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

How to Overcome the NO MONEY or NO BUDGET Objection | AskSwenk | Ep #52 I get asked this all the time... many clients or prospects say they want to invest in their marketing but there isn't any money. But think of it this way -- if you needed emergency surgery you wouldn't say "I don't have the money." Instead, you would have the surgery and find the money for it later... because there is a sense of urgency. You need to create a sense of urgency for those clients. When you identify the problem and a sense of urgency, they'll find the money.

How Do I Get Off the Hamster Wheel and GROW MY AGENCY? | AskSwenk | Ep #51 If you're constantly stuck going around and around the hamster wheel waiting for things to change, you're going about it all wrong. Things aren't going to change but YOUR MINDSET is what needs to change. Instead of a hamster wheel, you need to think about it like a mountain. Climb the mountain but going into it knowing there are switchbacks and setbacks along the way. How can you power your agency in order to climb the mountain easier and faster? Who do you need to help you get to the top? Do you know your vision? What does the summit look like?

In this segment of The Agency Master Class, I've got Spencer Gallagher as my guest. He's talking today about why and how you should select a niche for your agency to find your ideal clients. In 1999, Spencer created one of the UK's top digital agencies leading it to a successful acquisition in 2008. Afraid To Specialize and Turn Off Potential Clients? You aren't alone. Most agency owners feel the need to market their services across the board and accept any work thrown at them. They fear the implications of turning down work and worry that having a specialization will result in less consideration by potential clients. They try to model the big guys who seem to be able to do everything. Truth is, you can't do it all and your ideal clients will respect you for it. In Spencer's case, he was spending his limited marketing budget casting a wide net. He was pitching many different types of jobs in many different disciplines. (Sound familiar?) Taking a step back, he decided to try a more targeted marketing approach. He directed his attention to sports marketing. Not only did this move give him focus, he became a respected authority in the field and had an edge against the generalists who were pitching the same clients. Declaring a specialization and becoming laser-focused resulted in 300% growth in the first 24 months. So, How Do You Select A Niche? You can start by asking yourself: "Who, how, why, and where do I do what I do?" Which one or two of these areas will help you narrow your proposition? Consider a horizontal or vertical niche… choose a service and/or a market area you can dominate. Use marketing intel to be sure it's an area with growing service needs and be certain it's something you are passionate about. There is a Direct Correlation Between Focus and Winning Large Brands Big brands attract better talent. As you bring in more talent, you can open to new niches and appoint specialized account teams who are experts in the category. This level of service will position your agency as an authority. Once that's established, your ideal clients will be knocking on your door! And remember, declaring a niche doesn't mean you have to turn down work - it's just a marketing focus and positioning statement. Need Help Identifying Your Focus Area? I've set aside some time to talk to you, personally. And during that time, I'll evaluate your business and work with you collaboratively to create an immediately actionable plan to increase your sales and profits. Click here to get my help. What Do You Do When You Have Your Ideal Clients? 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 out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Find more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel. There you will find advice from me and other agency experts.

Do You Want a $3 Million Dollar Agency? Are you often dreaming of being the proud owner of a $3 million dollar agency? Today's Agency Master Class guest is Julian Stubbs, Co-Founder and CEO of Up There, Everywhere. He and his partner are the innovators that dreamt up the concept of a global, cloud-based agency and made it a reality. Wait, There Aren't Any Employees? That's right. Instead of employees, Up There, Everywhere has 160 MEMBERS in 20 countries. Members are freelance contractors who go through a series of interviews and if accepted, sign a confidentiality agreement. They are compensated by project value and have the benefit of flexibility to help balance work and life. The screening process is important because this work style is not for everyone. Members work remotely and all work is backed up in the cloud. There are no offices, but recently Up There, Everywhere has opened creative space in both New York and Stockholm with a third opening later this year in Amsterdam. This space is available for members to meet with clients as well as for internal collaboration as needed. How Was This Business Model Born? Walking through Central Park, Julian was inspired by seeing so many professionals working remotely... He thought about his 90-minute round-trip commute to the office everyday and calculated that his commute was taking the equivalent of 2 ½ weeks of his time every year. Together, Julian in Stockholm and his partner in New York created Up There, Everywhere in 2010. As new business was won and help was required they were faced with the challenges of bringing on new hires, such as: "How can we do more with less?"... "Would the work always be there?"... Their solution was to bring our cloud-based society to the professional world. They started talking to highly qualified professionals and developed a system for collaborating on work anytime, anywhere. Don't Clients Balk At This Arrangement? Not at all. In fact, most clients are extremely receptive to it. Typically, new clients just need to understand how their work is backed up and that it's accessible to other members if necessary. There's also a structured account team for each client, so there's built-in reliability and accountability that clients have come to expect from a more traditional agency. And Julian stresses the importance of the legally binding confidentiality agreement as well. Once clients understand the systems in place, the vast majority are open to this work style. Take a step back and evaluate your business. Run the numbers to see what's working and what's not. Figure out how can you accomplish the same work in a different way. Don't be afraid to turn things upside down and see where it takes you. If you're inspired by Julian's story, check out his books E-Ployment and Wish You Were Here. You can also check Amazon for his new book, Wish You Were Here 2, coming in March 2015. What to Remember When Building Your Million Dollar Agency So what should you take with you from today's class and apply to your own agency? If you are in the very early stages of building your team, don't be afraid of investing in a team that work remotely and on a freelance basis. Collaborative work with your team can keep the creativity high and encourage a higher standard of work. For established agencies, then it's time to take a step back and evaluate your agency as a whole. You won't achieve the dream of growing into a multi-million dollar agency if your goals and strategies aren't clear and consistently kept in check. Want Help Finding New Efficiencies In Your Business Model? I've set aside some time to talk to you, personally. And during that time, I'll evaluate your business and work with you collaboratively to create an immediately actionable plan to increase your sales and profits. Click here to get my help.

Productivity Funnel: How I Find Time to Focus On Running My Agency? Do you have a hard time with your productivity within your agency? No matter what level you are on, it is easy to get distracted from the tasks you should be focusing on. This is why a productivity funnel can be really beneficial to your agency. Q: How Do I Find Time to Focus On Running My Business vs. Being In The Business? Finding time to focus on running your business while getting bogged down by the business can be rough. And distractions are so easily found especially when you feel under pressure. We are typically so busy being reactive that we get derailed by smaller tasks and lose sight of our goals. What does that mean? If you're spending time on low impact, low priority tasks you are unable to focus on your biggest and best opportunities for growth. So here's what you should be doing... Decide what gets you closer to your goals then backfill with the lower impact activities. Let Me Help If you have more questions about how you can get through hard times in your agency, I can help. Through my many years of experience, I can share advice on topics including how to start an agency from scratch to getting through any economic recession. 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? I've got what you need. You can check out my AskSwenk series where I take questions from you and more of my videos over on my YouTube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class I talk with Jack Mize, host of Influencers Radio and cofounder of Authority Alchemy. Jack is the authority on how to build authority, and we're going to show you how to build yours so people are banging down the door to work with you. The first page of Google is not important... It may sound like blasphemy, but it's true. Most people think "I need more traffic," but when you really look at the numbers it's probably not that you don't have enough traffic. It's that the traffic doesn't have a compelling reason to pick you. Spending money on pay-per-click and SEO is okay, but you need to start focusing more on building your authority and less on getting to Google's front page. Stop calling yourself an expert. You do not need to try and convince people you are an expert. Because, all that convincing makes the conversation about you when it should be about the client. So, stop thinking of yourself as needing to be an expert and start thinking of yourself as an educator and advocate. See, educators and advocates have a much better position. They help their clients learn, as well as propel them toward success. Speaking to prospects from this stance allows other people to call you the expert and spread the word on your behalf. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. Quit trying to come up with something brand new! You don't have to create something from scratch. Find something to do in a new way, or put your personal spin on it. This niche helps you build authority. Pro Tip: be sure you're giving the customer what they want, not what you want them to want. Trying to convince someone that they want what you have is hard. Instead, you need to convince them that you have what they want. Get inside their mind by asking questions and really finding out their problems. Try thinking of yourself as a doctor. Doctors don't list all of their services to their patients and ask them to pick one. No, doctors have the authority. Be like a doctor: listen to their problems, diagnose the issue, and prescribe a solution. Being the authority: 4 Issue Formula Once you've reframed yourself as an educator and an advocate, you need to create an event around your authority. Write a book, do a podcast, whatever you want. Use that platform to educate your prospects and build your authority. Jack suggests using the 4 Issues Formula. If you can address the following questions from the prospect, then you'll be way ahead of the competition: These are the questions prospects are bringing to you. If you can answer them before they're even asked, you will be building authority. Pro Tip: stay away from saying "consultation." It turns people off. Instead, call it an evaluation or an assessment. Personally, I charge for the assessment because it helps me pre-qualify serious prospects. And remember - you need to be making the conversation about them, not you. What you need to do right now. What's the one thing you can do right now to start building authority? Microspecialization. Too many people try to cast too wide of a net in order to ensure they aren't missing any opportunities. What you should really be doing is less, because it actually gets you more in the long run. Take a look at your menu and trim it down! Build Authority and Improve Your Agency Now you have an idea of how to build authority for your agency, what's next on your list? If you want to know how to prepare for potential failing economies and recessions or grow your prospects through speaking opportunities, I can help. Maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and selling your agency for a larger profit. I have all the information you need to help you through it. Learn more about me and my experience and find lots of tips, tricks, and insights by reading our 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 more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel. There you will find advice from me and other agency experts.

Word of Mouth Isn't a Scalable Way to Generate Leads In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class I chat with Clay Collins, cofounder of LeadPages, a lead generation platform. Clay is going to help explain why relying on word of mouth isn't a scalable way to generate leads, as well describing some other ways you should be generating leads. How should you be generating leads? In as many ways as possible! Clay says LeadPages put lead generation opportunities at every turn, and that's what you should be doing too. And the very first thing you need to do is get your damn opt-in box up. Too many agencies get hung up on what kind of stuff they should be giving away for the opt-in, or what the content of the emails and newsletters will be. In fact, they get so hemmed up on these details they don't even start with the first basic step to generate leads - the opt-in box! You need to stop putting the cart before the horse and put opt-in opportunities on your site, on your blog, in your podcast, everywhere! Put it on your homepage, opt-in for webinars, for demos, the list goes on and on. Not everyone will opt-in, but for sure no one will if they aren't given the chance. But I don't want to be annoying. Good, then don't be annoying. We've all seen that website with the pop-up when you first get there, the one that ambushes you whilst scrolling, the one that slides up from the bottom, and another one when you're trying to leave. Don't be that guy. But if you're providing something of value for the consumer, you're not going to be annoying by giving them the opportunity to get more value from you. Say you have a podcast - give the opt-in to get a transcript of the podcast. Or your blog post is about an industry trend - make the opt-in a downloadable white paper. This way the consumer gets something of value for opting-in. Overwhelmed by keeping the leads straight. It can be a lot of work to put opt-ins all over, but never fear because LeadPages has you covered with LeadBoxes. They help keep everything neat and organized for you. And even if you decide to do all the opt-ins yourself, it still pays off in the long run. According to Clay, the 10% of opt-ins they've received from their blog alone has led to millions of dollars in business. Millions of dollars is worth the work, right? "Word of mouth probably isn't working as well as you think." - Clay Collins Sure, you can get business this way but you can get a lot more business by branching out as well. Don't fall victim to thinking you're just a Google search away from the big client. It rarely happens that someone happens upon your website, fills out your 12-part form, and heads directly into a conversation with you. What more often happens is that they find your website, skip over the 12-part form, and opt-in to your newsletter. (That is, assuming you have an opt-in opportunity for your newsletter.) So what you need to be doing is providing value in the newsletter. Or in the blog. Or the podcast. Whatever it is that you're doing - pack it full of value! Tell people all the tactics and strategies, and don't be afraid. They don't want to take your knowledge and do it themselves - they're far too busy for that. They just want to know what it is you can do, and then they'll hire you to take care of it. Seriously, one of the best ways to get business is to give away your knowledge. Share your personal story as well. It's not just about the business, you have a story too. You need to create the opportunity for people to get to know you, as well as your agency. It makes you more personable and relatable. Remember: people want to do business with people, not brands and logos. Take some time to think about how you got to where you are today. What were your triumphs? What trials and tribulations did you go through to get here? Then find a compelling way to tell it, and watch it transform your business. Digital Agency Owner Advice So we've taken a closer look at your strategies and now you know the best way to generate leads for your agency but this might not be the only issue you have right now. To improve your agency, you should 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 to share with you 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 reaching 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, did you know I have a YouTube channel? You can check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel. There you will find advice from m

Hiring People Better Than You To Take Your Agency to the Next Level In today's session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I talk with Rich Brooks, president of Flyte New Media, a web design and marketing company. This episode is all about how to manage your team. You need to be hiring people better than you, and we're going to help you find those people, as well as get over being afraid of their skills. Plus, you'll hear about how to avoid some common mistakes. When should you hire someone else? The right time is different for everyone. For Rich, he was prompted to hire someone by a client. They wanted to give him more business but felt he wouldn't have been able to handle it on his own. For most of us, the right time is when we realize we can't handle it on our own. But maybe you're feeling like you can handle most of it on your own. In that case, think about bringing someone in on a part-time basis. Rich started with a part-time person and has since grown to a staff of seven; five of which are full-time. Take your time finding someone. Remember: hire slowly, and fire quickly. (More on that in a second.) Four of the biggest mistakes when hiring people. Hiring people too quickly! If you need someone ASAP for a project, or you're just going to hire so-and-so because you like them, then you are probably hiring too quickly. Cool your jets a little and really think about what kind of fit that person will be. And if you find yourself employing the wrong person, get rid of them! Not casting a wide enough net. If you're advertising for potential employees in a place where the kind of people you want to hire aren't looking, then you're making a mistake. Perhaps you should think about ditching the free neighborhood circular and paying for an ad on the hottest industry job board. Hiring without a plan. You hired them for a specific project, but what happens after that project ends? Have you made a job description for them? These are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself before you bring someone on board. Hiring someone because you liked them. If your only requirement is that you like the person, you are going about hiring all wrong. Great people are great, but you don't have to hire people you want to spend holidays with. Sometimes the best people aren't your best friends. You're looking for people that will be a good compliment to you. That means you need to stay away from hiring someone just like you. You'll never get anything done that way. Instead, look for people you can work well with, but who will challenge you and fill in the gaps that you can't. Measuring employee performance. Everyone hates reviews. So let's ditch that term and start calling them Coaching Sessions. It can still be a painful process to go through, but it's a lot easier if we go ahead and reframe it as a conversation rather than a scolding. Secondly, you do not need to be everyone's best friend. Repeat it with me: I do not need to be everyone's best friend. What you need to be is your company's best friend, and your company needs you to toughen up and be the bad guy sometimes. At Flyte, Rich does his reviews quarterly. That way it's a more continuous conversation with the employee rather than an annual lambasting. I also do quarterly coaching, but instead of talking about what my goals are for the company, I let the employees set their 90-day goals that will help us reach the company's goals. Then we can sit down and see what goals were met, which weren't and why, and how to improve going forward in the next 90 days. This way everyone knows exactly what is expected and exactly what will be measured. Pro tip: deliver bad news last, or at least, in the middle. That whole bad news before good news idea is backwards. Instead, give the employee some positives before delivering any bad news. Then end on a high note for bonus points. How to say 'You're Fired.' Firing people sucks. It just plain does. But as a business owner, it is your job. You need to keep reminding yourself that it's not what you want as the agency owner, but what the company needs. Unfortunately, what you personally want and what the company needs don't always line up. Of course, firing awful employees is easy. It's those middle-of-the-road ones that are tricky. They're not really doing a good job, but they're not necessarily doing a bad job either. According to Rich, the so-so employees are actually the worst. They're doing nothing to improve and grow your company. In fact, they're just slowly dragging it down. As the owner, you need to tell the employee that it's time to rise to the occasion or get out. You aren't personally responsible for their well-being. If you've given them the opportunity to succeed, and they still can't, then you need to let go. Be zen about it: perhaps the reason they aren't succeeding with you is because they should be succeeding elsewhere. Hire dwarfs or giants. Do not be afraid when hiring people to hire people better than you. If you have a

