Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies

Are you worried that defining a niche will limit your agency's potential? Don't be. Check out one agency's story about how they grew past 7 figures in a very specific horizontal and vertical niche. Think: if you got paid on performance alone, what's the ONE THING you do best to get you paid the most? In this episode, we'll cover: Why your agency needs a vertical or horizontal niche, or both. When and how to expand your niche. How to get bigger clients and retainers. Today's guest is Chris Dreyer, founder of Rankings.io (formerly Attorney Rankings). He's a client of mine who did a private, full day workshop with me. We were able to supercharge his agency business and since then he's had amazing growth! Agency leads have increased to 50-60 per day and they broke the 7-figure mark! Chris shares some of the strategies that helped his agency grow easier and faster. Why Choose a Vertical and Horizontal Niche? Chris is a school teacher by trade and was doing some SEO on the side. After a couple years of side jobs helping small businesses with SEO he quit teaching. He says it was an easy decision to choose a specific vertical niche because he knew he already had success stories, would build authority quicker, and stand out from the competition. To Chris, it seemed like an easy and logical decision. Focusing on a horizontal was a more difficult decision. Chris says they are awesome at SEO and their happy clients would requests other services, like social media, PPC, email marketing, etc. He says they were "OK" at these types of projects and were profitable. However they made the difficult decision to focus only on their core service of SEO - and it paid off! Zeroing in on a horizontal makes you super searchable, and your ideal clients can find you right when they need you. [clickToTweet tweet="When you make the decision to be the best at one thing, other decisions become easier to make." quote="When you make the decision to be the best at one thing, other decisions become easier to make."] When and How to Expand Your Agency's Niche It was their goal to provide the best SEO for law practices - staying true to the goal was key. It wasn't easy though. Naturally, law firms have relationships with a lot of medical providers. So, Chris's agency's satisfied law clients would often refer physicians to them. As tempting as it was, he often turned down those projects because he was so committed to the original goal in his vertical niche. In fact, it wasn't until just recently that Chris's agency, formerly AttorneyRankings.io, rebranded to Rankings.io in order to draw a broader client base. The rebrand comes after 3.5 years of establishing their vertical niche. They've found a lot of their strategies easily transferred from legal to medical practices. However, 90% of their business still comes from attorneys. How to Get Bigger Clients and Retainers Not to pat myself on the back… but I'm gonna :) Chris said he attributes a lot of their success to implementing my Foot in the Door strategy. That's when they saw conversion rates explode! Once they started offering a $995 SEO audit, it became so much easier for clients to commit to bigger projects. The Foot in the Door allows Rankings.io to showcase their knowledge and educate their clients based on research and fact. It also allows the agency to qualify their prospects by working on a smaller project before signing on for a higher value, long term project. It serves as a vetting process and helps avoid potential headaches. (Translation: weed out the bad prospects before they become bad clients!) From One Agency Owner to Another Chris is a big fan of educating yourself and always trying to improve. His best advice to any agency owner no matter what stage they're in, is to take action. Learning means nothing if you don't put it into action. Need Guidance and Support to Grow Your Agency Faster? Most agency owners struggle to scale. We've developed an amazing mastermind to guide you through the journey of implementing the right systems so you can scale your agency — instead of feeling overwhelmed by it. We do this by bringing together successful agency leaders to share strategies, offer advice, and reveal what's working (and what's not working) in their agency. The truth is, whatever you want to accomplish in life, nothing will help you go further, faster than getting the right adviser in the context of motivated peers. If you want to GROW fast and smart, Digital Agency Elite mastermind will help. How Can You Improve Further? Do you still have more questions to improve your business? I can help. It doesn't matter if you have been an agency owner for a while now or have just taken the leap and started a new agency, I have covered topics from the struggles you may face within your agency to leveraging YouTube in your marketing for your agency marketing strategy. Learn more about me or you can check out all my tips, tricks, and everything you need to know in my blogs. I have covered a wi

Growing your agency means hiring great people to help you get there. And hiring top talent shouldn't be limited by geographic boundaries. On today's show, one agency owner tells us why his agency's increased productivity and sales are the result of having a remote team. In this episode, we'll cover: Is it time to get an office for your agency? How to be productive with a remote team. Must-have technology for a remote team. Balancing a remote team business model. How to hire remote employees. Tim Cameron-Kitchen is the founder and Head Ninja at Exposure Ninja, the UK-based digital agency he started four years ago. In addition to growing an amazing business in a very short time, Tim has also written four bestselling books on digital marketing. Today, Tim's here to tell us why his agency's office space has been vacant for three years and how that has increased productivity and helped him scale his agency. Is It Time to Get Office Space? Starting as a freelancer and occasionally farming out work to other freelancers, it was a no-brainer for Tim to work 100% at home. However, as he grew to a network for 15+ he was getting nudged by others into working from a "real office." So he signed a 5 year lease and started commuting to it every day. The result was disastrous… Tim hated his commute, he hated interruptions, and he hated being pulled into office politics. In addition, he had hired some local talent which turned out to be convenient but not awesome in terms of skill-level and effectiveness. Creativity, productivity, and sales were all down which Tim attributes to the new mandate of working in the office. So naturally, Tim chucked the office… after only 6 months. As a result, productivity increased in the first month and sales increased the next. How to Be Productive with a Remote Team When you're working remotely you can work around your lifestyle, which ultimately optimizes productivity. More work gets done in less time when there are fewer interruptions and distractions. It means working smarter, not harder. (It doesn't necessarily mean you're laying on a beach working… but you could :) ) Thanks to technology, we can work collaboratively without being in the same physical location. Advanced technology allows us to work differently now than just 5 years ago. The software tools Tim and his team love to use are: Hubstaff - time tracking and accountability Teamwork - project management software Slack - communications, messaging and archiving software Email ticket system - filters, organizes and assigns tasks based on incoming emails Even weekly department meetings are held remotely. Tim says internal meetings are done via Skype audio and meeting notes are posted to Slack. They've found it to be the most efficient way to keep each department on the same page. Creating Culture with a Remote Team It's not an easy thing to create culture among a group of people who've never met. But, Exposure Ninja has a pretty strong culture, nonetheless. It can get lonely working from home full time, so they've found ways to alleviate that problem. Tim explained how they turned typical "water cooler talk" about TV shows, hobbies and pets into Slack channels. Co-workers can get more personal by sharing and communicating in group-chats on topics that interest them. They also do an annual holiday party or meet-up in order to socialize in person. Balancing a Remote Team Business Model Some love it, some hate it. There are people who thrive from working on their own terms and there are some who just can't do it. Typically introverts like to work in solitude. Those with different personality types usually miss interacting with others during their work day, or aren't self-motivated enough to work independently. This work style doesn't suit everyone. I actually once interview another agency that offered a hybrid of the traditional office/remote business model. The team has the option of work remotely or working in one of their multiple, global "creative spaces." Using this business model, this other agency grew to $3 Million Agency with NO Employees. Conversely, the remote business model doesn't work for all clients, either. Some can't handle having a remote agency. They want face-to-face meetings and personal contact. The remote business model can become an issue. But, if/when that's the case then they weren't the right client anyway. Hiring a Remote Team People are amazed that Tim has hired people he's never met or even talked to… But their hiring process works and maintains productivity. The formula for a successful remote employee = self-motivated + organized + think independently + work with very little management So when it's time to hire Tim doesn't waste a bunch of time on rounds of interviews. Instead, they assign candidates an open-ended demo task. This helps filter out people who don't fit the criteria, which is usually about 95%. There are lots of people who cannot demonstrate the necessary criteria, don't handle the task as e

A Full Pipeline Isn't All You Need to Grow Your Agency Scaling and growth is not just about filling your pipeline. New business won't mean a thing if you don't have the right systems in place to support it. Check out the advice from a white label agency that literally exists to help other agencies scale. In this episode, we'll cover: Why you need more than a full pipeline to grow. 2 crucial systems necessary for scaling. One mistake agencies make trying to scale. How to make decisions for agency longevity. My guest today is here to share with us a few big secrets about scaling. Ryan Meo founded his agency, Scale Squad, nine years ago. His agency white labels in order to help digital agencies scale. So that pretty much makes him the authority on scaling. He tells us what processes and systems are absolutely crucial for growing and how they are more than just having a full pipeline when looking to scale your agency. 2 Crucial Systems Necessary for Agency Scaling If Ryan could travel back in time, he says the one piece of advice he'd give his former self is to have the right systems before trying to scale. A solid foundation for the Operational System. Meaning, you have to have a good grasp on your service offering as well as boundaries for them. What do you do? What don't you do? It's also important to know how to guide your clients into your offering without overcomplicating it. A methodic Sales System. It's imperative to have a process for finding, winning and keeping the right clients. Without a repetitive system for prospecting, it's feast or famine with new agency business. Agencies find themselves on a roller coaster instead of a steady stream of work and cash flow. One Mistake Agencies Make Trying to Scale A lot of agency websites are too vague, leaving it unclear what they do and who they help. Why is that? For one thing, they painting broad strokes in the hopes of capturing the attention of more clients. They're afraid to turn off potential clients by being too descriptive when in fact, the opposite is true. Being too general is the turn off! The solution is selecting a niche. It's critical to know who your best customers are and gear your marketing toward them. The misconception about declaring a niche is that it means turning away anyone outside your niche. But you're not… Declaring a niche is really just a marketing strategy. You are just concentrating your market on a particular niche but you can still work with anyone. And don't worry - there's plenty of business for everyone! Another common reason for vague websites in the scarcity mentality. Agencies are worried that if they get too specific about a specialty they'll run out of potential clients. There's so much more business out there than we realize. We aren't confined to the local geographic area anymore. So whatever your niche - there's tons of potential out there. How to Make Decisions for Agency Longevity Forecasting is everything. It's important for keeping tabs on agency resources as well as goal tracking. Without forecasting, we end up making dumb decisions (working with the wrong clients, taking on the wrong projects, letting go of the wrong people) in order to save cash flow. Don't let a cash crunch force you into making the wrong decisions. When you forecast sales and monitoring agency's KPI's you can get a better understanding of agency revenue and profitability. (And you want to know profitability because top line revenue doesn't mean sh*t if you're not profitable:) ) If you're using a CRM it can be super easy to also use it for cash flow projections - here's how. Need Guidance and Support to Grow Your Agency Faster? Most agency owners struggle to scale. We've developed an amazing mastermind to guide you through the journey of implementing the right systems so you can scale your agency — instead of feeling overwhelmed by it. We do this by bringing together successful agency leaders to share strategies, offer advice, and reveal what's working (and what's not working) in their agency. The truth is, whatever you want to accomplish in life, nothing will help you go further, faster than getting the right adviser in the context of motivated peers. If you want to GROW fast and smart, Digital Agency Elite mastermind will help. Taking Your Digital Agency to the Next Level So I have now shown you why a full pipeline isn't all you need to grow your agency so what do you need? Are there weaknesses within your agency that are causing everything to break down? Don't worry, I'm here for all the advice you need. I have been in the industry for a long time and I have had my own experience running my own digital agency as well as helping other digital agency owners so there are many topics where I can offer guidance. Whether you are experiencing challenges as an established agency or a new agency unsure of what the different phases of growth you will experience will look like, I've got you covered. As you continue to grow your agency team, I can s

8 Figures in 8 Years: Achieve Agency Growth from 0 to 8 Figures Wonder what it takes to get to your agency to 7- or 8- figures? Today's guest tells us all about how his agency has grown to 8 figures in 8 years, plus the challenges he's faced and how he got over them in order to succeed and grow. In this episode, we'll cover: The challenges/solutions of growing to 7- and 8 figures. Healthy agency profit margin ranges. Challenges of managing at the 20+ employee level. How to stay relevant as your agency grows. My guest on the show this time is Matt Bertulli, owner of Demac Media, in Canada. Over the last eight years his agency has grown to 95 full-time employees and just crested the 8 figures mark. In Matt's interview, he was very candid about the struggles and challenges they faced getting to various milestones of growth and how he pushed past them in order to success. What Does Healthy Growth Look Like? Right off the bat, Matt knew in order to cut through the noise his agency needed to specialize. He took the leap of faith and did it. Rather than competing for a piece of the pie, Matt (an engineer by trade) took a more strategic approach to growth and capitalized on a niche right away. That meant in their early years, Demac Media grew an aggressive 45-50% each year. Today their growth is in the 25-30% range. Going from Startup to $1 Million Revenue CHALLENGE: Matt says the getting to the one million mark was super challenging. In the early days of owning his agency he felt like he was faking confidence and stability in order to win clients... His favorite line from back then: "We're a real agency!" He had a lot of doubts and it was a very unsettling time period. Crossing over that $1 million in revenue was shocking and amazing. SOLUTION: We're in a golden age of agencies and there's never been a better time to to build and grow one. Small and mid-sized agencies can compete with the big guys. We're capable of much more than we give ourselves credit for… The struggle to grow to $1 million is not external - it's the head game you play with yourself. When you take a step back and look at who you're working with and what you're charging, is it getting you closer to your financial goals? Early on, agencies tend to fall into a trap of spinning their wheels on a pain in the ass client spending $10K on a project. That client sends referrals for similar work at similar budget levels. [clickToTweet tweet="You can't grow by acquiring business at the same levels ~ scaling requires you to do more and better." quote="You can't grow by acquiring business at the same levels ~ scaling requires you to do more and better."] Increasing from $1 Million to Multiple Millions CHALLENGE: According to Matt the journey from $1 to $5 million actually wasn't too hard. It was much more difficult to break the ceiling into the $1+ million than to leap from $1 to $5 million. The hardest part was his own resistance to adopting processes and systems. Despite his background as an engineer, Matt didn't understand how systems would leverage his agency's ability to scale. SOLUTION: First, it's important to create systems that can help you acquire the clients you want to work with - and you don't need to wait until you're at the $1-$5 million mark. Processes and systems will expedite growth regardless of where you're at now. And, know your numbers. As I like to tell my clients, it just takes some backwards math to figure out your goal and then work backwards using the number of clients and pricing you'll need to reach the goal. An especially important figure is your agency's profitability. What's a Good Target for Profitability? In a service business, profitability can be really good but you have to work at it and focus on it. As they were reaching the $5 million revenue milestone, Demac Media's profit margin was anywhere between 35-40%. Few realize it, but that's exactly where it should be! Profitability within this range means: Pricing is right where it should be. The agency is working efficiently. The agency is not over-delivering or allow scope creep. The right people are in key roles at the agency. Profitability is the best measure of financial success. Top line revenue doesn't matter if your profit margins aren't healthy. Hiring as Your Agency Grows I have had a lot of agency owners tell me they don't want to grow too big because they having upwards of 20+ employees creates more work. And Matt says that is partially true… but probably not for the reasons you think. From the beginning, Matt had his mind set on not having an org chart. He felt like defined lines of responsibility would stifle creativity. So he just had everyone report to him. (Uh, oh! If that's your approach then sure, having more than 20+ employees definitely will be a nightmare.) Matt explained that when he realized the need for agency management and structure, growing the team was much less of a burden. As you grow it's imperative to hire a management team. Now at 95 employ

If you're not using video in your own agency marketing, or if you aren't getting any traction from your videos check out this episode. Today's guest tells us why video is one of the best lead generators out there - and how to set yourself up for successful video marketing campaigns. In this episode, we'll cover: 4 benefits of using video in your agency marketing. #1 mistake agencies make in video marketing. The equipment and pre-planning you need for making great videos. My guest today is Dee Dee deKenessey, Agency Partner Program Manager at Wistia. If you don't already know about Wistia - it's time to get out from under that rock. Wistia provides professional video hosting with amazing viewer analytics to help you achieve your video marketing goals. Dee Dee tells us how you can set yourself up for success by weaving video into your marketing. In just one year, Wistia's Agency Partner Program has grown to 700 agencies with varying levels of experience, from beginner to seasoned veteran. Dee Dee also manages a private partner online community where everyone can collaborate, idea-share, and help one another. 4 Big Benefits of Using Video Marketing There's an over saturation of emails, blogs, and social posts. Your prospects are on information overload. Video breaks through the rest of the noise. Video is easier to consume and digest. A lot of people prefer watching over reading because it's usually faster and simpler. Viewers feel like they can relate to you in video. It's more authentic than written content, and it allows your personality to come through. Every video is unique and hard to duplicate. Your video content is all yours - blog posts can be stolen but no one can imitate you on camera. Not convinced yet? There's tons of other reasons you should be using rich media in your agency marketing. #1 Mistake in Video Marketing Sure there's rookie mistakes like lighting, scripting, etc. but those issues are easily solved over time and with experience. But no matter what the level of experience, Dee Dee says there's one huge mistake people make in their video marketing, and it's totally preventable. The biggest mistake is jumping right into production without a plan or goal in mind. [clickToTweet tweet="Make sure you have a single goal in mind; then determine how video can help achieve the goal." quote="Make sure you have a single goal in mind; then determine how video can help achieve the goal."] How to Set Yourself Up for Successful Video Marketing Before you film anything, ask yourself these questions: Who is watching this video? Where are they within the sales funnel? What's the context around the video? How will the viewer engage with the video? What is the next step or call-to-action? Where will the video live - and why? Then based on your goals for the video, decide where it will live. House your video… On Facebook... if you goal is to promote your brand or entertain without sending traffic back to your site. On YouTube... if your goal is to make the video searchable, or if your video solves a problem. On your website... if your goal is to educate or increase sales. In an email... if your goal is to drive traffic or promote a service. INSIDER TIP: You don't need fancy equipment to produce great videos. I do all mine on my iPhone or iPad, and I have one O-ring light. Check out Wistia's resource library for more tips. Plus, if you use Wistia's hosting you receive analytics that show you how each video is performing. You'll be able to find out who's been watching your videos, how much they've watched and which videos are providing the most value. What's Next for Your Agency? After generating leads using video marketing for your agency, you need to ensure you have strong processes in place. This will allow you to provide high quality work, save time on projects and build your authority as an agency. Take a step back and look at other processes that need attention. No matter what challenge your agency is facing, I can help you get through all of it. There are many topics I can give advice on from what to do when you want to speed up sales processes to how you can build authority for your agency. Growing your agency can be a major struggle for any agency owner and I can show you the different phases of growth you will experience, how placing a process for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more! Want more? Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

