Smart Agency Masterclass With Jason Swenk: Podcast For Digital Marketing Agencies

Do you feel like your agency spends more time being an order taker than providing insight and value to your clients? If so - listen up. It’s time to show your clients how much value you bring their business. You can increase revenue by measuring your client's success and finding new opportunities for them. Data reporting done right can be your secret weapon to growing your agency. In this episode, we’ll cover: How agencies can retain their clients. What KPI’s agencies should measure in their data reporting for clients. How to use data reporting to grow agency business. Steps to acquiring and growing retainers. Today’s guest is Peter Caputa CEO at Databox, a SaaS tool to simplifying analytics and reporting for agencies. He joined Databox after serving as the VP of Sales at Hubspot, so in this interview he brings us a ton of knowledge on retaining and growing clients. How Agencies Can Retain Clients It’s all about reporting. And we’re not talking about just going through the motions of reporting. More like, a

What can you do to stand out from your competition? How can you avoid costly business mistakes that make it harder to grow and scale your agency? In this episode, you’ll get some great advice on this and more from an amazing pro who’s owned three successful agencies over the past two decades. In this episode, we’ll cover: How the agency space has evolved over time. How to avoid costly business mistakes in your agency. Why specializing is more profitable for agencies. What is 48in48? So get this! Today’s guest is Jeff Hilimire who also happened to be my guest on episode #2 of The Smart Agency Master Class more than three years ago! With nearly 20 years of experience owning 3 different agencies, he says his worst mistakes were made over the past 3 years. He’s back on the show this time to tell us how you can avoid those mistakes to successfully grow, scale and enjoy your agency. Jeff started his first agency in 1998 and sold it 10 years later. He stayed with the acquiring agency until it sold again another 5

Are you overwhelmed with tasks that keep you in the weeds instead of working on growing your agency? Are you paying salaried team to do things an hourly assistant could accomplish? STOP IT! Learn how you can increase productivity and save boatloads of time and resources. Plus, learn how to help your sales team be more effective so you can grow. In this episode, we’ll cover: Ways to save time and increase productivity. How to help your sales team be more effective. How to get unstuck from doing everything yourself. Today’s guest on the show is Jeff J. Hunter, founder, and Chief Freedom Officer at VA Staffer, the outsourcing agency he created to help businesses build virtual teams. With a background in IT and virtual project management he knows the ins and outs of getting projects done virtually. He’s here to give us strategies on saving time and ways to help salespeople be more effective. How to Save Time and Increase Productivity Agencies are always trying to land more clients, right? However, there always

Hopefully you already know your agency employees are your biggest asset. But, is your agency “employee-centric”? Do you have the right people in place to find, lead and retain an awesome team? In this episode we’ll hear from a 15-year agency owner about why and how he brought in an HR Director and an agency President to accelerate agency growth. In this episode, we’ll cover: How to know when it’s time to hire an HR Director. Why you might want to bring on an Agency President. When and how to get help growing your agency. Today we have our first ever three-peat guest on the show! Founder and CEO of BrightWave Marketing, Simms Jenkins is making his third appearance and this time he’s sharing the strategies he has used to make sure his team remains his #1 most valuable asset. (You can find his first and second interviews here.) Since the first couple times he was on the show in 2014, Simms says BrightWave has continued to innovate in the email marketing arena. His agency business has doubled and he’s authored

How can you protect yourself and your clients from brand copycats? I recently had some major issues with a copycat and had to take action FAST in order to protect my business and brand. In this episode, learn what you can do to proactively defend your agency and clients’ intellectual property. In this episode, we’ll cover: What is and what isn’t intellectual property? Why register your agency’s brand assets? Tools and tips to keep your assets protected. Today’s guest is Cheryl Hodgson, founder of Hodgson Legal and BrandAide.com. She’s an attorney, advisor, author and expert on everything related to brand protection. Cheryl specializes in intellectual property and brand assets. And, she shares advice protecting your and your clients' brand assets. Cheryl touches on everything from copyrights and trademarks to goods/service names and domain names. What Is and What Isn’t Intellectual Property? Cheryl says often the term “Intellectual Property” is misunderstood. Legally, this term only applies to assets in five

