Research: Why clients work with Collective Content 

A large sign that reads "Understanding" in capitals against a light peach sky.

Research: Why clients work with Collective Content 

Written by

Tony Hallett
 

22/01/2025

Why do your customers choose you?  

This is one of the biggest questions in business. Companies that don’t know the answer are flying blind. 

We always ask this question of our clients – ‘Why do your customers choose you?’ But you might guess that we also ask our own clients another similar question: why they selected us, and then why they stick with us. 

In the second half of last year, we conducted a qualitative research project with a dozen client contacts and one fundamental came out clearly ahead of others. 

We speak a lot about being a content agency that makes sense of things. That could be the future impact of GenAI on content marketing or providing a client with ideas and content that help them explain to customers/prospects the latest transformations in a vertical industry, or the effects of upcoming regulations or a new technology. 

So we’re happy that #1 in the research, conducted by specialist consultant Remeny Armitage at Brilliant and Human, was: ‘Understanding of the business’ (see chart). 

 

A pie chart displaying the research results in the text.

 

This was the first choice of almost a third (32 per cent) of those who sat for depth interviews with us. It was followed by ‘Chemistry’ (23 per cent), ‘Service offering’ – for our purposes meaning the types of services we offer and  how well we do that – at 20 per cent, ‘ROI’ at 14 per cent and ‘Price’ in last place with 11 per cent. 

Not every agency would divulge these findings. Not every agency cares about knowing them. 

But we hope it chimes with our clients and would-be clients reading this. 

Do you feel that at the top of your list for choosing a supplier/partner is that they really get you? And by ‘you’, we often say that means more than your organisation or industry, but the demands on your team and in your role. 

A year ago, I wrote a sister piece about this subject, drawing on findings from GO! Network, and mainly related to agencies pitching. 

The argument resonated so much within our team and in conversations with clients that we increased the emphasis on Collective Content’s role as sense-makers – making a complex world more understandable. 

And to our clients, who are helped by content that serves such a purpose with their customers, we say that being a sense-maker leads to greater trust levels. 

And so, through client research and over a decade of learning, we settled on our ‘Trust through understanding’ tag line, which reflects our position. 

 

 

What matters most to you when choosing an agency? Drop me a line – I’d love to understand more. 

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