Are you finding you agency growth moving to fast that you are worried of it burning out or do you think it's moving too slow? In an ever-changing agency environment, does sustainable growth really exist? One of the main questions should be if should agencies concentrate on growing as much and as fast as possible, dealing with the fallout as it occurs? In this episode of Ask Swenk, I take a closer look into what you need to do to achieve and maintain sustainable agency growth and cover all your questions to give you a peace of mind and more... Christian asked: "Do you think there is such a thing as sustainable growth, or should you just aim for as much/fast growth as possible and deal with the new business/onboarding of staff?​"​ ​ Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. What Do You Need to Know to Maintain a Sustainable Business? I hope you found this installment of Ask Swenk beneficial and it helps you with any of your business worries. As well as ensuring that you create a sustainable business, as your agency grows, you may come across challenges and knowing how to adapt will ensure a successful agency. From who you should hire for your agency or how to bring your agency to the next level, I can help. I hope you found this helpful and can put it into action. Have other topics you want advice on? You can check out all my tips, tricks and insights in my blog covering a wide variety of topics as well as answering your questions in more from my Ask Swenk series. Are videos more your thing? You can check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

Today's episode is packed with tips and advice on solving some of the most common obstacles in agency new business sales. My guest, Tim Sanders, covers everything from getting in front of the right prospects to establishing authority, speeding up your sales cycle and getting the contract signed. In this episode, we'll cover: How to improve agency sales. How to increase your close rate by 300%. The 4 stages to every agency new business sale. With over two decades in the marketing arena today's guest, Tim Sanders, is here to share of TON of information about agency new business sales. Tim is considered a technology-pioneer, as well as a speaker, author and the founder of Deeper Media. Tim draws on his extensive experience - working with Mark Cuban in internet TV, working as a top Yahoo executive, and as an agency owner himself - to bring some great insight on agency new business sales. How to Improve Agency Sales Tim says Sales is a lot like Creative Design. That's why agencies are (or should be) absolutely crushing it with their new business sales. He describes Design as "the constant act of problem-solving." In Design, you keep trying until you get it right. The same is true for Sales. When you're selling to a prospect, you are problem-solving for them. And, you keep at it until you get it right. (Remember, the goal of sales is NOT getting them to buy what you sell. Instead, sell them the SOLUTION needed for their existing problem.) In the agency space, the greatest competitive advantage is rapid problem-solving. So, when you rethink your approach to sales using Tim's definition, your agency wins. How to Get a Contract Signed & Increase Your Close Rate by 300% In Tim's fifth and most recent book, Dealstorming, he covers the importance of collaboration across the various agency disciplines. It's no longer just the salesperson that closes a deal. You can increase your new business close rate by 300% when you involve different types of people with different areas of experience and expertise. Tim says it's "the myth of the expert" that kills a sale. The old mentality of "leave it to me - you don't know what you're talking about" does not promote rapid problem solving. "We must champion the thought that great ideas can come from anywhere." ~ Tim Sanders The problem with going solo at sales is that problem solving is limited to just that person's experience. Tim says everyone has their own series of constraints (things that won't work) and their set of greatest hits (things that always work). When you bring 3 different perspectives together, problems are solved 3X quicker. So when creative, sales and finance collaborate, the result is rapid problem solving and a speedier close rate. The other benefit -- no one goes down alone! No lone wolves. When your team collaborates, everyone owns the successes and the failures. 3 Sales Personas to Overcome Obstacles Generally speaking, every sale goes through the same four stages. Each stage comes with it's own problems and issues. The key is understanding how to work through the issues and come out on top by getting a contract signed. The best way to handle those issues is by wearing the hat or playing the right role. Tim has identified 3 personas that every sales team needs: The Hacker - someone who uses unique tricks or clever solution (aka "a hack") in order to get the desired result. The Chef - someone who acquires the right ingredients and knows how to use them to create a successful finish. The Artist - someone who displays or demonstrates a solution to accomplish a specific outcome. The 4 Stages to Every Sale 1- Make contact with the right people. It's important to know who you're targeting and I can't emphasize it enough - specialization is KEY! No more spray and pray method. No more buying call lists. Be specific in what you do and who you help. Then use that knowledge to create a list of the top 100 companies you want to pursue. This is when you use the Hacker persona and use a hack to get noticed. Bring something innovative to the table by calling their attention to a new technology they're not using. 2- Gather information and conceive the deal. This is where a lot of agencies get stuck. You need to define what the ideal relationship will look like with a specific client. Do you want to be the agency of record? Want to handle a specific piece of their marketing? Execute one idea, roll out one product, etc.? A lot of agencies just want to sell off the shelf, making them nearsighted. They have one thing they're trying to sell and work hard on trying to get the client to buy into it. Usually this is because they don't have enough strategic insight on what the client is trying to achieve. With the end in mind, use the Chef persona to discover the ingredients for success. "It's twice as easy to make an unprofitable service profitable than it is to wedge your existing service into the client." ~ Tim Sanders 3- Convince the client to make a change and to work with you.

If your agency's workload is constantly in flux you may have considered agency outsourcing... but, giving up control on a piece of a project can be a little scary. Today's podcast guest is here to explain some of the best practices for managing partnerships and ensuring success for everyone. In this episode, we'll cover: 4 tips to successful agency outsourcing. Managing difficult agency partner relationships. When to call it quits with an agency partner. My guest today is Tim Barsness, founder and President of Fjorge Digital. Tim got his start as freelancer and from there turned his business into an outsourcing agency with a giant network of partners. He on the show to share outsourcing best practices to ensure solid and profitable relationships. Tim's agency has handled development for dozens of creative agencies. Over the years, he's learned what works (and what doesn't work) in successful agency partnerships. 4 Tips to Successful Outsourcing Communicate early and often. It's important to treat an outsourcing agency like a true partner, in every sense of the word. Loop them in on the project right from the start. According to Tim, a lot of agencies don't involve their outsourcing partner early enough in the process which results in misunderstandings right off the bat. You can avoid this by involving them on client meeting and emails throughout the life of the project. Have a plan and stick to it. As you identify the client's main goal and develop a plan for achieving it, it's super important to stay on track - especially when there's multiple parties involved in the process. Tim says there's huge margin for error and frustration when a project moves from creative to development and there are changes midstream. Clearly define your terms. Details are everything. Having a clearly defined Statement of Work prior to the start of a project can alleviate potential issues. A great SOW includes everything from timelines and sign offs to number of rounds and revisions. Set up a successful partnership by having everything spelled out in advance. This will benefit both agency partners as well as the client. Don't over promise. Make sure everyone on the team knows the value in the statement: "let me get back to you.". When you're outsourcing you should defer to the partner when there are questions or issues which involve their area of expertise. Tim says in an effort to the please the client, sometimes an agency will make a promise about something technical and it ends up causing issues for everyone. Instead, say to the client "let me get back to you" and then get info straight from the source to avoid confusion or frustration. Managing Difficult Partner Relationships It happens. You're working with a vendor or partner and all of the sudden they become difficult or unresponsive. If this is the case, Tim advises stepping into their shoes to figure out why. Some people just shut down in order to avoid conflict. So think about what reasons they might have for going dark… Are they unclear on what you're asking? Have they over-promised or under-delivered? If you can get to the root of the problem you'll be able to put them at ease and work through a solution. But what if there is NO solution? Sometimes a partner relationship goes too far south and you'd love to call it quits but you feel trapped because you're in too deep. When this happens, you feel like you have no choice but deal with a crappy situation. According to Tim, doesn't have to be that way… Asses the overall risk of severing ties. Ask yourself things like: How much is their work negatively impacting the project? Is the client aware there's an issue? If so, does the client think they're part of your team? Who's managing the project/process? Is there a breakdown in communication between the two teams because the PM or AM doesn't speak in tech terms? Using clear and direction communication you can usually diffuse a situation before it gets to the point where you're backed into a corner. Cashflow or Bookkeeping Issues? FreshBooks is the solution with their ridiculously easy­-to-­use cloud accounting software for agencies. Freshbooks helps you work smarter and become more organized. Most importantly, it gets you paid quicker. Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted trial. Transforming Your Business Using the best practices possible from outsourcing to other aspects of your agency will help you transform your business but this may only be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to improvements that are needed. Why not take the time to take a step back and look at other processes that need attention? No matter what challenge your agency is facing, I can help you get through all of it. There are many topics I can give advice on from what to do when you want to speed up sales processes, ways to increase your business profit or how you can build authority for your agency. Growing

Do You Have a Bad Agency Prospect? Have you ever ignored that little voice telling you to turn away a bad agency prospect? It's hard to walk away, even when you know they're going to be a really bad client. Do you struggle with knowing when or how to say 'no'? All that and more is covered in this episode... Phil asked: "Today I took on a client I know will be a bad one. I have struggled with knowing when to say: I don't think we're a good fit for you. When a client is motivated and wanting to do business with you, but you know they aren't your ideal client - how, when and what do you say to get out of it without sounding like a schmuck? I'll take this guy on, but I've got to get a grip on how to get out of a bad deal." Advice For Your Agency I hope this episode of Ask Swenk was helpful and brings you clarity to any potential bad agency prospects your agency is currently dealing with. If you want to know how to improve your digital agency, you may come across challenges and knowing how to adapt will make you a better agency owner. I cover all topics from the struggles you may face in your agency to creating the best agency proposals and more. I hope you found this helpful and can put it into action. Have other topics you want advice on? You can check out all my tips, tricks and insights in my blog covering a wide variety of topics as well as answering your questions in more from my Ask Swenk series. Are videos more your thing? You can check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

Tired of relying on referrals? Teaming with right strategic partners is an effective way to scale your agency. The trick is knowing how to find, leverage and maintain the right strategic partnerships. In this episode, we'll cover: How agency owners can get out of their own way of agency growth. Finding, approaching and maintaining beneficial strategic partnerships. As a serial entrepreneur, Vincent D'Eletto has learned all about rapidly scaling startup businesses. He owns multiple revenue-generating websites, as well as WordAgents.com, a content and ghostwriting agency. Vincent shares the best ways to find, leverage and maintain highly beneficial strategic partners. And, I know what you're thinking but I'm not talking about just having other businesses refer you out. Real strategic partners are much more than just referrals. When strategic partnerships are done right, both partners can generate some serious revenue! Systems & Processes Win (Again) Hands down, the fastest way to grow and scale is having the right systems and processes in place. This is especially true in businesses where there is a lot of repetitiveness. Vincent and I both agree; your business will grow when you take advantage of efficiencies and systemize routine tasks. Yet, despite having the right systems and processes, a lot of agency owners stand in their own way of growth. Vincent says the common theme among his businesses is his constant struggle to give up control. He is afraid to hire employees or hand things off for fear they'll "mess up" what he's built. This is actually pretty common for most entrepreneurs. A lot of agency owners think they're the best, and it's that mindset which holds them back from real growth. What most of us need to remember is: you're not the best, you're just the best you have right now. Over time, Vincent has come to realize the solution to this struggle is having the right systems and processes in place. Training people in your systems and processes leaves very little margin for error and significantly lowers the possibility that they'll "mess up". Identifying Strategic Partners You'll get the most traction from a strategic partnership if your agency has a specialization or niche. When you are known for helping a specific audience you'll be more attractive to other businesses who are targeting the same. There are 3 categories where you'll find strategic partners to align with: industry leaders agencies with complementary offerings industry-specific technology tools or SaaS products Approaching a Strategic Partner After identifying a few partners, the best way to get them to notice you is to just be helpful. Follow them on social media, share and retweet them. Comment on their posts and tag them on relevant posts. Develop a relationship where there is mutual value... Whatever you're hoping for from them, do it first. Make a deposit before you make a withdrawal. Vincent says once he has built a rapport over social media, then he'll reach out with a direct message or email. He'll usually offer free content or provide a solution to a particular challenge of theirs. Depending on your comfort level, you can also try a direct approach and tell them exactly what you want and why. I find that being direct eliminates suspicions like wondering, "what's the catch?". Tell them why you're doing what you're doing… explain what's in it for you. Maintaining Strategic Partnerships It takes time to establish and grow these relationships. You have to be committed to the long game. Once you do, it's an amazing way to get in front of new people within your target audience. Vincent's best advice about maintaining strategic partnerships is to be a friend. "Keep giving and it will come back to you." Need to up your staffing game? Agency workflow is constantly in flux, making it a real gamble to bring on full-time staff. And, freelancers can often be difficult to manage. That's why Agency Boon has simplified the process and cost of building a great creative team. Check out Agency Boon as an amazing alternative to full-time or freelance staff. The Agency Boon team will integrate as members of your team and you'll love their commitment to making you look good in your client's' eyes. Transform Your Agency I hope you now know how strategic partnerships could take your agency to a new level. However, if there are other struggles you are experiencing in your agency, I can help you get through all of it. I can give you advice on recognising new client opportunities to different ways of building authority to improve your agency. If you are having issues with growing your agency, I've the different phases of growth within your agency and how performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business as well as the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more! Learn all about my career and different experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topi

Frustrated by Agency Prospects? Are you sick and tired of agency prospects blowing you off after presenting a proposal? Frustrated when they string you along or send mixed signals? Wondering what you could do differently? You are not alone and this is a hurdle that many digital agency owners face when it comes to new clients and potential agency prospects. I have put together a video with advice on how to deal with getting proposals blown off by agency prospects, excuses clients can make and how to make it stop happening. Here's exactly how to handle it next time... Shannon asked: "I need help finding a better way to close a deal! ...I had a great first call with a prospect who said he was ready to go. I put together the proposal and set up another call to present it. After I went through the entire proposal, the prospect said he wouldn't be ready to do anything for another 3 weeks. So I scheduled the next call for 3 weeks out and again he says he's not ready to pull the trigger. This is the third time in a row this has happened. It's frustrating to say the least! My questions are: Why do these prospects act like their ready to go when they're not? Why can't they just be up front about their timing? What can I do or say to get them to start now?" Are You Ready to Learn More? I hope you found this helpful and it opened your mind to improving your agency life. If you are looking for advice with your current agency or learning how to start your own digital agency, I can help. Find lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. And if videos are more your thing, you can check out the videos on my Youtube channel!