Leadership is seriously hard work. There’s a ton of pressure, juggling and personal sacrifice. Don’t let burnout get the best of you! Learn the signs of a major leadership crash before it happens and how to be a better agency leader by knowing how to stop self-sabotaging. In this episode, we’ll cover: What is a leadership crash? How to identify the signs of an impending leadership crash. How to be the leader your agency needs. Today’s guest is Stephen Mansfield, a leadership consultant to CEO's, celebrities and politicians in crisis. He is also a speaker and author; and his specialty is helping with the recovery of leadership crashes. After years of handling things like major corporation CEO’s affairs and politician’s misuse of power, he has identified 10 signs of a pending leadership crash that will help us stop self-sabotaging traits. Stephen’s on the show to describe some of these signs in a proactive attempt to help us identify and avoid our own leadership crash. What is a leadership crash? A leadership

Do you know what you need to do to stay relevant and significant to your clients? Let’s face it, marketing is an ever-changing industry. And in the agency world, it’s survival of the fittest. So we must adapt or die! Here’s a great story about how one agency transitioned their business model in order to continue to thrive. Think about Blockbuster video - they didn’t adapt to the needs of the industry and are now extinct. Don’t be the next Blockbuster -adapt or die. In this episode, we’ll cover: Why it’s important to adapt in the agency space. 3 Keys to an agency transformation strategy. Why and how you can use vlogging to generate leads. Elizabeth Sosnow is Managing Partner at Bliss Integrated Communications, a 50 person agency in New York City. She’s on the show today to tell us how Bliss transitioned from PR to an Integrated Marketing agency in order to stay relevant in a changing industry. Plus, she shares some great tips on vlogging. Why It’s Adapt or Die in the Agency Space Bliss was founded over 40 ye

If you’re looking for a unique, innovative and low-cost lead gen strategy check out this story. Live events can go far but one agency is using Meetup to find new prospects and turn them into leads while building the know-like-trust factor. Best part is, it’s totally FREE. In this episode, we’ll cover: What is Meetup and how does it work? 6 Steps to creating your own Meetups for lead gen. Using Meetup to capture the attention of big brands. Our guest today is Ali Salman, co-founder of Rapid Boost, a lead gen agency in western Canada. He’s here to share a unique lead generation strategy that generated over $165K in just a few months and continues to keep their pipeline full with new prospects. What is Meetup and Why Use It? Meetup is a social network that facilitates in-person group meetings in various locations worldwide. It’s primarily used to connect people with common interests so they can idea-share, network and help one another. Meetup groups get together in their specific geographic location for social

Top 5 Tips to Accelerate Agency Growth If you have your sights set on your agency breaking 8-figures this episode is a must. Do you want to know how you can accelerate agency growth? Today's guest is an agency owner who's gone from $0 to over 8-figures and he shares his top 5 tips so you can grow too. In this episode, we’ll cover: Why you must niche down to accelerate agency growth. How to reward key employees without giving them ownership. Ways to stop doing all the agency stuff you hate. Our guest today is Chris Spears, co-founder of Arke Systems the agency he started in 2006. Eleven years into the business he's seeing steady growth, has 80+ employees and loves his job! Chris and I go way back to my digital agency days when we were working as strategic partners. His agency has crushed the 8-figured ceiling and he’s on the show to share how you can do it too. 1- The More Niched, the Faster the Growth Chris attributes a lot of his agency’s growth to an early appreciation of niching down. If he could do it a

Facebook Live is one of the hottest ways to generate new agency business. You can spend tons of time and resources sending a hundred emails to your perfect prospects but you’ll earn more trust in just one live video than all those emails combined. Live streaming video is where it’s at... and your competition is not doing it yet, so you will stand out from all the “me too” agencies. So what are you waiting for? In this episode, we’ll cover: Why you need to be on Facebook Live. 6 Steps for starting live video. Tips to set you up for successful live videos. Today’s guest is THE expert on Facebook marketing, Amy Porterfield - an entrepreneur, bestselling author, and social media marketing trainer. Following an amazing career at Harley-Davidson and working with Tony Robbins, Amy decided to give it a try on her own. After overcoming tons of obstacles, she’s become one of the most well-respected Facebook marketers today. She’s on the show to tell us all about why Facebook Live is one of the hottest new ways to gen

