Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies

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 your agency in the press and some of the biggest mistakes agencies make.

Use PR to gain credibility and level the playing field.Click To Tweet

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. 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 what your company does. Don agrees that some social media activity is better than none, but he has tips for taking it to the next level.

* Become knowledgeable about the news media, how it works, and what they’re looking for.

* Find the right person, at the right outlet, at the right time (hint: you can find all this by being knowledgeable!)

* Be consistent and strategic.

You may even want to develop a press persona. By knowing what reporters and bloggers want, you can make it easy for them to use you as a resource. Develop relationships with them! Follow their social media profiles, read their blogs, and make comments!

Tools to create opportunities.

There are lots of tools out there which can aid you in helping reports or bloggers, and this is a great opportunity to create conversations. Publicity services like Help A Reporter Out are a great way to link yourself up with a reporter looking for a source. You can also use Blogger LinkUp, which gives you the chance to catch the attention of influential bloggers in your field.

But don’t just offer yourself as a resource without being able to back up your knowledge. Blog about your niche, offer insights on social media. Remember – it’s easier to get in front of the media if you’re a specialist rather than a generalist.

Once the article is out there, don’t be afraid to promote yourself! Post it on your own blog, retweet it, and link to it on your website. Tell everyone!

Also, Don says don’t just limit yourself to articles or blog posts. A lot of times, we have great stories right under our noses and don’t even recognize them. Talk about sponsorships, volunteer work, and awards you’ve received. It may not be the most earth shattering PR stuff, but it is still opportunity.

The two things you can do right now.

* Develop a written PR plan. It will help you target your coverage, stay focused, and remain consistent.

* Become a source for your niche in the news media. Being well-spoken, responsive, and friendly go a long way in helping you build relationships with the right people.

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:

1. Focus on product market fit. The more you can understand your customer's pain, the better solutions you can offer.
2. Creating an engine for client acquisition via inbound and outbound marketing, as well as a team of closers.
3. Client delightment. It's about exceeding expectations and taking them beyond just being satisfied.
4. 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 area builds on another: empathy for your customer creates better solutions, which builds the content for marketing, which makes the sale that delights the client, which positively reinforces the culture.

Culture, culture, culture.

Culture is so important, it deserves its own section. "Life is too short to not love every minute you're in the office," says Kyle. He's worked hard at SalesLoft's core values: positive, supportive, and self-starting. [quote]Have fun. Get shit done. Grow the business.[/quote]

Tips for getting those inbound leads.

Kyle started nurturing those inbound leads by getting to know the thought leaders in his industry. It wasn't about asking them for something right away. No, he followed their social profiles, promoted them when they did something of value, and began building a relationship. He also does a lot in building a community for sales professionals. And let's not forget about content. Kyle makes sure that he's putting out content on a regular basis.

Content Pro Tip - Have trouble finding the time to sit down and produce content? I record my blog on my iPhone, and then shoot the recording over to my virtual assistant. The blog and the show notes are then transcribed for me, and put on the website. I just have to review and schedule.

SalesLoft and outbound strategy.

Identify your ideal customer profile and use SalesLoft (or any tool, but I recommend it because I use it) to build an accurate and targeted list of those profiles. Once the list is compiled, use a cadence of emails, phone calls, and social drips until you get an appointment with the customer. Your initial email should be short and simple. Send them an email, follow-up with a phone call. Also, try monitoring them on social media. See what they're tweeting about so you can find something relevant to get them to open your email or take your call. There are even some free tools to help you weed through all the social media noise and find the details you want from the people you're interested in. Try Newsle and Nutshell Mail.

The new school of sales.

The old school way was to have an entire department dedicated to sales, but only the tiniest sliver of that department was focused on prospecting new business. New school sales is broken out into two divisions: the part that's going after the money and the part that's going after the appointments.

The part that's going after the appointments is the sales development process. People target the audience with a specific objective. This allows for a shift in how the business thinks, empowers people to go after their mission, and enables specialization.