If you're looking for new ideas to generate new agency business and attract new clients, you might want to hear what today's guest tells us about branded web TV and influencer marketing. In this episode, we'll cover: How to use branded web TV for agency new business. 4 Steps to positioning your agency or client as an influencer. Mark Fidelman founder and CEO of Fanatics Media is here to tell us -- branded web TV is the next big thing. According to Mark, video content is heading away from one-offs in favor of series or episodes. As an agency you can use this influencer marketing strategy for building new agency business, and as an innovative idea for your clients. Why Branded Web TV? At Mark's agency they're seeing an upswing in the popularity of branded web TV series. You might be familiar with Celebrities in Cars Getting Coffee or YouTube's First We Feast. These are examples of branded series' where viewers get a small dose of entertaining content while also being marketed to… and that's where Fanatics Media has found their niche. They're matching influencers and celebrities with brands to create a series of branded episodes. In fact, Marriott has started using this marketing strategy. They have Bill Rancic (winner of season 1 on "The Apprentice") as their celebrity influencer on Open Invitation. This series of episodes entertain and inform while Bill and his celebrity wife, Julianna, tour a vacation destination. However the series is obviously branded by Marriott as he engages in property amenities. You can use branded web TV for your agency as an inbound strategy by creating a series or episodes of valuable, helpful videos. You can bring idea to your clients who look to your agency for unique, innovative solutions and develop business building ideas. Even if video isn't your thing, by providing a new lightbulb idea your agency will be valued and respected as an advisor rather than just a commodity. 4 Steps to Position Yourself or Client as an Influencer 1- Have laser focus. Know exactly who you can help and get very specific with who you will target. Afraid to specialize and turn-off potential clients? Don't be! When you niche down you aren't eliminating or turning away business. You're just aiming it in a particular direction. You can't influence on what you don't know but when you concentrate on what you do know, you'll find confidence and success. 2- Know your customer's platform. It's super important to know where your prospects are congregating and become a servant to that community. Don't go broad by smattering your content everyone, but instead concentrate it and talk to an audience of one. 3- Create relevant video content. Determine what your audience needs or wants to know. What are common questions or challenges they have? Produce a series of content to answer their questions and aid in their challenges. To maximize effectiveness, create a reliable and predictable content schedule. 4- Get out of your own way. Most of us hate how we look on camera or can't stand our own voice. It's OK and you'll learn to get over it. The key is to just start. Mark says he recorded 1-2 mins every day for 30 days to get over his hang ups. And me? I look like an orange Oompa Loompa in my early videos. Even pros like Gary Vee and Casey Neistat started somewhere. Just practice - you'll find your voice and comfort zone. Cashflow or Bookkeeping Issues? FreshBooks is the solution with their ridiculously easy­-to-­use cloud accounting software for agencies. Freshbooks helps you work smarter and become more organized. Most importantly, it gets you paid quicker. Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted trial. Improve Your Business With this blog, I hope it has given you an insight into the world of influencer marketing as well as how it could benefit your business. However, if there are other struggles you are experiencing in your agency, I can help you get through all of it. I can give you advice on how to recognise new client opportunities to the different ways of building authority to improve your agency. If you are having issues with growing your agency, I've the different phases of growth within your agency and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more of your digital agency services. Learn all about my career and different experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

If you're struggling to transition one-off project clients into repeat business or retainer clients, this episode is for you. Learn how you can scale your agency by getting clients to stop viewing you as a commodity. {0:33} Geoff asked: "How do you ensure that your clients come back for repeat business?..." "In my content management business, we start new clients off on a trial project, followed by one month's content. If they like all of that (and they do in 90+% of cases), we set up an arrangement whereby they order content from us every month. We've experimented with a lot of different writing services: blogs, landing pages, sales emails, product descriptions, direct response copy - even translation services this week. The service that people come back for month after month is blog posts. There is a constant need for content, and this is a market we get a lot of repeat business from. The problem I'm having right now is that clients are very sluggish when it comes to reordering content at the beginning of the new month. Our process involves them coming up with blog post titles and sending them to us so that I can schedule the articles with our writing staff. So I'm not sure what I can do on this. There must be something I can change to make it easier for clients and myself to schedule content with us. How do we turn one-off customers into repeat business?" Resources referenced in this show: Interview with Jamie Turner from 60-Second Marketer "Becoming Warren Buffet" Documentary (correction: available on HBO, not Netflix) Ready to Create Repeat Business With Your Clients? When it comes to your agency, what better advice is there than from a range of experts who have been in your shoes? Whether you need advice on increasing website traffic , what you need to do as an agency owner or learn how to plan who you hire for your agency, I can help. Find all my tips, tricks and insights in my blog section that covers a wide variety of topics. Videos more your thing? You can check out the videos on my YouTube channel for agency advice from myself and many other agency experts.

If you want to grow your agency like some of the big guys but you're not sure how to get there, you'll want to check out this episode. Our guest has grown four (almost five!) 8-figure businesses. He shares ways to increase your profitability so you can grow and scale too with the best growth model for your agency. In this episode, we'll cover: 2 tips to building an 8-figure agency. The right way to create a growth model after the big agencies. 2 ways to increase profitability and eliminate scope creep. Today's guest is on in the process of building his 5th eight-figure business. Vinnie Fisher is the authority on profitability and growth. He's an attorney by trade but left his law career to fulfill his dreams as an entrepreneur. Currently, he is the founder and CEO of Fully Accountable, a back office accounting and HR solution for service-based businesses. Vinnie shares the two big secrets he attributes to his 8-figure success with the right growth model, plus how an agency can become more profitable. 2 Tips to Building an 8-Figure Agency 1. Invest in developing people. Vinnie says through out growing five different businesses he's come to notice that the company flourishes when he doesn't trap himself in a primary role. He spends time nurturing his team and trusts them to take the company to the next level. 2. Understand the marketplace. We have an innate desire to be all things to everybody. However, defining an area expertise is imperative to growing your business. When you dive deeper into a specific target market, you can really zero in and get a comprehensive understanding of it. There is often resistance to specialize because owners are afraid of trapping themselves in their business. But those who don't specialize end up wasting time and money. How to Create a Growth Model Like Bigger Agencies Naturally, if you've got a growth mindset you want to model what the big agencies are doing. And that's a great idea, but you have to make sure you're looking at the right season of that business. The big agencies didn't always start with a broad business. Look at their early years and notice how they grew. With his law background, Vinnie compared it law practices. He says all the successful law offices have specialize in a particular type of law: Family Law, Class Actions, Mergers & Acquisitions, etc. He says general practitioners can build a nice business but the big, well-known firms are the ones with an expertise. [HOMEWORK] When you're looking at a bigger agency to model, I challenge you to do this exercise as homework: Select a couple big agencies you'd like to replicate and check them out on The Wayback Machine. Notice the evolution of their site and note the changes. Create a timeline of changes to their site and what might have been going on in the industry, technology, financial market, politics. See if you can draw connections between their online presence, their business growth and the outside influences. Don't actually replicate what they've done - remember, they made mistakes along the way, too. Instead, use this exercise as your inspiration and an agent of change. Target Profitability Rate for Agencies In the debate over growth vs. profitability, Vinnie and I agree. Growth doesn't mean sh*t if you're not profitable. As a general rule for businesses that operate strictly with a service model (for example, agencies without any productized business), the magic target is 33% profit. Vinnie quoted this statistic from US Census data. Generally, agencies should see their revenue equally split in these three buckets: ⅓ Overhead, ⅓ Expenses and ⅓ Profit. Remember, 33% is just a target for service businesses. You can micro-analyze your profit margin based on your agency's uniqueness. However, Vinnie says no agency in a growth phase should be at less than 20% profitability. How to Increase Profitability Believe it or not, there's a good chance you're guilty of sabotaging your own profitability. If you are under charging, over delivering or doing too many "quick little favors" for free that is scope creep. It is absolutely the #1 agency profit killer. Vinnie advises us to understand fair market value for the services we provide. Sometimes that means raising your prices. However, you may be priced just right but giving away work or doing extra work that goes unnoticed or unappreciated. One of the best ways to prevent scope creep, is to understand why it's happening in the first place. Sometimes the client asks for "favors" to get more value than what they're paying for. The agency complies because they are trying to create goodwill and build the relationship. Other times, agencies are going above and beyond on technical components of a project, which goes unnoticed and unappreciated. 2 Ways to Minimize Profit Leaks 1- The $0 Change Order. Document all changes you make on a Change Order Form. This is especially helpful for those "favors" and out of scope requests that you do for free. Make sure the form indica

Profiling Ideal Clients to Attract New Agency Business If you are pulling generic data and basing your entire client persona off of it, you've got to catch this interview. To attract and qualify new agency business you need to be profiling ideal clients. This episode is all about how you can really zero in on how to start profiling ideal clients and your client's clients. In this episode, we'll cover: What "attitudinal segmentation" is and why you need to be doing it. 2 problems with the way agencies are strategizing now. 3 ways of profiling ideal clients and getting better data on your prospects. Our guest today is Susan Baier, founder of AudienceAudit.com has spent 30 years in the marketing space. She's worked both agency-side and client-side as a strategist until eight years ago when she founded her agency specializing in attitudinal segmentation and research. Susan tells us all about using custom research and data to avoid being a "me too" agency. Profiling Ideal Clients: The Key Factors WTF is "Attitudinal Segmentation"? (And why should your agency care?) Since the dawn of time, agencies have been using research and data to hone in on their clients needs, and using the same for their client's clients. However, as things change we need to start considering more than just geographic and demographic information. Attitudinal segmentation is a fancy way of using customers preconceived notions and attitude in order to market to them better. With this type of research and data, marketers can tailor their campaigns with regard to customers' attitude toward an industry, business or product. Marketers can also learn more customers' thoughts and feelings about a particular industry, product, service, brand etc. by using this type of data. The result is more efficient and effective marketing that provides the service and value their prospects desire most. 2 Problems with Status Quo Susan says agencies and clients think they understand what their customers want. However, without considering attitude and emotion, we're not getting the whole picture. Gone are the days of marketing to a particular demographic (i.e. white females 25-40, on Pinterest), so most small and mid-sized agencies are doing a combination of going with their gut and buying packaged data. The problem is: 1. The data is irrelevant. Agencies and client execs spend hours upon hours developing their customer persona based on what they "believe" is going on in the marketplace. They are using their own personal experiences, underlying beliefs and anecdotal information to make assumptions about their customers. 2. The research is unhelpful. Generally, pre-packaged data is pretty accessible to everyone and doesn't identify anyone in particular. It is only industry specific, but not customer or brand specific. The data is vague and only gives insight into a type of person (based on age, race, interests, etc.) but nothing specific. 3 Ways to Get Better Data 1. Surveys Surveys can help you understand what content is more relevant and valuable to the people visiting your site. For the past year, I have been using a Progressive Profiling Page for my lead magnet opt-ins and it is getting a 94% response rate. Progressive profiling is a series of 3-4 questions that helps me understand who is visiting my site as well as helps me qualify and tag them into the right automated marketing campaign. You can also survey your existing customer base to gather and interpret the data on why or how they feel about your business, offerings, industry, etc. Pro: People are programmed to answer questions when asked. When you require a few answers before delivering on your lead magnet promise, you'll get a really good picture of who's visiting your site and why. Con: Identifying the right questions to ask can be tricky. There are still some assumptions involved and it's hard to pinpoint the exact questions to ask in order to get a the data you desire. 2. Personal Outreach It might seem old fashioned, but talking to your existing clients can give you keen insights. This means picking up the phone and actually speaking to someone - no hiding behind email. Ask all your questions and get honest feedback to use in your marketing strategies. Pro: One on one conversations can be highly effective and beneficial for gaining an understanding of your clients thoughts, attitudes and emotions. Con: This type of research is not statistically valid. While you can gain information and insight, personal conversations cannot be used as mathematical data. It's also really hard to reach a large sampling when making personal calls, therefore you can't drive all your marketing strategy based on conversations with a handful of people. 3. Statistical Study This is the best and most valuable way of securing data full of with attitudes, thought and feelings. A statistical study involves a large sampling with custom filters for demographics as well as specific questions about habits, opinion, mood and minds

Solutions for Staffing Issues Are you trying to grow your agency while keep a tight lid on staffing? Busy chasing freelancers, all the while worrying they might go rogue or MIA? Over and understaffing can cause a ton of stress, but so can relying too heavily on freelancers. Today's podcast guest has a solution for those staffing issues and more. In this episode, we'll cover: Solutions to common agency owner struggles and staffing issues. #1 staffing mistake agency owners make. One service that makes agency owners' lives easier. Today's guest is Ryan Crozier, founder of Agency Boon - an agency that provides creative agency talent to U.S. agencies. In other words, it's the agency that helps agencies. Like many agency owners Ryan stumbled into the agency business. However, Ryan's story has a different twist. He was a U.S. missionary in Romania where he started a nonprofit. He discovered his team's creative talents and started farming out those talents to make ends meet for the nonprofit. They began assisting U.S. agencies on a project-basis and used all their profits for their charity work. That was three years ago... today Agency Boon is a team of 20 with a variety of talents. One thing that has not changed over time is Ryan's vision for the agency. They're still in existence for nonprofits and they reinvesting all the agency profits back into Romanian charities. Common Agency Owner Struggles Ryan says his goal has always been to add value and serve his clients. The problem is that he has ZERO agency experience. There's been a massive learning curve and a lot of second guessing himself, like: Feeling isolated. Running an agency can be very lonely. Prior to founding the agency, Ryan worked at a church and managed volunteers. Being an American leading an international agency has a completely different set of challenges. Mixing cultures with different work styles and work ethics can be really difficult. Growing a team. Under and overstaffing is a concern of every growing agency. You want to keep people busy enough but not too busy or overworked. Ryan says he has tried to grow smart. Starting out with a small team of 1-2 is one thing but knowing when, how and which people to add is always a difficult decision. Growing the agency. Finding new business can be challenging. Finding new business in the States when you're in Romania is a completely different set of challenges. Since outsourcing to international companies has a certain stigma and a reputation for delivering shoddy work, . Overcoming these preconceived notions about his Romanian-based agency has been a major struggle. Overcoming Agency Owner Struggles 1- Engaging in communities. Online communities and networking organizations can be a great resource. Ryan says advice and guidance from other agency owners is a huge help in solving some of his agency's issues. It's also reassuring to hear that other agency owners are experiencing similar struggles and facing the same challenges. If you're a digital agency owner, you can request membership in our Facebook community with over 2,000 other agency owners. 2- Adding structure with systems and processes. There are resources and programs like our Agency Playbook that can provide a framework for running your agency. Ryan says he learned that having systems in place to streamline his business left him with time to concentrate on growing it rather than dealing with the day-to-day stuff. #1 Staffing Mistake Agency Owners Make You know there's a saying about putting all your eggs in one basket. The same is true for relying too heavily on freelancers. There are benefits to using freelancers - no employee overhead, schedule flexibility, etc. However there are staffing issues and also risk involved. There's not much accountability. And, if you've got a lot of work tied to them and then you can't track them down, it's a nightmare. Every agency owner has or knows a "freelancer disappearance" story, right?. It happens. You can't scale and grow an agency under those circumstances. It's also really difficult to juggle multiple freelancers. Managing projects gets really pretty tough when you're bouncing work between a couple different freelancers with different skill sets. That alone can create major issues. Working with Agency Boon is the best of both worlds. They make agency owners' lives easier without the commitment of a permanent employee. Agency partners that work with Agency Boon find the experience an improvement over working with freelancers. Their Project Managers work with the talent, oversee projects, and can even integrate into the client's PM software (Asana, Slack, etc.) Plus, since they're in Romania, they're working while the U.S. market is sleeping, so turnaround is often less than 24 hours. BONUS! Check them out at AgencyBoon.com or hit up Ryan on Twitter @RyanCrozier and tell him you're a friend of mine :) Becoming a Better Agency Owner I hope this has provided you solutions to your staffing issues as well a

What Do You Need to Do to Quit Losing Clients Have you ever lost a client even though you've done great work for them? Puzzled as to why your "bad client" is so bad? This episode is all about what clients really want, from the woman who literally wrote the book. Learn all about maintaining good client relationships, how to quit losing clients, plus managing and training an amazing account service team that helps grow agency business. In this episode, we'll cover: Why great work isn't enough to keep clients happy. What clients actually want from their agency. 3 ways to make agency clients' lives easier. Hiring and managing a team that grows your agency. There's no such thing as a bad agency client... only a bad prospect or a bad process. In this episode my guest, Chantell Glenville, goes in depth on the bad agency processes that are killing your business. Chantell spent a number of years working both the client side and agency side of the business. She's the author of best-selling book "What Clients Really Want (And the Sh*t that Drives Them Crazy), the first of it's kind written from the client's perspective. Why Great Work Isn't Enough Chantell says over the span of her career on both sides of the business in agencies of varying size and specialties she witnessed lots of breakdown in communication between agency team and clients. There seemed to be a common thread among them. A breakdown in client relationships is what gets an agency fired - even when they're killing in with great work. So how do you quit losing clients and maintain good relationships? So, What *DO* Clients Want? Of course they want great creative, innovation and the expertise of the agency. But here's the part no one tells us… Clients want their agency to make their lives easier and to not make their lives harder. [clickToTweet tweet="Agency Acct Service Golden Rule: Make your clients lives easier. Do not make your clients lives harder. " quote="Agency Account Service Golden Rule: Make your clients lives easier. Do not make your clients lives harder. "] The problem is, agencies usually make the assumption that a new client starts at level zero on the unhappiness scale. We assume the client's life is already relatively easy, when in fact they might already be at a -3 or -4 on the scale. Then we end up inadvertently doing things that tip the scale and make their lives even harder. 3 Ways Agencies Can Make Clients' Lives Easier 1- Understand the client's work life. What pressures are they under? Who do they report to and what is their supervisor's work style? What is the structure of their day? If possible, go to their office and shadow them for a day to see what they "normal" looks like. Then adjust your style in a way that makes all things easier. You might be surprised at what you learn when you get a glimpse into their world. (Especially if you've never worked client-side.) For example, if a large part of the client's day is spent in meetings, it explains why you don't get a quick reply to your "urgent" emails. So ask them if it's OK to text them first when you're sending something urgent. Figure out what makes the client's life easier - without making it harder. 2- Pay attention to detail. If your client is often pressed for time but feels like you aren't good at details that just creates extra work for them. Double and triple checking your work piles more on their to-do list. And, it is the exact opposite of making their life easier! If you're client feels like they're always catching your mistakes and needs to inspect every aspect of your work it adds an unnecessary amount of suckiness in their day. For example, if your client has to send your work for a round of revisions based on things the agency missed, it negatively affects the agency by eating hours. However, think about it from the client's point of view. It also adds another round of proofing for them, which eats hours into their day and… makes their life harder! 3- Ask them. Be direct and ask how you can make their life easier. Then alter your work style to accommodate their needs - if you're more of an email person and they're more of a phone call person, adjust accordingly to service their needs. Find out the easiest and preferred method of communication by asking them. Ask how much advance notice they need for approvals and sign-offs. Who else needs to sign off? Should you include that person on your emails, as well? Who else gives input on projects? How can you help simplify that process so your client isn't chasing their own internal approvals? Another tip - consider using automation to on-board for new clients, then follow-up with human contact. Use automated emails to set expectations and establish workflow. However, always be sure there is a human for your client to connect with. How to Hire & Manage a Team that Grows Your Agency Chantell says the best AM's are not only creative and organized but they also have a vast amount of empathy. Really amazing account people c