In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Peter Caputa, VP of Sales for Hubspot, the king of inbound marketing. We chat about how you should stop relying solely on referrals, and how you can use strategic partners get your business to the next level. Strategic partners are awesome. You can get a lot out of having a strategic partner. Here are just a few benefits: Steady stream of referrals Marketing opportunities They can help you grow from small agency to large agency There will be many chances to learn from partners How you can you become one of the top strategic partners for a company like Hubspot? Unlike some, a strategic partnership with Hubspot cannot be bought. Peter says being a Hubspot strategic partner is earned, not purchased. In order to become one of Hubspot's top strategic partners, you need to: Have the ability to make your clients successful on Hubspot. Be able to sell and acquire new clients. Communicate your goals and successes with the strategic partner. Do something unique with your new client using the strategic partner. What your agency is probably doing wrong. According to Peter, agencies are failing to create the right relationship with their clients. Going in and selling tactics is the wrong approach. You need to be selling long-term value because you want a lasting relationship with the client that focuses on success. It's not just about what you're doing. You need to be showing the value of it. And remember - know your audience! A lot of agencies are afraid of committing to a niche for fear of losing out on an opportunity. It's time to raise your prices. Stop worrying about what other agencies are charging. You're worth more! Take time to figure out how much value you're providing the client. If you're helping them earn a million dollars, then you should rethink your $4k per month retainer. You need to find out the prospect's goal and explain to them the value that you can deliver. Their answers will help you determine what to charge. Also, make sure you don't lose the prospect in all the bells and whistles. Sure, you love the software, but the client just loves the outcomes. Keep the business conversation upfront, and explain the methodology in a way they can understand. I asked Peter what the biggest retainer per month was for inbound marketing services...and it's $25,000! Per month! The art and science behind hiring salespeople. The first sales hire is key. Peter is a fan of the Objective Management Group, which is an assessment tool that includes an assessment for salespeople. Peter also warns that you need to be ruthless in finding the right fit, not just hiring someone because you like them. Once you've hired someone, don't just tell them to "go sell." That's setting everyone up for failure. You need to be sure you've put objectives in place to hold the salesperson accountable (how much, by when, etc). You also need to be sure you are motivating and empowering them. Salespeople need praise as much as they need to want to make money. Give them lots of incentives and high-fives. AGENCY MASTERMIND for agency owners that want to GROW PROFITS It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about. Learn more... Become an Agency Mastermind Creating leverage to bring in strategic partners for your agency can bring your digital agency to a whole new level but this can cause issues if you don't work on the other challenges you have within your business. Don't worry, I can help you get through all of it. I can give you advice on recognizing 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 topics. Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel. There you will find advice from me and other agency experts.

In this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class I have my first ever three way:) For the first time ever, I have two guests - Jim Hohl and Lucas Gavin of Visify. Jim and Lucas are going to share with us how you can use events to build your authority and grow your business by creating leads. Where do you start with creating leads for your agency? Jim and Lucas knew that they didn't just want to do business as usual. Chasing after projects and pitching all the time is exhausting. The duo decided to begin speaking at events and hosting webinars, which allowed them the chance to get their message out to a lot of people at once. Bonus: you automatically earn some street cred by being an event speaker. It's instant authority! No events in your area? Make one! It'll be a great opportunity for you to get your feet wet. It's fairly simple to throw together a 2-3 hour weeknight event. For something larger, consider hiring an event planner. Jim and Lucas hired an event company, allowing them to focus on work and let the professionals handle event stuff. Or you can create a mini-event around a bigger industry event. This way you can invite a select group to take part in a lunch-and-learn without having to do too much organizing. Start small. The event doesn't have to be a huge crowd. No one expects you to start out at a TED Talk. Start smaller and work your way up. Jim, Lucas, and I are all huge fans of webinars. Not only are they easy to set up, but they're an excellent first step in getting comfortable with speaking in front of people. But first, you need to come up with what you want to say. The simplest way to do that is to think about what you find yourself saying to most of your clients. What's some common advice that you give? Or, what is some aspect of your business that you are really passionate about? Use these as starting points for creating webinar content. Tech to use: Try GoToWebinar or Google Hangouts for a simple, effective setup. Save the sales pitch. You will attract a lot more people to create leads if you don't make the event a sales pitch. Seriously, you don't need to be pitching all the time, and no one wants to hear it. Instead, focus on creating quality content that delivers something of value to the audience. Have a genuine conversation. Offer a free download of a tool or white paper that they can actually use. They are guaranteed to remember you for it. Don't forget to include a CTA. You want to keep the conversation going, so make sure you include a call to action. Not the lame "buy my stuff" CTA, but something like "comment on my blog to join the discussion." You want to create a thoughtful and engaged community around your events. So whether you're doing a webinar or an in-person event, make certain that you have some sort of call to action. Success Story We had our first Agency Mastermind event last week and one of our members has already generated over $20,000 in extra income from one thing we have covered. If you would like to have a similar story, click here Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you set up the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. Improving Your Agency So now you know where to start in creating leads for your agency but is this your only struggle right now? My years of experience have allowed me to provide advice on many topics from the struggles you may face with failing economies and recessions to how accepting a speaking opportunity can create business and the four phases of growth you may experience within your agency. Learn more about me and my experience or all my tips, tricks, and everything you need to know in my blogs. I have covered a wide variety of topics! If videos are more your thing, don't worry, I've got you covered! Check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

In this week's session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I sit down with Tom Fishburne to talk about how you can spice up those boring newsletters you're sending out, and how you can invest in your audience to get better email open rates. Tom is Founder and CEO of Marketoon Studios, a content marketing studio that helps businesses reach their audiences with cartoons. He started cartooning at Harvard Business School, and was putting out a weekly cartoon about marketing for several years before finally building it into a business model. For Tom, it was all about connecting his passion with his business. Cartooning is a great tool to increase engagement. Cartoons have been described as the best involvement tool out there. Plus, you can fit a lot of information in a small space. Best of all, you don't even have to be a good cartoonist to draw one. In fact, one of the most successful web comics out there is XKCD, which is done entirely in stick figures, but has over a million unique visitors to the site every day. And cartooning has given Tom a 50% increase in email open rates on his email blasts, but more on that in a bit. What you shouldn't do with your boring agency newsletter. People tend to automatically think, "I want to make something that will go viral." You should most definitely avoid this approach. Tom says it's all about continuity. Make a commitment to producing weekly, and stick to putting out quality content every single week. Don't worry about whether or not it goes viral, just worry about whether or not your audience will find value in it. The more valuable it is to them, the more they'll share it, and the more the audience will grow. Remember, you're making an investment in the audience. Don't feel rushed to make a sale. People hate that, and you'll end up turning them off. It's not about people who are ready to buy now, those people will probably find you anyway. What you're trying to do is invest in people who will want to buy from you in the future. Gain them as fans, and they'll come to you when the time is right. And yes, it does need to be weekly. Monthly is just too sparse. Sure, weekly is a lot of work, but it'll pay off in spades over time. Just make sure you're putting out thoughtful content that the audience wants. How to get your email open rates to 50%. It's true, Tom has a fifty percent open rate. His email list of 20,000 is read by about 100,000 people a week through social shares. And he doesn't do any outbound marketing! Take a moment to collect your jaw from off the floor. Most agencies have an open rate of 12-15%, maybe 20% (if you're really lucky). How does one get to this magical 50%? It's all about interesting, relevant content. Tom has an audience that wants to be there, and they expect his email every Monday morning. They look forward to it, which has a lot to do with the fact that he doesn't stuff it full with sales pitches and useless facts about his agency. The cartoon is relevant to his audience and he uses it to start a conversation. Seriously, no one cares about your new VP of Operations. Don't put that kind of stuff in your email blasts. It needs to include things that the audience wants to see. No thought-provoking conversation is going to spring up around the newest award your agency won. Would you like me to help you with your biggest challenge? I've set aside some time to talk to you, personally. During that time, I'll evaluate your business and work with you collaboratively to create an immediately actionable plan to increase your sales and profits. Click here to get my help Keep Improving Your Business Now that you know how to increase and improve your email open rates, take a look at the bigger picture of your agency. Are there other challenges you are facing in your agency? From my experience, I have covered topics from how to handle a recession or how to increase your profits without losing customers for your agency. Or maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and selling your agency for a larger profit. I have all the information you need to help you through it. You can learn more about my life and my experience as well as lots of tips, tricks, and insights by reading our 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 more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel. There you will find advice from me and other agency experts.

Going from Agency Owners to Agency CEOs In today's session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Hannah Paramore, president of Paramore Digital. Hannah is going to talk about the five jobs of an agency owner, how to handle those roles and transition from agency owners into an agency CEOs. The 5 Roles of an Agency Owner. As the agency owner, it is your job to: Grow and mentor the leadership team. To be the face of the company. To set vision and direction. Manage the financials. Be available for key relationships. Whatever you're doing, make sure they are part of these five roles. If it's something outside of these, you need to assess whether or not you are the one that should be doing it. Being comfortable as the agency CEO. No doubt you started out as the smartest person in the room. You were consumed with passion and drive. You were the best at everything, from account management to writing to sales. But as you started to grow from a one-person agency, you probably realized you need to hire people to help you. Suddenly, you're not the smartest. And that's a good thing! You want to hire people smarter and better than you to do the work you don't have time for anymore. Who to hire for your agency. It may take some trial and error to find the right person. You need to clearly define what it is that you need, and how you envision working with someone. Think about what you want your team to look like. Try using a personality profile to find the right fit. If you hire someone, and it goes poorly, don't be disheartened. Remember, it's trial and error. Maybe you need to redefine what you need, or how you want to work with someone. Maybe that person was just an awful fit for your agency. It's okay. There are lots of wonderful people out there. If Hannah had to do it all over again, her first hire would be a Director of Client Services. According to her, "Good work doesn't keep the clients. You're hired for your creative and technical abilities but you're fired for your service." How to motivate and inspire your team. All agency CEOs should know the importance of a happy team. There is no magic formula, but here's a darn good one: Great clients + Great office space + Great culture + Ownership of work These factors, when combined with the right people, make for happy employees. Happy employees motivate and inspire each other, and that's how awesome agencies thrive. (Note: giving out employee bonuses doesn't hurt either!) The "too busy" excuse. Sometimes also known as the "too poor" excuse, and it's just that - an excuse. If you want your business to grow, you're going to have to make time for it. Hire people organically as you grow. Don't think you can afford them? Then you're not charging enough. Your team is part of the billable hours, don't be afraid to include them in the costs. Would you like to get more strategies like this, and be apart of an elite group of agency owners? It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about. Check it out now. Find the right Systems and Strategies that will help you grow faster. Check out the Playbook and the exclusive digital agency elite mastermind. Taking Your Agency to the Next Level Now that all your business owners know how to transition into agency CEOs, 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 show you how to recognize when it's time to hire a sales manager or expand your sales team to perfect your business strategy by creating a process for performance-based pricing and how to keep your big name clients happy. Are you ready to create something cool and want more advice? 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. Or if videos are more your thing, visit my YouTube channel!

Do you have an agency podcast? In this episode I chat with the master of podcasting, founder and host of Entrepreneur on Fire, John Lee Dumas about why your business needs an agency podcast. Podcasting is seriously great for agencies. Here are just some reasons why you need to have an agency podcast: It's on demand. You don't have to say no to something else to listen to a podcast. You can't watch a video and drive a car, just like you can't run and read a blog. But you can do all of those things (and more!) while listening to a podcast. Podcasts are targeted. There are thousands of podcasts out there, specifically tailored to your interests. All you have to do is find one. They're full of free, valuable content. And really, what's better than free and valuable. People listen to podcasts an average of 27 minutes. Compare that to the 45-second average for video and the three-minute average for blogs, and you can easily see how podcasts have the advantage. To be in someone's ear for 20+ minutes is a big way to build credibility. When they have a need, you're going to be the thing to turn to. How do you pick an audience? Start by picking your topic. What void will you be filling in the market? What are you truly passionate about? Use these to determine who your audience is. Don't be afraid to give stuff away. [clickToTweet tweet="It does feel counterintuitive but giving away free content is a good thing." quote="It does feel counterintuitive but giving away free content is a good thing."] You start by doing a podcast and post it on iTunes or Soundcloud. People find it when they search for the keyword associated with your podcast and suddenly, you find yourself being listened to and shared. The podcast starts driving a lot of organic traffic to your website, you're building credibility, and your business grows. All because you gave away something for free. Getting started. This is not a sprint; it's a marathon. Make sure you're committed to it for the long term. But don't look at it as being a complicated process, or even your sole focus. If you put the right systems in place, podcasting won't become a lot of extra work. I've said it before and I'll say it again: putting the right systems in place will help you work so much better. What More Can You Do? If you have more questions, 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 wide variety of topics as well as answer 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.

The Power of Visual Storytelling Do you want to learn the power of visual storytelling and how it can improve your branding marketing on social media as well as your relationship with clients? In this episode I chat with Ekaterina Walter who is a marketer who has worked with numerous Fortune 500 brands to help them with social business. She's also an expert at visual storytelling and is going to show us the power of using video on social media to market your brand. Why visual storytelling is the future. Just go ahead and accept it. We are so inundated with various amounts of information that we have a hard time figuring out how to sort it correctly. So we're just kind of making up our own filters as we go along. What's so great about visual storytelling is that it's a filter that comes to us naturally. Humans process visuals faster than they process text. Considering our attention spans are about 3.9 secs long, presenting information as a visual makes sense. How to make your content snackable. You don't have to do away with long form posts completely, but when posting a link to your blog pull out some interesting tidbits to highlight along with the link. Showcasing the good bits will increase overall traffic. There are lots of visual techniques to help get your overall message across. Infographics, data points, quotes, emphasized text, and animation are just some ways to deliver your message. But king of all these techniques is video. Videos are highly consumable. If you're putting out a press release don't just do the same old boring release. Add a video to go along with the release, and you could increase your traffic by up to 50%. Bonus - people love cartoons. Including a cartoon in your email or newsletter actually increases the open rate to 45%+. What are some visual tools you can use? If you want to make quick, easy visuals for your site or blog, here are some of Ekaterina's suggested tools: Canva QuotesCover PicMonkey Try adding infographics, infograms, or infoactives. Learn to use Vine, for goodness sake! Gifs, memes, etc. are all great additions that make your posts more appealing. Ekaterina's advice to telling a better story. Make sure that you really understand your brand, what your goal is, and where your audience hangs out. Once you've sorted those out, prioritize activities that allow you to build relationships with customers, stakeholders, and your employees. Understanding your community and knowing what they like is what will bring you success. Would you like to be apart of an elite group of agency owners? It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about. Check it out now. How to Further Improve Your Agency I hope you feel ready to improve your brand and connections with clients through visual storytelling but what other challenges are you facing? I cover all topics from the struggles you may face in your agency to creating the best agency proposals and more. 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.

