The Client Retention Handbook for Digital Marketing Agencies: How to Keep Clients on Board Long-Term and Reduce Churn

I stumbled across Josh Nelson and his 7 FIgure Agency in mid-2020. I attended several workshops, joined his "On-Ramp" program, read his first book "The Seven Figure Agency Roadmap" (and have read it cover to cover several times since) and immediately became a fan.In "The Client Retention Handbook" Josh lays out a commonsensical approach to the critical skill of retaining your agency's clients once you've landed them. I say commonsensical but in these days of 'self-proclaimed guru's everywhere', Josh is the antidote to hype and promises that won't come true.The Client Retention Handbook is a must-read for anyone in the agency space - although frankly, it works for anyone with a client roster that you want to retain long-term.This is a thoughtful, practical read on specific tips, practices, and processes to building long-term client relationships, streamlining your agency's onboarding and client launch roadmap, as well as delivering consistent results - and sharing those results consistently with your clients - so you can build profitable, long term relationships and avoid costly client churn.No hype. No promises. No ego. Just straightforward advice and a practical roadmap for engaging new clients and ensuring they remain profitable, long-term clients for your agency.On a personal note, Josh is one of the most selfless mentors I've ever had the pleasure of connecting with. I am a small agency startup, and Josh has provided advice and counsel along the way. He and his team are available for guidance and support, and he has even made his core programs available at no charge to help agency owners like me develop a systematic approach to building our agencies.If you don't know Josh, please grab a copy of his first book "The Seven Figure Roadmap". It is one of the best end-to-end solutions to starting up a digital marketing agency. It is the first time that anyone has ever put together all of the steps in a logical, coherent sequence that is almost 'paint-by-numbers' simple. Hard work? Yes. But having a well-thought-out roadmap is priceless.And his Client Retention Handbook is every bit as helpful, practical, and usable as all of his advice. If you're not following Josh, I think your hardwork and agency-building efforts will amplify using his approach.Josh has a saying "How You Do One Thing, Is How You Do Everything!" This book is yet another example of learning from Josh's mentorship and coaching to help grow your agency. He delivers! Consistency. Quality. Humility. Approachability.

I run a Marketing agency for Churches, and I’ve come across Josh Nelson in many different ways in growing my agency, the most recent way being this book I’m reviewing.In the book The Client Retention Playbook for Digital Marketing Agencies, by Josh Nelson, Josh gives great help on how to keep clients.Unlike what the title could sound like, it’s not just simple advice on how to keep a client, it’s a framework on how to build your agency for success from the ground up to make your agency able to retain clients.And it’s not even a book based on theory. It’s based on his real-life years of experience (even making the Inc. 5000 for four years in a row). You can’t make the Inc. 5000 several years in a row by accident. This is why reading this book is a must for ALL agency owners, whether you do relatively well in keeping clients or not.Josh didn’t start his agency this way, so it’s not something that came naturally initially to him, either. In the book, he recalls a moment when a friend noticed that Josh’s agency had taken two steps forward and one step back by gaining 10 clients in a month and losing another 8 clients.Josh spent many thousands of hours and thousands upon thousands of dollars on courses and mentorship to arrive at this formula. This book will cost you a very tiny fraction of that. While I’m not a fan of Alabama Football (War Eagle!), Nick Saban is unarguably one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. If you were a football coach, how much would you pay to spend just a few minutes sneaking a peek at Saban’s playbook to learn his secrets? Reading this book (at such a low price), you can get just the equivalent of that for the agency world by reading Josh Nelson’s playbook on client retention for Marketing agencies.As Josh has written another book to help agencies get (and retain) clients, I’m glad to see that he’s put a short few-page summary in this book as well for agency owners who haven’t yet had a chance to read that book.This book goes head-first into essentially plug-and-play SOPs that you can put to use in your agency. He goes through these SOP frameworks and then also at the end of the book shows examples of other Marketing agencies that are using these frameworks in their agency.Even the last chapter is a great help, as it’s a short, quick summary of key points from the book. I highly recommend you read this book if you own a Marketing agency or are looking to start one. If you’re starting an agency, read this book first because it gives you advice that will keep you from making mistakes as you grow that agency.

I bought Josh's last book so was nervous and excited about the sequel as I was worried it would be like Top Gun 2... just not quite hitting the mark.However..... Unlike Top Gun 2, I was NOT disappointed!!This book is reeeeeeally good.Josh lays things out in a simple and easy to understand format that allows you to follow along with ease.The Information is really powerful and is something you can action straight away and see results within a few hours in some cases.In all cases the information is NOT scammy or unethical (unlike some others...) and has info that will help to grow your business in a sustainable and measured way.Chapter 8 was especially powerful for me where Josh has insights from other business owners and what they found worked for them. This really help me see different ways I can utilize what was in the book.I bought the Kindle version first as I was not sure what to expect.As soon as I finish this review I am going to look at getting the physical book so that I can highlight and tab pages... just the same as his first book :)Josh, if you read this, then thank you for doing what you do, I appreciate you and your values of delivering value non-stop, being an ethical marketer and trying to genuinely help others without trying the hard sell.

5 stars!

This book gives me everything I need to maximize my churn. I struggled with churn until I understood how to stop it with Josh's help. I've been stagnet for months because I'd gain clients and lose other clients and I was spinning my wheels. Since implementimg ALL the strategies in this book I've now see churn as a tiny issue in my agency. For digital marketers looking to figure out why clients are leaving and how to keep them longer you must read this book. It's a game-changer. Highly recommend it.

Client retention has always been a big issue for agency owners. Josh has perfectly laid put the activities a business needs to do to earn trust of clients from the onboarding and making them love your process and results you achieve for them.Totally love this book. Will keep it on my desk for taking notes and improve our client engagement and retention in the next few months.Highly recommended for agency owners in digital space.

Josh is a master of digital agency success material, sharing real experiences, examples and frameworks in an easy to follow guide. Any agency wanting to improve customer experience and retention should get out their highlighter and get a copy of this book. Now is the time to reflect on what keeps customers coming back and The Client Retention Handbook is a must read, the complete end-to-end guide for digital agency success.

When I heard about this new book, I knew it will be very helpful... and this book did not disappoint just like Josh's first book.And the release of this book is very timely since one of the things I am struggling with as an agency owner is retaining clients.If you are an agency owner like me, you would not regret reading this.

Another masterpiece after 7 Figure Agency by Josh Nelson. This is again in continuation of creating an agency, making it successful and now how smartly you can RETAIN is what this is all about. Just read few excerpt of it and found it amazing.