Next Steps for Your Agency

If the next steps for your agency are business scaling, I hope you found this helpful and you achieve the goals you have set for both yourself as an agency owner and the business itself. If this is only the first of a list of obstacles in your way, I have you covered.

I have probably experienced all the different struggles for an agency owner through my own experience and I can help you from what I learned. From what to do with your sales processes, ways to increase your profit margins or how you can build authority for your agency.

I can tell you the best ways to stop losing money on projects, why performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your agency as well as why including remote working or freelancers in your team can be beneficial in the long run.

You can learn more about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

Find more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

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 to get there if you don't start marketing yourself.

If your website isn't enticing to you, how is it going to attract anyone else?

Stop making the time excuse.

If the reason you haven't been marketing yourself is that you don't have the time, it's because you're doing too much. You need to be building your team out and delegating. If you're putting the right people and the right processes into place, you'll be able to get out there and grow your business.

You simply can't do everything, everyday. You need to outsource! Find people with more expertise than you to do the things that they do best, so you can go out and do what you do best - sell your business.

If you're not doing what you want to be doing because you're too bogged down in the details, then something is wrong. Try this exercise from episode 22 of Gene's podcast: write down everything you want to create and then write down what you're willing to give up in order to do it.

It's all about finding your passion. It may seem counterintuitive, but taking on a broad spectrum of clients isn't going to make you money or help you grow. Niching gets you the kind of work you want and positions you for long-term growth.

Foot in the door approach.

Okay, so you've found your niche - now how do you get the clients? Gene offers these two points:

1. Think of where you can create more opportunity with the people that already know and like you. Remember, people are 20 times more likely to do business with you if they are already a paying customer.
2. Look at the people who have been in your pipeline for a long time and identify some small service that can get your foot in the door. It's not about making a profit at this point. It's about changing the relationship and turning a prospect into a client.

The good news, according to Gene, is that digital agencies can do the second point really well. Use your niche to find businesses that are absolutely hungry for what you have. Figure out what you can give away to get their attention and then identify the service you can provide to convert them to a paying customer. After that you can introduce your core services.

Get your foot in the door first, and the rest will follow.

Marketing Strategies for your Own Agency

Using the best marketing strategies not only for clients but having a clear focus on your own marketing strategies with get your agency in front of new potential clients.

I have probably experienced all the different struggles for an agency owner through my own experience and I can help you from what I learned. From what to do with your sales processes, ways to increase your profit margins or how you can build authority for your agency.

I can tell you the best ways to stop losing money on projects, why performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your agency as well as why including remote working or freelancers in your team can be beneficial in the long run.

You can learn more about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

Find more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

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 interactions with them.

Make sure you have the infrastructure.

You need to put the right infrastructure in place to be able to handle new business. Build a team devoted to building new business. If you don't have a team, dedicate someone to serving that function for your business. You need to have someone responsible to responding to RFP's, prepping the company for pitches, and identifying new business opportunities.

You, or someone on your team, needs to be getting out there and networking to find new business. And don't just go to the same old events every other agency does. Joe suggests trying to go to industry-specific trade shows and conferences to talk to potential prospects. Here's where you can get a sense of what this specific industry needs and find new opportunities for business.

Winning Big Pitches - What does an agency big pitch look like?

Ever wonder what it's like to do a $1.5-$2 million pitch? Joe shares his experiences and offers some advice as to how smaller agencies can do better and move on to winning big pitches.

Joe's big pitches involved teams of people. People focused on making sure the pitch goes well, people creating content, and so on. Joe's team usually consisted of 6-8 people in the actual pitch with him keeping everything running smoothly.

Joe's big pitch tip for smaller agencies: make sure you're doing something to show the client that you understand them. Not necessarily something that's solving a specific problem of theirs, but showing you care and aren't just giving a canned pitch. Make them feel special.