How to Overcome the Common Sales Objections In today's episode, I chat with Pamela Bruner about the common sales objections owners and salespeople encounter when dealing with prospective clients. How to change the perception of sales. Sales get a bad rap. People think of salespeople as being sleazy, or that the whole process is manipulation which leads to common sales objections. This bad perception is a challenge, but definitely something that can be changed. Talk to the prospective client as if you're partners. You're not selling, you're providing a service. Changing the conversation is how you'll do away with the negative image of sales. How to put the client at ease. Don't go in thinking "I have to get this sale no matter what." That's how you end up with bad clients. Not to mention, you're not really going to be listening to their needs or to see if they're the right fit for your agency if it's just about the sale. Let's face it, people are uncomfortable in the sales process. They're nervous. And when you're presenting to a prospect, they're suspicious about you trying to sell them something. Sometimes they're too nervous to speak up about what they want. You need to understand all of this. By knowing the subtext of what they're going through and the source of their fears, you can combat the hesitations and create a better conversation. What are the magic questions to ask to get the answers you need? According to Pamela, asking questions is the magic tool of sales. Here are some gems for your toolbox: What is important to you? Name the #1 result you want to have? What is the cost to you to be in the position you're in now? How do you feel about where you are now? What frustrations are you experiencing? Remember, the meeting isn't about you... It's about the prospective client wanting what you offer. And you won't know if you offer what they want unless you listen. Plus, people love to be heard. Giving potential clients a chance to share how they feel and what they need makes them feel good and builds a sense of security. Use the Three I's to find out what the client needs. Ask about their issue, the impact it's having on their business, and how important it is to them to solve the problem. What if the client doesn't know the answers? If the prospect doesn't know how to do what you're telling them to do, that's great! They can hire you to do it. You're their expert. If the client doesn't know the answers to questions that you need in order to move forward, you may need to get the right person in the room. Ask the prospective client who can help answer those unknowns. But if they don't know the answers to questions or seem uninterested in finding them you need to take that as a red flag. Clients like that can quickly become nightmares. How to avoid sticker shock. Surely you've heard, "You cost how much? I could get it elsewhere five time cheaper!" You need to start out your conversations to avoid sticker shock. It will still come up but you can try to head off some of the brunt. Be very clear on what it will cost and why. Explaining the quality of your solution will help the prospect understand your pricing. To really drive the value home, ask them where their revenues are now versus where they would be if the problem was solved. It's almost always a significant amount which are common sales objections. Meaning it would cost them more not to solve the problem than it would to hire you. "But I don't have enough time or money to do it." Chances are you've probably heard this one from potential clients too. Help them understand by breaking down how much time and money they'll get out of what they put in. People find time (and money) for what is important to them. Demonstrate to the client that it's important and they'll find a way to make it work. AGENCY MASTERMIND for agency owners that want to GROW PROFITS It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about. Click here to learn more... Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. Improve Your Agency After common sales objections, what's next? Want to know how to face failing economies and recessions or how a speaking opportunity can create business? Maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and selling your agency for a larger profit. I have all the information you need to help you through it. Learn more about me and my experience and find lots of tips, tricks, and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics! If videos are more your thing, don't worry, I've got you covered! Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my vi

Agency Problems: How to Overcome the Struggles of Growing an Agency When you want to grow your business, there are common agency problems every owner can experience from the very beginning. In this episode, I chat with Ronn Torossian, founder of 5W PR, the 24th largest PR firm. Ronn tells us about his experience growing an agency, and how to overcome the many agency problems that come along with growth. Success is not a magic formula. Every client, every project is something different. Not all clients want the same thing, so you need to make sure that you are actively listening to what they want. But it's not just about listening. You also need to be communicating with them regularly. Conference calls, activity reports, whatever it takes. Even if you're speaking with them every day, make sure you are also giving them formal weekly and monthly reports. Relationships matter. Strive for building real relationships. Get to know the person, not just the professional. Nurturing solid relationships will go a long way in helping you keep clients and work smoothly with them. How to continuously add value. You have to stay immersed in the client's business. Realize that you and your agency are there to help them grow their business. The client doesn't need to be worrying about what you're up to, they need to know they can rely on you to help them succeed. Don't forget your purpose! Overcoming the struggles. If you think being an entrepreneur is easy, you're insane. Every single day there's something going on. It doesn't get any easier, you just get better at handling it. It's a continuous learning process, but you need to figure out how to take time to just turn off. Taking a vacation, doing a favorite activity, etc. will help clear your mind and make you a better agency owner in the long run. You also need to become a master of time management. Limit your distractions and accept that you can't do everything. And since you can't do everything, you need to hire smart and talented people to help you. Then you need to make sure they are empowered to do the work. It's hard to let go of control but it has to be done if you're going to grow. Ronn's advice for growing. There are lots of different stages of growth. According to Ronn, "What got you here will not get you there." It's different going from a handful of people to over ten. It changes again going from 10-20, 20-35, and so on. There are different struggles at each stage. "Just make sure you have surrounded yourself with smart people to help you along the way." Your business can look like this if you want it to. If you're tired of getting the less profitable clients… If you're sick of selling yourself cheap when you know you're worth MORE… If you TRULY care about your clients and you want to build a business that creates RESULTS for them… Let's chat. Click here to schedule a strategy session, and learn how you too can be on your way to building a multi-million dollar agency. Building Your Digital Agency To create the best digital agency possible, there might be a list of agency problems you are either ignoring or aren't even aware of that needs your attention. Don't worry as I am here to help. I have more than likely experienced all if not most of the different struggles an agency owner experiences through my own experience and I can help you from what I learned. I have covered many topics from what to do with your sales processes to improve them, how you can increase your agency profit margins or how you can build authority for your agency. I have the best ways for your business to stop losing money on projects, how performance based pricing models can be the best strategy for your agency and why including remote teams or freelancers in your team can be beneficial in the long run. Learn more about my career as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Find more from me like advice from other successful agency experts in my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel.

Why Giving Free Consultations is Actually Bad for Your Business In this episode, I talk with Troy Dean about Post Traumatic Client Syndrome and why giving free consultations is actually bad for your business. The struggle is real. One of the biggest struggles out there is wasting time on unqualified leads. You drop everything to drive across town for a meeting with a potential client, buy them lunch, only to find out they have no plan and no budget. An afternoon totally wasted. What you need is better screening. Here's how: Draw a line in the sand and say "I will not touch a project under X amount of dollars." Stop doing free consults. Find out the budget before you meet. If you don't want to be doing projects under $10,000, then find out the project's budget before meeting with the client. When someone contacts you, reply with a survey of their project, asking things like budget and timeline. This will help you weed out those just casually browsing. Start charging for the initial meeting. This will help ensure that you're meeting with people serious about making a deal. It doesn't have to be a big fee. Don't even call it a fee. Do a consultation with something that they can take with them. Create some sort of roadmap, blueprint, or strategy. This way, they feel like they're walking away with something of value and you're being paid for your time. The Nightmare Client. Post-traumatic client syndrome is what happens when you deal with a pain-in-the-ass client. You know the ones: micromanaging, aloof, wishy-washy. These clients suck. One way to avoid PTCS is by positioning yourself as a consultant rather than a tradesperson. You want to change how the client views you. You're not an hourly product and you should be wary of working with anyone who doesn't think you're worth the amount you charge or who thinks what you do is "easy" or "simple." If you have a nightmare client - get out and get out fast. There is no reason to work with someone who doesn't respect you or what you do. Drop the PIA ones to make room for the great clients with awesome projects. Grow Your Agency Knowing how to improve business practices for your agency like avoiding giving free consultations to prospective clients, there may be other underlying practices you need to stop or take on to elevate your agency. I always suggest taking a step back to look for weak spots in your business. No matter what challenge your agency is facing, I can help you get through all of it. From my experience in the industry, there are many topics I can offer guidance 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 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.

How to Generate Agency Business By Helping Rather Than Selling Do you find struggles within your agency of ways to generate business and bring in more clients? You wouldn't be alone and I have discovered that you can generate business much more successfully by offering help rather than constantly working and offering a sales pitch. In this episode I chat with Jay Baer, marketing strategist and best selling author. Jay has done everything from sales to social media to content and digital marketing, and he's going to explain how helping rather than selling will give you an edge. Forget what you were taught. Business is more competitive now than ever before. Sure, it used to be that the way to build your business was to do marketing, use the Four P's, and all that jazz. But nowadays, it's different. The best way to grow your business now is to create content that is useful. So useful, that people would actually want to pay for it, but don't have to because you're giving it away for free. It's this kind of super helpful, free content that will help you be heard above everyone else. Yes, you can give it away for free. If you're worried about giving away your content for free, you need to let that go. There's no real secret ingredient anymore. You don't have the uber proprietary lock on strategic planning. What you have is the same plan as the next agency, just with different acronyms. Giving it away for free doesn't mean you'll lose business. People just want to know the so-called "secrets." In the end, they're still going to hire you to do the work. Making time to be helpful. The idea of adding something else to your plate probably seems daunting, but don't worry because Jay has a tip: Take whatever business development you're already doing and dedicate a portion of that to creating helpful content. If your company writes a blog start adding in blogs that are useful to your readers. Building authority. Confidence in your own thought leadership is what gets you attention. You know what you're best at doing, so start there. Write content that's within your niche. According to Jay, you should take everything you know and give it away one bite at a time. This is one of the biggest drivers of my business growth and you need to start doing it too. I show you step by step how to do this in my program called Generate Leads Everyday. Learn more Jay's biggest struggle. In all Jay's ventures and experiences, he says his biggest struggle has been working in his business rather than on it. Sound familiar? You need to be creating processes so that you don't have to do everything yourself. And if you're thinking that you can do it better and faster than someone else, you're probably wrong. You're uniquely qualified to do certain things, so don't let yourself become hemmed up in doing the things someone else can do. Free up your time to work on growing your business and getting to the next level. What you can do right now. Take a look at your services. Now take a look at your competition. What are you doing that they aren't? If you haven't chosen an area to laser focus in on, this may be a good one to choose. Build content, marketing, etc. around this area of specialization so that you can become a thought leader in your industry. If you like this strategy, you need to check out the Agency Playbook, which walks you through all of this and more. Check it out now by clicking here. Helping vs. Selling Jay's book Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype is a New York Times and Amazon best seller. In it you find the differences between helping and selling, and how that difference is critically important to the success of business. Build a Better Agency I've show you how to generate business more successfully but I bet this isn't the only struggle you experience. Through my life in the industry, I have advice on many topics from the struggles you may face with failing economies to how speaking opportunities can generate new business and using YouTube to boost your marketing for your agency marketing strategy. You can learn more about me and 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. If videos are more your thing, don't worry, I've got you covered! 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.

In this episode of the Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Lauri Flaquer, a business consultant with over 20 years of experience in television and film. Lauri specializes in using content to maximize business opportunities and she's going to help you understand why you need to use video content marketing to grow your agency's new business. https://traffic.libsyn.com/jasonswenk/Why_you_need_to_use_video_to_increase_your_agency_new_business.mp3 You need to be making videos to generate agency new business. If you want to become an authority in your marketplace and establish credibility quickly, then you need to be creating video content. The power of video is limitless! It's another opportunity for your clients - and potential clients - to know you and fall in love with you. Because, let's face it - people make buying decisions more and more off of what they see online. Video content marketing gives them another way to really get to know who you are, what you're about and what you can do, and realize they want it. It's not about being perfect from the start. Do not be afraid to just get started. If everyone waited until they were flawless, had all the right equipment, and were totally perfect to start, there wouldn't be any content anywhere. Give yourself the freedom to learn the craft. In 20 years, you'll look back and celebrate all your successes and failures. In the future, you'll be telling stories at parties about how bad you were in your first videos. But if you never start, you won't have anything to look back on - and no one wants to hear a story about nothing. Seriously, don't dwell on mistakes you haven't even made yet. Get out there! Where do I start when wanting to produce video content marketing for my agency? Lauri gives three pieces of advice to those figuring out where to start with creating video content: 1. Find your platform. What will it be about? What is the main theme? How will it enhance, fortify, solidify, and expand your brand? 2. Check out other people who are doing what you want to do well. Watch them. Model them. Then do it better and add your own flare. 3. Come up with scripts. Write and rewrite them. Once you go through the above, find yourself a community or public access network. They are typically desperate for content and a good place to hone your skills and refine your content. Bonus - they're usually free! Extra bonus - check out Cowboy Studio for affordable equipment, and Wistia for great tutorials on lighting, sound, etc. Don't forget to laser focus on your audience. It all goes back to branding. Think about who you are trying to reach and tailor your content to be what your audience wants to see. What would benefit them the most? Having a clear picture of who you're trying to reach will help you in creating great, valuable content. Build the Best Agency With this advice, you should now be able to strengthen your marketing by implementing video content marketing into your strategy. If there are other struggles you are experiencing in your agency, I can help you get through. I can give you advice on how to increase conversions on your website, how to snap up client opportunities as well as ways to build authority to improve your agency. If growth is your focus, 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 more about my career and experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading 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.

Getting CMO Attention as a Digital Agency When you are a digital agency, there could be a CMO attention you have been aspiring to achieve. If you can't quite get there, then this episode is for you. In this episode I sit down with Evan Kramer, Chief Marketing Officer at The Neat Company. We cover the following: Understanding a CMO's Decision-Making How to Get Their Attention What To Do When a New CMO Comes In How to get the CMO attention you want most Evan, like a lot of CMOs, is very data driven. If an agency can really assess performance in a holistic way, it's a big bonus. Agencies need to be comprehensive in respect to their integrative portfolio, as well as individual campaign performance. The second attention-grabber is showing that you really understand the client's business and their capabilities. Each client has a different type of infrastructure, each with its own good and bad points. Your agency needs to know that infrastructure and how the client works within it. How does a CMO find an agency? It's not always by general RFP. Evan's company just went through the process of finding a new agency because they were shifting their business model. Because of the shift, they wanted to find an agency who had clients like them, and already understood their unique position. Evan looked at a small, a medium, and a large agency, in addition to their incumbent. Each was engaged in a due diligence process and given a month to learn about his company. They were given the opportunity to look at everything from capabilities to product roadmaps. In the end, it was the mid-sized agency that won because they were most familiar with the challenges the company would be facing. What to do when the CMO leaves. Every new CMO is brought in for a reason. It means something is happening within the company. Either it needs to grow to the next level, it's shifting its business model, or it needs to perform better. Regardless, don't take the relationship for granted. You need to get in there and understand why the new CMO is there and what they've been asked to do. Remember: landing the client isn't the end of the work. Agencies are doing one thing right. Agencies are being more holistic in their work and taking more thematic and portfolio approaches when it comes to media. Looking at everything from multi-touch to multi-screen to how SEM works with SEO, and how it all works together is something that agencies are doing right. If that describes your agency, keep up the good work! The #1 thing you can do right now. [clickToTweet tweet="Make sure that you are managing expectations by understanding the client's business. " quote="Make sure that you are managing expectations by understanding the client's business. "] Make sure that you are managing expectations by understanding the client's business. Be realistic and give measurable improvements. Realistic expectations make the relationships work better. Evan says, "iterate to be great." Become a Better Agency Owner When you gain the CMO attention you've been aiming for, it can bring potential and possibilities but if you haven't a solid foundation, it can create issues. By looking at the bigger picture of your agency, you can focus on areas you haven't explored yet as well as struggles you need to focus on to improve your business and then check out how I have all you need to get through these obstacles. I have a bank of advice to share with you from my own experiences. This can be how to increase conversions on your website, ways to implement Facebook in your marketing strategy, why building authority to improve your agency is important and the best way to pitch to big brand clients. If growth is your focus, I've discussed the different phases of growth within your agency and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell your services to more customers. You can learn more about my career and experiences 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, did you know I have a Youtube channel? 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.

