Smart Agency Masterclass With Jason Swenk: Podcast For Digital Marketing Agencies

Want some tax-saving tips for your agency that will help you save money and avoid an audit being carried out on your digital agency? In this episode, we discuss: How to protect your business, financially and legally. Ways to lower your taxes and other tax-saving tips. The IRS’s big secret on audits. This is HUGE!   Super-fun CPA and friend to U.S. agencies, Jason Blumer of Blumer CPA’s chatted with me about several tax-saving tips along with a few words of caution, and one big IRS secret on this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class. Blumer founded and runs a virtual CPA firm with a team of 8 around the country who are specifically geared toward accounting for design, web and marketing agencies. (See? He’s niching his firm and you should be, too. But that’s another topic for another day :)) Keep in mind the advice here is just general. Your specific situation and questions about your agency should be discussed in detail with your own CPA. What type of business classification is best for your agency? Best

What is the Secret to Rapid Agency Scaling? If a goal for your business is to achieve rapid agency scaling, in this episode I talk with Paul Higgins and discuss what you can do to achieve rapid agency scaling as well as what not to do to make sure you don't fall into any agency scaling pitfalls. In this episode we discuss: 5 levels you’ll reach when scaling your agency How to know what level your agency is at and where it’s going next 3 ways to avoid growth and scaling pitfalls As a business growth expert, Paul Higgins knows a thing or two about entrepreneurship and scaling businesses. After all, he spent nearly two decades on the client side, climbing up the executive ladder with Coca-Cola before founding an agency that serves as a partnership resource to small businesses. He’s also a Director and Empire Builder at Bollo Empire, which helps agencies scale. In this interview we talk about best practices for rapidly scaling your agency. There are 5 steps to climb on the stairway to success. Which step are yo

Are you looking for advice on improving your agency's growth strategy? Are the systems you have in place just not working for you and feeling like you've hit a plateau in your business growth?   Why Buying or Selling A Digital Agency is EASIER Than You Think. In this episode we cover: Why buying an agency isn’t as expensive or as hard as you’d think. How rolling-in another agency can be a killer agency growth strategy. 5 ways to improve your digital agency’s valuation to be acquired. What to look at if you’re looking to acquire another agency. Today’s guest, Eric Keiles was doing inbound before inbound was even a thing. Eric and his partner founded Square 2 Marketing in 2003 with the intention of helping brands revamp their old-school marketing to the way people are buying in the new millennium. In 2009, they partnered with Hubspot and took their business to a new level. I met Eric at Hubspot’s 2015 Inbound Conference and quickly learned he is pretty serious about making a plan and sticking to it. He has on

Are you growing your digital agency the best way or are you facing hurdles you need to overcome and don't know the best techniques to overcome them? In this episode we cover: The most common challenge a new digital agency faces, and what to do about it. 4 traits you might have that are standing in your own way of growing your digital agency. How to find the clarity you need to grow and scale your marketing agency.   Today’s guest, Gray MacKenzie, and his partner started their Inbound Agency out of their college dorm room five years ago. As Seniors on the Grove City College Lacrosse team, they created a website and social campaign for the team. Their marketing efforts off the field coincided with on-field success and they realized the skills they had used for on something “just for fun” had the potential for much more. And thus, GuavaBox was born. In their first year, Gray says they weren’t really all in and had a shot gun approach to the business. One big challenge they ran into as young entrepreneurs, fres

There are different levels of digital agency services that can support your business in staying competitive with others in the industry. The real question is do you know what they are? In this episode we’ll cover: How you can prevent your agency from being viewed as a commodity. How you can charge more for your digital agency services & why clients will pay for it. What you need to do to increase the lifetime value of a client. Do consultancies have an advantage over digital agencies? [smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/jasonswenk/Do_you_want_to_know_the_5_different_categories_of_agency_services_.mp3"] With over 30 years experience in the agency world - many of them owning and running his own agencies - my guest Jamie Turner brings us some serious black box knowledge. Spoiler alert: remember that phrase, it’ll be important later:)  Jamie has worked for agency giants in New York and Atlanta and today is the Founder and CEO of 60SecondMarketer.com and 60 Second Communications. He’s an autho

In this episode we'll discuss: Why you should fire yourself, and when 2 challenges most agencies face early on & how to overcome them 1 super smart tip about knowing your clients' clients   Take it from a guy who has started and grown multiple multi-million dollar businesses, you must “give your job away at least once per year.” That’s exactly what my guest, J Cornelius, has been doing for much of his 20 years in digital space. From his startup software company to his startup agency, J shares with us philosophies and strategies that will help you scale and grow your business. A serial entrepreneur, J started his first business in 1996 when he founded and grew an international web design software company. When his entrepreneurial spirit got the 13 year itch, he began web-design consulting on the side. He eventually founded Nine Labs, a user experience and brand strategy agency, in 2012. Within those first couple years, he was partnering often with Brad Weaver at Suckerpunch Studios. The two realized th