We have all gotten them. The bad cold email that makes you feel better about yourself :) Here's a fun interview I did with a buddy of mine from Proposify about the WORST and the BEST email he has ever received when it comes to lead generation. In this episode, we’ll cover: Mistakes to avoid making in your cold sales emails. How to write an amazing cold email. 4 Tips to crafting an effective cold email. Today’s guest is Kyle Racki co-founder of Provposify, a SaaS product for helping agencies streamline proposal writing, get approvals faster and close deals quickly. He tells us how to improve the effectiveness of cold emails in order to keep the conversation alive. Mistakes to Avoid in Cold Sales Emails We’ve all been on the receiving end of some pretty terrible sales emails, right? Whether in your inbox, LinkedIn mail, or similar space they tend put us off. Here’s one from Julie, which Kyle shared as a typical bad sales example… This is one of the WORST cold emails because: It’s too vague. The email says th

Are you worried that defining a niche will limit your agency’s potential? Don’t be. Check out one agency’s story about how they grew past 7 figures in a very specific horizontal and vertical niche. Think: if you got paid on performance alone, what’s the ONE THING you do best to get you paid the most? In this episode, we’ll cover: Why your agency needs a vertical or horizontal niche, or both. When and how to expand your niche. How to get bigger clients and retainers.   Today’s guest is Chris Dreyer, founder of Rankings.io (formerly Attorney Rankings). He’s a client of mine who did a private, full day workshop with me. We were able to supercharge his agency business and since then he’s had amazing growth! Agency leads have increased to 50-60 per day and they broke the 7-figure mark! Chris shares some of the strategies that helped his agency grow easier and faster. Why Choose a Vertical and Horizontal Niche? Chris is a school teacher by trade and was doing some SEO on the side. After a couple years of side job

Growing your agency means hiring great people to help you get there. And hiring top talent shouldn’t be limited by geographic boundaries. On today's show, one agency owner tells us why his agency's increased productivity and sales are the result of having a remote team. In this episode, we’ll cover: Is it time to get an office for your agency? How to be productive with a remote team. Must-have technology for a remote team. Balancing a remote team business model. How to hire remote employees. Tim Cameron-Kitchen is the founder and Head Ninja at Exposure Ninja, the UK-based digital agency he started four years ago. In addition to growing an amazing business in a very short time, Tim has also written four bestselling books on digital marketing. Today, Tim’s here to tell us why his agency’s office space has been vacant for three years and how that has increased productivity and helped him scale his agency. Is It Time to Get Office Space? Starting as a freelancer and occasionally farming out work to other freela

A Full Pipeline Isn’t All You Need to Grow Your Agency Scaling and growth is not just about filling your pipeline. New business won’t mean a thing if you don’t have the right systems in place to support it. Check out the advice from a white label agency that literally exists to help other agencies scale. In this episode, we’ll cover: Why you need more than a full pipeline to grow. 2 crucial systems necessary for scaling. One mistake agencies make trying to scale. How to make decisions for agency longevity. My guest today is here to share with us a few big secrets about scaling. Ryan Meo founded his agency, Scale Squad, nine years ago. His agency white labels in order to help digital agencies scale. So that pretty much makes him the authority on scaling. He tells us what processes and systems are absolutely crucial for growing and how they are more than just having a full pipeline when looking to scale your agency. 2 Crucial Systems Necessary for Agency Scaling If Ryan could travel back in time, he says the

8 Figures in 8 Years: Achieve Agency Growth from 0 to 8 Figures Wonder what it takes to get to your agency to 7- or 8- figures? Today’s guest tells us all about how his agency has grown to 8 figures in 8 years, plus the challenges he’s faced and how he got over them in order to succeed and grow. In this episode, we’ll cover: The challenges/solutions of growing to 7- and 8 figures. Healthy agency profit margin ranges. Challenges of  managing at the 20+ employee level. How to stay relevant as your agency grows. My guest on the show this time is Matt Bertulli, owner of Demac Media, in Canada. Over the last eight years his agency has grown to 95 full-time employees and just crested the 8 figures mark. In Matt’s interview, he was very candid about the struggles and challenges they faced getting to various milestones of growth and how he pushed past them in order to success. What Does Healthy Growth Look Like? Right off the bat, Matt knew in order to cut through the noise his agency needed to specialize. He took