Legal Protection: Which Areas of Your Agency Need It? It's not a matter of if but when a legal issue arises for your agency, are you prepared? My guest today is an Intellectual Property attorney who focuses on helping marketing agencies with their legal protection to ensure all aspects of their agency stays protected. In this episode, we'll cover: What legal mistakes to avoid. Which areas of your agency need legal protection. 3 contract loopholes you need to watch for. Your agency's biggest asset (other than your team, of course) is your intellectual property. This episode features Sharon Toerek, attorney at Toerek Law and founder of Legal+Creative. Sharon shares the processes to have in place in order to cover your ASS(ets). :) As an attorney specializing in marketing agency law, Sharon tells us exactly what mistakes to avoid and how to plan for potential sticky situations. 2 Big Mistakes to Avoid According to Sharon, one the biggest mistakes she sees from marketing agencies is not understanding, undervaluing and not protecting their intellectual property. Everything your agency touches, does or creates is intellectual property. This is the product you're selling. It's absolutely imperative to adequately protect it. The other common mistake is not having a process in place for the occasion when (not "if") a legal situation arises. Issues such as: freelancer management, client contracts, brand protection and copywriting/social media content compliance can cause friction. The absence of a process for these things can make it even worse. Areas that Need Legal Protection Legal protection for your agency is so important and Sharon has identified 6 legal silos every agency should be concerned with; she covers 3 of them for us: New Business: Whether you do a lot of pitches or not, at some point you must show your hand in order to land new clients. Agencies need to know how to protect themselves from the potential of a client taking their ideas to a competitor or in-house. Solution: Avoid having your work stolen by having a non-disclosure agreement in place, or intellectual property and copyright notices in your proposal. Contracts: Somewhere along the way, the word "contract" got a bad rap. People don't like the stigma around contracts because they fear breaking them or wanting out. Sharon says a contract is simply a written set of promises both parties agree upon. Contracts are a MUST. Run away from any client who doesn't want to sign one. Solution: Have a contract template, non-disclosure agreement, MSA or statement of work. Even if you end up using the client's contract forms, having your own and knowing it's contents will make you a smarter negotiator in the end. Freelancers: With the ebbs and flows of agency workflow there's often the need for freelancers. Managing the relationships and expectations with your freelancers is an area that can require special attention. Solution: Be sure you have a strong independent contractor agreement in place that protect both parties, as well as a non-disclosure agreement. 3 Client Contract Loopholes to Close In the event that a client requires you to sign their contract (instead of them signing yours), it's super important to make sure it's mutually beneficial. After reviewing hundreds of client-generated contracts, Sharon has identified some common areas to watch for: 1. Intellectual Property Provisions These assets are your biggest form of capital but often times client-generated contracts provide for ownership by the client upon creation. Sharon tells agencies to protect themselves by allowing your intellectual property to transfer ownership to the client upon approval and payment. When you legally turnover assets before receiving payment, you're essentially giving way your leverage for payment. 2. Liability and Indemnification Provisions In most client's contracts, they hold the agency responsible and liable for all outcomes. However, sometimes the outcome is reliant on information provided by the client. The agency should only be held liable for what they do, make and create. Even better, hold the agency only liable for gross negligence or purposeful wrongdoing and cap limits to the amount the client paid or to the amount of your insurance policy. And speaking of insurance… Errors and Omissions coverage is necessary, no matter how small your agency may be. It's typically very reasonable to add this coverage and can save you tons of headaches down the road. 3. Payment terms First of all, make sure you have the right payment terms. (Hint: it's not 50% upfront and 50% upon completion!) Next, make sure phrasing in the contract protects your agency and gets you paid in a timely manner. Sharon has reviewed contracts which promise payment after the invoice is approved. This means you could be waiting months for someone to approve an invoice. No way! Check that contracts clear and fair payment terms. Protect your agency from the liability of missed deadlines. Be sure there i

Budget and time. In any digital agency or even business for that matter, these are a couple of aspects you need to always keep in the forefront of your priorities both internally and with clients. So here's a question for you. Does your team understand the budget and it's limitations that you set on a project? Do you have a hard time getting your team to stick to the client's budget and timing? In this episode of Ask Swenk, I take you through a couple of key points of thing to do to get your team on board of maintaining budget limits that have been set. And most of all, ensure your agency can save time and make more money while doing so. {0:21} Matthew asked: "We have trouble with the creative people on our production team staying within budget on projects. Any ideas on how to keep them accountable for budgets and timelines? I have tried everything I can think of with no luck." Pricing Correctly From the Very Beginning. This can doom the project from the beginning if done incorrectly and this can be improved with looking at the time it will take to complete the project. By adding buffers to your time, it gives you that space to provide a better service and achieve it under budget. Bad Processes If you don't have the correct processes and systems set in place with your different teams can cost the project for a client. Without clear communication systems between the client, the project manager and the team, this will add on time and cause you to go over budget. Incentives By providing the different teams and project managers within your agency a set goal of completing a project under time and under budget with the incentive of a percentage of that project profit or a salary bonus, this will encourage them to work within their limits and get the job done. By using these points, your team will adapt how they work moving forward ultimately benefitting your agency. Another one of my episodes in this series that relates to the topic of this of agency teams and finance can be found here. You can also find more of my Ask Swenk series as well as my other videos by checking out my Youtube channel!

Stop Doing Things You Suck At & Improve Your Team Leading Skills Want to improve your team leading skills? Just can't stop doing the things you're no good at? If you're looking to break through the plateau of running a solo agency, this episode is for you. Today's guest is Pia Larson is the Chief Imagination Officer of Fingerprint Marketing, the digital agency she founded ten years ago. Pia shares stories and lessons learned about successfully building and leading her team. In this episode, we'll cover: Solutions to 3 challenges every agency owner faces. The difference between being a leader and being a boss. How to stop doing the things you suck at. 3 Challenges Every Agency Owner Faces + Their Solution Are you constantly chasing clients? The agency business is about relationships. And Pia says her company vision included long term clients. However she felt like she was always chasing the next client, which left her no time to build relationships with existing ones. When you can't focus on current clients and make them feel special, they have no sense of loyalty. Do you try to do everything yourself? As an entrepreneur we're wired to wear many hats - even if something you don't know or haven't learned. One of Pia's big challenges was the time of suck of educating herself in areas she didn't know, like SEO or copywriting. (She's a designer by trade.) Do you find yourself doing things you hate or suck at? Lots of business owners end up doing things outside their wheelhouse because they don't think anyone else can do it better. That's a pretty common mindset but truthfully you're standing in your own way. The solution to ALL these challenges is to add to your team. If you're a one-person show, you really can't grow and scale without hiring. When you ignore your gut and hold off on hiring, you're actually sabotaging your potential for growth. You're at max capacity - it's time to bring in some help. Pia says she dragged her feet for a year on hiring, but when she resigned to it and hired two people she saw results within a week. She admits there's huge risk when you hire… What if they don't work out? What if you can't keep them busy? What if clients don't like them? What if you can't pay them? BUT, the payoff is so much greater than the risks. Team Leading: How to Be a Leader, Not Just a Boss Once you commit to hiring, you'll will discover a shift in your role and focus. But you'll also have a new role as a leader. Being a leader is not the same as being a boss. I like to tell my clients, if you're their biggest cheerleader your team is more likely to walk out on a limb for you, even if they're afraid it will break, because they know you'll catch them. Team leading is different to leading a business. Pia has experienced the same over the last decade running her agency. Rather than dictate decisions and responsibilities, she likes to find the special talents and gifts within her staff and nurture it. She has had great results by asking people what they want to do, versus telling them what they have to do. This management style gets a great response and can be very motivating. How to Stop Doing Things You Suck At It starts with self-awareness. You need to have an 'ah ha' moment when you realize what you DO want and DO NOT want to be doing. It means taking a good, hard look at your skill set and being honest with yourself about what you enjoy doing. Then, make a "No List" and tell yourself these are the things you aren't going to do anymore. Next: eliminate, delegate or automate tasks on the No List. Whatever you suck at - eliminate, delegate or automate. Pia took it a step further by asking her mom and childhood friends to tell her the attributes and characteristics they remember about her as a child. She says she got some really great insight into her strengths by taking this approach, then applied it to her role in the agency. #1 Tip For Dealing with Bad Clients First of all, there are no bad clients - just bad prospects or bad processes. But every once in awhile a bad one does sneak in. Usually bad clients are just bullies with a budget. If you're being treated poorly, it's not worth it - cut them loose. Pia is competitive by nature. However, when she let her guard down and accepted that there's plenty of new business out there for every agency it opened her agency up to a ton of new opportunities. Being able to turn down business is a major milestone. In addition to your formal qualification process, you should also interview prospective clients. Prospects aren't the only people who should be asking questions in an initial meeting :) Cashflow or Bookkeeping Issues? FreshBooks is the solution. FreshBooks makes ridiculously easy­ to ­use cloud accounting software for agencies that will help you work smarter, become more organized, and most importantly, get you paid quickly. Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted tri

Do you have a hard time marketing your marketing agency because you're too close to it? Do you question your own branding and creative, even though you do a killer job of it for your clients? You're not alone. Here's how you can step outside of your business, market to the right clients and really crush it in sales! {1:07) Rob asked: "I'm really struggling with marketing my own agency. We are crushing it with clients but when it comes to marketing my company we get smashed in the face by a huge wall. I've started the process again looking to re-design my website, create e-books and automate emails but then I get to a point where I've got a finished design and I start to doubt everything before finally hating it. I'm now considering outsourcing it to a close friend with their own agency in another town... Any thoughts on overcoming this?" Marketing Your Own Marketing Agency First and foremost, don't create e-books. It's hard to look at your agency outside the box of your marketing agency but one step that can help you with promoting your business it to take a good, hard look at your audience. Knowing your audience and understanding what they want, you can create a list of what they want, what problems they are facing and then think of what they want most/biggest challenge makes them feel. Don't position yourself as the star in someone else's story in your marketing because if your visitor feels like a sidekick to your Batman, they aren't going to feel important. Always position your client as the star and turn the focus on them. Demonstrate your methodology to your audience and how you will walk them through it. It shows your prospect that you have a plan on how you can give them what they want and to provide a solution to their problems. This will help take your agency to the next level. You find more of my Ask Swenk series by clicking here or why not visit my Youtube channel for more of the series and lots more videos that can help you as an agency owner improve your business.

How DigitalMarketer Increased Traffic by 1125% Do you think your content strategy is the obstacle in brining increased traffic to your agency's website? If your agency's content marketing strategy is blogging - and just blogging - you've got to catch this episode. My guest is Russ Henneberry, Editorial Director at DigitalMarketer and he's here to tell us how he has increased traffic on their front end by 1125%. That's not a typo - you read it right - 1125%!!! In this episode, we'll cover: How you can enjoy increased traffic with a content strategy. The 3 elements to a successful content marketing funnel. How to uncover your marketing agency's black box. Russ is All-Pro at the content marketing game. Prior to working at DigitalMarketer, he was on the content team at Salesforce.com. He also launched a blog for a well-known marketing SaaS where he grew visitors from 0 to 120,000/month in under a year. Content is where it's at in digital marketing. The problem is too many people think content just means random blogging. Russ says the solution to is to create your content with purpose and strategy behind it. A successful content funnel will carry your prospect through the various stages of their buying decision. There are three levels to an effective content funnel: Awareness on top, Evaluation at middle, Conversion on bottom. Content that Raises Awareness According the Russ, the very first step in a great content marketing strategy begins with prospect awareness. They must become aware there's a problem. Then they need to be aware that your agency's service offering is the solution. To create content that raises awareness and increased traffic, ask yourself: What do I need prospects to believe or what doubts do they have? What do my prospects need to understand, learn or know before they'll work us? What objections might the prospects have to working with us? What are my prospects researching prior to hiring an agency? When you figure all this out you can create all your content around the answers. And remember to be specific - speak to your niche using industry-specific words and phrases. Successful content marketing makes the reader/viewer feel as though it was created specifically for them. Therefore, speak to an audience of one to really nail it. Content that raises awareness should educate, entertain and inspire so vehicles for this type of content include: blog posts, social media updates, infographics, photos, e-books, podcasts. Content for Evaluation This type of content is a level down from Awareness content and is useful for helping a prospect decide between their options. When a prospect is considering working with your agency, this type of content helps facilitate the decision. Prospects have choices and your obligation is to educate on the pros and cons of those choices. Evaluation content should answer things like: How does your agency stack up against the competition? What are the consequences if the prospect chooses not to solve the problem at all? How will working with your agency differ from solving the problem in-house? Your responsibility with this type of content is to weigh the options and help facilitate a decision. It's important to be honest and fair with these content pieces because they aren't smarmy sales content. You can use a lead magnet or opt-in, or even retargeting to drive back to your site. The goal is to give your prospect the opportunity to re-evaluate your process compared to their other options. Another effective strategy for Evaluation content is a testimonial where someone walks through the before, during and after process of working with your agency. Some great vehicles for this type of content is lead magnets such as: educational resources (case study, white paper, etc), useful resources (swipe file, checklist, templates, etc.), webinars and live events. Content that Converts So now it's sale time. What do you need to do or say to tip the scale in your favor? Content that Converts is the final piece. It's all about making them feel good about signing with your agency. Things like customer stories with results, webinars, live events, mini classes and a great Foot in the Door offer all make great Conversion content. To create this type of content, you'll need to ask yourself: "what's missing?". Russ says every business has a Black Box that causes mystery or confusion. Creating content that solves the mystery is the final element in a successful content marketing strategy. The key is uncovering our your agency's black box and eliminating the problem. How to Uncover Your Agency's Black Box You're too close to identify it right away but it's there, and mystery and confusion are the #1 things that hinder conversion. When a prospect leaves your site with questions or confusion that is a lost opportunity. They will ultimately go to a competitor, do the work in-house or do nothing. So ask yourself: "what's missing?" then create content that fills that hole. Ready to Discover th

You aren't alone if you've considered transitioning into a SaaS company; or launching a separate company to sell SaaS. The challenge is educating your team, your clients and yourself on how to go about it. In this episode, we'll cover: Reasons why you might want to develop a SaaS product. 4 steps to developing and launching a SaaS company. How to roll out your SaaS product and transition your agency. If you're thinking about developing or selling a SaaS product, this is the episode for you. My guest is Ethan Denney, founder and CEO of ConvertFlow. Ethan took his company from a service-oriented digital agency to a product-focused SaaS company. He shares the story of his agency's transition including the steps he took to get there. Why develop a SaaS product? As a digital agency, Ethan's company was focused on driving site traffic and lead generation. However, they found many clients needed site redesigns and lot of other, deeper services were more involved. These issues often decreased profitability and increased the sales cycle. (Not to mention that it created a major time suck.) Clients were not seeing results right away and Ethan's agency was having difficulty proving their value right away. In order to solve this issue they created a product that would provide more immediate value and shorten their sales cycle. It would also deliver faster results and more ROI to their clients. This cleared the way for ConvertFlow to charge on value and increase their profits. Transitioning from digital agency to SaaS company Often times the logistics of a product business sound much more appealing than a service business, am I right? Product companies have fixed costs, shorter engagement periods, and higher profit margins. But the grass is not always greener on the other side. "The grass is greener on the side you water." Cashing in your digital agency and replacing with a productized company is not for everyone. In order to do be successful, it's got to be done right. Ethan cautions us - it didn't happen overnight and it wasn't easy. 4 BIG steps to developing a SaaS company: 1- Determine your agency's core service. Then figure out what's keeping you from doing it. What obstacles do you face? For Ethan's agency it was cumbersome site redesigns that were keeping them from driving traffic and generating leads for their clients. 2- Develop a solution. Once you've identified what's keeping you from doing what you love doing, play around with possible solutions. Look at it from all angles. What solution can you create to will solve these issues for you or eliminate the obstacles? 3- Decide on the goal for your tool. Will you keep this solution in your arsenal and have it be your competitive advantage? Or will you sell this tool as a stand alone product? There isn't a right answer - in fact, it's a very individual decision. 4- Strategically launch your solution. In Ethan's case, they chose to rollout a product-based solution to their clients that would be a shorter engagement and allow clients to see more immediate value. This included a multi-step launch to their existing digital agency clients. Rolling out SaaS for your Digital Agency As Ethan's agency developed more of the productize business they were able to use it as a low-end "icebreaker" service. They discovered that charging $1,500 - $2,000, they were earning steady recurring revenue. Other benefits are a shorter sales cycle and shorter engagement period with new clients. Transitioning bigger, long term clients took a little longer and a bit more thoughtful strategy. Digital agency service clients were first transitioned to a productized service where the product was introduced to the client but managed by the agency. Eventually, they transitioned those clients from a productized service to a product they could manage themselves. Overall, Ethan is thrilled with the entire transition. Now, ConvertFlow is able to concentrate on doing what they love, without getting weighed down by doing the necessary stuff they don't love. Analytics Software to Boost Your Business Klipfolio is a tool that is helping agencies continuously monitor and report analytics. Define KPI's based on your preferences and filters in this cloud-based software. With 50+ built-in marketing metrics, you can create a dashboard for yourself and your clients which can be viewed on desktop, mobile or old-fashioned PDF. For a limited time, Klipfolio has a special deal for my listeners. Get a FREE TRIAL and an amazing offer just for The Smart Agency Master Class listeners at Klipfolio.com/SmartAgency. Are You Ready to Learn More? If you are looking for advice with your current agency or learning how to start your own digital agency, I can help. Find lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. And if videos are more your thing, you can check out the videos on my Youtube channel!

