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

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 edu

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

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.

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 somethin

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

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

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 peopl

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 wa

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. https://traffic.libsyn.com/jasonswenk/The_5_Roles_of_an_Agency_Owner_1.mp3 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 g

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

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 yo

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 wa

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

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 supe

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 wa

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?

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 Fo

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 b

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

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