In this episode I talk with Scott Monty, former Global Head of Social Media for the Ford Motor Company. He walks us through landing big agency clients like Ford as well as other new clients. How does your ad agency generate new business with big clients like Ford? It's all about the research. According to Scott, about 90-95% of the people who contacted him didn't do their research before approaching him. As a fairly public figure at Ford you can imagine that he got a lot of inquiries. But most of them were either form emails or total shots in the dark. So, how do you get in the door at Ford? Well, the company works almost exclusively with WPP companies. The are big, well established agencies with whom Ford has had a long relationship. It's hard to break into that establishment. However, if you want to approach them, be sure to do your research beforehand. You need to really understand where a company like that has been, what they've done, and what it is that they want to do. In the case of a company like Ford, you'll probably need to subcontract for one of their traditional agencies. The WPP companies will farm out work to smaller agencies and that's where you can get in the door. Recommendations on how to get your agency to the next level. Show that you have a keen understanding of the client's business and an understanding of your own capabilities. Don't assume you can improve on something without knowing what the baseline is (in other words - reread #1). Understand where the industry is going, where the challenges are, and where there might be an opportunity that isn't currently being met. Should I be a specialist? Being a specialist can take you a long way. However, there is a danger. As soon as the industry realizes how vital your specialty is, they'll start to bring it in house. Make sure you have your next specialty on the horizon. Regardless of down the road, having a specialty and providing value will get your foot in the door. It will also allow you to command a premium over your competitors. The Do Not's For Big New Clients Want to make a big client mad? Lag behind on the trends in technology. It's your job as the agency to stay on the cutting edge. Don't let your client be the one that's pushing you or telling you about the newest trends. They're paying you to be awesome, so be awesome! Most of the time, agency owners are being reactive, not proactive. Start by creating good content. Have an angle, produce regularly, and help people. Remember: it's not about what sells, it's about what people need. Advice For Your Agency I hope you found this helpful in how your agency can bring in new clients as well as big clients such as Ford but this might not be the only struggle you are facing within your business. I cover all topics from how to leverage Youtube in your agency's favour 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.

What do you need to do to improve your business management and get away from being run by your agency and start running it? In this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class, I talk with Chris Ducker. Chris is a serial entrepreneur that owns and operates three separate business that include a call center, a recruitment company and a co-working space for startup entrepreneurs. Chris is obviously someone who knows a lot about running a business and he's going to share with us how he manages it all without being overwhelmed. Business Management: Why is the agency running you? Because you're micromanaging! Let's face it, entrepreneurs are wired to believe they should be doing everything themselves. Chris refers to this as "superhero syndrome," and it's something every entrepreneur will suffer from at some point. Eventually, though, you will hit a crossroad where one of two things will happen: A) You'll burn out and be no good to anyone. B) You finally build a brilliant team to help you run, grow, and support the business. Clearly, you want to go with Option B, right? That's how you build the business, not just run the business. There's a lot of amazing talent out there, so make sure you're making the most of it. Say it with me: I do not have to do everything myself. But I can do it quicker! Yes, you probably can do it quicker yourself, but that doesn't mean you should do it. If it's a revolving task - say, posting a blog - it makes more sense for someone else's time to be taken up with completing it. Taking up hours of your time to complete simple tasks just because you can do them faster doesn't make sense financially. Next time you're doing one of these revolving tasks, take a second to record yourself doing it. Show the steps so that your virtual assistant can see how to do it, and BAM! You've cleared up some of your valuable time! But I don't want to pay someone! Again, it doesn't make financial sense for you to be doing it. Let's look at the math: Say your time is worth $1,000/hour, but the routine task you're looking to spend the next hour on can be done by a virtual assistant for $100. Why in the world would you spend your time doing it? You're literally saving $900 by having the VA do it! As the agency owner, your time is better spent creating content, meeting with clients, and growing the business. You need to build a quality team and let them handle running the business. Chris spends a maximum of 10 hours/week on his businesses. Max! The rest of the time he's out there marketing, working on other projects, and speaking. That's what you need to be doing, too. [clickToTweet tweet="Unlearning micromanaging: make a plan to phase yourself out." quote="Unlearning micromanaging: make a plan to phase yourself out."] For each task that comes up, ask yourself, "Am I the one that has to be do this?" If the answer is no, then don't do it. Pass it along to someone on your team who can handle it. It can be a hard thing to learn, but make a habit of asking yourself that question. Eventually, delegating will come naturally. This is one of the most important thing I tell people, and that is why I created the Agency Playbook. It allows you to setup systems that make your business profitable without you having to make every decision or do every thing. Check out the Agency Playbook now. What's Next Using the best business management processes will help you run your agency and team rather than your agency run you and make you lose your passion. If business management isn't your only struggle, I have probably experienced all the different struggles for an agency owner through my own experience and I 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 tell you the best ways to stop losing money on projects, why performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your agency as well as why including remote working or freelancers in your team can be beneficial in the long run. You can learn more 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. Find 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 holding your agency back by committing a common social media sin in your marketing by not showing personality? In this episode I chat with Laura Roeder, founder of LKR Social Media and creator of Edgar. Want to Take Your Agency to the Next Level by Using Social Media? Laura is a social media genius, and was - not once, but twice - named a Top Entrepreneur Under 30. She's going to give you advice on what you can do better when it comes to social media and what social media sin you need to stop doing immediately. The Biggest Social Media Sin One of the worst things you can do on social media is not show any personality. Most agencies do great work for their clients in helping to create and craft a social media voice but are desperately lagging when it comes to creating their own. If you say your agency does social media, then you better be doing social media. How do you think it looks when you tell prospects social media is part of what your agency can offer but you only have 50 Twitter followers? Laura's advice here is to "shape up" and get your social profiles together. If you're selling social, make sure you practice what you preach. Creating a Social Media Voice Make sure your followers get to know you. It's hard to form a relationship with a blank brand so provide some kind of information or link to who your team is. You'll have a lot more success if you associate your social profiles to actual people. After all, people buy from people, not from companies. Now, if you're the kind of agency that has a thought leader or a principle as the figurehead, it may make sense for you to use them as your social voice. If you're not that kind of agency, you can add something like "Tweets by [name]" to your Twitter account or add who's posting on Facebook. What Happens When the Social Media Person Leaves? It happens. People grow and move on. But this can be especially tricky when the person is your social media star. Make sure you're branding the social profile around the company and not an individual. This way, when one moves on another person can easily slip into the role. Unless it's a thought leader, you should probably try to avoid having too much of your following built up around an individual anyway. "But, I don't have time for social media." Yes, you do! Use some kind of tool to schedule updates ahead of time. After all, sitting in front of social media all day is not a good use of your time. And don't worry about sounding impersonal or robotic. If anything, automation actually helps you come up with more high-quality posts. Instead of panicking to update, you'll have planned out 6-8 months of content to automatically post. Then you are free to engage and interact with your followers and build relationships. Making Connections If you're just starting out, the best way to find people is to start with the ones you know. Find the profiles of your employees, customers, prospects, etc. and follow them on Twitter. Invite them to like your page on Facebook. Start the conversation with them. Next, look at the writers of blogs you read. Post to them about how you enjoy their work, or retweet their latest article. This way you can start building relationships organically. Remember: if you follow people and never talk to them, your relationship will never grow. Paying for Followers. Unless the goal of your business is to have the most followers, buying followers is a waste of time and money. So, if you're not profiting off of having the highest number of friends, why do it? Fake followers don't ever become customers. Not to mention, imagine the embarrassment of having to tell prospects and clients that your social following is actually a bunch of fake bots from Russia. Talk about cringeworthy! Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. Become a Better Agency Owner We have covered why you should avoid the social media sin of not showing the personality of your agency, so now it's time to put all of this into proactive with your social media content and get your agency out there. In my own career as an agency owner and professional life, I have more than likely experienced all if not most of the different struggles you have and can help you with what I have learned. From bad agency clients, developing agency products as well as how you can build authority for your agency. If you want to grow your agency even further, I have agency growth hacks, the best ways to improve management of your business as well as why building a remote team can be beneficial in the long run. As well as this, you can learn more about my career as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. I also hear the experience and advice from other successful agency experts in my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel.

Interested in learning how to increase user engagement with your target audience? In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class I'm going to tell you about some agencies that are using surveys all wrong and give you suggestions on how to use them to have more frequent conversations. How you're probably using surveys now. Most agencies are using surveys to gain insights on their audience. These surveys ask questions like: What would you want in a particular product? The surveyor is asking because they're trying to find out what they should build. But the response they're most likely to hear is "faster" and "cheaper." Most surveyees don't know what they want. And how could they? They've never even seen it. Here's how to use surveys to increase user engagement. I use surveys to engage my audience more. For example, as I'm building my list (you need to be building lists, too!) I will ask for more engagement. I want to know more about them so I can send relevant information in the future. In order to learn more, I ask questions like: Are you a freelancer? Are you an agency under $1 million? Are you an agency over $10 million? I ask these questions because it changes how you talk to them going forward. You wouldn't have the same conversation with a freelancer that you would with an agency over $10 million. Now, I have - and do - use surveys to ask what their biggest challenges are. Most of the time, I already know the answer, but in these cases I'm asking so I can respond back with help and can get more engagement. The whole goal is to get the engagement back and forth. You want that dialog! B2B (even B2C) conversations lead to transactions. Pro Tip: People love for you to reach out to them and ask for their expert opinion. You're setting them up on a pedestal, and who doesn't love that? Part of the reason I do this podcast is to reach out to killer guests and start a relationship with them. Survey Challenge! I challenge you to create your own survey. Come up with a strategy to get more engagement and make a survey. Would you like to get more strategies like this, and be apart of an elite group of agency owners? It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about. Check it out now. 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's Next? Now you know how to increase user engagement, what is the next challenge you want to overcome in your agency? Through my own career and professional life, I have more than likely experienced all if not most of the different struggles you have and can help you with what I have learned. From bad agency clients, developing agency products as well as how you can build authority for your agency. If you want to grow your agency even further, I have agency growth hacks, the best ways to improve management of your business as well as why building a remote team can be beneficial in the long run. As well as this, you can learn more about my career as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. I also hear the experience and advice from other successful agency experts in my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel.

Do you want to know the #1 thing is that you need to stop doing when pitching to a big brand? If you are ready to become a big brand agency, this is the insight you need to get you there. In this episode, I sat down with Carlos Tribino, CMO of GiftCards.com. Carlos has been on both the agency and large brand side of the pitch and has 20 years of experience in marketing. He's going to tell us why you should understand your prospect before you pitch and what big brands are looking for when picking an agency. What are the big brands looking for in an agency? The number one thing they want is for you to understand their business. By really understanding your prospect's industry you can tap into smart insights and develop strong, compelling, and relevant ideas for brand positioning. Not to mention, this level of understanding will help you go beyond the obvious and craft original, compelling position statements. Carlos also points out that big brands aren't typically looking for full service agencies but rather agencies that are specialists in a particular area. There are so many new technologies out there, it's hard to be knowledgeable enough on all of them. Pick an area and excel in it. The no-no's that agencies need to stop doing. Not surprisingly, the biggest no-no is failing to understand the prospect's business. Or worse - pretending to understand it. Be real, not just opportunistic. If you're calling up prospects and giving some generic pitch you need to stop. Do your homework and make sure that when you call you express that not only can help them accomplish XYZ but also how you're going to do it. It's not only impressive to the prospect that you've done your homework but also shows that you really understand their business. How often should I be following up? Don't be afraid to follow up! It's okay to keep in contact, especially if you're adding value each time. Check in and include a white paper, or perhaps forward along an article related to the prospect's industry. You want to show interest and willingness, but not go overboard with the follow ups. Check in every couple of weeks or once a month. Or whenever there's a big change in the industry or with the company. You can use those opportunities to come up with a cool idea to throw their way. The one thing you need to do differently right now. Find yourself a cool client with a lot of potential and help them realize their awesomeness. People appreciate when you stick by them, and help to create something out of nothing. Once the client reaches their full potential, people will be asking who helped them get there, and your name is sure to come up. Ready to be a Big Brand Agency? Now that you know how to become a big brand agency, it's time to focus on the other hurdles and obstacles that are stopping your agency moving to the next level. I have all the advice you need. No matter what you need advice on, I have more than likely covered it. From topics such as how a poor website design can affect your leads to how your agency can cope while you work through a recession. Or maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in easing through agency growing pains? I have all the information you need to help you through it. You can learn more about my life and business experience as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by check out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. And if videos are more your thing, i've got you covered! 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.

Where to Find the Right Digital Agency Talent In this episode I sit down with Amy Hoover, CEO of Talent Zoo. Amy is going to talk to us about how to find the best agency talent, developing a recruitment and hiring plan, and what to ask in the interviews. Amy is adamant that you need to develop a recruiting and hiring plan. Finding someone is a multi-prong process, involving personal contacts, former coworkers, job boards, head hunting, and paid recruitment. Rarely does just one of these prongs end up working, so you need to come up with a plan to help you hit many of the angles at the same time. The plan. Start internally. Develop an "employer brand," including why it's great to work for your agency and why your employees think it's great working there. And don't forget to put it on your website! Look at options for getting your employer brand out there. Get the word out through your personal and professional networks, as well as agency-specific resources. Identify who needs to be involved internally. Do you have a HR person or a hiring manager? Think about involving potential peers in the hiring process. Whatever you do though, don't involve clients. Even if the person will be working mainly with the client, don't involve them. Having clients involved in your hiring process is a disaster waiting to happen. Be specific in what you're looking for. Small to mid-sized agencies have a hard time planning what the new hire will actually do. You need to clearly identify what the responsibilities will be so you can find the right person. Always be recruiting. That means you should be constantly on the lookout for that amazing someone for your team. Create a tracking method. Whether it's a spreadsheet or a full-blown applicant tracking system be sure to have a way to save and easily retrieve resumes. What to look for in a potential hire. Make sure you vet their resume as much as possible. You want to be sure that they can do what they say they can do, as well as that they have actually done what they've claimed. Also, look for someone who is going to be a good cultural fit. You need someone who will jive well with your agency's culture. Finally, let your team at them. The team may pick up on things you missed in your conversations with them. Remember - a bad hire can be costly. Hire slowly, fire quickly. Hiring from competitors. Hiring from your competitors does not guarantee a good fit. It may be tempting to try, after all they do the same kind of work you do, with the same type of clients as you. Still, hiring from the competition is super limiting. You're keeping yourself from getting completely fresh eyes with new agency talent. Also, making the transition from large agency to a small one can be really difficult. So hiring someone from your bigger, more successful competitor may actually do your team more harm than good. The interview. Ask questions that will showcase the person's actual personality, not just their work personality. Invite them on a skateboarding outing with the team or find out what they do in their spare time. Ask what they loved about their first job. Anything to break free from the normal interview questions will help you see what they're really like. I used to dress like a race car driver in my interviews. Seriously, full suit and helmet (with the visor down). Once, I even dressed like a ballerina. I wanted to see if it would rattle them, or if they had a sense of humor. For those that don't know, Talent Zoo is an industry-specific job board. They cater mostly to tech, creative, marketing and PR listings, and they're a great place to find talent. They also put out a whole ton of original content around hiring and hiring trends. After You Hire Your Team When you hire new agency talent for your business, you are ready to focus on other weaknesses and challenges within your agency. No matter what challenge your agency is facing, I can help you get through all of it. Through my experience running my own digital agency and helping other digital agency owners, there are many topics I can offer guidance whether you are an established agency facing struggles to new agencies unsure of what the different phases of growth you will experience will look like. As you continue to grow your agency team, I can show how to recognise when it's time to hire a sales manager or expand your sales team to perfecting your business strategy with creating a process for performance based pricing and how to keep your big name clients happy. Are you ready to create something cool and want more advice? 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.

