Journey to $100 Million: Entrepreneurship & Digital Marketing

Whenever we get a new client Erik likes to do something a little bit different, and a little bit special. On episode 159 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Erik shares how a handwritten letter, and being different, can go a long way with clients.

You may be asking, why a handwritten letter when you can just send an email? And the reason behind it is that a handwritten letter is different, and not expected. When was the last time you got a handwritten letter from anybody? Whenever we are onboarding a new client, Erik receives a task to send a handwritten letter to that client. A handwritten letter is a signal that we are taking the relationship very seriously. It is worth our time to sit down, and write a handwritten note. Because hopefully, this client sees this as an indication that they are of value to us.

In the card, Erik shares his thanks for this client putting their trust in us, and that we look forward to working with them. Not only that, but he also included his business card and personal phone number and shares with them that they can give him a call at any time if there are any issues. In some cases, Erik has not even met this person that he is writing this letter, but he understands and knows that this is the decision maker that he is talking to, and wants to give them peace of mind.

It is very important that you do things differently. Yes it is time consuming, yes Erik could even automate this handwritten letter if he wanted to, but he is not going to do that. It only takes about 5 minutes to write this letter, and these clients are worth way more than this 5 minutes. It shows our new partners and clients that we care, and also gives them the ability to call the emergency line before a situation escalates. Think about what you can do that is a little bit different, it is really worth while.

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

Whenever we lose a client, we hold a lessons learned meeting between all of the people who were involved in the project. On episode 158 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in is Erik explains how we have improved our lessons learned process by properly holding lessons learned meetings.

What we used to do, is during these meetings, we would sit together with our team members for about an hour and a half, and all take notes in our notepads about the situation that caused us to lose a client. After the meeting, one team member would write up these lessons learned in a Google Doc, in order to ensure we would always remember these lessons - and have a way for us to go back to look at them if need be. After this Google Doc was written up, Erik realized that this document was an incomplete list of what we had taken away from the situation. The person who took up the task of writing up the document, only mentioned the notes that they took during the meeting - creating a loss of certain lessons. We were missing a couple of aspects that other team members felt were important, and sometimes these lessons were even perceived differently by other members of the team. Even though we were having these meetings, we were not able to capture all of the lessons learned.

Ironically, there is a lesson learned from this lessons learned meeting: how we should properly conduct these meetings in the future. Moving forward, instead of everyone writing their personal notes in their journal, we planned to open up a Google Doc on the conference room T.V., and type out these notes as we go. Instead of trying to reconstruct these lessons from incomplete memory, we were going to lay it all out right then and there. Although this may make the meeting a little bit longer, by the time the meeting is over, we will have a very accurate representation of all that was discussed and all the lessons learned. We always want to ensure we capture these lessons correctly, while also doing it all in one meeting.

If you are going to have a meeting, then it should be the most efficient meeting possible. Get everything out in the open, write it all down, come to conclusions, and then once you walk out of the meeting - there is no need to talk about the meeting anymore! Do not waste your time on these meetings by not properly communicating or documenting them. It is all about communication, so make sure you are communicating properly!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

Do you have a list of your top prospects in the area you service? On episode 157 of The Journey to $100 Million Podcast, listen in as Kevin shares how Array Digital has recently developed a top 100 prospect list comprised of our dream clients. We filled this list with the best companies in our area that produce the most revenue, are the most recognized, and could benefit from the services that we provide. For years we felt these companies were out of reach and too big for us to go after, but that is not the case anymore! Now, we have put this list together in order to pursue these organizations to the best of our ability.

Throughout this process, we have gone through and verified that each of these prospects are great companies to go after, and fit our ideal customer guidelines. Within this list, we know who the right people that we want to talk to are, and how we can market and advertise to them, while also having our sales team calling and making appointments to get in front of these prospects. If you do not have a list of your dream clients that you are in pursuit of, start putting it together - it is never too early to start getting ahead. Be sure to listen in to future episodes to learn the processes we are going to put into place in order to get in front of these prospects!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

Every once in a while there is a new platform that comes out and challenges the status quo. On episode 156 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Erik talks about a newly emerging platform taking social media by storm: Tik Tok. Tik Tok is not a major player quite yet, but the app is attracting a lot of attention. Tik Tok is a rebranding of an app called Music.ly, and is catering to a younger age group - mainly of the high school age range. This app is a way for people to make funny “skits” and videos to different music or soundtracks. Erik has heard about this app a lot recently due to the fact this platform has been seen as a potential threat to Instagram.

Because of this emerging social media platform, Erik wanted to take a look at Tik Tok, since social media is a huge piece to digital marketing. Erik was not exactly interested in making these music videos on the app, but instead was interested because this app was an emerging trend in the digital marketing industry. Whatever industry you may be in, you do not want a trend to explode, and know nothing about it - because then you fall behind. Industries are always changing, so it is always smart to be aware of what is happening and not ignore it. Keep listening to what other industry experts are saying, and if you keep hearing the same thing over and over again, there’s probably something to it and you should check it out. The last thing you want is to be caught off guard!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

Have you ever gotten an email from a client and you’re not exactly sure what they are trying to say or asking for? On episode 155 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Erik shares how he responds to these types of emails, and how these tactics can save you a great amount of time. This happens to us a decent amount at Array Digital where a client (or really anybody) will ask us a question, but in a vague way. When this happens, it is easy to be unsure about what is being asked of you, and more importantly, you do not know what answer this individual is looking for. Erik used to try to decipher these emails, and then would answer the question he thought was being asked. If he could not figure out what the specific question was, he would reply with answers to more than one question that they could have meant to ask. Erik used to try to anticipate or interpret what these individuals were asking.