Getting to the next level in your agency.

Joe's biggest tip for getting your agency to the next level is to make sure you nurture leads over time so when the client is ready, you're there to work with them. Joe uses social media to maintain a more personal relationships with prospects and clients. He uses their shared interest to help build better, longer relationships over time.

BONUS TIP - Joe suggests you check out the book, The Challenger Sale. It talks about the best way to approach a prospect with insights, teaching and offering solutions.

Take Your Agency to Next Level

So once you have established a strategy for winning big pitches with clients, what's next on your list of improvements?

By taking a step back, you can look at the bigger picture of your agency and focus on areas you haven't explored yet as well as struggles you need to focus on to improve your business and then check out how I have all you need to get through these obstacles.

I have advice to share with you from how to implement Facebook in your marketing strategy, ways of building authority to improve your agency or the best way to pitch to big brand clients. If growth is your focus, I've discussed the different phases of growth within your agency and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell your services to more customers.

You can learn more about my career and experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

If videos are more your thing, did you know I have a Youtube channel?

Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

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 what your company does. Don agrees that some social media activity is better than none, but he has tips for taking it to the next level.

• Become knowledgeable about the news media, how it works, and what they're looking for.
• Find the right person, at the right outlet, at the right time (hint: you can find all this by being knowledgeable!)
• Be consistent and strategic.

You may even want to develop a press persona. By knowing what reporters and bloggers want, you can make it easy for them to use you as a resource. Develop relationships with them! Follow their social media profiles, read their blogs, and make comments!

Tools to create opportunities.

There are lots of tools out there which can aid you in helping reports or bloggers, and this is a great opportunity to create conversations. Publicity services like Help A Reporter Out are a great way to link yourself up with a reporter looking for a source. You can also use Blogger LinkUp, which gives you the chance to catch the attention of influential bloggers in your field.

But don't just offer yourself as a resource without being able to back up your knowledge. Blog about your niche, offer insights on social media. Remember - it's easier to get in front of the media if you're a specialist rather than a generalist.

Once the article is out there, don't be afraid to promote yourself! Post it on your own blog, retweet it, and link to it on your website. Tell everyone!

Also, Don says don't just limit yourself to articles or blog posts. A lot of times, we have great stories right under our noses and don't even recognize them. Talk about sponsorships, volunteer work, and awards you've received. It may not be the most earth shattering PR stuff, but it is still opportunity.

The two things you can do right now to get agency promotion in the news.

1. Develop a written PR plan. It will help you target your coverage, stay focused, and remain consistent.
2. Become a source for your niche in the news media. Being well-spoken, responsive, and friendly go a long way in helping you build relationships with the right people.

Building a Better Agency

Now that you know how to achieve the agency promotion you need to take it to the next level, there may be other business struggles you need to focus on. Don't worry, I have all you need to get through these obstacles.

No matter what you need advice on, I have more than likely covered it. From topics such as handling a recession to ways of using your social media community to expand your brand awareness. Or maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in easing through agency growing pains? I have all the information you need to help you through it.

You can learn more about my life and my experience as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

If videos are more your thing, don't worry, i've got you covered! You can check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

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 understanding his target audience.

Failure and moving forward.

[quote]Failure doesn't mean you'll never succeed.[/quote]

You need to learn from your mistakes and move forward. When asked how to get passed a particular barrier, Alex gives these tips:

• Decide your mindset. Are you a dabbler? A stressor? Or are you a master?
• Learn from your failure.
• Find other people who have overcome similar barriers and seek advice.

Don't forget to keep seeking clarity. Failure can be a hard blow, one that clouds your vision. Keep your eye on the prize, though. Once you know where you're going, you can create the necessary steps to get yourself there.

How to set micro-goals.

You have to continuously push yourself to accomplish and succeed, but you can't focus on everything. Alex uses micro-goals: small, manageable goals to be reached within 90-day time periods. "It's not about 5-10 year goals anymore. Things now move so quickly that shorter timeframes are better."