How to Get the Fortune 1000 Executives to Call You Here's what worked for me to get the Fortune 1000 executives to call me. Warning! This is only for businesses that are targeting the Fortune 1000 companies. This will not work for smaller companies. Ok, so lets jump to it… We all struggle with trying to find ways in the doors of the big companies. Everyone wants to work with them. We have tried email marketing, cold calls, partners, etc. You name it, people have tried it. But here's something that no one does and it can work for you. Interested? Of course you are! Here's what you need to do in order to get the BIG Companies calling you: Write a single page letter that describes an opportunity that they are missing and make sure you don't get too detailed. Do not tell them about your business. For example, I have something to show you that can increase Amazon's sales by 15% and all it takes is 15 minutes. Leave mystery so you can't get a no. Are you interested enough to hear more? [You may want to listen to the International Hotel Group episode] Then I want you to use their website to find out five or six people who might be in charge of making a decision about this opportunity. Use all their names in the "to" line" of the letter. When they get the letter, you want them to see all the people that are on the list. You then need to print the six letters and highlight one name on each. Put each letter into its own yellow interoffice envelope. Call the company and ask for mail room. When transferred ask the name of the person that answers the mail room phone and hangup. Then Fedex the letters to the mail room clerk, by name, with a sticky note on it that says "please distribute." They are then required to distribute the letters to the people you identified. What's happens is that everyone will contact one another about the letter to see who's responding to you. They don't want one person to say yes and then some to say no, or vice versa. Then they will assign one person to deal with you and respond. There you have it. This whole process would take me a total of 15 minutes per company, and this would work almost every time. You just need a compelling opportunity that gets their attention. I would love to hear your feedback in the comments below. Want More Advice? I have advice on many topics from the struggles you may face with failing economies to how speaking opportunities can generate new business and using Youtube to boost your marketing for your agency marketing strategy. You can learn more about me and 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. If videos are videos more your thing, don't worry, i've got you covered! 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.

Have you ever thought of developing your own product - or have already developed one - but have found that the client work is distracting you from finishing? In today's episode, I talk with Kyle Racki about how your agency can create a product without killing it before it even gets started and how to upgrade any established product development processes. Product Development for Your Agency Kyle is a designer, blogger, technologist, and entrepreneur from Canada who ran his own web design agency for five years. During that time, he had several failures. Four to be exact. He then sold the agency and is now CEO and co-founder of Proposify. Let's build a product! Being a service agency is tough. You have to deal with cash flow, invoicing, revenue, etc. All these make building a product even more attractive. But don't be fooled, Kyle warns, "building a product while servicing clients is hard." Hard, but not impossible. Ask before you build. Don't just start wire-framing the second you get an idea. Get out and start talking to people! You need to get product market validation and customer development before you start building. Start by talking to people you don't know. Lots of people. Hundreds, if you can. You want to make sure you're building a product that actually solves a problem and that people will actually pay for. Things to ask: What is your biggest challenge? What solutions have you found to the challenge? Are you willing to pay for a solution? I promise, it's way better to find out no one wants or needs your product before you start spending money and building it. Dedicate people to work on the product. If you can, resist the temptation to make building the product an add-on to someone's job. Think about it: your developer just spent four days coding for client projects and now has to switch over to working on your product. You're going to lose time on ramp up. Not to mention, paying clients will always come first. So without having a dedicated person to work on the product, you'll find yourself putting it on the back burner. Take it from me, if I had the chance to do it over again at my agency, I absolutely would have hired a dedicated person for product development. The investor route. Startups are expensive and not all agencies make enough profit on services to also fund building a new product. Kyle went with an investor to fund his product but there are lots of options, like incubators or crowdfunding. There are also VC's, but Kyle cautions that venture capitalist funding may be hard to get if you haven't made the full leap into being a product company. Some investors want to know you're fully committed to the product and not just moonlighting. Tinkering versus actually building. Make sure you do your homework! The grass isn't always greener on the product side, so learn the metrics of what you're getting into. And there's nothing wrong with tinkering. Use your service-based role to get to know your customers and to become really knowledgeable about your niche. Learn their pain points so you can make the kind of product that will actually make a difference. Proposify offer for listeners! Proposify is a cloud-based proposal management system and the product of Kyle "scratching his own itch." Putting out proposals, responding to RFPs, and keeping track of all of them is daunting. Proposify helps agencies simplify the entire process so you don't have to spend forever putting together proposals. Smart Agency Master Class listeners can sign up for the free 14-day trial of Proposify and get 3 months free with promo code "JASONSWENK". Simply upgrade at the end of the 14-day trial. Growing Your Agency Having the right product development processes established within your agency could be the helping hand you need in getting your product off the ground. Now the next question is, what other challenges are you facing? I have probably experienced all the different struggles for an agency owner through my own experience and I 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 tell you the best ways to stop losing money on projects, why performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your agency as well as why including remote working or freelancers in your team can be beneficial in the long run. You can learn more 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. Find 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.

In today's episode, I discuss how agencies should handle multiple niches. This is a solo episode where I'm talking to myself! Actually, I'm talking to you, the listeners, and answering the questions that you are sending into me. Should you even have multiple niches? How many niches you have depends on how many authority figures or experts you have for those niches. Pick as many niches as you want, but remember that just means more work. You need to make sure you're equipped to handle all those niches. A lot of agencies are just starting outlook at the big players and try to model after them. If you're looking at bigger, more established agencies you will see that many of them do have a lot of niches. But don't be fooled - they probably didn't start out like that. Take a look at Facebook, for example. When Facebook started out, they only went after Ivy League college kids. It was only after they dominated that market that they branched out to other colleges. Everyone has to start out somewhere. Dominate your niche first, branch out second. I market myself as working with agencies, but I actually work with all types of companies. But I only started branching out into multiple niches once I had dominated the one I was in, and when I could bring on experts/practice directors to run those niches. This way you can make sure you're using your resources effectively. Should you be separating your niches on your blog/website? Take a look at how closely related your niches are. If there is a wide gap between your niches' audiences, then you should have them separated. If they are somewhat closely related, keep them connected but separate by category on your site. What's Next For Your Agency? Through my experience, I have advice on many topics from the struggles you may face with failing economies to how accepting a speaking opportunity can create business and the four phases of growth you may experience within your agency. Learn more about me and my experience or 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. If videos are more your thing, don't worry, i've got you covered! Check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

Are you going wrong when it comes to creating proposals and the proposal percentage you give your clients? In this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Ruben Gamez, founder of Bidsketch, about what agencies are doing wrong on their proposals and you can do to win new business. Bidsketch is a web application that helps create professional looking client proposals in minutes. Common Proposal Mistakes Most Agencies Make The #1 mistake is talking about yourself in the proposal. If you're not talking about the client, the client's problems, and solutions you can offer, then you're proposal isn't doing you any favors. Clients want to know that you understand their problems and that you have actual solutions for them. Those are the kinds of proposals that have the most appeal. You also need to take the time to understand the buying process from the other side. Most companies go out and get a lot of proposals, meaning they talk to several agencies at the same time. It's not the ideal place for you to be but it's pretty easy to change that conversation. Tell the client that, in order to help them, you need to talk about their problems and get as much information as possible. This will help you better determine if this is the right kind of client for you, as well as what solutions you can offer. How to Increase Your Proposal Percentage in Closing Ruben puts the average closing proposal percentage somewhere between 30-40%. If you fall into this range (or below), here's a tip from Ruben for increasing your closings: Give pricing options. Don't just have one set price in your proposal. The only answer to one price is a yes or a no. By offering pricing options, you may be able to avoid getting a hard no. Plus, your conversion rate will go up if you have multiple options. However, steer clear of having too many options; Ruben advises somewhere between 2 and 4. My feeling on pricing options is different. If you're asking the right questions and communicating with the client throughout the process, you'll have already agreed on a price along the way. For me, you should pretty much have a "yes" by the time you get to submitting the proposal. My advice is to use B-A-N-T: Budget Authority Need Timing Using B-A-N-T to prequalify clients will save you so much time. Do you want the EXACT PROPOSAL TEMPLATE that won clients like AT&T, Legal Zoom and Hitachi? Writing a winning marketing proposal is key to winning new business. Over the past 12 years, I have created the ultimate web and marketing proposal template. This proposal is unlike other people's proposal templates for sale because this is the actual template that won big name clients for our web, technology and marketing engagements. If you want to be able to use a proven template for getting bigger projects, that are well over $10,000, check out this proposal. This proposal template will give you insights to winning even more proposals. Check out the Marketing Proposal Template now! Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. Creating the Best Agency Creating a strong client proposal with the best proposal percentage for your agency is a step forward in creating the best best agency. Through my own career and professional life, I have more than likely experienced all if not most of the different struggles you have and can help you with what I have learned. From bad agency clients, developing agency products as well as how you can build authority for your agency. If you want to grow your agency even further, I have agency growth hacks, the best ways to improve management of your business as well as why building a remote team can be beneficial in the long run. As well as this, you can learn more about my career as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. I also hear the experience and advice from other successful agency experts in my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel.

In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class I sit down with Tim Paige who is going to talk with us about how to increase website conversions and double your revenue. Tim is the Conversion Educator at LeadPages, where he has helped them grow their customer base to 16,000, and increase their list by another 10,000 leads. Building your list is one of your most valuable assets. For Tim and LeadPages, list building is what they've found to be the most valuable. Think of email addresses as a form of currency. People guard their email address like they guard their wallet. If someone is willing to give you their email address, that is a big deal. But if it's so valuable, why aren't agencies building their lists on their website? According to Tim, it has a lot to do with the sheer volume of misguided information out there. Right now, there's so much talk about social media that people are putting all of their focus there. Seriously, folks - don't make the same mistake I did. Start building your lists! Don't lose your website visitors at the thank you page. A lot of us just use a generic thank you page sent out by an auto-responder. "Thank you for signing up with our company. Please check your email inbox." That's such a dead end! Statistically, people are more likely to find a needle in a haystack than your website, so why are you sending them away from your page to check their email? People always check their email, but chances are they won't come back to your site once they leave. Don't miss this opportunity to keep the conversation going. What you need to do on your thank you page to increase your conversions. Try this on your thank you page: Thank them for signing up and offer them a chance to sign up for next week's webinar Thank them for signing up and make them an offer to buy something like a site audit or discovery session. Having an auto-responder helps build trust with your leads. Tim suggests using your auto-responder to get more information. For example: someone downloads a tool from your landing page and is then directed to the thank you page (which now includes more helpful information). Then, every three days or so, the auto-responder sends an email with even more helpful information. Remember - you have to give something before asking for something. It's all about building that relationship of trust. 3 Tips to increase website conversions right now. These are Tim's tips on how to increase website conversions: Make sure you have a powerful lead magnet. You can have the best looking landing page with the most awesome opt-in form, but it doesn't mean anything if you aren't providing something of value. Create a list of the five tools to help your audience solve a problem they have. Keep it simple! Helpful, one-page tools convert well. Make sure if you're using an image that it directs the eye toward the call to action. Use an arrow to point at the opt in box or have the person's eyes looking in the direction of the button. I also suggests checking out what LeadPages can do for you. They have a 30-day money back guarantee, so it's worth a look. It has increased my site conversions from 15% to over 40%. Become a Better Owner When you know how to increase website conversions, this opens your agency to more potential client opportunities. However, without laying the ground work this could cause more issues than benefits. Through making a point to focus on areas you haven't explored yet as well as struggles you need to focus on will help to improve your business. Check out how I have all you need to get through these obstacles. I can give you advice on how to increase conversions on your website, implementing Facebook marketing as well as ways to build authority to improve your agency. If growth is your focus, 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 more about my career and experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading 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.

In today's session of The Smart Agency Master Class I chat directly with you. That's right - no guest! I wanted to talk with you about putting together the right legal documents before you run into a problem. I'll admit, this is something I should have done much sooner in my own agency. After all, the time to prepare is before there's an issue. So you'll get to learn from my mistake and pick up some valuable resources. Now, I am not a lawyer, so this isn't legal advice. These are tips for finding the right kind of legal documents for your business. Who should you have agreements with? Hopefully you already have some agreements in place. If you don't start thinking about all of the people you are doing work with and for - clients, partners, contractors, employees, etc. For these relationships you should have nondisclosure agreements, contractor agreements, and employment agreements. Sure, everything may seem all peaches and unicorns in the beginning, but it isn't guaranteed to stay that way. Don't be so caught up in trying to close the deal that you forget the agreement! Prepare before the legal battle. Before you get into some sort of legal situation, you need to get your ducks in a row. It wasn't until after I had to deal with some legal battles that I began preparing myself. Save yourself the trouble and get your agreements together. Go to my website, and download the proposal template. Included in the template is the agreement. What needs to be in an agreement? A description of services you'll provide and what you will be responsible for delivering. Pricing and payment. Be sure to also include what the client is responsible for with payment (check, credit card, mailing address, etc). A termination clause. If the client cancels early, is there a penalty? (There should be.) Disclaimers about how your software isn't magic and that you both agree not to share each others' stuff. Spell out ownership. The client owns any custom work that they've paid for and you own your tools (i.e. frameworks). Limitations of liability to clarify what you are not responsible for covering. For example, you shouldn't be responsible for anything over the proposal amount. (i.e. $10k proposal = $10k cap in responsibility.) Governing law. What county and what state is the agreement bound? This is important to keep you from having to trek back and forth across the country every time you have to go to court. Now I know this isn't the sexiest of topics. It's not going to win you more clients or grow your business, but it's going to help protect you. You've worked hard to get to where you are, so don't let unpreparedness cause you harm. More agreement resources. Check out LegalZoom for free and paid agreements. If you use a payroll company, you can also check with them about agreements they offer. A lot of them have good ones, especially for employment. Lastly, get the proposal agreement that I used at my agency. Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster.