How to fire yourself from a key role in the business and transition from Agency Owner to Agency CEO. You built your business on skill and passion. You're the best at a certain aspect of it and giving that up can be really difficult. I can totally relate! Here's how to say 'yes' to the right things and 'no' to the wrong things so you can scale. Lisa asked: "In the Agency Playbook, I watched the video on leadership where you outline the roles of an agency owner. Creative direction was not on that list. Here's the thing -- and I'm not being arrogant -- but my company has grown because I'm best at being creative. I've experimented with backing off on smaller projects. But it's obvious the projects I work on are more creative and innovative than the ones I don't touch. My question is, how do I successfully back out of the Creative Director role and shift into the (boring but important) role of a CEO? Or should I stay in the Creative Director role since my agency relies on my talent for it's success?" I relate to this question as in the beginning, I was always the most creative person. It's challenging for a client to tell you what they want until they see it but this isn't scalable. To fix this, you need to set up a process and document the process from the beginning of a project for your team to follow along. You should figure out a system if you are going to continue in your role or if not, find the next person you feel will suit the role and find what suits you best. Did You Enjoy This Week's Episode on How to Become an Agency CEO? Find more of my Ask Swenk series by clicking here or why not visit my Youtube channel for more of the series and lots more videos that can help you as an agency owner improve your business.

If you're struggling to build the agency or creating the agency vision that you want or having issues taking it to the next level, it could be a lack of clarity. In this episode, we'll cover: #1 Struggle of building an agency team How to create and communicate your agency vision An on boarding process that sets expectations from day one. Today's guest on the show is Danny Gonzalez, co-founder of Perception, the digital agency he and his partner built over the past fifteen years. Danny talks about how they communicate their vision in order to attract and keep top agency talent. You've probably seen some of Perception's work if you've watched Iron Man 2 or Batman vs. Superman. They're the team responsible for the fictitious technology your favorite superheroes use. They also develop real-world tech solutions (for us non-superhero types), such as UX and UI designs for automotive and technology companies. Pretty cool, right? #1 Struggle of Building a Team The most difficult thing about building a team is getting your established clients to trust them. When you operate solo or as a partnership for a long time, your clients are accustomed to leaning on you. Although when you're growing it becomes necessary to hire. The challenge is getting your existing clients to transfer their trust in you to your new team. "Hiring the right people frees you up to concentrate on building the business instead of spending time in the weeds." The key is to start slow. It takes time to educate your current clients and have them accept a reorganization. Be sure display complete confidence in your new hires and over time your clients will feel it too. With new clients, it's much easier. Get your team involved from the start. Let go of your need to be involved. Assure the client that you are available if there's an urgent need or large scale issue but their day-to-day contact is super capable of handling everything. How to Create and Communicate Agency Vision For the first few years, it was just Danny and his partner. But as they started growing and hiring, they began making notes about what they wanted for their company - expectations, culture, values and goals. With an agency name of "Perception", for them it is all about internal and external perception and the senses. Eventually these bullet point notes of expectations, values and vision turned into a handbook. The handbook is given to new hire candidates before they're even hired. It includes "rules" things like: We don't bullsh*t each other. We don't shoot down each other's ideas. As well as the lifecycle of a project with a variety of scenarios that lead to different actions: "If this happens, then do X. If that happens, then do Y." This is definitely something that has evolved over time and it's only one part of Perception's on boarding process. In my interview with a Zappos executive, she described their process for communicating Zappos Core Values. As a result, Zappos has increased productivity and creativity, reduced turnover and sick time and has topped many Best Workplaces Lists for several years. On Boarding Process That Sets Expectations from Day 1 In addition to receiving the handbook, the partners give new hires their "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" presentation. They walk through past projects, clients and situation to go over what went right, what went wrong, what was learned and why sometimes you just have to walk away (that's the ugly stuff :) ) Other aspects of on boarding include communicating very role-specific expectations. Setting very clear expectations from the start also sets your team up for success. Analytics Software to Boost Your Business Klipfolio is a tool that is helping agencies continuously monitor and report analytics. Define KPI's based on your preferences and filters in this cloud-based software. With 50+ built-in marketing metrics, you can create a dashboard for yourself and your clients which can be viewed on desktop, mobile or old-fashioned PDF. For a limited time, Klipfolio has a special deal for my listeners. Get a FREE TRIAL and an amazing offer just for The Smart Agency Master Class listeners at Klipfolio.com/SmartAgency. Creating the Best Agency Possible With Your Agency Vision Creating the agency vision you aspire to will allow you to create the best agency possible moving forward. To maintain this high level of authority and your reputation as an agency owner, you should review if there are other weaknesses within your agency that are causing challenges that need to be resolved. Don't worry, i'm here for all the advice you need. From my own experience running my own digital agency as well as helping other digital agency owners, I can provide advice on many topics. It can be anything from changes you want to make within your established agency or if you are a new agency, you might be unsure of what the different phases of growth will look like. These are just a few topics I can give guidance on. If it's not the agency itself but your

Today I'm answering some great questions about taking a one-man, or very small agency to the next level. Here's some great advice for building your business and agency scaling to a sustainable level and creating the role you want to be in. Agency Scaling: From One-Man to Next Level {0:22} Jeff asked: "I'm currently offering: site design, development and support, SEO, hosting/domain management, digital marketing, social media management, email marketing and some video production. First, I know that's a LOT to offer as a one man shop. Most of this has grown organically from WP website clients who asked for additional services. What advice do you have for me as one person who is building this business and doing all the work? Is partnering with white labels a good move? If so, how have you done that? Is outsourcing a better move? If so, how did you get started with outsourcing? Given that I'm on a tight budget, is there ONE software platform I should buy for marketing and running my own business? Something you just can't do without?" Software/tools mentioned in the video include: Infusionsoft, Freshbooks and Wave. Tired of Being Restricted in the Career Path You're On? Are you the owner of a small agency under $300,000? Or a freelancer, marketing professional or agency employee who thinks you can run your own agency better? Jump Start My Agency is a program that covers everything you need to start a profitable agency and land high paying clients of over $20,000. This 4 week course is designed to help you find the ideal clients, charge what you're worth and learn how to build a team. There are clients waiting to work with you! Let me help you by requesting an invitation to the program. Growing Your Digital Agency If you found this video helpful but are searching for more advice especially looking to get your business to that next level, I can help. You can find lots of tips, tricks and insights by checking out our insightful blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my videos on my Youtube channel!

Increase Business: How One Digital Agency Doubled Business in 4 Months If you're trying to grow an agency, you know you're going to need a foot in a door strategy to increase business and get you to the next level of success. The trouble is, you're selling the wrong service first. In this episode, we'll cover: #1 strategy to increase business with new clients for your agency. Why you need a Foot in the Door offer. What makes a great Foot in the Door offer? My guest on the show today is represents every reason why I love my work. Todd Earwood is the founder and CEO of MoneyPath Marketing. We first met when Todd attended one of my two-day workshops. A few months later he called me to share the success story on how his business doubled in just 4 months. Todd shares with us the #1 reason his agency was able to increase business so drastically and how he's on track to do 3X business within 6 months of the workshop! MoneyPath Marketing targets SaaS companies and like many agencies they have a hard time getting their foot in the door. Todd attended my workshop hoping to glean a little useful knowledge that he could implement right away. Ask and you shall receive... #1 Strategy to Increase Agency New Business Todd wanted more opportunities to get his foot in the door with prospects and that's exactly what he got on Day #1 of the workshop. We discussed the principle behind the Foot in the Door offer and how one agency did $252K at a tradeshow using this strategy. (A Foot in the Door offer is a slice off your core services. It is something a prospective will find informative and valuable, but does not solve a problem or involve a large investment.) Todd found so much value in the Foot in the Door lesson that he implemented it right there during the workshop. That day, he jumped on a call with his salesman and a new business prospect. He offered the prospect a paid discovery (instead of going right away for a full scale project). They landed the paid discovery and nailed it, which lead to another project and eventually retainer business allowing him to increase business overall for his agency. Why You Need a Foot in the Door Offer: 1- It offers a low cost point of entry. When you are pitching a prospect for a project that is $20K or $50K it's a huge commitment. And although you are fully committed to being successful, the price tag can make it a tough sell. A Foot in the Door offer is just the bottom rung on your offer ladder. You'll find you actually make more money when you start small and have your clients stairstep their way up. 2- It's the courtship before the marriage. I get it - you want the bigger paid projects and retainers. But going for those higher price tags first is like proposing marriage on the first date. A Foot in the Door offer is a great way to get to know each other. You can build your authority and gain more trust, as well as get a glimpse of client's work style. 3- It helps to determine what the client really wants. Let's be honest. What the client thinks they need and what they actually need are often two completely different things. That's why a blueprint or discovery is so valuable. It allows you to dig into the current situation to see what's missing and provide insight as to how you can help. 4- It pre-qualifies your prospects. Think about it this way. If you have a prospect who balks at spending $2,500 for a paid discovery, how do you think a full scale project proposal will play out? Maybe something like this? By selling a Foot in the Door first, you'll get the opportunity to qualify your prospects. You can find out if they have the budget to work with you. In addition you can determine in advance if you can help them. 5- It speeds up the sales cycle. When you have a lower price point of entry it's much easier for your prospects to make the decision to work with you. After you fulfill delivery on the Foot in the Door and wow them with your expertise you'll find subsequent sales decisions and are made much faster. Why is that? Because once a client buys from you they are 20X more likely to buy again in the future because they already know, like and trust you. What Makes a Great Foot in the Door Offer? First and foremost, it needs to be super simple. Make sure you are managing expectations as to what your prospect is getting from the Foot in the Door offer. Call it a discovery, blueprint, consultation or whatever you want... Just be sure it's something you can explain pretty easily. The process for proposing and delivering a Foot in the Door offer should be pretty turnkey. No fancy, lengthy proposal necessary. Todd says his agency sells theirs in a two page PDF that documents the timeline, process, deliverables and price. Don't over deliver. This was something Todd learned the hard way. He said he was used to doing free consultations, so the first time they did a paid discovery they felt the need to give an abundance of information so he could justify charging for it. He says the prospect a

What to Consider in Your Hiring Practices What do you do when during a phase when you are hiring new team members, you discover they hope to eventually own their own agency? In this week's episode, I cover some important questions about hiring practices. Should you hire someone who tells you in the interview that they hope to someday run their own agency? If they're otherwise qualified, should that be a deal breaker? Also, if you find a great new hire but they don't live close, should you pay for relocation? {0:30} Jack asked: "Say you're interviewing candidates for a sales position at your agency. When asked what they want to be doing in five years, the candidate says they want to run their own agency some day. Is this a deal breaker? We both know how hard running an agency is! Chances are, they won't be. But even if they did -- should that be an issue? I'm thinking it's kind of inevitable in our industry and I'm leaning towards being OK with it but I'm curious about your perspective." {3:13} Aaron asked: "Would you suggest paying relocation costs for new hires? If so, under what circumstances would you offer it... Junior level or only Mid/Senior level? Would you stipulate they had to be a certain distance away in order to pay for a move? And would you reimburse certain kinds of moving expenses or just do it as a lump sum signing bonus?" Growing Your Agency Brand If you found this helpful but are searching for more advice especially looking to get your business to that next level, I can help. You can find lots of tips, tricks and insights by checking out these helpful blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my videos on my Youtube channel!

Looking to land those bigger retainer clients for your agency but don't know how to get there? I've got you covered in this week's episode. In this episode, we'll cover: Why you might need to work for free. 5 steps to landing bigger retainer clients. How to implement the foot in the door strategy. How to stack the deck to gain more new agency clients. My guest today is Justin Brooke, founder of IMScalable and also known as "The Traffic Guy." He's got an awesome story about how he went from not being profitable, to working for free, to landing a couple huge retainer clients. In this episode, Justin shares his strategy for how to land the big clients you want and leveraging them to land more big retainer clients. Why You Need to Work for Free If you don't have a success story or case study to use in your sales pitches, you might want to consider this strategy just get you one... Justin says he spent a couple years being unprofitable. However what he realized was that he needed one really great success story to ignite his business. That's when he decided to work for free. It started with research. Justin did some digging to find the right client whom he knew he could help. Then he posed a proposition to the owner - he would work for free to increase traffic and leads if he could use them as a case study for his own marketing purposes. They agreed. He succeeded. And BOOM! Justin had his first case study to use for future sales pitches. This is a great strategy whether you're just getting starting, or if you want to begin targeting a new niche. You need some sort of "proof" that you are valuable. And when you select a business that you're confident you can help, you're setting yourself up for success. How to Land Big Retainer Clients A lot of us can relate. You're doing ok, but you know there are bigger clients out there with issues you can solve. You want to catch the bigger fish you just don't know how. The key is to NOT go after the big projects right away. Start small. Prove yourself. Then move up the food chain. Justin broke his strategy down into 5 steps for us: Identify some of the businesses you know you can help and make a short list. Do your homework to find out how the businesses on your list are spending their digital ad budget. Tools such as AdBeat can help. Look for a hole or gap in your prospect's digital strategy. Pinpoint one, small but specific thing they aren't doing, or aren't doing well. Contact the prospect(s) you identified and tell them what you've discovered. Something like: "I noticed you aren't doing 'X' and I think it's because of 'Y'. I know I can do 'Z' to solve your issue and get you better results." Be specific. Be confident. And DON'T be afraid to promise results. Stack the Deck to Gain More Clients The real trick to building your revenue base is to continue working Justin's 5 step process. Keep targeting new businesses and researching to find what's missing in their digital strategy. Keep going after the smaller projects and providing amazing results in order to earn larger ones. This is how you implement your foot in the door strategy and use it to grow your client base. You can leverage your results from one client to earn you credibility with the next. It just takes some research, persistence and extra effort in your presentation. When you're working with another prospect, use your case study to report results however make it unique and relevant. Nothing generic! Do your homework - know your audience. Make it visually stunning, useful and relevant to a specific prospect... Check out Klipfolio (and the special offer below) to create an amazing analytics report. PRO TIP: As attractive as it might seem, you do not want just a few large clients. Your client mix should be made of a variety of sizes. If you only have 3 large clients and one leaves, you'll lose 33% of your revenue. Analytics Software to Boost Your Business Klipfolio is a tool that is helping agencies continuously monitor and report analytics. It's cloud-based software allows you to define KPI's based on your preferences and filters. With 50+ built-in marketing metrics, you can create a dashboard for yourself and your clients which can be viewed on desktop, mobile or old-fashioned PDF. For a limited time, Klipfolio has a special deal for my listeners. Get a FREE TRIAL and an amazing offer just for The Smart Agency Master Class listeners at Klipfolio.com/SmartAgency. Next Steps For Your Agency Need help with your agency? If you need advice on any topic, I have probably experienced them myself and can help you from what I learned. From what to do with your sales processes, ways to increase your profit margins or how you can build authority for your agency. I can show you how to stop losing money on projects, why solid processes for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy and how having remote working or freelancers in your team can be beneficial and the best ways of managing them. Learn about my care

Do you need a sexy web design for your agency website in order to land 6-figure deals? In this episode of Ask Swenk, we hear about what big clients really want from their agency. We also cover the question of can you build your digital agency around your personal brand? Want the answer? Yes, you can! Here's how. How a Sexy Web Design Can Land New Deals {1:13} Jarrett asked: "My team comes from a design heavy background. We typically build beautiful websites and admire companies like Huge & Firstborn. We came from rsq.com and our website is mightyadvertising.com. But I've noticed a lot of digital shops like Solar Velocity who have less sexy websites are able to sell six-figure deals. Is there an advantage/disadvantage to building a sexy digital website versus on not-so-sexy website? Are those prospects not concerned with that level of design?" The biggest issue that can occur with a sexy website design can create the wrong positioning on your website and lead you and your agency into the weeds. You need to position your client as the star in the story you are telling them rather than making yourself the star. Be the Alfred to their Batman and get them where they want to go. Be the guide as no client wants to feel as the sidekick. {5:03} Charles asked: "Can you build your agency around your personal brand?" Have More Questions? If you want that bit of extra help in getting your agency in front of potential clients, I can help! You can find lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my videos on my Youtube channel! Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster.

