Masters in Marketing Agency

Ramsey Sweis is the President, Founder, Architect, and Lead Digital Strategist for Aqaba Technologies.Ramsey has over two decades of experience in the digital marketing space, improving his client's marketing intelligence, providing marketing consulting, and growing brands through customer acquisition and online engagement. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency:How to pick the branding for a marketing agency.How to get your first customers and bring in new business.When to start being more selective with your clients.Common hiring mistakes.Time managment techniques.The different desires customers have depending on their location.The differences in marketing for different industries.How marketing changes on different social media platforms.Common mistakes marketers make.Resources:Aqaba TechnologiesHotjarGoogle AnalyticsAgencyAnalyticsGood to GreatWebXO.ioDevNoodleConnecting with Ramsey Sweis:LinkedInConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedInQuotables:6:08 - “The saturation of social and paid and organic platforms that we all are aware of today, including emails, we get bombarded with data. It’s just overloaded on a daily basis. It needs to be meaningful, there has to be a purpose-driven brand in terms of online. We’re a non-traditional agency. We have no experience of traditional media it's all digital; and it’s all driven by data. That’s where we really invest and focus our efforts in.”10:59 - “The more knowledgeable that you become, the more knowledgeable your team becomes, from a knowledge-based sharing standpoint, and then your clients are the benefactors, and you have a job as a result.”18:55- “Everyone wants the same outcome, the same result, their goals are economically driven it’s not about scheduling appointments or visits to the websites those days are done anyone whose thinking along those lines should really rethink their approach. It's monetary outcome, return on ad spend, there may be a variance in culture, maybe a variance in language, mostly English speaking and the results are pretty much the same so it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. . .”

Andy Groller is the President and CEO of Dragon360 and is an experienced marketing leader helping B2B and DTC brands solve their marketing challenges and reach new levels of ROI, CAC, and growth. Andy has partnered with brands that range from mature startups to enterprise behemoths and is a firm believer in working hard, getting great results, and having fun while doing it. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency:How to identify if something is a long-term strategy or a trend.The personal qualities you need to become a President of a company.What to look for in the hiring process.How to implement a good work-life balance in your culture.How Covid has changed marketing strategies.Specific B2B marketing techniques.How to respond to clients with low budgets.How to get to the decision-maker in a big business.Ways to promote referrals and strategic partnerships.Resources:Dragon360Google AnalyticsFunnel.ioDigital Banter PodcastExtreme OwnershipDevNoodleConnecting with Andy Groller:LinkedInConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedInQuotables6:11 - “You have to have this baseline of foundational and operational marketing tactics that boil up to that strategy but you still have to take advantage of something that might come across as trendy because everybody or at least people in that market that your trying to achieve are going there even if it’s a short term fad there’s probably opportunities there, whether it plays out over the course of time or not you don’t know that but you might as well give it a trial and a test and learn and see where it takes you.”9:02 - “Digital is an ever-changing thing if you’re not having that as a core component of your individual traits you’re probably going to get left behind both as an agency but also as an individual and the same goes for life you don’t know what life will throw at you, you need to be able to think on your feet, you need to be able to test and learn your way out of situations but also test and learn what is going to drive you forward so I think it’s that innate ability but also that core function and trait we look for in individuals and the brands we work with.”18:40 - “All these lay-offs, all these shifts, these economic downturns Tare the same brands that grew exponentially not realizing that it was a short term thing and they then create sustainable growth for themselves and they got ahead of themselves and they expected that this is going to continue in that trajectory but when things got back to normal along with economic things, it wasn’t real growth, it was true growth in the sense that you took off but it wasn’t sustainable.”19:40 - “Compared to a B2B brand you have a finite market you have different audiences different verticals things like that that are part of your ideal customer profile so its a more challenging environment than just throwing up some video ads and letting it run wild, you have to be smart with your audience segmentation, you have to be smart with your messaging, your targeting and things like that. The other thing too is in a B2B buying process there’s going to be multiple decision makers.”24:09 - “You’ve got to warm up the audience, if you’re going to go in and try to sell to the CMO, the CFO, VP of finance if we’re talking an AP automation tool you’re going to be banging down a door that’s never going to open, those people are busy they have their own objectives, their own responsibilities internally so you have to warm up that audience.”26:09 - “We are heavily referral based which is an indication of good work, if you get a lot of referrals it means you’re doing something right and I think we’ve seen success in outbound but a lot of our success has really been in that partnership network that we’ve created with existing clients that might leave or go somewhere else we’re typically their first call or they refer us to somebody else in their network or vice versa, it’s all about creating that partnership, it’s all about creating that relationship that maybe it doesn't lead to something tomorrow but 3 months from now there’s probably an opportunity there.”28:09 - “Don’t let data prevent you from making a decision, data should be directional, data is skewed, data is imperfect, if you’re waiting around for statistical significance of some test, guess what it’s a pipe dream it’s never going to happen, marketers need to use their guts, should they rely on data for directional decision making? Absolutely because data exists for that purpose but data is flawed at the end of the day data is not inclusive for everything out there and if you let data dictate whether you make a move or not you’re already behind.”