In this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class, I sit down with Joe Grano who is going to talk to us about who to hire, getting that next level agency, and making the transition from a small, one person agency to bringing on full-time employees. Joe is the president and founder of Next-Mark, a full-service marketing, communications, public relations, and business strategy solutions company based in Sarasota, FL. When to hire full-time employees. Joe once said to me, "I never want to hire employees." He's since changed his tune and now has several full-time employees on his team. In fact, he prefers them to contractors. Here are the questions Joe considered when making the full-time leap: Can you really afford to do it? There's a level of financial stability needed. Are you willing to give anything up to ensure your employees get paid? If you're not, then you aren't ready yet. Do you know how to hire? Bringing on just anyone can be a disaster. Other considerations: You need to really think about how you want to grow your business because hiring full-time staff is a big mind shift. Understanding that contractors probably don't have your business's best interests in mind. Contractors just don't have the same kind of loyalty as full-time employees. You can do so much more for people who are fully invested in the business, and vice versa. Have full-time staff and only bring on contractors whose core competencies are things that you couldn't afford full-time. Who is the right first hire? Okay, you're making the move to bringing on full-time staff but who is the first hire? Joe and I both brought on people who had been long-time contractors for our businesses. You already know their work style and they're already familiar with your company. Joe's first hire was his Director of Communications; someone who had been with him for awhile as a contractor and who brought along a lot of agency experience. Mine was a designer, but I also definitely recommend hiring some kind of manager - office or project. You need someone to do the operational stuff while you're out growing the business. New employees are an investment. Time is money, and it's hard to commit to spending a lot of your time teaching a new employee. Joe's advice for shortening the learning curve is to hire up. Bring in people with good experience and skill sets, so they can come in and start performing quickly. But remember - like anything else just starting out, new employees need to be nurtured. It takes time to teach them and help them gain confidence in their competencies. Be patient because it will be worth it. How to put together a great team? You may think you want to hire people whose working style is just like yours. You're wrong. A team made up of a bunch of the same people won't be productive. Look for people who: Work well in teams. Joe recommends check out this TED Talk about hiring introverts. Have working styles that would compliment yours. Use this helpful quiz. Why are setting core values so important? If you don't have core values, you need to get some ASAP. If you have core values, you need to communicate them to your people ASAP. Make sure you are sharing them with your current and new employees, alike. Bonus: Want more info on core values? Check out this video from Zappo's CEO about core values and creating awesomeness. Important steps toward growth. Take a good, hard look at where you want your business to go to bring it up to a next level agency. Remember, new employees take time, so it's important you consider that in your growth plan. Also, think about their long-term fit within the company. If you can only see them around for a couple of projects or for a matter of months, it's not time for full-time staff. Finally, be really comfortable with being able to support someone full time. The last thing you want is to have to let them go after only a little while because you can't afford to pay them. Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies to create a next level agency today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. Creating a Next Level Agency Are you holding yourself back from creating a next level agency by ignoring problems or issues you aren't even aware of that need your attention? Good, this is where I can come in and provide you support. In all my years, I have more than likely experienced all if not most of the different struggles you have and can help you from what I have learned. From what to do with your bad agency clients, how to develop agency products and how you can build authority for your agency. If you want to know how to grow your agency even further, I have agency growth hacks, the best ways to improve management of your business as well as why building a remote team of freelancers can be beneficial in the long run. As well as this, you can learn more about my career as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of t

Creating Valuable Content for Your Agency In this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class, I talk with Ahava Leibtag, and she is going to explain the six steps for creating valuable content to help you reach your target audience and increase your impact. Ahava is the president and owner of Aha Media Group, a content strategy and content consultancy in Washington, D.C. How can you generate leads for your agency? If you ask Ahava how to create great content, she will tell you step one is understanding your target audience. You need to know their business, understand their pain points, and know what solutions they are seeking. Know this before anything else because you can't start talking to people without knowing what they want to hear. You also need to spend time where your target audience is spending time. Don't feel like you need to be on all the social channels. If your target audience isn't on Twitter, why are you wasting your time and energy on Twitter? Once you've located your target audience make sure you master that technology. "Content and social marketing isn't all that simple," Ahava says, "it's a lot of stuff to balance, so make sure you know how to use the technology." Checklists are imperative in order to create valuable content that can generate new business for your agency. #1 - Findable. Make sure that you are utilizing appropriate keywords so your target audience finds you. Also think about how your content relates to other content. If someone is looking for a dresser, they may also be looking for a headboard. #2 - Readable. We've all seen it - bad web writing. Keep your content short and with the most important points at the top. People just don't read long-form content anymore, so don't have giant chunks of text. #3 - Understandable. It seems like a no-brainer, but you need to have your content easy to read, and not all about yourself. Make sure it is relevant to your audience. Show them that you understand their pain points. #4 - Actionable. Include clear calls to action in your content so the reader knows what to do next. Content exists for two reasons: because it supports business objectives and because it helps users accomplish their tasks. You want the person consuming your content to feel comfortable performing the action your requesting. #5 - Shareable. This does not mean going viral. Shareable content fills a need, is well executed, and simple to understand. It's the kind of content that can jump from the hands of the person that has it, right into the hands of the person who needs it. #6 - Mobile. It's clear mobile is huge in content and social marketing, but Ahava hasn't quite finalized its place. Since mobile can be standalone and fit within each of the other checklist items look for more to come in the future. Winning at content on the web. Be sure to pick up a copy of Ahava's book, The Digital Crown: Winning at Content on the Web. It's full of tips to simplify and refine your processes so you're putting out the best messaging possible as well as creating valuable content. Bonus: go to Aha Media Group's website and download the first chapter for free! Take Your Agency to the Next Level I hope you find my guide to creating valuable content helpful and you are able to implement it within your agency's strategy. There may be other business struggles you need to focus on. Don't worry, I have all you need to get through these obstacles. I have advice on topics such from getting your agency exposure in the news, the best way to get through a recession or even how to use a social media community to expand your brand awareness. If growth is your focus, I've discussed the four phases of growth within your agency and ways in easing through website issues holding your business back. I have all the information you need to help you. 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 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.

Facebook Marketing - How You Can Generate New Business With It In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Kim Walsh-Phillips who is going to share with us how to get new business through Facebook marketing, which is one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. Kim is the CEO of IO Creative Group and is a speaker, author, and a ROI enthusiast. Why your current Facebook engagement is so low. Because Facebook is free, you may have just jumped on all willy-nilly and started posting. According to Kim, that's not the way to go about it. After all, you wouldn't do that with a direct mail campaign, would you? No, of course not. You would put a lot of strategic thought into what you were going to say. Kim suggests thinking of each Facebook post the same way. Your posts have the potential to be seen around the world, so each should be part of a strategy for your Facebook marketing. The engagement formula to make Facebook work for your ad agency. Your Facebook marketing posts should be 85% PBS and 15% QVC. Meaning, you spend 85% of the time offering free, valuable content, and only 15% of the time doing self-promotion. It's a formula designed to gain trust and position you as an authority figure. Your page focus shouldn't be on lead generation. Kim points out that only 2% of people will return to your page after their initial visit. You're trying to impress the newbies, so put yourself in their shoes. Would you like to see valuable content or a bunch of self-promotional posts? In other words - brag sparingly. Ideally, you'd have one post per day, and only one of those per week would be promotional. It's not that you won't be promoting at all. Create ads that look like post which show up in the News Feed of your target audience. Here is the type of content should you be posting on Facebook. You want to create content that is liked, commented on, and shared. The more of that kind of engagement you get, the more your stuff will show up in Facebook's feed. Kim suggests the following types of posts: Offering original content - tips, information, and resources Celebration - highlight a fan of the week Communication - ask a question of your audience Don't feel overwhelmed with the amount of posting. Automation is your friend. Kim and her team schedule posts in batches, 30 days in advance. Her tool of choice is Hootsuite. Kim's Tips on how to get UNSTUCK and to the next level in your business. Read Dan Kenny's book, No B.S. Direct Marketing: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Direct Marketing for Non-Direct Marketing Businesses. Once you're done reading that, become a member of GKIC. And stop being afraid of letting go of clients that aren't the right fit anymore. It's okay to out grow them, and it's okay to say goodbye. If a client doesn't help you reach your end goal, every hour you spend with them is one you'll have to make up elsewhere. Find the A+ players, get yourself involved with them, and make yourself known as a specialist. For more information on Kim Walsh-Phillips, check out IO Creative Group, or follow her on Twitter. More About Me We have talked about using Facebook marketing for your agency but it's also time to focus on the other hurdles and obstacles that are stopping your agency moving to the next level. I have all the advice you need. No matter what you need advice on, I have more than likely covered it. From topics such as how a poor website design can affect your leads to how your agency can cope while you work through a recession. Or maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in easing through agency growing pains? I have all the information you need to help you through it. You can learn more about my life and business experience as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by check out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. And if videos are more your thing, i've got you covered! 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 struggling with generating new business and grow your digital agency? In this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class, I talk with Michael Gass who is going to share with us his steps for driving new agency business. Positioning is the foundation of generating ad agency new business. Historically, agencies have problems when it comes to generating new business. There's little differentiation; every agency sounds just like the next. It's like you're forgetting your marketing minds when it comes to promoting your agency. Think having great creative makes you different from the next guy? Michael doesn't. "Great creative isn't a point of differentiation, it's an expectation." If you really want to stand apart you need to narrow your focus - find that niche - and give the prospects a reason to want to work with you. Stop being your own worst client and making it harder than it should be! The paradigm shift. Let's face it - it just isn't how it used to be. Many agency founders, who were once great at working a room are finding themselves pretty inept nowadays. But Michael points out that we don't need to be mourning the days of chasing new business. He suggests using technology to entice new business to come to you. Don't worry if you have been slow to start using social media, you're not alone. Most agencies didn't start using it until 2010, and then they just did the same thing they were doing in the real world - talking about themselves. "Credentials, capabilities, and case studies - no one cares." Prospects are looking for resources, not portfolios. 7 steps to differentiation and driving new business to your agency. #1 - Identify a target audience. Remember, you want to work with people who fit in that sweet spot. Once you find the target audience, set a clear objective. #2 - Find your purpose. Think about what your content driven blog is providing. Make sure that you're keeping your focus narrow. If you try to be everything to everybody, you won't appeal to anyone. #3 - Develop content! Michael gives his clients a 30 post in 30 days challenge. Do that and you'll have a lot of content and a routine for future production. Also, make sure you're leading with the benefit statement (i.e. put the most important information at the top to hook your readers). #4 - Include a clear call to action. Give your readers a prompt to keep the conversation going. #5 - Implement best practices. Keep what works and dump what doesn't. #6 - Make use of your analytics to refine and improve your content. You can learn a lot by just looking at the data, so if you're not currently checking your analytics, you're missing out. #7 - Manage the process. Use automation or hire someone to be responsible for making sure posts happen. Even if you're busy with pitches or away at a conference, someone should be in charge of putting out content. What you can do right now to start generating new business for your agency? Michael is a huge fan of social media and is adamant that we get comfortable using it. Tweet a lot, post on Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn. Write blog posts. Share, share, share. Start building a community. Use social media to promote your blog and share your posts. You can also share posts by others that you think are relevant and interesting. For help building that community, try ManageFlitter. Sound daunting? Michael suggests using Basecamp, a project management tool. Michael calls it "the ultimate cat herding program." Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. Grow Your Agency Profits With this insight, I hope this improves your strategy for generating new business. This can only be successful by focusing on the processes you within your agency to improve it as a whole but I can help you get through all of it. I can give you advice on what to do when you are presented with new client opportunities as well as the different ways of building agency authority. 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.

Are you looking into business scaling for your agency but just can't seem to getting the wheels in motion? The Four Pillars of Business Scaling In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I talk with Kyle Porter, founder and CEO of SalesLoft, a software that searches through social profiles to help find prospects. Kyle is going to tell us the four things that contributed to the growth of his business, as well as some inbound and outbound marketing strategies and how to build culture. Kyle attributes SalesLoft's growth to these four areas: Focus on product market fit. The more you can understand your customer's pain, the better solutions you can offer. Creating an engine for client acquisition via inbound and outbound marketing, as well as a team of closers. Client delightment. It's about exceeding expectations and taking them beyond just being satisfied. Culture. Kyle says this is the area he focuses on most. By creating these systems, you will have a foundation for success for business scaling. Each area builds on another: empathy for your customer creates better solutions, which builds the content for marketing, which makes the sale that delights the client, which positively reinforces the culture. Culture, culture, culture. Culture is so important, it deserves its own section. "Life is too short to not love every minute you're in the office," says Kyle. He's worked hard at SalesLoft's core values: positive, supportive, and self-starting. [quote]Have fun. Get shit done. Grow the business.[/quote] Tips for getting those inbound leads. Kyle started nurturing those inbound leads by getting to know the thought leaders in his industry. It wasn't about asking them for something right away. No, he followed their social profiles, promoted them when they did something of value, and began building a relationship. He also does a lot in building a community for sales professionals. And let's not forget about content. Kyle makes sure that he's putting out content on a regular basis. Content Pro Tip - Have trouble finding the time to sit down and produce content? I record my blog on my iPhone, and then shoot the recording over to my virtual assistant. The blog and the show notes are then transcribed for me, and put on the website. I just have to review and schedule. SalesLoft and outbound strategy. Identify your ideal customer profile and use SalesLoft (or any tool, but I recommend it because I use it) to build an accurate and targeted list of those profiles. Once the list is compiled, use a cadence of emails, phone calls, and social drips until you get an appointment with the customer. Your initial email should be short and simple. Send them an email, follow-up with a phone call. Also, try monitoring them on social media. See what they're tweeting about so you can find something relevant to get them to open your email or take your call. There are even some free tools to help you weed through all the social media noise and find the details you want from the people you're interested in. Try Newsle and Nutshell Mail. The new school of sales. The old school way was to have an entire department dedicated to sales, but only the tiniest sliver of that department was focused on prospecting new business. New school sales is broken out into two divisions: the part that's going after the money and the part that's going after the appointments. The part that's going after the appointments is the sales development process. People target the audience with a specific objective. This allows for a shift in how the business thinks, empowers people to go after their mission, and enables specialization. Next Steps for Your Agency If the next steps for your agency are business scaling, I hope you found this helpful and you achieve the goals you have set for both yourself as an agency owner and the business itself. If this is only the first of a list of obstacles in your way, I have you covered. I have probably experienced all the different struggles for an agency owner through my own experience and I 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 tell you the best ways to stop losing money on projects, why performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your agency as well as why including remote working or freelancers in your team can be beneficial in the long run. You can learn more 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. Find 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.

In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Gene Hammett about how to get unstuck so we can each reach that next level. Gene is a business coach who loves working with businesses to find new strategies including marketing strategies to move forward. He is also the host of Leaders in the Trenches, a podcast where he offers insights and tips from leaders and today's entrepreneurs. You should definitely check it out, especially episode 6, featuring me. Getting your business unstuck. You probably do a lot of marketing for your clients but hardly any for yourself. Sure, referrals come in because you're great at what you do, but it doesn't happen frequently enough to help move to the next level. And the clients coming in aren't always the right kind of clients. Being really intentional about the kind of agency you want to be gives you the freedom to create amazing solutions and land those high-profit projects. You want big names; the ones that really allow you to be creative. But you're not going to get there if you don't start marketing yourself. If your website isn't enticing to you, how is it going to attract anyone else? Stop making the time excuse. If the reason you haven't been marketing yourself is that you don't have the time, it's because you're doing too much. You need to be building your team out and delegating. If you're putting the right people and the right processes into place, you'll be able to get out there and grow your business. You simply can't do everything, everyday. You need to outsource! Find people with more expertise than you to do the things that they do best, so you can go out and do what you do best - sell your business. If you're not doing what you want to be doing because you're too bogged down in the details, then something is wrong. Try this exercise from episode 22 of Gene's podcast: write down everything you want to create and then write down what you're willing to give up in order to do it. It's all about finding your passion. It may seem counterintuitive, but taking on a broad spectrum of clients isn't going to make you money or help you grow. Niching gets you the kind of work you want and positions you for long-term growth. Foot in the door approach. Okay, so you've found your niche - now how do you get the clients? Gene offers these two points: Think of where you can create more opportunity with the people that already know and like you. Remember, people are 20 times more likely to do business with you if they are already a paying customer. Look at the people who have been in your pipeline for a long time and identify some small service that can get your foot in the door. It's not about making a profit at this point. It's about changing the relationship and turning a prospect into a client. The good news, according to Gene, is that digital agencies can do the second point really well. Use your niche to find businesses that are absolutely hungry for what you have. Figure out what you can give away to get their attention and then identify the service you can provide to convert them to a paying customer. After that you can introduce your core services. Get your foot in the door first, and the rest will follow. Marketing Strategies for your Own Agency Using the best marketing strategies not only for clients but having a clear focus on your own marketing strategies with get your agency in front of new potential clients. I have probably experienced all the different struggles for an agency owner through my own experience and I 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 tell you the best ways to stop losing money on projects, why performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your agency as well as why including remote working or freelancers in your team can be beneficial in the long run. You can learn more 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. Find 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.