Are you using value-based pricing within your digital agency? Did you know that through value-based pricing, it can support you in increasing the profit of your agency? In this episode, we'll cover: Why value-based pricing will keep you from losing profit. How to setup a value-based pricing model. How to understand your client's perception of value. This week on the Smart Agency Master Class, we'll hear from Dan Mall founder of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative. Dan has spent his entire 18-year career in design and in that time he's grown to understand a ton about pricing. He's going to share how to develop value-based pricing so you can stop losing profit. Why a Value-Based Pricing Model? You are providing a service based on your unique skill set, knowledge and experience. Value-based pricing takes all those elements into consideration and quantifies. Value-based pricing is the intersection between: what it's worth to the client and the amount of compensation you're willing to take. And if that isn't enough to convince you -- consider this analogy. A woman calls a plumber to come to her house and fix a leaky faucet. The plumber is there for 5 mins, tightens one screw and the leak is fixed. He hands her a bill for $1,000. She asks "Why are you charging me $1,000 when you were only here for 5 minutes?" He says, "It's $10 to tighten the screw and $990 for knowing which screw." When a client has a problem and you know which screw to tighten your value is priceless :) How to Setup Value-Based Pricing Dan's agency is 5 years old and has been using value pricing since the beginning. Here are 3 steps you can take to get started with building this type of price model. Start with pricing that is easy to understand. You have to be able to explain your pricing structure to a client, so make sure you can easily rationalize it. Determine client expectations and the perceived value of the project. You'll have to ask a lot of questions to get to the real meat of what they want and why. Experiment with pricing over time. Learn from one project to the next and test out different pricing. Figure out what works and what doesn't. Then apply a combination of experience and gut instinct to get to the right pricing structure. How to Determine "Value" It's not easy! Dan says it takes time and those 3 steps above won't can't overnight. But what you can do is gather as much information as possible from your client so you can fully understand what they need or rather, what they think they need and how you can help. In his experience as a designer, Dan said he'd often learn information a few days or weeks too late. Some issues are preventable and some problems aren't solvable unless you get to the core of the issue. To do that, you have to ask the right questions. Go beyond the logistical and go deeper to fully understand the expectations/goals. Great client service starts with building a relationship. And to build a relationship you have to ask questions. Questions You Need to Ask If you're building a new website - don't just be an order taker and build the website as instructed. Ask why the client wants a new website. Ask what the goals are for the new site. Is it for a better reputation? Is it for lead generation? What you're doing and why you're doing it go hand-in-hand. The goal for asking questions is to identify what the client needs - which can be different from what they're asking for. Here's a few questions to get you started: What worries keep you up at night? How can my agency ease these concerns for you? What is your business model? How do you make a profit? When was the last time you were profitable? What is the problem costing you, in terms of revenue/profit? How does a solution translate to your bottom line? Most importantly, you want to understand the 3i's: Issue, Impact and Importance. You can this information in developing solutions and in handling objections or pricing concerns. Don't let a value-based pricing model worry you. People don't choose to work with you on price alone. And those who do are viewing you as a commodity. If you are viewed as an expert in your field (think plumber!) and can get the results they desire (think leaky faucet!) price won't matter as much as you think it does. Resources mentioned: Implementing Value Pricing by Ron Baker Pricing for Profit by Dale Furtwengler Hey, Smart Agency Master Class fans! Save time & win more work Replace your proposals, quotes and presentations with interactive + mobile-friendly webpages that plug into your systems and are as easy to build and reuse as they are beautiful. Check out Qwilr. Sign up now for free by using the coupon code smartagency while upgrading. What's Next For Your Agency? Now that you know the benefits of value-based pricing for your agency moving forward, what's next on your list? Why not take the time to take a step back and look at other processes that need attention? No matter what challenge your agency is facing, I can help you get

Do you have trouble making big agency decisions for your business? Do you hesitate to commit because you're afraid to fail? This episode is all about getting out of your own way so you can find the courage to take action that impacts your agency. Many of my clients tell me they have a hard time making decisions. Whether it's a decision that requires a big commitment or taking action on something that can dramatically impact their business. Some people have trouble pulling the trigger. As a result they stand in their own way of reaching success. Make Agency Decisions Like Seth Godin or Gary Vaynerchuck I get a lot of my inspiration from guys like Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk. I was listening to Seth's podcast recently and he talked about making your big life decisions the way you make decisions in the game Monopoly. In the game, you have to decide quickly if you're going to buy property or not. Sometimes you land on Boardwalk and lose a bunch of money. Sometimes you make all the right decisions and WIN. Still other times you lose the game entirely. And that's OK. You learn from it and play differently next time. #AgencyLife is Like Playing Monopoly The same is true in real life and with real money. You can't let hesitation or fear stand in your way. Make a move. Use your gut to make a decision. You'll either succeed because of it or fail, learn from it, grow and move on. When you change perspective you'll see your failures as successes. Want More Information? Want extra help in taking your agency to the million level? You can find lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my videos on my Youtube channel!

Stuck finding ways to generate new business for your agency? Then the real question to ask yourself is have you ever considered adding video marketing to your online marketing strategy. If not, this is the episode for you. In this episode, we'll cover: The benefits of rich media in your agency marketing. Top 3 mistakes to avoid in video marketing. How to repurpose your video content and give it legs. In this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class, Brian Town, schools us on video marketing. After a 17-year career as a high school TV and video production teacher, Brian switched gears and founded Michigan Creative. Over the past 5 years the agency has grown to a team of 10 which serves clients in web development, video branding and social media. Brian shares some great tips on starting or improving your video content to it becomes a major lead generator. Why video marketing? The real question is, why not video? It's never been easier or cheaper to produce and edit video. Video content lives forever on multiple formats and can be repurposed in many different ways. No one can replicate you on video. One video, genuine and authentic personalities shine through. People buy from people. Developing a great video takes as much time as writing a stellar blog post and gets just as much SEO juice. Videos are more easily consumed than a written blog post. People would rather watch than read. Mistakes to avoid in video marketing 1. Not using the right equipment. Brian says video still has reputation for being expensive but all you really need is a few inexpensive pieces of equipment - it's much more affordable than you'd think. It's true you can record great video on your tablet or smartphone. (ALL my videos are done on my iPhone or iPad and a ring-light like this one.) The other two pieces of essential equipment that Brian recommends are a tripod and external mic. There's a huge difference in sound quality when you're mic'd. 2. Being "birthday mom or dad." You know the type. They're the person who records the entire birthday party from start to finish. No one ever wants to watch that video. It's a total snoozer. People just want the highlights. So capture the special moments - not every minute. Make sure you communicate the goal of the video right away. Then make your point in a direct, brief manner and include a specific call to action. Be brief - like 60-90 seconds, max. 3. Unclear or too many call-to-action(s). Your video should solve one problem or ease one pain point for your prospects. If you have more to say or more to accomplish create a new video for it. Think about how/why you search for a video in YouTube… in most cases you have a problem you want to solve quickly. Brian recommends putting yourself in your prospect's shoes. Determine what they're searching by making a list of their common questions, issues and problems. How to repurpose videos for more impact Once you've got a great list of video topics, Brian suggests spending part of day shooting 5-10 at once. They can then be edited into multiple pieces of content to use in a variety of ways across different platforms. For example: my #AskSwenk videos are usually 7-10 minutes long and answer 3 questions. (I even did one about video marketing for your agency.) The full video get posted in the blog section on my site. I also slice those into 3 separate, mini-episodes and post them socially. The shorter 2-3 minute videos get even more engagement than the full episodes. Get creative about where you use video… It can live on your site as a vlog, embedded into emails, posted on social platforms. You can also pull GIFS or sound bites to post on social, you can use it on your About page… the opportunities to use and reuse video are endless. Hey, Smart Agency Master Class fans! Save time & win more work Replace your proposals, quotes and presentations with interactive + mobile-friendly webpages that plug into your systems and are as easy to build and reuse as they are beautiful. Check out Qwilr. Sign up now for free by using the coupon code smartagency while upgrading. Grow Your Agency I hope this spotlight on how video marketing can transform your agency was beneficial to your marketing strategy moving forward. Don't just stop there but take a step back and really look struggles you need to focus on to improve your business. I have all you need to get through these obstacles. I have advice on topics from gaining agency exposure in the news, how to build authority for your agency or even ways to use facebook marketing strategies to expand your brand awareness. If growth is your focus, I've discussed the four phases of growth within your agency and how website issues could be holding your business back from reach your potential. You can learn more about my life and my experience as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. If videos are more your thing, don't worry, i've got you covered! You can check out mor

How to Create the Best Growth Strategy for Your Business It can be tough to feel you are doing everything you can to bring your agency to the next level but for not to see that growth you were hoping for. Should you be trying something different with the growth strategy for your business? Did you ever consider taking a closer look at the growth strategy that Donald Trump used to gain his popularity? In this video we identify Donald Trump's #1 growth strategy that has gained him a record number of supporters and cover how it applies to your digital agency. It's US Election Day 2016. Maybe you're an American citizen with the privilege to vote? Or, maybe you're one of my global followers with the good fortune of observing this election from afar? Either way, you'll want to watch this brief video. I am neither a Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump supporter. However, observing their growth strategies got me thinking. This one single tactic can be a real game changer in your business. Are you ready to "Make Your Agency Great Again"? :) Let Me Help You Want extra help in making the best decisions for your business as an agency owner? You can find lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my videos on my Youtube channel! If you are an agency owner, you can also find more information by checking out the help section on my website or get in touch and we can speak strictly confidential. Click here to get my help now.

Do you want to learn how you can use Facebook Ads to create lead generation for not only you but for your clients too? Then you need to keep reading. In this episode, we'll cover: Why you should be using Facebook ads and how to get started. 5 Do's and Don'ts of Facebook marketing for your agency. How to know if your Facebook ads are working and key metrics to monitor. Whether you've never tried Facebook marketing or you're just looking to improve at it, you've got to hear from my guest Art Malkov. Art is the co-founder of NeedGrowth.com, a digital agency specializing in using Facebook to supercharge lead generation for themselves and their clients. Art shares some great tips on starting and maintaining Facebook marketing as well as some major mistakes to avoid. Does Facebook really work? Heck yeah, it does. Agency owners often tell me their audience is not on Facebook. Art says he hears it from clients, too. There are 1.5 billion users on Facebook. (That's 3X more users than Twitter and Instagram combined.) Your prospects are on Facebook. They aren't looking for you there, but they'll definitely find you if done correctly to disrupt their pattern. How to get started with Facebook ads The problem with Facebook ads is that there's no guidebook. There's no training and no certification. No one really knows how to do it correctly - it's all trial and error. So, most people end up winging it, become frustrated and feeling defeated. Art says he and his partner created a statistical approach that has been super successful for their agency and their clients. Art says to think of Facebook ad management like the controls in the cockpit of an airplane. Each dial you turn or switch you flip has to work with the rest of the dials and switches to create a smooth ride. One wrong move and you can mess up the entire flight. 5 Facebook Ads Do's and Dont's Do a combination of video and still image ads. Don't just do all video or all image ads. Art says when one client made the switch to combining the two they went from a 1 share : 50 likes ratio to a 1 share : 1 like ratio. (Pro tip: 'Shares' are more valuable than 'likes.' When people 'share' your content they actually reading/watching it and found value in it. When people 'like' your content they might be scrolling right past it.) Don't use traditional ad copy. Generic adss do not get user engagement. Your ad content must be something of value. The headline must resonate with a specific audience and the content must solve a pain point of theirs. Try questions that start with: "Do you struggle with…?" or "Are you feeling…?". Avoid anything like: "Click here for…" Do be direct to attract the right people. No matter who you're targeting, call them out in your ad. My audience is Digital Agency Owners - so I have Facebook ads with the headline "Digital Agency Owner?". Not only do my ads reach the right people, but I'm even seeing people who aren't an agency owner tag their friends who are - and those tags are getting my ad in front of the right people without costing me anything. Don't go in blind - educate yourself. Spend a couple weeks understanding all the options that are available. Not all the default settings will work in your favor. For example, there is a default setting for ads to share between Facebook and Instagram. If you don't turn off the default option on Instagram you will spend a large chunk of your budget on Instagram without knowing it and you'll think your Facebook ads aren't working. Do target specific audiences. You can pinpoint a specific geographic region, even a particular section within a city if you want. In fact, targeting can be so impactful that one agency grew their opt-in rate from 0.3% to 32% just by targeting their Facebook ads properly. How to tell if your Facebook ads are working Art says you have to have someone appointed to monitoring your Facebook ads all the time. You cannot just "set it and forget it" - you absolutely have to watch and evaluate regularly. You can gauge your success on user engagement - likes and shares - not on impressions. The more a post is shared the cheaper it becomes with yields amazing ROI's. Ad prices can drop 3-5X if managed properly. However, if you aren't monitoring this you will blow through your budget very quickly. Key Facebook performance metrics to monitor Relevance Score: This is how Facebook determines which ads to show a person. When your ad is relevant to your audience, its relevance score is higher, and is more likely to be served than other ads targeting the same audience. The more relevant your ad, the lower the cost to you. Relevance score is on a scale of 0 - 10. Once your post reaches 500 impressions you want your score to be a 5 or better. If it's not, you need to reset your ad. Cost per Conversion: What's a lead worth to you and what are you willing to pay for it? In the beginning you cost per lead will be higher, but the cool thing is that Facebook will optimize your ads for you and you'll see

Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid To Ask Do you have questions about me and my agency experience that you've been wondering but were afraid to ask everything? In this episode of Ask Swenk, I take your questions that many you have asked about my journey as an agency owner. Here's everything you've been wanting to know about why I sold my agency, what I'd do differently, what I regret and why I do what I'm doing now. I've been getting some great questions about my past experience as an agency owner and thought it would be a great #AskSwenk episode to show you I'm totally transparent when it comes to my successes, failures, lessons learned and regrets. Check it out: {0:30} If you were so successful, why did you sell your agency? {2:00} If you could do it all again, what would you do differently as an agency owner? {4:52} What do you regret about the acquisition process? {7:37 } Why do you do what you're doing now? What More Do You Want to Know? I hope you found this instalment of Ask Swenk beneficial and it helps you with any of your business concerns. If you have more questions about how you can improve your agency, I can help. I have covered topics including how to start an agency from scratch to reasons you should sell your agency. Have other topics you want advice on? You can check out all my tips, tricks and everything you need to know in my blogs. I have covered a wide variety of topics as well as answering your questions in more from my Ask Swenk series. Are videos more your thing? You can check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

Multi-Million Dollar Agency Building: How One Agency Owner Built Three Every digital agency owner dreams of building a multi-million dollar agency and what better way to learn how than from an owner that didn't just make one, but built three multi-million dollar agencys. In this episode, we'll cover: 3 lessons on scaling your business into a multi-million dollar agency. How to have growth-minded hiring practices. Attracting, hiring and keeping top talent. Lance Hollander is my guest this week on The Smart Agency Master Class. He's the owner of his third multi-million dollar agency, Delphic Digital. Yep, you read that right. He's been owner to three successful, 7-figure agencies. He profitably sold the first two agencies, but can't stay away from the business and earned partnership in another. Lance swears this is the third and last… but we'll believe it when we see it :) Today he's here to share the lessons he's learned climbing to the top 3 times and his secrets to scaling each multi-million dollar agency. 3 lessons on scaling a successful agency 1- The right partner is critical to success. Lance says service businesses are best held by multiple people with different skill sets. And in his words - any single who would run an agency alone is both incredibly smart and incredibly crazy. 2- Strive to always be the dumbest person in the room. Surround yourself with people who are the best at what they do. You can achieve success by working with people who are better than you at what they do. 3- Always be seeking new business - even when you're busy. Lance's advice is 50-60% revenue from existing clients and the balance from new business. It's very common to get so busy that you just don't have time to fill the pipeline because you're concentrating on delivery only to find yourself eventually un-busy with an empty pipeline. [clickToTweet tweet="Hiring #agency talent is like Tetris. Every piece that falls dictates your next move. Learn via @jswenk" quote=""Hiring is like Tetris. Every piece that falls dictates your next move." ~ Lance Hollander"] How to have growth-minded hiring practices When you're first starting out, you need to hire people who can be the Swiss Army knife of your business. Your business needs people who can many different jobs with the common goal of growing. As your agency gets larger, you can begin to hire specialists in their field who just want to wear one hat. Lance has learned if you approach hiring wanting to save money, you will not save money. You need people who can run the show without you. And in order to do that you have to be willing to pay senior staff salary. After you have a good team of lieutenants running things you can afford to hire junior staff members and save some money. And more good news - you'll already have senior staff in place to train them well. Ways to find & attract ideal agency talent One hugely helpful resource is LinkedIn. Lance says he used to spend up to 30 hours per week scouring LinkedIn, familiarizing himself with who's out there and looking for the right talent to match his agency's needs and culture. Then Dephic Digital went through a period of rapid growth, with 50% increases year over year for several consecutive years. The lesson they learned is rapid growth means spending time recruiting, paying recruiters or asking your senior people to recruit - none of which is ideal. So when the agency reached about 50 people Lance hired a full time Head of Talent who is responsible for identifying and recruiting new talent while keeping the existing team happy. He says it's the best non-billable position they have… in fact, he says they should have created the position when they were at 30 people. 2 Secrets to getting beyond the plateau Align expectations & value. When you're in a service business like ours, it's important to make sure expectations and value are aligned. Do your clients have reasonable expectations? Are you showing them results they can attach value to? Reporting is a great tool to achieve this but that doesn't mean pulling a report and reading it to your client. It means monitoring analytics and using it to tell a story to your client. Account Management isn't the star. Lance's agencies are known for keeping happy clients on retainer for 5+ years. In fact, his first couple agencies were bought by clients! He says the secret to keep clients happy is by making them the star. Do a great job at making your key client contact a star. Complete projects on time, under budget and occasionally over deliver… when they look good because of you, they'll remember it and want to keep you. Your end goal is to get your client promoted and start all over with the newbie. Moving Forward I hope this was beneficial and transforming your business into a multi-million dollar agency now seems like a goal that can be reached. However, moving forward you won't be able to accomplish this unless you identify areas within your agency that needs work. So what's next on

