Swenk Today: The Digital Marketing Agency Show

I want to talk to you about SELF AWARENESS and I want you to be honest with yourself, and identify what type of person you are…. Because if you can figure out where you are, then you can work toward being better.

Tim Grover has defined what I am about to share with you. He has trained Michael Jordan and the best of the best.

Cooler - Gets it done, nothing special, nothing bad
Closer - One step above, and most want to be the closer
Cleaner - Is the top. They are always in Beast mode.

They are a beast.
They are prepared.
They attack. They are the aggressors. Attack what you want.

Take the word JUST and ONLY and throw them out.
Ex. It’s just one account.
Ex. It’s only a job.

They are trap words and how weak and unprepared they are.
Talent is not enough..

You need preparation, action, development to be able to take those talents and skills and continue to sharpen them.

What keeps the competitive edge is to ability to think and prepare mentally over and over again. Body has limitation, but the mind does not.

1:20 Daniel asked… “What do you think about offering a guarantee to a client when it comes to performance, satisfaction etc. is that crazy?”

2:53 The biggest mistake agencies are missing on their website.

4:53 What PR agencies are doing wrong by calling themselves a PR agency.

6:04 What does your camera equipment do you use for your videos?

0:53 What’s the most important thing to learn when starting an agency?

3:44 What should your agency be charging?

6:49 How to generate revenue in a small niche?

Kyle asked… “Hey, I am 18 wanting to create my own digital agency and since I will have to do everything by myself, what are the most important things to learn? (such as Facebook, Website Design, SEO, etc)”

0:57 Caitlin asked…
“Any advice about staffing ratios for agencies? I am having the hardest time balancing when to hire, and have constant battles with some of my employees being bored and leaving early every day while others are overworked and behind.  It could be the individuals too I guess. But when an account manager starts acting like they are maxed out and can't handle anymore clients, I realize it's time to hire another one but many times our revenue is not quite where it needs to be yet to support adding another FTE at that point. Any general guidelines you go by?“

3:53 How to get your project manager to identify sales opportunities.

4:40 Why a design / creative agency should be on a waterfall methodology vs agile methodology?

6:29 How you can stay focused on growing your business and not get distracted.

On today’s SwenkToday I reveal a huge mistake I have been making, I answer a question from Kristelle about reducing your client churn rate, and I take you on a ride on some client meetings.

"My agency has grown over the years, but our retention rate for clients seems to suck. For every two clients we gain, we lose one every month. We even lost several clients in one month that totaled a loss of $32,000. I've made some operational staffing changes to try to solve the problem, and the clients still keep being lost at the same rate. What do you suggest reevaluating when you're trying to reduce your client churn rate?"

There could be two issues:
1. Could be taking on the wrong prospects.
2. Client perception of the results you are delivering.

On Today's SwenkToday I answer one of the biggest questions I get around agency pricing.

Andre asked….
“Should my design services be sold by the hour or project?”

On today's SwenkToday I was looking for trends on Facebook and came across this question I see a lot, so I thought I would answer it here...

Tyler asked... "I have a social media marketing agency and need some advice. I've hit a wall. I have the idea and everything worked out but don't know how to approach my first customer to get business. Any suggestions?"

On today’s SwenkToday, I discuss the major oversight on my part of not having my podcast in more channels, why your gross revenue doesn’t mean anything (Is GaryVee's Vaynermedia profitable?), and I answer a great question from Adina on employee performance reviews.

Adina asked:
“We are going to start employee performance reviews for our team. What are others doing in this area? Do you usually need to do a pay review at this time?"

*I am not associated with Vaynermedia or Garyvee and I do not know how profitable they are. Just using this as an example and a guess :)

Pamela asked…

“How do you know what to pay a team member? I have someone on my team who's great, and I just paid to have him become a Certified Partner. I'm paying him a lot more now than I did when he started a year ago, and just gave him a raise, but I know he wants more. How do I know if he's being unrealistic or I'm being stingy?“