not-another-agency

Why You Shouldn’t Start Another Agency! (…and why I did!)

So this title miiiiight be considered click bait. Because we’re not another agency.

After working in (and out of) agencies for years, I realized that no matter how hard my marketing agency team worked whether it was hours invested or out of scope we slid across the table as we hid our cumulative four hours of sleep the night before (between four of us) – that the clients superior’s were never satisfied.

We were missing something. Something BIG.

The funny part is, our clients didn’t even realize it – I mean, I assume. They still paid us +$30k/month, month after month.

We were selling scopes of work that were generic. They were not agile enough to appease the rapidly changing markets and short term sprints needed to meet financial deadlines.

After unsuccessfully convincing other managing partners that we could still be profitable and deliver more agile services, we met somewhere between “let’s not talk about it” and “if you make any changes to their scope you’re outta here.” I occasionally sold an ‘Add-On’ package where clients got what they needed, but had to pay extra.

So how could we deliver such agile services and remain (somewhat) profitable?

PROCESS. And a pretty specific discovery phase.

We’ve developed a combination that allows us to successfully tackle any and all client needs – and even keep our margins high enough to stay in business in a world of competing service providers.

Let’s start with the process.

The main goal of our process is to educate our clients about our services and how we can help them. Everything else is streamlined from here. They stop bothering us. Just kidding… kind of.

When our clients understand our process and approach they are able to realize the value in what we are providing, therefore willing to take on more complex conversations that most marketing agencies may not get a chance to engage in. Plenty of companies can provide a “blanket” offering – we want to provide the RIGHT solution, for the RIGHT client, at the RIGHT time. And trust us – we know this seems like a long sales cycle. It is. So refer a friend?

In addition to our structured approach to sales – we utilize a few checklists and dashboards to provide the basis for our account management components and production preparation. These allow us to measure everything appropriately so that our strategic decisions are guided by data, and not only “best practices”. By having things organized in a very specific fashion (see what Huffpost has to say about us Type A people, but skip 8-11 as they don’t apply to us.) we are able to deliver results with utmost efficiency.

Now let’s chat about the discovery+strategy.

The discovery phase allows us to fully understand the situation at hand (including the competitor landscape). These allow us to have a 360-degree view of the situation at hand before embarking on an execution strategy that is not justly secured by data.

What we uncover in the discovery phase basically defines your digital marketing strategy. It confirms any doubts about required resources needed to accelerate marketing efforts.

We’re not the only ones who think this way.

So, now we’re in the business of providing the RIGHT services at the RIGHT time, even if that means forgoing an egregious retainer. If this sounds like something you want to know more about – contact us. We can tell you more about our approach to see if we should swipe right.

 

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Logan Wells