Why I Charge for Agency Programs Ever wonder why I charge for my programs? Asked and answered right here! Also, how to quit being dragged into client work so you can grow your agency. Plus what do to when a client refuses to sign a contract and questions why you even have one. {0:52} Simon asked: Everyone says a business owner should work on the business and not in the business. However, we're a very small team of 5 people. The biggest challenge we have is hiring talented senior people who can run and grow the clients' businesses. Simply put we don't have the money to pay the huge wages they command. And our clients don't and won't pay that much to have someone manage their account. So I get dragged back into client work and can't work on my own business. How can I prevent this from continuing? {4:07} Simon asked: Just out of curiosity, if you sold your agency for 8-figures I'd assume you're set up for life and can live off the savings. If that's the case why aren't you giving away your Playbook for free and just charging for 1-on-1 sessions? {7:23} Tim asked: I've got a local client who is taking issue with my contract. Nothing IN the contract, but the fact that I have one at all. In their words, "We do relationships, not contracts." The entire document is essentially a T&C agreement that covers liabilities and outlines a work process so that once signed, it stays on file. How do you handle contracts in a way that makes them approachable to clients? Advice For Your Agency I hope this episode of Ask Swenk was helpful and brings you clarity on agency programs and how to get those contracts signed. If you want to know how to improve your digital agency, you may come across challenges and knowing how to adapt will make you a better agency owner. I cover all topics from the struggles you may face in your agency to creating the best agency proposals and more. I hope you found this helpful and can put it into action. Have other topics you want advice on? You can check out all my tips, tricks and insights in my blog covering a wide variety of topics as well as answering your questions in more from my Ask Swenk series. Are videos more your thing? You can check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

When looking to improve the lead generation strategy of your digital agency, you might find it difficult in identifying the ways you can do this. One of the ways you can improve your lead generation strategy is by contributing to podcast content by being a guest. In this episode, we'll cover: 3 Benefits of being a podcast guest. How to get find shows and rock an interview like a pro. How to turn other podcast listeners into your clients. My guest today is Tom Schwab founder of Interview Valet, an inbound marketing agency. Tom's background is in engineering - he even ran a nuclear power plant in the Navy - which means he's brilliant at building process and systems that generate maximum output for minimum input. Tom shares the genius of being a podcast guest as a lead generation strategy, as well as the secret to getting more bang for ($0) bucks. Why Being a Podcast Guest Is Important for Lead Generation Strategy? Fresh content is still a thing, but blogging just isn't. People want to consume information in different ways, on their terms and in their own time. That's why podcasting is so awesome. I chatted with podcast master Pat Flynn about starting your own podcast. In addition to hosting, it's also a great idea to get yourself out there to be interviewed as a guest. Think of being a podcast guest as a way of having more content out there. Podcasts are evergreen. Make sure your interview content is something that is going to earn awareness, respect and trust. Podcasts are also more convenient to consume. Reading blogs or watching videos isn't always convenient, however people are downloading podcasts to listen to on the go. They can even be listened to on 1.5X or 2X speed for quicker consumption. People also really love podcasts because they are more conversational in nature. Videos tend to feel scripted and "perfect" but podcasts are natural with more of a human touch. 3 BIG benefits of being a podcast guest. A captive audience. The host show has an established audience that is already tuned in to hear the valuable content the being serves up. They are voluntarily listening to what you have to say! Pre-qualified leads. You're getting targeted reach to your specific market, which means your ideal customers are the ones listening and leads are pre-qualified. Be selective with the podcasts you choose. Shorter sales cycle. Prospects earned from a podcast already know your story and enter into the sales cycle educated. They aren't the tire kickers - they're already interested. Your sales cycle is shorter because you don't have to spend as much time convincing. Getting started as a podcast guest. It's the same marketing principles that we've always known: Marketing is just a conversation with your ideal clients. So you need to find them, connect with them, and make it easy for them to become a paying customer. 1st - Identify podcasts to target. Find the right podcast audience. Identify shows that have listeners with the right buyer persona. Start by searching shows by keywords in iTunes or SoundCloud. Do your homework to find out the size of the podcast and density of listeners that fit your target audience. Some other things to look for: Age of the podcast - many die by episode 10. Show notes - important for SEO and backlinks. Explicit rating - decide if your brand/audience will be OK with offensive language. Start by making a list of podcasts to target. Then check out Tom's infographic on getting booked as a podcast guest. 2nd - Be a superstar guest. Your job is to make the show's host look like a genius for having you on the podcast. Do that by being your charming self and providing super valuable content. Be genuine in your interview to attract the right clients. Draw in the people who are entertained and excited by the thought of working with you. Be yourself and let your personality shine through in the interview. Make sure you're providing valuable information that will stay relevant in an evergreen platform like a podcast. This will all contribute to improving your lead generation strategy. 3rd - Turn listeners into leads. Use your interview like a lead magnet. Remember, podcasts are just more content so you need to provide a call-to-action. The tricky part is that your leads are listening on the go, so you have to make it very easy. Send them to a dedicated page on your site, invite them to listen to your podcast, or give simple instructions to sign up for a webinar. Simplicity is key. Also, make sure you help promote your episode once it goes live. Tweet it, share it - do your part to get it out there. You can also transcribe the interview and tweet out key phrases, or take a piece of it and expand on it in a blog post. Be creative about repurposing interview and all your content. Not everyone sees everything you put out there, but the more you have out there the better odds that everyone will see something. 4th - Avoid these mistakes. Don't just go for the shows with the biggest numbers. Spend some ti

Are you losing out on improving your agency profitability why having the wrong internal processes for your business? In this episode, we'll cover: How to fix the #1 problem every agency experiences. 3 ways to standardize your internal processes and increase profits. 2 strategies to upsell to existing clients. This week's guest is the expert on creating systems and processes. (Which means I'm a big fan because you already know how I feel about systems and processes.) Anthony Chatfield has an extensive background in the agency space and is the founder of Lead Connect, an agency specializing in inbound marketing. He also consults with agencies that are great with lead generation and closing deals, but struggle with delivery. Anthony shares strategies for making your agency operate more efficiently with some key process documentation. The Gap In Agency Internal Processes The biggest problem Anthony sees in agencies is the breakdown in communication between sales and fulfillment. So many times a salesperson promises the moon and stars, but the account team delivers something far less. This leads to frustration on the client's part and resentment internally. There's a three-part fix to this problem that Anthony says in crucial in for every agency: 1. Formalize a checklist for your core services. Operations standard are a must. Creating a document that you can share with the client about what is (and what is not) covered in a project fee manages expectations and minimizes or eliminates profit leaks. 2. Develop a master document for the engagement. Include everything from target demographics to KPI's. Understand the client's definition of success and spell out how the client will measure the success of your agency's work. This should be in place by the end of the first meeting. It's good to have a template or standard document that can be customized on a project/client basis. If you want access to the exact agency documents we used, click here. 3. Get everyone on the same page from day #1. Get sign-offs from everyone involved - external and internal. This is another important way to manage expectations and maintain accountability. Have the client sign everything from the checklist, to the brief, to the proposal, to zero dollar change orders. When you have a standard process in place the client learns off the bat how you operate. You manage them and the project instead of allowing them to manage you. 2 Strategies to Upsell Your Agency Clients 1. Meet more. No one wants to add more meetings to their calendar but when those meetings are revenue generating you better believe they're worth it! Anthony says a lot of agencies aren't talking to their clients frequent enough. When you increase communications there are natural opportunities for upsells. He says account teams should be holding weekly status calls with clients. This keeps everyone accountable - especially the client who might be holding up a project. When you're ahead of schedule and the client is seeing results, they'll start asking you what else they can pay for to get more results. 2. Tell a story. When you deliver results, don't just email them a spreadsheet or report. Analyze the results and give it to them in story format. Present what happened, what was learned and what else you can do with the data to drive more or better results. When you frame it this way you are opening up dialogue for next steps, more projects, etc. And whenever possible present these results face-to-face. Hiding behind email does not allow for discussion - personal meetings are going to open up more opportunities. Cashflow or bookkeeping issues? FreshBooks is the solution. FreshBooks makes ridiculously easy­ to ­use cloud accounting software for agencies that will help you work smarter, become more organized, and most importantly, get you paid quickly. Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted trial. Build Your Agency Revising the internal processes of your business can create benefits not only for business but for your teams and you as an owner. Are there other areas of your business you want to improve? By evaluating other areas of weakness within your agency, you can create a better business and improve as an agency owner. And the best thing about it is, I can help you get through all of it. I can give you support and advice on many topics from what to do when you want to speed up sales processes, ways to increase your business profit margins or how you can build an authority for your agency. Growing your agency can be a major struggle for any agency owner and I can show you the different phases of growth you will experience, how placing a process for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more! Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking ou

So many agency owners become consumed by their top line revenue and what they need to do to make it better. Incase you didn't know, top line revenue isn't everything and yours means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. In this episode, we'll cover: Why top line revenue isn't everything. 2 ways to tackle profitability. How to get past the excuses and be a content machine. I'm super psyched to have Joe Apfelbaum as my guest on the podcast today. Joe's the owner of Ajax Union, a 7 year old, $4 million dollar agency. In addition to being a successful agency owner, Joe is also a mega content producer. He tells us all about what he's done in order to get to the multi-million level, what he stopped doing to stay there and how in the world he has the time to create so much content. Top line revenue isn't everything When they started seven years ago, Ajax Union was operating as a full service agency. They would do anything/everything for anyone/everyone. They experience significant growth while revenue doubled every year for the first 4 years. They were also on the Inc. 500 list as the fastest growing agency. BUT, top line revenue and quick growth isn't everything if you aren't managing profitability… Back then the agency had 350 active projects at any given time, which meant 75 full time employees to service their growing client list. They were building their top line with no regard to the bottom line. Joe knows firsthand - you always have to be working on your bottom line. In early 2015, Joe decided to take a hard look at where his agency was heading. After He restructured his agency and his approach to business. He made two huge decisions which impacted business dramatically: 2 Ways to Tackle Profitability 1- Focus on a specialization Instead of being a full service, "me too" agency, Ajax Union focuses now on B2B lead generation. Doing this meant deciding who they can and cannot serve… and willingness to turn away work that is not ideal and specific to their niche. Defining a niche not only meant targeting specific businesses with their outbound strategy but doing this also created a built-in screening process for inbound. The result was a cut in full time staff and outsourcing more work in order to manage profitability. It's scary when you define who you are and who you're not, because it means eliminating opportunity. Now, Joe says he turns away 90% of his prospective clients but it hasn't hurt revenue one bit. 2- Build relationships Joe says he also realized building relationships was going to be the key to sustainability. Rather than just driving leads and competing with every other agency, he has now created a network of agencies that have complementary skills and developed a referral community. He is sending business to other agencies and they're reciprocating. Relationships and networking is a great business building strategy. In fact, I interviewed one agency owner who doubled their business by referring work to other agencies. When you stop competing and start trusting your connections, everyone wins. The other huge benefit to having great relationships with other agencies is for your future. You may want to buy another agency as a growth strategy - you may want to sell your agency to someone you trust. If you have established relationships these transactions are much easier. How to Get Past the Excuses and Create Massive Content Content is king, for sure. And Joe's a big proponent of helping without selling. He believes great content helps serve your target and they will remember you for it when it's time to work together. Even though he produces a ton of content now, it wasn't always like that for him. He says he started and stopped several attempts at blogging, email marketing, podcasting and video production. Like all of us, it's hard to make time to write or record yourself. Life gets in the way -plus- there's all the usual reasons not to do it: camera-shy, fear of speaking and general lack of confidence. Joe had all those reason (excuses) too, and that made it nearly impossible to commit to content creation. 2 Steps to Being a Content Machine 1- Define your goals to grow to your agency. It's all about clarity. Getting really clear about where you're going means you'll get there a lot faster. Joe says it took him a long time to understand and appreciate his 'why'. But, once he got clear about his personal purpose he was able to create a personal brand. When you aren't sure who you are, you end up hiding behind a facade or some notion of who you should be… so, figure out who you are and why you're doing what you're doing. When Joe got clear about his purpose, he realized it's about being helpful and inspiring to others. He merged that with his business goals and knew he had to start putting himself out there. 2- Commit and make it priority. Don't allow it to take a back seat. With crystal clear purpose, Joe's done a complete 180. He shed his excuses and now has a weekly podcast, internet

Every agency owner has the goal of growing their agency to a level that they can target the bigger potential clients. This is because with bigger clients comes creating proposals for bigger budgets. This week is we are going to talk all about budgets... more importantly, we are going to talk about client budgets. In this episode of Ask Swenk, I take a closer look into what you should do when clients lower their budget during a project, the strategies for getting an increase in budget and how to land bigger clients with bigger budgets. Bigger Budgets {3:17} MJ asked: What do you do when a client won't give you the budget promised? {6:21} Carl asked: What are the best strategies and tactics for a digital marketing agency to increase the budget of key clients? {9:29} Andrew asked: As a small video agency, what is your best advice for acquiring new clients, moving up the food chain and commanding bigger budget projects? Special Offer Did you realize this is the 50th episode of #AskSwenk? To celebrate this milestone and thank you for the awesome questions, we've got a special offer! CLICK HERE to get $500 OFF my Agency Playbook, which includes the systems every agency needs to be easier to run and scale to the next level. Grow Your Agency With Your Clients I hope you found this episode of Ask Swenk and that your questions about achieving those bigger budgets have been answered. Growing your agency can be a major goal for many agency owners. I can show you the different phases of growth you will experience, how placing a process for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more! You can also learn about my career and different experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

Want to learn how to increase agency revenue four times over? Or are you having trouble finding your agency's nice and the best sales process for you? Don't worry, this week's Smart Agency Master Class has you covered. In this episode, we'll cover: 2 strategies that helped increase agency revenue & client list in one year. How to select your ideal niche to succeed. How to create a sales process that keeps your pipeline full. This week's podcast guest is my client, Zach Williams who is the definition of crushing it. At his agency Venveo, the client roster has quadrupled year over year, the pipeline is full, sales cycle is shorter and conversion rate is higher. Learn all the strategies Zach and his team are using for such huge success and increase agency revenue. Zach got his start creating websites at the age of 16 and continued to do it as a freelancer through college. It's all he's known, so starting an agency seemed like the natural next step. They grew organically for several years with referrals but hit a plateau where they spent two years. That's when Zach searched for something to help get them beyond that plateau in order to scale… and found me :) Strategies to Increase Agency Revenue Strategy 1 - Focus on a Specialty WHAT: Focus on a specialty where you can position yourself as an authority. Venveo is a digital agency specializing in building manufacturing materials but they weren't always in that niche. In fact, Zach says they had no niche - just another "me too" agency promising they could do everything for everyone. It took him awhile to understand this was the one thing holding them back. HOW: Stop worrying about what could go wrong and think about what could go right. Zach said the biggest thing was getting over the initial fear of turning work away and figure out what space you can make yours. Most people fear specializing because they think they will be turning off potential clients. Zach says he learned the opposite is true. When you are aiming at a specific target you have a better chance at hitting it. It was a tough decision but Zach says he explains it as being the intersection between what you love, what you're good at and what people need and described it like this Venn diagram: It's a stressful decision and once it was made there was a ton of pressure for it to work. Patience is key. It took 1.5 - 2 years for it to feel like selecting this niche was the right move. Zach's advice is to stay the course. Strategy 2 - Focus on a Sales Process WHAT: Focus on a sales process for new client acquisition to keep your pipeline full. New client acquisition is super important to the health of an agency. When Zach started focusing on a sales process he noticed a tremendous impact on his business. Agency clients quadrupled year-over-year. HOW: Create an irresistible Foot in the Door offer to attract new clients. Most agencies want to go after the big, high-ticket projects right off the bat. But using a foot-in-the-door offer as a lower-priced, smaller commitment is the way to go. Getting a chance to show your awesomeness in a small way will lead to bigger projects. This gives the client an opportunity to test you out AND gives you the chance to filter out bad prospects with a smaller engagement instead of a huge one. Have trouble figuring out your Foot in the Door offer? Here's a video all about it. Keep in mind, this is not a "paid proposal". When you're deciding on your offer it needs to be something that is valuable and packed full of information. This is bigger than a proposal because it's your first opportunity to 'wow' them. Some ideas might be: a discovery session or audit, a competitive analysis, or an analytics setup. Beware of these 3 common Foot in the Door mistakes: Over promising. A great Foot in the Door is easy to understand and simple to deliver. After learning this lesson the hard way, Zach's approach is to set expectations low and knock it out of the park with delivery. Lack of confidence. Remember you are an expert in your field and you see things other people don't see. Something that might seem very basic to you could be highly valuable to prospects. Not building the relationship. People buy people. The Foot in the Door is your opportunity to build a relationship with a potential client. Work closely and develop a rapport. And for sake - do not send them the finished product - present it. Cashflow or bookkeeping issues? FreshBooks is the solution. FreshBooks makes ridiculously easy­ to ­use cloud accounting software for agencies that will help you work smarter, become more organized, and most importantly, get you paid quickly. Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted trial. What Do You Do When You Have Your Ideal Clients? When you increase agency revenue, you are both opening your business up to new opportunities as well as potential downfalls. This is why it's best to be prepared and

Should You White Label the Services That Your Agency Provides? In this episode of Ask Swenk, we talk about all things to do with white labeling agency services. This is from whether you should white label in order to work with big brands, to charging for it and who's responsible for liability insurance on white labeled services. {1:20} Phil asked: "I currently white label my services for another company and they are dealing with some pretty big clients.... What are your thoughts on white labeling?" {5:34} Phil also asked: "I know the agency I'm white labeling for is adding a large chunk of money on top of what I am charging. For example, I charge them 5k for a website and they are charging the client 25k. I would otherwise be happy with the prices I charge them if I didn't know they were charging so much on top of it. Should I up my rates to them and risk them going elsewhere? Or do I carry on with them taking the lion's share of the profit?" {7:38} Meg asked: "In instances of white labelled services, which party is responsible for liability insurance for the services rendered? The company that is white labelling a service, or the actual service provider?" Hey, Smart Agency Master Class fans! Save time & win more work Replace your proposals, quotes and presentations with interactive + mobile-friendly webpages that plug into your systems and are as easy to build and reuse as they are beautiful. Sign up now for free and get 50% off for 3 months by using the coupon code smartagency while upgrading. If you want to read more about how you can improve your agency and yourself as an agency owner, find lots of amazing information by reading our blogs or if videos are more your thing, visit my Youtube channel!

