer that feedback can go a very long way, so I hope this is helpful and that the team who supported us with our campaigns this year are suitably recognised.
I appreciate our activity was related to just one of two of your publications this year and that it largely revolved around whitepaper downloads and whitepapers. I’m aware this barely scratches the surface of what you can offer us and I look forward to exploring a raft of new opportunities with Sift Media in 2016!
*On the basis that it mentions budgetary spend and intentions for the year ahead this particular customer has requested that we don’t include their company name. They have however agreed to provide this info on request so don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.