Maury Rogow spent over 15 years successfully launching products and growing revenue at high-tech (software, enterprise web) companies during the internet boom, including AT&T, Lucent, Cisco Systems, GeoTel, Watchfire, and Avaya. Maury is now the CEO of Rip Media Group where he helps new companies increase sales by producing branded commercials, and amplify brands globally with digital marketing campaigns. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency:How to enter the film industry.How to get the first clients for your agency.What you need to do to scale an agency.How to build your network.What to do when you have a bad hire.How Covid has changed the marketing world.How to scale down your agency.Resources:Rip Media GroupRise of the EntrepreneurThe Pumpkin PlanThe Revenue’s Builder PodcastDevNoodleConnecting with Maury Rogow:LinkedInConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedInQuotables9:59 - “The first customer brought them in, it was a friend, it was a friend of a friend and we made that happen but what do you do then? Now you’re working on the project and are you out there prospecting?”17:06 - “We started winning a lot of bigger and bigger projects, so I’m thinking great I have these people I can pull them in, at that point we had 12 people and I needed more and we’re filling up the office, I need to get more offices because we want these agreements, this person comes in he’s highly recommended, I knew this person from a conference he was a writer animator, perfect, so I didn't take the time, I just didn’t take the time to go through and vet and properly qualify these people.”18:49 - “I over hired and that was crushing and that’s what made me want to change the model to be something that was my consultation, my expertise, I can help directly so I went from let's go bigger and bigger agency-wise to what can I give directly to customers.”30:33 - “OGP. Only good people, I only want good people on my team, you might be incredibly talented but if you’re a pre-madonna or arrogant this is not the home for you, this is not the place for you, and this also goes for customers.”31:19 - “Your company and your customers will thrive or die based on the story you’re telling, you have got to nail your story, you’ve got to go out there and tell your story better than anybody else, you’ve got to know your three whys, why do they need to buy, why they need to buy from you, why they need to buy now.”

Scott Ellis has worked in marketing for over 20 years and is now the President of Agency Operations and COO & SVP of Product Delivery at Adworthy.At Adworthy, Scott is responsible for the successful delivery of their 1st party data products, and agency services.Utilizing their privacy-compliant targeting platform that mines and optimizes 1st party data for new customer acquisition, Scott works with Brands and Agencies, Technology Partners, and Investors, to deliver optimized first-party data products and best practices that deliver market-leading business results and accelerated speed to value. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency:The differences between working at home and working in the office.How remote teams can share informal knowledge with each other.How to avoid bad clients.What it really means to be data-driven.When you should go against what the data says.The value of using first-party data for new customer targeting and acquisition.Different reporting tools that collect data.Resources:AdworthyAugmetricsHubSpotSalesforceTableauNinjaCatTen Percent Happier PodcastDevNoodleConnecting with Scott Ellis:LinkedInEmailConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedInQuotables11:54 - “How do we have the biggest impact that we can have over a broader range of customers by servicing the right information, the right data from which actions can be taken because one of the things we see the challenge is you have these almost any organization that you can work with their subject matter experts in that area, their smart people but oftentimes they encumbered by the fact that they can't get the right information at the point at which they need to make decisions.”17:49 - “Rather than throwing a hail mary we go back to the data, did we miss something? Is there something operationally that doesn't line up here that we need to bring into this model and that’s been the way that we’ve always been successful because the data has led us and we haven't gone in there thinking that we know better or with already determining what it is we’re going to do.”24:20 - “It’s listening to what it is that customers want and then making sure in traditional marketing terms that you’re there. The challenge that we see today and a caution is companies that target the whole of the United States and they don’t necessarily look at that and say hold on now let's look at our first-party data or our customer data, how many people have we sold to in a given state or in a given metro area and then how much of our marketing spend is going into those areas.”26:54 - “We focus on very specific data sets relevant to the problem at hand not just trying to say hey let’s look at everything because again you can throw huge computing power at that but it’s inherently fairly inefficient when it comes to solving very specific problems.”27:42 - “Always ask where the data came from. Ok, someone’s given you a report, someone’s given you a recommendation, just because you trust that person and you like that person or it came out of a machine it doesn’t mean it's the right data that you should be judging your decisions on so always ask where that data originated.”

Hamsah Ahmed runs her own marketing agency that hypes brands up with the right content, influencer marketing, digital marketing, and user-generated content.Hamsah focuses on working with non-profits and small agencies to build their brand into something people desire to associate themselves with. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency:The benefits of working with non-profits and small agencies.How to measure how well a post is performing.How to get customers in different countries.The difference between working with small businesses rather than big businesses.How the pandemic has changed small business behavior.The most effective influencer marketing.The future of user-created content.How much budget you need to get influencers.Why use an influencer instead of a UGC strategy.Resources:The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ckDevNoodleConnecting with Hamsah Ahmed:LinkedInWebsiteInstagramTwitterConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedIn

Rick Campbell is an innovative, results-producing casino marketing executive with a proven track record of success developing and leading comprehensive casino marketing strategies that exceed business goals and objectives for very successful companies.Rick has expertise in directing the creation of marketing tools and steering the execution of marketing, and he has demonstrated success in driving growth in targeted markets through the implementation of key projects. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency:How to get the first customers for your agency.The benefits of starting a company with a team.The difference between marketing for casinos compared to other industries.How brands work together during campaigns.Different tools you can use to pull data points.The issue with automating casinos.How to create a marketing plan.How to know when to hire more staff.What makes a good casino marketer.The benefits of running analysis on your performance.Resources:CMS GroupDevNoodleConnecting with Rick Campbell:LinkedInConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedIn

Jason Piasecki is the Partner and CEO of Revel, a marketing agency that has grown hundreds of B2B brands.Jason focuses his attention on the unique challenges B2B companies have in growing their business and develops individualized strategies and tactics that deliver measurable results that meet unique business goals. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency:How baseball relates to business. What it’s like starting a marketing agency. How Jason got his first customers for his marketing agency. The difference between B2B and B2C marketing. How call to actions differ between B2B and B2C marketing. The services Revel provides to help businesses with their marketing. Tools that analyze marketing success. How marketing trends have changed since Covid. How to know whether it’s the right time to hire or not. Resources:RevelGoogle AnalyticsMailchimpAtomic HabitsFive Dysfunctions of a TeamThe Baseball 100DevNoodleConnecting with Jason Piasecki:LinkedInConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedIn

Brad Kugler has a passion for leading and growing businesses and has been the CEO at DirectMail 2.0 for over 5 years, where they provide a marketing based solution designed to track clients direct mail campaigns and enhance the overall result through cross-channel marketing. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency:What DirectMail 2.0 does and how they help organizations with their marketing efforts.The amount of touchpoints it takes to generate a sale.The benefits of marketing on multiple different platforms.What makes direct mail such an effective marketing technique.How to get the location data of your website’s visitors.The power of re-target marketing.How Brad started his own marketing agency and got his first customers.The high failure rate in marketing and the need there is for persistence.The benefits and downsides of focusing on a narrow niche.Tools you can use to test different marketing channels.The future of marketing and targeted advertising.Resources:DirectMail 2.0LifespanDevNoodleConnecting with Brad Kugler:LinkedInConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedIn

Laura Meyer is the Founder & CEO of Envision Horizons and an eCommerce agency specializing in working with Amazon and Walmart. She has also built an Amazon analytics platform. On this episode, we’ll discuss:How she applied what she learned in college to her work life and started her agencyHow Laura got into digital marketing and started her agency.How she got her first customer.Differentiating a good client vs one that isn’t a good fitWhat it’s like to get into Amazon and how it’s different than other e-commerce channelsThe key difference between branding for retail versus e-commerce.What Laura thinks people do wrong with data.The tools she uses at her agency and how she manages hiringResources:BooksCultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda MontellFive Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick LencioniOn the Way to Prosperity by Frances Young PersonHow to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships by Leil LowndesThe Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert IgerWhat It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence by Stephen SchwarzanSapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah HarariAtomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James ClearQuiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan CainDev NoodleConnecting with Laura Meyer:LinkedInInstagramEnvision HorizonsConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedIn

David has been a business owner-operator and investor for more than 20 years and is a professor at Johns Hopkins University.David spends his time both as the CEO & Founder of Warschawski, the number one rated U.S. marketing communications agency, and is the Managing Director & Founder of W Ventures a one-of-a-kind accelerator. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of The Masters in Marketing Agency:How David has changed his teaching strategy as the industry has changed.How David got started in digital marketing.The importance of understanding how digital marketing works.The difference between digital marketing and the rest of the marketing field.The benefits of hiring professionals with cross-disciplinary expertise.How David got his business started from scratch.What marketing firms lack when it comes to focusing on ROI.The difference between working with large established brands and smaller growing brands.Resources:WarschawskiW VenturesDevNoodleConnecting with David Warschawski:LinkedInConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedIn

Janet Driscoll Miller has been the President and CEO of Marketing Mojo for over 15 years and is the author of ‘Data First Marketing’.She is an expert in search engine optimization, digital advertising management, and data analytics and measurement. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of The Masters in Marketing Agency:Why it’s good to ask digital marketing candidates if they are analytical or creative.How digital marketers can switch from a tactical focus to a strategic focus.Using skillset badges to empower employees professional development.How to use data to inform the way your campaigns are run.How data is used differently across departments.Helpful tools to share and understand data.Common mistakes marketers make when looking at data.The clients Janet works with and how she got her first client.How to start your own agency and the benefits of having your own business.What a ‘returnship’ is and how it can help people get back in the workforce.Resources:Marketing MojoData-First Marketing: How to Compete and Win in the Age of AnalyticsZapierGoogle AnalyticsWin Data-First Marketing Book for freeConnecting with Janet Driscoll Miller:LinkedInConnecting with the host:Josh Hoffman on LinkedIn

Are you running a digital marketing agency but feel like you need some advice? The Masters of Marketing Agency Podcast features veteran marketing agency owners who share their experiences, mistakes, and successes along their journey. Join host Josh Hoffman and make sure you have a notebook as he digs deep so you can learn more about what veteran agency owners know. The Masters of Marketing Agency Podcast is brought to you by DevNoodle.