What is a Healthy Profit Margin for a Digital Agency? What is a healthy profit margin goal for your agency? If this is something you have asked yourself more than once or struggle with, this episode is for you. In this episode, we'll cover: What your digital agency profit margin should be. How to improve agency profit margins. 7 tips for healthy agency financials. Building cash reserves and improving cash flow. Financials can get confusing. We all can agree there are so many different statements and ways of reporting - it's all very overwhelming. That's why his agency looks at the big picture and watches for trends, rather than focusing on the details. Tip #1: Understand Healthy Profit Margins Most CPA's says a 10% profit margin is good, and 15% is outstanding, but I believe and have seen margins well over the 32% range. If you aren't quite there yet, make this your top priority. A solid profit margin is a key to financial health. There are a variety of ways to calculate profit. Gross Revenue - Expenses - Owner Salary = Net Profit* Net Profit / Gross Revenue = Profit *Note: Owner Distributions and Profit Taxes are taken from the Net Profit) Tip #2: Make Profit a Priority Most business owners consider their profit to be simply the amount "leftover" each month after all other expenses are paid. If that's what you're doing, you're going about it all wrong! Jason mentions the book Profit First which explains an accounting method for making sure your business is highly and permanently profitable by setting aside profit before paying other expenses. Tip #3: Regular Review of Financials When you're going over financials, the Income Statement is the #1 document you need to be reviewing regularly. Jason says this is the statement that's going to give an accurate account of your agency's financial health. It essentially takes your more detailed line items and lumps them together into larger categories to report gross revenue, expenses, and profit. Tip #4: Build Cash Reserves There is no magic number for how much an agency should have in reserve - it all depends on the risk comfort of the owner. However, a good rule of thumb is to keep 3 months of expenses in a savings account. This saves potential headaches and fears, and can also help float your cash flow if needed. Tip #5: Improve Cash Flow As you grow, you get bigger clients. The bigger the client, the more hoops there are to jump through to get paid. This drastically slows things down. So one trick Jason talks about it to change your billing cycle from every 30 days to every 15 days. The sooner you invoice, the quicker you'll get paid. I also have a blog post about additional ways to improve cash flow, including changing payment terms right in your proposal. Tip #6: Don't Let Growth Psych You Out In a growth phase, cash can be deceiving. It feels like you're raking in the dough but a lot of people don't look at the flip side to see what each client is costing them. Sometimes they're only breaking even. Jason cautions all agency owners to take a regular look at financials to see if you're as profitable as you think. And last but not least, meet with your CPA regularly. Agencies who are growing rapidly should meet with their CPA on a monthly basis or even more frequently. Discover the Best Agency Strategies Working Today by Connecting with the Best Agencies. This collaborative mastermind is filled with other motivated agency owners that are cool, fun, and willing to share their knowledge and wisdom to help catapult you to the next level. Learn more. Grow Your Agency Understanding profit margin goals can be the first step into growing as an agency owner and your agency. I always suggest taking a step back to look for weak spots in your business. Are you ignoring these within your agency? No matter what challenge your agency is facing, I can help you get through all of it. There are many topics I can give advice on from the different phases of growth you will experience to how you can build authority for your agency. Growing your agency can be a major struggle for any agency owner and I can show from how placing a process for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more! Want more? Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

Figuring out the right level of transparency to have with employees about agency finances. How much should they know in order to motivate them and how much is too much? Transparency of Agency Finances With Your Team Jack asked: {1:35} "I like the idea of bonuses based on profitability. How much info should I share with my team? Do they need to know everyone else's salary/wages so they can monitor project budgets, costs, profits, etc.?" The short answer is you shouldn't share everyone's salaries as they don't need to know this information. A great way to create a process for bonuses leading by my personal experience would be to create a budget with the project managers as a buffer and provide bonus opportunities for completing the project under the budgeted time. {3:47} "How much financial info should I share, and how much is too much?" This is a great question and completely depends on where these employees are in the business. Everyone wants to contribute and feel like they are making a difference within an agency and we personally shared top line agency finances to show the impact of work within the agency. Sharing salaries can create conflict if they differ which can depend on many different aspects leading to employees within the agency feeling undervalued. {6:59} "Will employees get resentful knowing how much the CEO/Owner make?" Not necessarily. From personal experience, we shared with our employees our salaries but withheld distributions and dividends that come with the perks of being an agency owner like tax relief and credits. This is what I would recommend doing for your own agency. Hey, Smart Agency Master Class fans! Save time & win more work Replace your proposals, quotes and presentations with interactive + mobile-friendly web pages that plug into your systems and are as easy to build and reuse as they are beautiful. Sign up now for free and get 50% off for 3 months by using the coupon code smart agency while upgrading. Want More about How You Can Improve Your Agency and Yourself as an Agency Owner? You can read our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my Youtube channel! Become a Better Owner Sharing your agency finances and perfecting processes can help elevate not only your business but improve you as an agency owner. This doesn't mean that this is the end of your struggles but I can help you get through all of it. From my own experiences, I can give you advice on recognising new client opportunities to different ways of building authority to improve your agency. If you are having issues with growing your agency, I can show you how performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business as well as the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more! Learn all about my career and different experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Make sure to check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

In this episode, we'll cover the 7 deadly sins that agency owners commit in their own marketing, and how to quit sinning and start winning new business. This week on the The Smart Agency Master Class I talk with my friend Diane Young, co-founder of The Drum which is Europe's leading marketing news platform, and recently has made it's way to the US. Diane has spent over a decade observing and interviewing agencies. And in that time she's been able to pinpoint 7 things that agencies do to themselves to negatively impact their own growth. Diane shares the 7 Deadly Sins for Agency Marketing. Find out if you're committing them and what you can do to stop before it's too late! [clickToTweet tweet="These are the 7 Deadly Sins #Agencies Are Committing. Are You Guilty of Any?" quote="These are the 7 Deadly Sins Agencies Are Committing. Are You Guilty of Any?"] 7 Deadly Sins of Agency Marketing So what are the 7 deadly sins of agency marketing you need to avoid to elevate your marketing strategy? Let's break them down.. Lack of unique selling proposition. Agencies often either the lack a USP or lack the expression of it. So many agencies aren't telling the story about why they're different. What does your agency do better than anyone else? That's what you need to communicate. Being a 'me too' agency or trying to service everyone is actually a doing a disservice to your business. Lack of vision. Where's your agency going? What's your end-game? Your clients and your team want to be part of the amazing journey your on. However, you've got to identify and communicate where you're going so they can get excited about joining you. If you have destination, it's much easier to get where you're going. Lack of commitment. A lot of agency owners don't fully commit to marketing their agency. They can't or won't put themselves out there - this is especially true of digital agency owners who are more technical and usually avoid networking and personal connections. Avoid committing this sin by going out of your comfort zone and putting yourself out there. No one knows how awesome your agency is better than you! Lack of inertia. Often agency marketing takes a backseat to clients. And yes, clients do come first. But they can't first, middle and last. Be sure agency marketing is somewhere on the priority list. You can do this by having a dedicated person or setting aside dedicated time to market. Also, adopt the motto: "done is better than perfect." Agonizing over the perfect post, the perfect video, the perfect…. Anything, somehow goes from being an obsession to being an excuse. Don't let it happen. Action leads to transactions. Overselling or over claiming. This one's a doozy. An agency that claims to be the best, first, biggest, fastest, most award-winning is full of it and a prospective client's BS meter is going to pick up on it. Don't make claims if you can't state a source. You don't have to the best, fastest, most award-winning if you can simply own a specific skill in a specific niche and use your expertise to establish yourself as an authority. Be true and convincing in your agency marketing. Disinterest or isolation. Agency owners, specifically digital agency owners are sometimes so focused on the technical side of their work they forget to spend time in the world around them. Some don't see the value in getting out from behind their computers, meeting people face to face and learning more about others' experiences. Professional networking groups like The Drum Network are great for gaining an understanding of what others are doing. When you let your guard down and start sharing your experiences with other agency owners you'll be able to help each other build and grow, just like this agency that doubled their business in 6 months just by networking! Lack of insight. It's hard to detach yourself and see things objectively. The sin some agency owners commit is being too shortsighted to recognize their business' strengths and weakness. You can avoid this by seeking out a third party perspective. Gain valuable insight by researching and understanding what you're aren't doing well. Then you can concentrate on getting better at it. Bottom line, in a wide sea of agencies you've got to find your way to stand out. Have a unique selling proposition and a vision for where you're headed. Then, commit to taking action and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to get it done. And remember not to commit the 7 deadly sins. Agency Tools You Need to Check Out... There's a couple pretty fantastic tools that all agency owners need to check out with some amazing deals just for Smart Agency Master Class listeners... Cashflow or bookkeeping issues? FreshBooks is the solution. FreshBooks makes ridiculously easy­ to ­use cloud accounting software for agencies that will help you work smarter, become more organized, and most importantly, get you paid quickly. Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About

Discover the pros and cons of a merger with an agency that has complimentary services. Determine if you are competitively priced in your market, and is it possible to scale a creative agency? {1:35} Rikki asked: "We are a digital marketing agency considering merging with a design and development agency. We think this will be a good move because the services are very complimentary. What are the pros and cons?" {6:03} Imani asked: "How do you know if you are competitively priced? I thought about getting proposals from my competitors for the type businesses that I would like to work with... should I?" {9:29} Peter asked: "How do you scale a creative agency ? Can it even be scaled? Some say agencies, in general, cannot be scaled." Hey, Smart Agency Master Class fans! Save time & win more work Replace your proposals, quotes and presentations with interactive + mobile-friendly webpages that plug into your systems and are as easy to build and reuse as they are beautiful. Sign up now for free and get 50% off for 3 months by using the coupon code smartagency while upgrading. What's Next After a Merger? If you have more questions, I can help. Whether you have been an agency owner for some time or have just taken the leap and started a new agency, I have covered topics including bringing in big clients for your agency to leverage the use of Youtube for your agency marketing strategy. Check out all my tips, tricks and everything you need to know in my blogs. I have covered a wide variety of topics as well as answering your questions in more from my Ask Swenk series. Are videos more your thing? You can check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

Building the Best Sales Team to Grow Your Agency Want to know what you need to do to build the best sales team to grow your agency and bring in new clients? Looking for a new cold call strategy? I've got all you need to know. In this episode, we'll cover: Understanding and overcoming common sales team problems. A NO FAIL cold call strategy for agencies. Building the best sales team: finding, hiring, managing, and paying them. #1 tip for crushing your sales goals. My guest on today's show is Wes Schaeffer, The Sales Whisperer. Wes spent a decade in the Air Force and another in commissioned sales before starting his business as a sales coach and trainer. He shares some great tips for cold calling, as well as strategies for hiring and managing great sales people. His advice is totally practical and will help you develop a killer sales outbound strategy. Common Sales Team Problems Wes says most salespeople don't fully understand the value of the resources and expertise they bring to the table. This causes 2 major issues: Discounting prices - Salespeople undervalue the service they represent and are therefore willing to discount the sale price. Doing this conveys a bargain mentality and undercuts the agency's level of authority, which also destroys the client's confidence. Talking too much - Similarly, salespeople who undervalue their agency also end up overcompensating by talking too much, instead of listening. If you're talking instead of listening you aren't hearing the needs of your prospect. You can't fix problems if you aren't hearing them. Wes used the example of a heart surgeon: The surgeon is selling heart surgery but he doesn't have all the answers, he is connected to a team and has confidence that together they can solve the problem. He has confidence in his team of MRI techs, anesthesiologists, etc. He knows he is connected to all the right people to solve his patients' problems. The solution for the best sales team for your agency: Sell on the fact that you are connected to all the best people in the industry. Be confident in the value that you represent and the fact that your team can solve the challenges and problems your clients face. Talk the talk and walk the walk. Be the best sales team out there. A No-Fail Cold Call Strategy for Agencies People say the old-school cold call is dead but Wes says in B2B, it's still alive and well. For a successful cold call, you need to find a common connection or mutual relationship - someone or something they know or heard of - then use that as your opening. Define your dream 100 list and go for it. If you can't find mutual interest to get a foot in the door, you will have to go old school which can be hard in our technology driven society, BUT... [clickToTweet tweet="Don't let your prospect hide behind voicemail, caller ID and email with this strategy." quote="Don't let your prospect hide behind voicemail, caller ID and email with this strategy."] You'll get the best response from a multi-media, multi-touch approach and circle them like a shark. Develop a nurture series of reaching them via email, voicemail and social media, such as LinkedIn or other industry social communities. Do your homework first. Know WHO you're talking to, WHAT they're doing and HOW they're doing it. In your multi-media messages cite case studies and specific examples of what you understand their challenges to be and how you are equipped to solve them. Create a series of messages (voice, social and email) that are on-point and provide specific information. These can be scripted and follow a template, but you must customize them for this specific prospect. No one wants to hear a generic speech or receive a form letter. Say things like: "I'll call you at 10AM on Tuesday" then actually follow-up on at that exact day/time. Using this strategy you will prove that you are unique, thorough, consistent, creative and professional… a refreshing change from the usual cold calls they get. Do's and Don'ts for a great initial call: Don't hit them over the head with everything your agency has done and can do. Listen to what they need and determine how you can help meet those needs. Do be calm and collected. Speak as though you are talking to your friend or neighbor, not like you're speaking to someone who's about to hang up on you :) Don't bombard them with a bunch of stats and facts about you. Initial calls aren't about you - they're about them. Do more listening than talking. This is the best way to understand their issues and figure out how your can help solve them. Remember, whoever talks the most loses. Don't insult. If you looked at their site and think it's crappy, keep it to yourself. No good can come when your prospect is immediately put on the defensive. Do compliment their current digital advertising. Tell them how great their site is and comment on how well it must be performing. Let them tell you what's not working. Finding, Hiring & Paying Great Salespeople Always, always be recruiting.

Facing Challenges as a New Agency Owner? Answers to some great questions from a new agency owner about starting and growing an agency still in it's infancy stage. We'll cover everything from knowing when and how to hire, to generating leads and setting up all the right systems when you are still a very small agency. Gillian asks... {1:50} "Right now I'm doing everything (lead generation, sales, project management, design, development, etc). How big should I get before I start hiring, and what are the first steps I need to take to replace myself?" {6:20} "I'm primarily a developer and I don't have as much experience in sales or lead generation. Do I need to reach some level of competency in these areas before taking the plunge, or should I "fake it 'til I make it"?" {8:46} "You talk a lot about having set up the right systems in place, and it's fascinating to hear you talk about roles of the CEO, sales people, etc. but what kind of systems do I need to have in place right now as I get started? How far ahead should I be looking?" Tired of Being Restricted in the Career Path You're On? Are you the owner of a small agency under $300,000? Or a freelancer, marketing professional or agency employee who thinks you can run your own agency better? Jump Start My Agency is a program that covers everything you need to start a profitable agency and land high paying clients of over $20,000. This 4 week course is designed to help you find the ideal clients, charge what you're worth and learn how to build a team. There are clients waiting to work with you! Let me help you by requesting an invitation to the program. Want to read more about how you can improve your agency and yourself as an agency owner? You can read our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my Youtube channel!