What are you doing wrong on your agency website right now?

According to Alex, you need to be doing better on clarity and consistency. Make sure that no matter where on your agency website the user is, they clearly understand what you do. Your value proposition needs to be prominent on each page. Use good message matching to ensure that no matter what page of your website a user lands on, it's consistent with their search.

You also need to be giving away something in return for getting their email addresses. How about a free PDF download of some of your best tips or helpful infographics? You want to get the user to like you and to trust you, so that you're able to nurture and convert.

What's Alex's #1 tip?

Set up a feedback loop. Find out what your best customers like and keep doing it. Find out what people don't like and stop doing it. Alex's choice for helping with this is Qualaroo, to help identify and capitalize on web visitor revenue opportunities.

What's Next for Your Agency?

When you know how to improve your agency website by knowing what to avoid, this opens your agency to more potential client opportunities. However, without laying the ground work this could cause more issues than benefits. Check out how I can help you get through these obstacles.

I can give you advice on how to increase conversions on your website, how to snap up client opportunities as well as ways to build authority to improve your agency.

If growth is your focus, I've the different phases of growth within your agency and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more of your digital agency services.

Learn more about my career and experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

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 you saying, 'The reason I'm calling you is because of the white paper you posted' is an amazing feeling.[/quote]

The blog post that started it all.

The first thing Max gave away was in the form of a blog post about inbound marketing and its process. He gave the post to a client he was doing some web design for, and the client immediately saw value in his words. Max was hired on the spot for inbound marketing. (This was before he even had an inbound marketing business!)

Shift priorities and make time.

We're all busy. At times it even feels like we're too busy to do anything else. To Max, this lack of time to focus on things is actually confusion about your goals. He says as soon as you get specific about what you're targeting, everything will open up. "Start with a goal to shift your priorities and suddenly you'll find you have the time to make it happen."

Pro Tip: Have a bunch of ideas hit you when you're out and about? Use the recording function on your phone to make sure you don't lose them.

Now that your priorities have shifted, you can start to get a better vision of where you're going. With that better vision, you can become laser-focused on a specific audience.

"Everyone wants to feel special. People want to feel like a particular piece of content was made just for them."

How do you give them that special feeling? You have to discover what's motivating them. Why are they coming to your website? Are they just browsing for helpful information or are they looking for something immediately? Learning about your audience is what helps you provide the right information.

You don't want to give them too much information though. "If they don't need the information to make a purchasing decision, then you don't need to provide that information."

The three emails.

Max does email nurturing in three parts.

1. First there's the email that builds trust. You're helping them understand their problem.
2. Next, you email them some solutions.
3. Then you provide them with information to make a decision.

Email nurturing is all about helping the client get unstuck. You're giving the information to get them to the next step.

Become a Better Agency Owner

When you have improved your inbound marketing strategy and process, it's time to look at what other improvements you need to become a better agency owner.

By taking a step back, you can look at the bigger picture of your agency and focus on areas you haven't explored yet as well as struggles you need to focus on to improve your business and then check out how I have all you need to get through these obstacles.

I have advice to share with you from how to increase conversions on your website, ways to implement Facebook in your marketing strategy, why building authority to improve your agency is important and the best way to pitch to big brand clients. If growth is your focus, I've discussed the different phases of growth within your agency and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell your services to more customers.

You can learn more about my career and experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

If videos are more your thing, did you know I have a Youtube channel?

Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

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 agencies, Raj's experienced growth in stages - having one to five people, to 10-18, 20-25, and so on. Sometimes companies stall out at a certain stage for various reasons. Maybe they're comfortable being a mid-sized agency. Or perhaps they just don't know what to do next.

"We grew because we were very aggressive in nature," Raj says. But it wasn't making money motivating them. They were just passionate about what they did. "It went from being a hobby to being a business."