What Erik found was, a majority of the time he tried to do this, he was incorrect in his interpretation. The question he thought was being asked was not the question at all, and in trying to figure this out, he was wasting a lot of time and energy to answer the wrong question. Now, Erik found it was helpful to reply back asking for confirmation of what the email meant, while also giving an explanation for why he did not understand the email. When you communicate through email, it is crucial to understand what the question is - so nothing is left unsaid, and problems can be taken care of in a better manner. Erik used to write these long (multiple paragraph) emails, and came to the realization that he would not want to read an email like that himself. Because of this, he started to ensure his emails were short, and quick to the point - and that led to him getting the answers he wanted! Streamlining your email process can help reduce miscommunication, and problems can be solved - faster!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like a train wreck is about to happen? Today on The Journey to $100 Million Podcast, listen in as Erik revisits a situation in which we had to make a game-time decision, and had to decide whether or not to take a big risk. One of our clients that had an e-commerce site had been having some issues. Black Friday was right around the corner, and we had to decide whether or not to try and improve the site before their biggest day of the year, or just to cross our fingers and hope for the best.

This client had been having problems with the site all through the fall of 2018, and we had made a big change in October in order to improve the site overall. As we were watching this site throughout the month, we started to see that some performance issues were creeping back in. Because of this, we anticipated a problem with the site on Black Friday, knowing how many visitors there were going to be due to the promotions being implemented for the holiday. We debated if we should take massive action (which is very risky), or if we should just hope for the best and trust the site. We wanted to make sure that our client was not in a situation where something could go wrong on their biggest day of the year. Want to know what decision we ended up making? Tune in on today’s episode!

Have there been instances in your company where you had to decide very quickly what you were going to do to take care of a client problem? Let Erik know! Reach out at [email protected], or @iamErikJOlson on all social media!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

When you are thinking about your company and its goals - are you doing your job as a lifestyle? Are you working to live or living to work? Are trying to build something bigger than yourself? Or, are you just getting by? Today on Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Erik explains the importance of going the extra mile while trying to grow a business.

It is not easy to build a company, and it is going to require a little bit of extra work. If you want to build a company, a 9-5 work week just isn’t going to cut it. How do you expect to get ahead if you are just putting in the minimum amount of work that is required just to keep a job? If you want to get ahead, and if u want more than average results, you have to put in more than average work. No need to brag, don’t get lazy, just put in the work and you will see results.

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

Do you have certain services that you wish every client had? Today on The Journey to $100 Million Podcast, listen in as Kevin talks about requiring fundamental professional services for each of your clients. We started requiring fundamental professional services about 6-8 months ago here at Array Digital. These professional services are ones that we include in every single contract or proposal that we send to a customer regardless of what other services that they may get from us. We do not do this to make extra money. Instead, we do this to price ourselves out of the small work we don’t want to do, as well as we feel that these services are something we have to provide in order to have a successful relationship with the client.

These services include things like the digital agency of record, reporting & reviews, website optimization, advertising optimization, dedicated project managers, as well as other services. This may sound like a lot of stuff, and may not apply to you, but as a digital marketing agency - we feel these are some of the services that must be added in order to have a successful overall strategy. No matter what we sell to a customer, they have to get this service. If they do not want these services, then the client is probably not a good fit anyways. These services truly help us do the best job we can. Some of this stuff takes time, but is always worth it, and you can do a better job for every client you have.

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

On a regular basis, we evaluate the services we provide to our clients. Around 6 months ago, we added a service which we called call-tracking. On today's episode of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Erik explains why we recently stopped offering this service to our clients and prospects. Call-tracking is when you list a specific phone number that goes through a third party system on an ad/site page in order to understand where certain calls are coming from. Even though this number is different from the office number (so you understand where these calls are coming from), your office number is still the number that rings. The reason for this is because as a marketer, you want to be able to show that there are calls stemming specifically from your ads or other work you may be providing.

The problem with this is that you must verify these calls that are coming in to ensure they are leads, and not just spam or a returning customer. In doing this, it takes an army of employees/interns to do this and listen to every single call. What we found in this verification was that only 1/3 of these calls were actually leads. We were spending an enormous amount of time and money to confirm these leads - and we suspected that our clients did not care. So, we went out and asked if our clients if they cared about this service, and an overwhelming majority of them stated that they didn't care, or just didn't respond - so we dropped the service. Why were we actually tracking phone calls, if we knew a majority of these calls coming in were complete garbage? When you have the opportunity to simplify your offerings, especially if it is not proving value, do it! The last thing you want to do is take on the burden of extra expenses, and carry them with you to every new client/prospect. If no one cares, don't do it!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

When dealing with an unhappy client, how do you remedy the situation? On today's episode of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Kevin explains the difference in responding to a client that is unhappy via email vs. picking up the phone. When a conflict arises, it is easy to default to a simple email. An email is easy to shoot back, you are able to "take care" of the situation more quickly, and you are able to avoid the possibility of getting talked to in a not-so-nice manner. But, when you send emails back and forth, especially in conflict situations, sometimes the situation can worsen.

When receiving or sending an email, it is possible for the tone to sound mean or angry depending on how you read it. Recently, there was a situation with an unhappy client, and we emailed back a response in order to quickly assist this client. Although the response was intended to be nice and we actually even granted a favor, it escalated the situation. Instead, this email was translated by the client in the wrong tone - and the client was upset at the email. This just goes to show how easily an email can be translated incorrectly. If we pick up the phone and talk it out, these types of situations can get resolved in an easy and nice manner - and end a lot better. You may even realize a client is not actually upset at all, you may have just read their email wrong. The phone isn't broken, so pick it up and give your clients a call. Because, in some cases, an email can turn into a nightmare.

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.