In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Joe Koufman who gives us insights into setting up technology to build leads over time, and tips for winning big pitches for your agency. Joe has been doing business development for digital agencies for over a decade. Most of us rely on referrals from clients to grow our business. In fact, we get excited when someone from an existing client changes jobs because it gives us a new referral opportunity. Now, I'm not knocking referrals but as Joe points out, it's not sustainable. Use technology. According to Joe, you need to implement best practices and repeatable marketing practices. Utilize CRMs and marketing automation to create content and nurture your leads over time. It's something that very few agencies do, but it's an invaluable practice. In addition to using tech to help you create content, it will also help you determine whether a lead is really dead or not. Don't just assume! You won't know if you aren't keeping track of your leads and interactions with them. Make sure you have the infrastructure. You need to put the right infrastructure in place to be able to handle new business. Build a team devoted to building new business. If you don't have a team, dedicate someone to serving that function for your business. You need to have someone responsible to responding to RFP's, prepping the company for pitches, and identifying new business opportunities. You, or someone on your team, needs to be getting out there and networking to find new business. And don't just go to the same old events every other agency does. Joe suggests trying to go to industry-specific trade shows and conferences to talk to potential prospects. Here's where you can get a sense of what this specific industry needs and find new opportunities for business. Winning Big Pitches - What does an agency big pitch look like? Ever wonder what it's like to do a $1.5-$2 million pitch? Joe shares his experiences and offers some advice as to how smaller agencies can do better and move on to winning big pitches. Joe's big pitches involved teams of people. People focused on making sure the pitch goes well, people creating content, and so on. Joe's team usually consisted of 6-8 people in the actual pitch with him keeping everything running smoothly. Joe's big pitch tip for smaller agencies: make sure you're doing something to show the client that you understand them. Not necessarily something that's solving a specific problem of theirs, but showing you care and aren't just giving a canned pitch. Make them feel special. Getting to the next level in your agency. Joe's biggest tip for getting your agency to the next level is to make sure you nurture leads over time so when the client is ready, you're there to work with them. Joe uses social media to maintain a more personal relationships with prospects and clients. He uses their shared interest to help build better, longer relationships over time. BONUS TIP - Joe suggests you check out the book, The Challenger Sale. It talks about the best way to approach a prospect with insights, teaching and offering solutions. Take Your Agency to Next Level So once you have established a strategy for winning big pitches with clients, what's next on your list of improvements? By taking a step back, you can look at the bigger picture of your agency and focus on areas you haven't explored yet as well as struggles you need to focus on to improve your business and then check out how I have all you need to get through these obstacles. I have advice to share with you from how to implement Facebook in your marketing strategy, ways of building authority to improve your agency or the best way to pitch to big brand clients. If growth is your focus, I've discussed the different phases of growth within your agency and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell your services to more customers. You can learn more about my career and experiences 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, did you know I have a Youtube channel? 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.

In this session of The Smart Agency Masterclass, I chat with Don Beehler who tells us about how to get more press, what free tools are available to get agency promotion in the press and some of the biggest mistakes agencies make. "Use PR to gain credibility and level the playing field." ~ Don Beehler It's all about helping your agency or business tell its story to the audience you want. Unfortunately, a lot of smaller companies just don't recognize the power of PR and how it can help them gain credibility through agency promotion. Or, if they do understand PR's power, they're too busy. With good PR, you don't need teams of people and tons of money to get yourself noticed. Third parties - like news and influential bloggers - can essentially endorse you as an expert in your niche. After all, they wouldn't be talking about you if you didn't know what you were talking about, right? Don't just sporadically spout on social media. Okay, you don't exactly know what you're doing, so you just post here and there about what your company does. Don agrees that some social media activity is better than none, but he has tips for taking it to the next level. Become knowledgeable about the news media, how it works, and what they're looking for. Find the right person, at the right outlet, at the right time (hint: you can find all this by being knowledgeable!) Be consistent and strategic. You may even want to develop a press persona. By knowing what reporters and bloggers want, you can make it easy for them to use you as a resource. Develop relationships with them! Follow their social media profiles, read their blogs, and make comments! Tools to create opportunities. There are lots of tools out there which can aid you in helping reports or bloggers, and this is a great opportunity to create conversations. Publicity services like Help A Reporter Out are a great way to link yourself up with a reporter looking for a source. You can also use Blogger LinkUp, which gives you the chance to catch the attention of influential bloggers in your field. But don't just offer yourself as a resource without being able to back up your knowledge. Blog about your niche, offer insights on social media. Remember - it's easier to get in front of the media if you're a specialist rather than a generalist. Once the article is out there, don't be afraid to promote yourself! Post it on your own blog, retweet it, and link to it on your website. Tell everyone! Also, Don says don't just limit yourself to articles or blog posts. A lot of times, we have great stories right under our noses and don't even recognize them. Talk about sponsorships, volunteer work, and awards you've received. It may not be the most earth shattering PR stuff, but it is still opportunity. The two things you can do right now to get agency promotion in the news. Develop a written PR plan. It will help you target your coverage, stay focused, and remain consistent. Become a source for your niche in the news media. Being well-spoken, responsive, and friendly go a long way in helping you build relationships with the right people. Building a Better Agency Now that you know how to achieve the agency promotion you need to take it to the next level, there may be other business struggles you need to focus on. Don't worry, I have all you need to get through these obstacles. No matter what you need advice on, I have more than likely covered it. From topics such as handling a recession to ways of using your social media community to expand your brand awareness. Or maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in easing through agency growing pains? I have all the information you need to help you through it. 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 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.

In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Alex Harris, of Alex Designs, a company specializing in conversion rate optimization, landing page optimization, and e-commerce web design. Alex talks to us about value propositions and what your agency website is doing wrong right now. I've said it before, and Alex will say it again - it's all about your niche. You need to define your unique role within your own space. You have to understand who your target audience is so that you can gain a clear understanding of their needs. Once you've identified these two things, you will be able to create your unique value proposition and target to your audience. This value proposition will help show the target audience you are a credible authority within your niche. Alex was doing conversion rate optimization before anyone else. This was (and is) his value proposition, and he positioned himself as the leader. He remained number one in the industry for years and did so by clearly defining his goals and understanding his target audience. Failure and moving forward. [quote]Failure doesn't mean you'll never succeed.[/quote] You need to learn from your mistakes and move forward. When asked how to get passed a particular barrier, Alex gives these tips: Decide your mindset. Are you a dabbler? A stressor? Or are you a master? Learn from your failure. Find other people who have overcome similar barriers and seek advice. Don't forget to keep seeking clarity. Failure can be a hard blow, one that clouds your vision. Keep your eye on the prize, though. Once you know where you're going, you can create the necessary steps to get yourself there. How to set micro-goals. You have to continuously push yourself to accomplish and succeed, but you can't focus on everything. Alex uses micro-goals: small, manageable goals to be reached within 90-day time periods. "It's not about 5-10 year goals anymore. Things now move so quickly that shorter timeframes are better." What are you doing wrong on your agency website right now? According to Alex, you need to be doing better on clarity and consistency. Make sure that no matter where on your agency website the user is, they clearly understand what you do. Your value proposition needs to be prominent on each page. Use good message matching to ensure that no matter what page of your website a user lands on, it's consistent with their search. You also need to be giving away something in return for getting their email addresses. How about a free PDF download of some of your best tips or helpful infographics? You want to get the user to like you and to trust you, so that you're able to nurture and convert. What's Alex's #1 tip? Set up a feedback loop. Find out what your best customers like and keep doing it. Find out what people don't like and stop doing it. Alex's choice for helping with this is Qualaroo, to help identify and capitalize on web visitor revenue opportunities. What's Next for Your Agency? When you know how to improve your agency website by knowing what to avoid, this opens your agency to more potential client opportunities. However, without laying the ground work this could cause more issues than benefits. Check out how I can help you get through these obstacles. I can give you advice on how to increase conversions on your website, how to snap up client opportunities as well as ways to build authority to improve your agency. If growth is your focus, 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 more about my career and experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading 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.

Inbound Marketing as a Tool for Agency Business In this session of The Smart Agency Masterclass, I chat with Max Traylor, director of client services for Innovative Marketing Resources, an inbound marketing agency. Max tells us how he got started in inbound marketing and explains how it can be an amazingly profitable tool for your business. Max's ah-ha moment. The concept of growing your business by providing valuable information has been around a long time. "I remember my father and grandfather doing it as part of their businesses," Max recalls. Inbound marketing is based on the same concept, just with different technology. Take a look at the money you're spending on marketing. Is it generating business for you? If not, you need to look into inbound marketing. But why would I give it away for free? It does seem counterintuitive. Why would you just give away your knowledge? It really does work; all you need is that first little win. Max remembers his ah-ha moment as being life-changing. [quote]Someone calling you saying, 'The reason I'm calling you is because of the white paper you posted' is an amazing feeling.[/quote] The blog post that started it all. The first thing Max gave away was in the form of a blog post about inbound marketing and its process. He gave the post to a client he was doing some web design for, and the client immediately saw value in his words. Max was hired on the spot for inbound marketing. (This was before he even had an inbound marketing business!) Shift priorities and make time. We're all busy. At times it even feels like we're too busy to do anything else. To Max, this lack of time to focus on things is actually confusion about your goals. He says as soon as you get specific about what you're targeting, everything will open up. "Start with a goal to shift your priorities and suddenly you'll find you have the time to make it happen." Pro Tip: Have a bunch of ideas hit you when you're out and about? Use the recording function on your phone to make sure you don't lose them. Now that your priorities have shifted, you can start to get a better vision of where you're going. With that better vision, you can become laser-focused on a specific audience. "Everyone wants to feel special. People want to feel like a particular piece of content was made just for them." How do you give them that special feeling? You have to discover what's motivating them. Why are they coming to your website? Are they just browsing for helpful information or are they looking for something immediately? Learning about your audience is what helps you provide the right information. You don't want to give them too much information though. "If they don't need the information to make a purchasing decision, then you don't need to provide that information." The three emails. Max does email nurturing in three parts. First there's the email that builds trust. You're helping them understand their problem. Next, you email them some solutions. Then you provide them with information to make a decision. Email nurturing is all about helping the client get unstuck. You're giving the information to get them to the next step. Become a Better Agency Owner When you have improved your inbound marketing strategy and process, it's time to look at what other improvements you need to become a better agency owner. By taking a step back, you can look at the bigger picture of your agency and focus on areas you haven't explored yet as well as struggles you need to focus on to improve your business and then check out how I have all you need to get through these obstacles. I have advice to share with you from how to increase conversions on your website, ways to implement Facebook in your marketing strategy, why building authority to improve your agency is important and the best way to pitch to big brand clients. If growth is your focus, I've discussed the different phases of growth within your agency and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell your services to more customers. You can learn more about my career and experiences 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, did you know I have a Youtube channel? 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.

In this session of The Smart Agency Masterclass, I chat with Raj Choudhury, co-founder of Spunlogic — which became one of the largest privately held digital agencies in the Southeast, before it was acquired by Halyard Capital in 2008 to form Engauge. We discuss the journey Raj had in growing his business and his advice for owners out there looking to take their agency to the next level. In the beginning. Raj started out doing what he loved. In their early 20's he and his business partner, Jeff Hilimire, were building basic websites mostly for the tourism industry. Raj traveled the globe, building websites for ski resorts and backpacking groups in exchange for passes. "We didn't really realize what we were doing. We didn't even know what an agency was." According to Raj, "There were no real barriers. We just did something we were passionate about." In fact, it wasn't until they landed a gig for $65,000 that they realized they really had a business on their hands. The realization that they could sell. Like most agencies, Raj's experienced growth in stages - having one to five people, to 10-18, 20-25, and so on. Sometimes companies stall out at a certain stage for various reasons. Maybe they're comfortable being a mid-sized agency. Or perhaps they just don't know what to do next. "We grew because we were very aggressive in nature," Raj says. But it wasn't making money motivating them. They were just passionate about what they did. "It went from being a hobby to being a business." For agencies looking to make it over the next level of 10 employees, Raj says to be smart about your sales pipeline, "Don't underprice yourself because cash flow is a problem." He's right. [clickToTweet tweet="Be disciplined about how you handle your cash flow or else you'll find yourself in a constant struggle." quote="Be disciplined about how you handle your cash flow or else you'll find yourself in a constant struggle."] Early on, Raj brought salespeople onto his team believing it would help secure business. What he ended up learning is that salespeople are great at finding and cultivating relationships, but it's the founders who are usually best at closing the deal. Building a culture and team you can trust. Raj attributes the company culture to their being so young when the business started. It was about having fun, sharing experiences, and being edgy. They were a family with everyone passionate about making the business a success. Though he does share a word of warning, "As you grow, be sure to take a look at your staff. People who do well at small agencies may not do well at a mid to large agency." As far as building a team you can trust, Raj says to take a look in the mirror and ask yourself if you're ready to let go. If you're not, you may not have the right people around you, or you simply may not be ready for the growth. If you want to get to the next level, you'll need to learn to delegate responsibilities. "You can't be effective if you micromanage," he says, "You've got to share the load and trust your team." Part of delegating and team trust comes from you taking the time to help your business thrive. Don't just be a reactionary leader. If you're constantly taking meetings and putting out fires, you're not helping your business. The low points. It wasn't all rainbows and sunshine for Raj. "We made so many mistakes," he admits. Instead of looking at the mistakes as failures, Raj says they took them down new paths. He doesn't regret the experience learned from making mistakes, including the knowledge of when to pull the plug. Admitting there is a problem and knowing when to just stop, is a big - often hard - lesson learned. When you're just starting out, landing that $50,000 project feels amazing. It feels less than amazing though when you realize that project actually ended up costing you $100,000. It's that kind of mistake Raj says led them to start using discovery scoping. A discovery phase can really help you get a better understanding of the client and the unknowns. Next Level Agency: Building long-term client relationships. It's not just about landing the client. You want to build long-term relationships with them. Raj did this by making sure the client looks amazing all the time. This way they'll remember you down the road. He also advises allowing your team to build relationships with their counterparts in the client's company. It helps to build trust, as well as identify new opportunities. Another thing Raj did was host lots and lots of round tables, including topics from email to emerging tech, and so on. They invited clients and let them network amongst themselves. "It wasn't a sales meeting," he says, "but it still helped promote our brand." By creating a community for their customers, Raj's company was able to build trust and drive business. 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

