According to Jessica Rhodes of Interview Connections, there’s a lot of value for business owners, especially agency owners, to try to book guest spots or start their own podcasts. “People are going to work with agencies that feel like they have a personal connection with, so by going on podcasts, you’re creating those connections,” says Jessica. Podcasts are hot right now, and while anyone can get started with their own podcast, not everyone is good at it. And that’s where Jessica comes in. In this interview, she shares her tips for how to get started as a podcast guest so hosts will want to interview you, and how to be an excellent, in-demand guest.

Show notes: https://www.proposify.biz/podcast/004

Thomas Umstattd and the team at Fahrenheit tried other project management methodologies before adopting agile, but they found that most of those assume you can plan in specific detail how events are going to unfold six months from now. But anyone who’s worked at an agency knows that if there’s any certainty, it’s that everything is uncertain. Without a proper system, Fahrenheit fed the squeaky wheel of client complaints, which resulted in a negative effect on their agency’s productivity and profitability. In this interview, Thomas talks about how once they switched to the kanban style of agile project management, Fahrenheit doubled their profitability. He breaks down what works about kanban vs scrum for his team, and how you can adapt agile to your business.

Show notes: https://www.proposify.biz/podcast/003

Alex Berman of Experiment 27 talks about how it takes a good mix of marketing channels to market an agency effectively. And what they’ve found is that best way to uncover the right mix for a particular agency is to look at the analytics and data and take a deep dive into what’s worked in the past. With a niche market focused on mobile app, web, and android development; and UX/UI design agencies, Experiment 27 sells agencies on that initial review and then a monthly lead generation retainer from there. Alex points out that while lots of agencies think they can do it all themselves, just because you’ve built a great B2C app, doesn’t mean you’re a great at B2B. As Alex says, “You can get to a pretty decent size based on referrals but by adding some marketing, you can jump a lot more.” In this episode, Alex shares his five steps to successful cold outreach.

Show notes: https://www.proposify.biz/podcast/002

Marcus Murphy of DigitalMarketer talks about the massive shift happening in terms of where people want to buy and where they want to start sales conversations. Networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook aren’t just for social interaction anymore; they’ve become sales platforms. As a result, sales and marketing professionals need to be creative about finding those conversations and engaging with them to grow their business.  

Show notes: https://www.proposify.biz/podcast/001

​We've had a fun two season run of Agencies Drinking Beer - lots of great guests, thirst quenching beer, and interesting conversations. But we wanted to change things up a bit so we've got a new name and a new format for our podcast. The soon-to-be-launched Proposify Biz Chat will focus on broader business issues than just those related to agencies. We'll chat with entrepreneurs, founders, and business adventurers who will share insights and actionable advice to help you close more deals, expand your client base, and grow your business. ​We hope you'll continue to listen to and engage with our new podcast - there's lots of juicy stuff ahead! The show launches in the next couple of weeks and you don't have to do a thing. Just stay subscribed and you'll be notified when a new episode is ready to rock. Thanks to everyone for listening and supporting Agencies Drinking Beer. We're looking forward to the next chapter! (or should we say, episode?)

This week on Agencies Drinking Beer, we interview Andy Frey of meltmedia, a development agency that builds custom software, mobile apps, and enterprise level web projects, based in Tempe, Arizona. After a 30-year career as a network engineer, Andy made what could be seen as an unusual transition to sales. But going from coding to closing was not only a natural progression for Andy, who had always been an evangelist for his projects, it turned out to be a competitive edge for meltmedia. Having someone on the business development team who could also speak tech language has helped meltmedia expand into other industry verticals and improve how they scope projects. In this interview, Andy talks about the challenges he faced moving from dev to biz dev, what he’s learned transitioning to enterprise sales, and how he manages to keep his technical skills sharp despite not being a full time coder anymore. Andy also offers some advice about what non-tech salespeople selling tech can learn to close more deals.

As founder of Casual Fridays, host of Social Media Social Hour podcast, host and organizer of Social Media Day San Diego, and now creator of social media marketing app, Tack, it might be understatement to call Tyler Anderson JUST a social media marketing expert. He’s walking the walk, talking the talk, and providing his agency and his clients with the ROI to prove it. In this interview, Tyler talks about how Casual Fridays came to specialize in social media marketing and management for the travel and hospitality industries, and how brands and businesses are now expected to communicate through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter to resolve customer service issues. Tyler also explains how he landed Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz.com, as the very first guest on his then unknown podcast, Social Media Social Hour; and how he built the podcast to the point where it now gets 70K downloads a month and acts a huge lead generator for his agency. You’ll also get a sneak peek into Tyler’s new social media marketing app, Tack, created as a way to solve a pain point Casual Friday’s team was experiencing in helping clients manage their social media marketing.

This week on Agencies Drinking Beer, Kevin and Kyle interview Sue B. Zimmerman, also known as #theinstagramexpert about how agencies can get real results from Instagram, promoting themselves and their clients. Sue B. Zimmerman caught the Instagram bug while promoting her retail store in Cape Cod. After using all the usual social media platforms, it wasn’t until she discovered Instagram that she experienced real results, enjoying a 40% increase in sales in just one summer! Now Sue devotes herself full time to sharing what she’s learned to help businesses make money on Instagram. In this interview, Sue shares real tips like how to set up a business account, what kind of content you should focus on, which metrics you should watch, and why it’s crucial to engage authentically. As Kyle says to Sue in the interview, “Anyone can create a hashtag and call themselves an expert but you just proved it. You know your sh*t.”

This week on Agencies Drinking Beer, we take you behind the scenes of our complete redesign of Proposify's user onboarding process in a conversation between our CEO, product manager, and growth manager. ​Empowering a new user to succeed using your product is a critical aspect to retention and growth of a SaaS product. We recently went through the exercise of analyzing our existing onboarding process, researching best practices, and then redesigning an entire new system. In this podcast, our CEO, Kyle Racki; product manager, Ricky Ferris; and growth marketer, Patrick Edmonds share why we made the decisions we did, what we hope to achieve, and how onboarding needs to focus on converting your new signups into longterm paying evangelists.

This week on Agencies Drinking Beer, Kevin and Kyle interview Marty McDonald of Bad Rhino, a social media marketing agency based in Philadelphia. As founder of Bad Rhino, named one of the top social media marketing agencies by Clutch, Marty McDonald has been fascinated by the rapid growth and endless possibilities of social media and digital marketing for more than 10 years. In this interview, Marty talks about developing social media strategy to promote craft beer companies, major league baseball players, and presidential candidates using sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. For example, did you know that major league baseball players aren’t allowed to tweet during a game or talk online about how they’re feeling, good or bad, before a game? Marty also offers his insights into major changes in the industry over the past two years and what we can expect around the online corner.