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

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 ag

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

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

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

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 n

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

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

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

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 w

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

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

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 worki

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

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

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 intera

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

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 under

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

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

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 commitme