Are you ready to make your agency the niche authority in your industry? In his second appearance on my show, Simms discusses the big impact writing a book had on growing his business, in both expected and unexpected ways including giving his agency niche authority. If you have ever wondered how to become a leader in your market and a niche authority, you've got to listen to this episode. Simms Jenkins is the CEO of Brightwave Marketing, which is a full service email marketing agency with big clients like The Weather Channel, Cox, and Lowes. Don't be afraid to be special. Sometimes we find ourselves thinking doing more is better, and doing a lot is great. Simms doesn't want us to be afraid of being specialists. He points out that a lot of agencies are good at the things they're doing, but they aren't actually great at any of them. We decided early on that we were going to be great at what we did. Brightwave's goal was to be the best in email, so they chose to focus on it entirely. It was this singular commitment to their niche that made the company a leader in email marketing. There were times they branched out into other areas, but quickly realized they were making a mistake. "It's easier to be a thought leader if your focusing on one area. You'll have a hard time separating yourself from the pack if you do a lot of different things." Motivation to write a book. Writing a book was always something in the back of his mind, but Simms admits that the first book probably wouldn't have happened when it did if the publisher had not approached him. Hoping to fill a void in the market, the publisher asked Simms to write some good, fresh information on email marketing. The result was his first book, The Truth About Email Marketing. Years later, Simms wrote a second book, The New Inbox, which addressed the changes social and mobile had on email. I ask Simms what it was like trying to write that first book and if he has any advice for people thinking about writing one of their own. According to Simms there aren't a lot of reasons not to just go ahead and write. In the past, publishers were needed to give you credibility and get your book on the shelves, but now with self-publishing, "all you need is content and drive," says Simms. His advice is to start writing publicly, if you're not already doing so. It helps build your confidence, as well as awareness about your message. Start a blog, keep a journal, write articles, speak at events, and talk to people. Find out what's going on in your industry and write content around that. But don't think you need to write a book just for the sake of having written a book. Think about who your potential readers will be, and what they would like to read. "Book or not, make sure you're putting out content," he says. Keep from feeling overwhelmed. Instead of thinking you need to write a whole book in one sitting, Simms recommends breaking it up into smaller, more manageable chunks. He suggests creating an outline to "take that big scary goal down to little doable goals." You'll have to do the marketing. Unless you're one of the breakout sensations, you'll likely have to do a lot (no, probably all) of your book's marketing. Even if you have a publisher, you shouldn't rely on them to help. Figure out who would benefit from your book and start marketing to them. Simms also used his speaking engagements to help promote the books. If he was delivering a keynote at a conference, he would provide the attendees with a copy of the book. He says he also experimented with social media, as well as Amazon and Kindle. "We would give away free copies or discounted copies. It seems counterintuitive, but it's about getting the book in the hands of people that would benefit most from it and raising awareness." So did the book help Simms get more business? He says it's hard to tell, since his company doesn't spend money on marketing, but it did help separate them from the pack. "It's nice to talk to a prospect and have them tell you they have a copy of both your books on their bookshelf." Certainly that does give Simms a leg up over all the other agencies who don't have books on prospects' shelves. After Niche Authority, What's Next? When you have established niche authority for your business, this may only be one of the goals or challenges you have within your agency to take it to the next level. I have covered topics from facing failing economies and recessions or how a speaking opportunity can create business for your agency. Or maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and sell your agency for a larger profit? I have all the information you need to help you through it. You can learn more about my life and my experience as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our 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 more from m

How to Transition to From a Small to Big Agency Growth Rich Wilson is the CEO of Big Scary Cranium who recently transitioned from a one man shop to achieve big agency growth transforming into a million dollar agency. (With a bunch of full time employees!) I talk with Rich about some of his biggest challenges, what he's learned, and mistakes he's made along the way. Failure is forensic. If you're an entrepreneur chances are you expect success, and probably put a lot of pressure on yourself to succeed. And like most entrepreneurs, you're terrified of failing. Rich recommends looking at failure in a different way. "Look at what went well. Look at what went wrong." For Rich, being able to moderate and handle failure is an important skill for entrepreneurs. Expect there to be disappointments. Learn from them and move on. Don't neglect your relationships. Rich works hard at maintaining his relationships, even when he's busy. While he admits that following up isn't always the easiest thing to do, he strives to do it. You never know when you'll need to call on that relationship down the road. Problem solving for happy clients. Rich believes in focusing on the client and making them the superstar. Part of that focus comes from having a total commitment to solving client problems. By understanding what your ideal customer looks like, you can develop a strategy for dealing with them. He warns against becoming a people pleaser, though. W-2 vs. contractor. When it comes to full-time hires and contractors, Rich says it's all about what kind of business you are and what kind of expectations you have. You need to set up goals - whether it's grow and bring on full time or flex in size with contractors - so that you know how to get from Point A to Point B. "As an entrepreneur, you probably specialize in one area, but you need five things to run a business." As far as who to hire, Rich warns against bring on a bunch of mini-you's. Of course you are really great, but it's having a good diversity that makes for great teams. This way you get the right people to help you figure out where you're weak. He also recommends using assessment tools to learn about potential hires and determine where they might fit in with the team. He uses Introspective Advantage to help him find people for his team. Rich on getting to the next level. "It's all about the relationship with the client." Rich calls it "land and expand," also known in the web world as incremental engagement. Build relationships with clients where you can add value, not just grind out work. He also warns against staying too comfortable in your niche. "You're good at one thing if you're small, but don't be afraid to open the scope of what you do. Otherwise someone else will swoop in." Want to Grow Your Agency and Become a Better Agency Owner? If you want to take your agency to the next level and bring in more clients to achieve the big agency growth Rick talked about, I've the best agency advice for you! You can find these tips, tricks and insights by checking out our blogs covering all your need to know topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my Youtube channel!

How to Land Big Name Clients For Your Agency Want to know how out how a Digital Agency (TwentySix2 Marketing) agency went on to land big name clients ranging from Coke, AutoTrader, Microsoft, and Verizon Wireless. TwentySix2 Marketing has been a leader in the online marketing industry for over a decade, providing services in search engine optimization, paid search, social media marketing, and content marketing. This Internet thing is going to be huge. John remembers starting out at a cheap wooden desk, making cold calls and contemplating the enormity of this new thing called the Internet. He and his company have come a long way since then and have been able to land big name clients but he shares some of the biggest challenges he had starting out. He talks about how creating momentum was a problem, "There was a time when I wanted to quit everyday." Thankfully he didn't quit and attributes a lot to the people around him who encouraged him to keep going. He also points out that networking can be a challenge, but the struggle is worth it. "You get a lot of results from your relationships," John says. He encourages people starting out to join boards and network with peers. These peers can end up as partners, and later help you land bigger clients. John's biggest tip for all business relationships - "Make a deposit before you make a withdrawal." In other words, do something for someone before asking them for something. They're more likely to remember you down the road. Passionate People. Good people are key to getting through obstacles. But John admits that - at times - finding the right people was a problem. Occasionally, the people that started with him weren't the right fit once his company grew. Over the years he says he's found his best people have a passion, as well as the right balance of salesmanship and technical expertise. [quote] There's always something in business. There's always a challenge [/quote] Because technology and tools on the Internet change so quickly, John looks for people who strive to keep learning. Staying well informed by reading blogs and following industry thought leaders is key. John also points out the importance of finding people that compliment your style. Are you the salesperson? Then find an operations person to balance you. Or, if you're great at closing the deal, find someone great at creating opportunities and building the relationships that score meetings. You can then finalize the deals together. It's a partnership, not a competition. "Getting the right people in place is how you can be assured the business can operate without you. " If you want a day off once in awhile, you need to establish processes so that the team knows what to do when you're not there. Then go revel in your newfound free time! Keeping the Big Clients. Let's face it - there are a lot of people knocking on the doors of these big name companies. Once you've landed a big one, it's not the time to rest on your laurels! John talks about how staff turnover within the client's company can be a real issue. New guy comes in and decides to go with an agency he knows. He suggests making sure you're continuously talking to your client about the results you're getting for them. If you're proving your ROI, they're less likely to seek someone else. Little fish need love too. John's company has big clients as well as small clients, and that it's this diversification that has helped make them successful. After all, it's not just the big clients that get attention. John points out that every client, every person is different. "You have to ask a lot of questions and listen a lot," he says. "Then ask more questions and listen some more." Work on your business, not just in it. Stop running just your business! John recommends focusing at least an hour a day on your business. Work on improving aspects of your processes little by little so growth and infrastructure keep getting better. How to Improve So I have shared from other experts how you can land big name clients but don't just stop there. To improve your agency, you should 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 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.

Land Big Clients Want to know how you can land big clients and take your agency to the next level? In this episode I'm happy to welcome Del Ross. He was the Vice President of Sales & Marketing of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). Del gives his perspective on the do's and don'ts to land big clients and tells us the #1 thing an agency needs to do to land the big accounts. We talk in length about what he looked for in picking an agency to work with and how to land a big account like IHG. More specifically, during our chat you'll find out... As a big brand, what did you look for when choosing an agency? Expertise and specialization in certain type of media or types of engagements. Del says he wanted agencies that could define what they were best at versus agencies that claimed they could do everything. He was never in the market for everything - he needed certain things at certain times. How can you get your foot in the door of a major brand? Pitch the new and disruptive stuff that a brand might be thinking of, but hasn't tackled yet. INSIDER SCOOP - IHG would invest $5,000 - $50,000 to see if it would work. What should you not do? Don't say "I can do it better than the agency already in place because you have to be relatively unhappy." The agency of record doesn't matter anymore. Focus on being the go to partner. Yow want to be in the strategy and planning meetings. You need to be in the "oh-no, what do we do now?" meetings. Best process or pitch: Be an advisor rather than an order taker. Have a point of view or belief based on some data and proven results, that a certain activity X, leads to result Y. Then be able to engineer it for them. State, "Here is the way you need to do this, and if you do it this way, these are the results you will get." Help determine what a customer is worth. Help calculate the customer's lifetime value. What do agencies do wrong? They focus more on how to spend the budget, rather than on the desired results. A lot of agencies make the conversation about how great they are instead of listening to the prospect. They sell what they want the client to want, not what the client needs. Most agencies fear metrics. Agencies typically just focus on the ROI but should also calculate the Customer Lifetime Value. They push their way in with, "Can we spend 20 minutes to see how we can help?" How to position yourself for big brands to call you. Speak at a conference that provides value and a solution to possibly solving a problem they are having right now. Demonstrate your expertise and establish yourself as an authority. And finally, #1 thing that an agency needs to do to get to the next level. Have a point of view and back it up with data, research and tell your client what they need to do instead asking them what they want to do. Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. Take Your Agency to the Next Level So we have just covered how you can land big clients for your agency but what are the other business struggles you need to focus on for your agency? I have all you need to get through these obstacles. No matter what you need advice on, I have more than likely covered it. From topics such as how a poor website design can affect your leads to how your agency can cope while you work through a recession. Or maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in easing through agency growing pains? I have all the information you need to help you through it. You can learn more about my life and business experience as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by check out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. And if videos are more your thing, i've got you covered! 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.

In this episode, I chat with Richard Warner. Richard is the founder and CEO of What's Up Interactive, a business he started 24 years ago and took from "high tech" fax company to successful digital agency. He is also a nationally syndicated broadcaster, entrepreneur, and business expert. If you want to know how to build long lasting agency business in a competitive industry, this is the advice you need. First who, then what. The "first who, then what" principle from the James Collins book Good to Great, spoke volumes (no pun intended) to Richard. This principle is all about getting the right people on board. Who is going to fit in best with your culture and who is right for the company at the time? Then figure out where they fit within the company. "As we maneuvered, it turned out they weren't the right people. But some people who couldn't find success here, almost always found it somewhere else." He also warns against hiring for growth, a trap many fall into, especially in their early days of business. You need a board. Richard wants you to have a Board of Directors. More specifically, he says "Go, go, go! No matter who you are, you need a board." A board is key to avoiding certain mistakes and an opportunity to solicit the opinions of people who are more accomplished. How do you go about convincing people to be part of your board? Reach out, take them to lunch, explain the level of commitment, payment, and full-on woo them. He also recommends you find yourself a mentor, regardless of where you are at in your career. Why? "No matter what, you need someone to push you and help you learn from their mistakes so you can hopefully avoid making the same ones." Building a great business means, removing yourself from working in the business. It is hard when that day comes and your people do not need you in the day-to-day operations. There is an emotional low but you need to realize that your role needs to change to setting the vision and direction of the company. Only then can you have scale and extreme growth. Rates to cash flow. When asked about assessing his pricing structure, Richard recalls that when they mixed up what they were selling and looked at their pipeline, they realized it was time for rate changes. Take a look at your competitors, and set your rate off of the result, the value, and not off of how long it will take you to complete the project. Otherwise, you run the risk of mucking up your cash flow. But cash flow problems are a real issue for many of us. How can that be avoided? Richard attributes good cash flow maintenance to discipline and healthy margins. He also advises having a good money person either on your board or on your team. Why am I here? "Part of what makes you who you are is the fact that you've blazed your own path." You've had the vision of how to make your company a success, and now you're there. Except, you're suddenly feeling confused; maybe even angry. As the CEO, Richard remembers realizing that his team was so good they didn't need him in every meeting or making every decision. He felt lost and somewhat resentful. His advice for those finding themselves in the same state of confusion, "Once you grow beyond 'I have to do everything and be in control,' that's when you grow." You Know How to Build Long-Lasting Agency Business - Now What? We have covered all you need to build long-lasting agency practices but what else do you need? 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. I hope you found this helpful and can adapt your existing agency and build long-lasting agency business as well as relationships with clients. Please 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.

Whether you are starting an agency or you have an established digital agency, growing your business is usually always a goal. In this article, I share all the tips you need to know to achieve business growth from your agency from an agency owner who grew his agency to one of the best in the country. In this episode we cover: The steps needed to grow and/or sell your business - from hiring the right people to forming a board of directors to defining a niche in your market. How Jeff Hilimire grew his digital agency to one of the best agencies in the country with top clients such as Chick-fil-a, Coke and CISCO. How he sold the agency twice, and what he recommends for take your agency to the next level. What Jeff considers his biggest mistake and his the secrets to successfully growing a digital agency. And finally, learn about the sale process when Jeff sold both Spunlogic (2008) and Engauge (2013). Setting a clear goal for the business. In Jeff's case, the end goal was to be acquired and to make sure decisions were based on this goal. He knew they needed to be one of the biggest agencies in the southeast with a fast growth rate and big name clients. This meant taking on clients and projects that sometimes lost money in order to get the big brand clients. He believed that once they get one big name, they could leverage that name to get even more. How to win big clients. Jeff picked a niche he could own - user experience. In doing that, he was able to start targeting big clients and focused on doing whatever it took to get the first one. He advises: Leveraging your past success once you get one big brand in order to attract more. Should you setup an advisory board? Yes, and you should set it up from the very beginning. Jeff wanted unsolicited advice and wanted to have different skill sets on the board. He picked one person from each discipline: Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Agency. What are some keys to keeping your business growing? You need to have at least one leader focused on growth. Invest back into the business and keep your own salary low. Learning to delegate is key to growing. Give power to your team. Build a culture where people want to have fun. Start a company trip to bring everyone together. Commit 100% to growing. What are two pieces of advice when selling your business? Don't get distracted when you go through the selling process. When you get to the talks about buying, treat it like it won't happen. Building and selling an agency, or any business, is a long, multifaceted process. Learning from those who have gone before you can ease and simplify the process if you are willing to learn. Ready to Achieve Business Growth? I hope you found this information helpful and inspiring for you to achieve those bigger clients and business growth you aspire to. If you are looking for advice on what you need to do as an agency owner or learn how to fast track growth for your agency, I can help. I have a bank of tips, tricks and insights that you can find checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Or if videos are more your thing, you can check out the videos on my Youtube channel!