For agencies looking to make it over the next level of 10 employees, Raj says to be smart about your sales pipeline, "Don't underprice yourself because cash flow is a problem." He's right.

[clickToTweet tweet="Be disciplined about how you handle your cash flow or else you'll find yourself in a constant struggle." quote="Be disciplined about how you handle your cash flow or else you'll find yourself in a constant struggle."]

Early on, Raj brought salespeople onto his team believing it would help secure business. What he ended up learning is that salespeople are great at finding and cultivating relationships, but it's the founders who are usually best at closing the deal.

Building a culture and team you can trust.

Raj attributes the company culture to their being so young when the business started. It was about having fun, sharing experiences, and being edgy. They were a family with everyone passionate about making the business a success. Though he does share a word of warning, "As you grow, be sure to take a look at your staff. People who do well at small agencies may not do well at a mid to large agency."

As far as building a team you can trust, Raj says to take a look in the mirror and ask yourself if you're ready to let go. If you're not, you may not have the right people around you, or you simply may not be ready for the growth. If you want to get to the next level, you'll need to learn to delegate responsibilities. "You can't be effective if you micromanage," he says, "You've got to share the load and trust your team."

Part of delegating and team trust comes from you taking the time to help your business thrive. Don't just be a reactionary leader. If you're constantly taking meetings and putting out fires, you're not helping your business.

The low points.

It wasn't all rainbows and sunshine for Raj. "We made so many mistakes," he admits. Instead of looking at the mistakes as failures, Raj says they took them down new paths. He doesn't regret the experience learned from making mistakes, including the knowledge of when to pull the plug. Admitting there is a problem and knowing when to just stop, is a big - often hard - lesson learned.

When you're just starting out, landing that $50,000 project feels amazing. It feels less than amazing though when you realize that project actually ended up costing you $100,000. It's that kind of mistake Raj says led them to start using discovery scoping. A discovery phase can really help you get a better understanding of the client and the unknowns.

Next Level Agency: Building long-term client relationships.

It's not just about landing the client. You want to build long-term relationships with them. Raj did this by making sure the client looks amazing all the time. This way they'll remember you down the road. He also advises allowing your team to build relationships with their counterparts in the client's company. It helps to build trust, as well as identify new opportunities.

Another thing Raj did was host lots and lots of round tables, including topics from email to emerging tech, and so on. They invited clients and let them network amongst themselves. "It wasn't a sales meeting," he says, "but it still helped promote our brand." By creating a community for their customers, Raj's company was able to build trust and drive business.

Want to read more about how you can improve your agency and yourself as an agency owner? You can read our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my Youtube channel!

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 commitment to their niche that made the company a leader in email marketing. There were times they branched out into other areas, but quickly realized they were making a mistake. "It's easier to be a thought leader if your focusing on one area. You'll have a hard time separating yourself from the pack if you do a lot of different things."

Motivation to write a book.

Writing a book was always something in the back of his mind, but Simms admits that the first book probably wouldn't have happened when it did if the publisher had not approached him. Hoping to fill a void in the market, the publisher asked Simms to write some good, fresh information on email marketing. The result was his first book, The Truth About Email Marketing.

Years later, Simms wrote a second book, The New Inbox, which addressed the changes social and mobile had on email.

I ask Simms what it was like trying to write that first book and if he has any advice for people thinking about writing one of their own. According to Simms there aren't a lot of reasons not to just go ahead and write. In the past, publishers were needed to give you credibility and get your book on the shelves, but now with self-publishing, "all you need is content and drive," says Simms.

His advice is to start writing publicly, if you're not already doing so. It helps build your confidence, as well as awareness about your message. Start a blog, keep a journal, write articles, speak at events, and talk to people. Find out what's going on in your industry and write content around that.

But don't think you need to write a book just for the sake of having written a book. Think about who your potential readers will be, and what they would like to read. "Book or not, make sure you're putting out content," he says.

Keep from feeling overwhelmed.