If you’re not using video in your own agency marketing, or if you aren’t getting any traction from your videos check out this episode. Today’s guest tells us why video is one of the best lead generators out there - and how to set yourself up for successful video marketing campaigns. In this episode, we’ll cover: 4 benefits of using video in your agency marketing. #1 mistake agencies make in video marketing. The equipment and pre-planning you need for making great videos. My guest today is Dee Dee deKenessey, Agency Partner Program Manager at Wistia. If you don’t already know about Wistia - it’s time to get out from under that rock. Wistia provides professional video hosting with amazing viewer analytics to help you achieve your video marketing goals. Dee Dee tells us how you can set yourself up for success by weaving video into your marketing. In just one year, Wistia’s Agency Partner Program has grown to 700 agencies with varying levels of experience, from beginner to seasoned veteran. Dee Dee also manages

Are you finding you agency growth moving to fast that you are worried of it burning out or do you think it's moving too slow? In an ever-changing agency environment, does sustainable growth really exist? One of the main questions should be if should agencies concentrate on growing as much and as fast as possible, dealing with the fallout as it occurs? In this episode of Ask Swenk, I take a closer look into what you need to do to achieve and maintain sustainable agency growth and cover all your questions to give you a peace of mind and more... Christian asked: "Do you think there is such a thing as sustainable growth, or should you just aim for as much/fast growth as possible and deal with the new business/onboarding of staff?​"​ ​ Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. What Do You Need to Know to Maintain a Sustainable Business? I hope you found this installment of Ask Swenk beneficial and it helps you

Today’s episode is packed with tips and advice on solving some of the most common obstacles in agency new business sales. My guest, Tim Sanders, covers everything from getting in front of the right prospects to establishing authority, speeding up your sales cycle and getting the contract signed. In this episode, we’ll cover: How to improve agency sales. How to increase your close rate by 300%. The 4 stages to every agency new business sale. With over two decades in the marketing arena today’s guest, Tim Sanders, is here to share of TON of information about agency new business sales. Tim is considered a technology-pioneer, as well as a speaker, author and the founder of Deeper Media. Tim draws on his extensive experience - working with Mark Cuban in internet TV, working as a top Yahoo executive, and as an agency owner himself - to bring some great insight on agency new business sales. How to Improve Agency Sales Tim says Sales is a lot like Creative Design. That’s why agencies are (or should be) absolutely c

If your agency’s workload is constantly in flux you may have considered agency outsourcing... but, giving up control on a piece of a project can be a little scary. Today’s podcast guest is here to explain some of the best practices for managing partnerships and ensuring success for everyone. In this episode, we’ll cover: 4 tips to successful agency outsourcing. Managing difficult agency partner relationships. When to call it quits with an agency partner. My guest today is Tim Barsness, founder and President of Fjorge Digital. Tim got his start as freelancer and from there turned his business into an outsourcing agency with a giant network of partners. He on the show to share outsourcing best practices to ensure solid and profitable relationships. Tim’s agency has handled development for dozens of creative agencies. Over the years, he’s learned what works (and what doesn’t work) in successful agency partnerships. 4 Tips to Successful Outsourcing Communicate early and often. It’s important to treat an outsou

Do You Have a Bad Agency Prospect? Have you ever ignored that little voice telling you to turn away a bad agency prospect? It's hard to walk away, even when you know they're going to be a really bad client. Do you struggle with knowing when or how to say 'no'? All that and more is covered in this episode... Phil asked: "Today I took on a client I know will be a bad one. I have struggled with knowing when to say: I don't think we're a good fit for you. When a client is motivated and wanting to do business with you, but you know they aren't your ideal client - how, when and what do you say to get out of it without sounding like a schmuck? I'll take this guy on, but I've got to get a grip on how to get out of a bad deal." Advice For Your Agency I hope this episode of Ask Swenk was helpful and brings you clarity to any potential bad agency prospects your agency is currently dealing with. If you want to know how to improve your digital agency, you may come across challenges and knowing how to adapt will make you a