Instead of thinking you need to write a whole book in one sitting, Simms recommends breaking it up into smaller, more manageable chunks. He suggests creating an outline to "take that big scary goal down to little doable goals."

You'll have to do the marketing.

Unless you're one of the breakout sensations, you'll likely have to do a lot (no, probably all) of your book's marketing. Even if you have a publisher, you shouldn't rely on them to help. Figure out who would benefit from your book and start marketing to them.

Simms also used his speaking engagements to help promote the books. If he was delivering a keynote at a conference, he would provide the attendees with a copy of the book. He says he also experimented with social media, as well as Amazon and Kindle. "We would give away free copies or discounted copies. It seems counterintuitive, but it's about getting the book in the hands of people that would benefit most from it and raising awareness."

So did the book help Simms get more business? He says it's hard to tell, since his company doesn't spend money on marketing, but it did help separate them from the pack. "It's nice to talk to a prospect and have them tell you they have a copy of both your books on their bookshelf." Certainly that does give Simms a leg up over all the other agencies who don't have books on prospects' shelves.

After Niche Authority, What's Next?

When you have established niche authority for your business, this may only be one of the goals or challenges you have within your agency to take it to the next level.

I have covered topics from facing failing economies and recessions or how a speaking opportunity can create business for your agency. Or maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and sell your agency for a larger profit? I have all the information you need to help you through it.

You can learn more about my life and my experience as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

If videos are more your thing, don't worry, i've got you covered! You can check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

How to Transition to From a Small to Big Agency Growth

Rich Wilson is the CEO of Big Scary Cranium who recently transitioned from a one man shop to achieve big agency growth transforming into a million dollar agency. (With a bunch of full time employees!) I talk with Rich about some of his biggest challenges, what he's learned, and mistakes he's made along the way.

Failure is forensic.

If you're an entrepreneur chances are you expect success, and probably put a lot of pressure on yourself to succeed. And like most entrepreneurs, you're terrified of failing.

Rich recommends looking at failure in a different way. "Look at what went well. Look at what went wrong."

For Rich, being able to moderate and handle failure is an important skill for entrepreneurs. Expect there to be disappointments. Learn from them and move on.

Don't neglect your relationships.

Rich works hard at maintaining his relationships, even when he's busy. While he admits that following up isn't always the easiest thing to do, he strives to do it. You never know when you'll need to call on that relationship down the road.

Problem solving for happy clients.

Rich believes in focusing on the client and making them the superstar. Part of that focus comes from having a total commitment to solving client problems. By understanding what your ideal customer looks like, you can develop a strategy for dealing with them. He warns against becoming a people pleaser, though.

W-2 vs. contractor.

When it comes to full-time hires and contractors, Rich says it's all about what kind of business you are and what kind of expectations you have. You need to set up goals - whether it's grow and bring on full time or flex in size with contractors - so that you know how to get from Point A to Point B.

"As an entrepreneur, you probably specialize in one area, but you need five things to run a business."

As far as who to hire, Rich warns against bring on a bunch of mini-you's. Of course you are really great, but it's having a good diversity that makes for great teams. This way you get the right people to help you figure out where you're weak.

He also recommends using assessment tools to learn about potential hires and determine where they might fit in with the team. He uses Introspective Advantage to help him find people for his team.

Rich on getting to the next level.

"It's all about the relationship with the client."

Rich calls it "land and expand," also known in the web world as incremental engagement. Build relationships with clients where you can add value, not just grind out work. He also warns against staying too comfortable in your niche.

"You're good at one thing if you're small, but don't be afraid to open the scope of what you do. Otherwise someone else will swoop in."

Want to Grow Your Agency and Become a Better Agency Owner?

If you want to take your agency to the next level and bring in more clients to achieve the big agency growth Rick talked about, I've the best agency advice for you! You can find these tips, tricks and insights by checking out our blogs covering all your need to know topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my Youtube channel!