Leverage Media Opportunities to Achieve Agency Business Growth Looking to use new media opportunities to build momentum for your digital agency and gain new agency business growth? In this episode we cover: How to create a media pitch that scores an interview Ways to prepare for the interview, and how to knock it out of the park When and how to promote your media opportunity to promote agency business growth   A feature in the media can be a killer lead generator! My guest, Dana Barrett has got a ton of tips for us on getting media attention - and she should know! Dana hosts a daily business talk show on Atlanta 1190AM radio and is a panelist on Tech Edge, a local TV show. She typically interviews 1-2 companies across different sectors every single day! In this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class she talks with me about how a small business can get media attention, what to do once you score an interview and how to keep the momentum going when it’s over.   Make a Pitch Reach out with a simple and direct

How Can I Handle Training New Employees and Set Up Success? Do you want new employees to be successful from day one? Training new employees effectively and providing proper onboarding are the keys to success from their first day on your team! 4 Things You Can Do To Get New Employees Ready Before Their First Day Day #1 on any job is overwhelming for everyone. It’s information overload! But by tackling these four things prior to their first day, you can set up your new employees for success. 1.  Share your company vision and goals with them right off the bat. With a clear understanding of where the path leads, your employees can help pave it. 2.  Write down the 30, 60 and 90-day goals you have for them and ask them to do the same. This manages hopes and expectations for both parties. 3.  Ask “What do you need from me in order to be successful?” and then provide the tools and information they’ve requested. 4.  Create screencasts or videos of some routine tasks, procedures or processes. Not only can this be used

Today’s guest, Jake Hare, has tons to share about overcoming struggles in the first year of agency ownership. He got his start developing apps while serving as Lead Intelligence Analyst in the military. Today he is co-founder of Launchpeer, a digital agency serving startups and entrepreneurs in the South. Learn how he generated niche leads for his agency.   Why Start an Agency? After spending 3 ½ years in 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Jake went on to do government contract work in software development. Once he realized he wasn’t passionate about his work, he started taking on side jobs developing apps. In late 2014 he and his two partners decided it was time to go all in, so they founded Launchpeer. As a husband, father and part-time grad school student this was a giant leap of faith!  Struggles in Early Agency Days For Jake and his partners the hardest part of maintaining the agency this first year has been generating leads outside of their personal contacts. After working with friends (who natur

How Do You Scale Facebook Ads Once You Have Some Success? There are different ways to improve your Facebook marketing to increase your audience reach and brand awareness. Some agency owners aren't aware of the correct way to scale Facebook ads to reach these potential leads and are ultimately damaging their marketing efforts. I explain how you can scale Facebook ads for your agency once you have started to gain some success. There are 3 types of scaling you can do to increase your reach of your Facebook marketing. Most people are scaling their ads the wrong way which will hurt their results. Discover the right way to scale your ads. Tier 1 Scaling Duplicate the ad set and trying increasing the budget on the duplicate ad set. Don't just increase the budget of the ad set that is working. I determine what I should budget per ad set by how big the audience is. Audience usually support about $10/day per 10,000 in the audience. Tier 2 Scaling Upload your subscribers as custom audiences, then create look alike au

In this episode learn the 12 things you can do to make your live stream more interactive, which is the next big thing in social media marketing.   

If you are struggling to convert your leads into client opportunities, you might not understand your traffic and this is where you lose them. I am going to show you how to avoid losing these essential client opportunities. Understanding your traffic and how to convert more leads into opportunities I get questions all the time about how to drive more traffic to an agency website. I’ve developed a great program for generating leads but first I think it’s important to really understand the three types of traffic and how to talk to them in order to convert them from being just traffic to being an opportunity. Here are the 3 types of site traffic and what you need to know about each. Traffic You Own - this traffic has opted in and asked for you to market to them. You have contact information such as email address, and phone number, and they belong to your list. Traffic You Control - this is the traffic you are steering toward your website or landing page using AdWords, PPC, Facebook ads, etc. You are in control o

How to Become the Best Presenter   Today I was thinking about how to sell ideas effectively. A person can have the best idea in the world, but if that person cannot convince enough people, it doesn't matter. But what if they could be the best presenter of their ideas? One of the best presenters was Steve Jobs. What made him the best was he started with the BIG PICTURE rather than the details. When the iPhone came out, he started with the following: "Apple reinvents the phone." He could have started with: "We have developed the first smartphone by Apple that is easy to use, an iPod and a phone. The big pictures get us drawn in and interested to here more. People crave meaning before details. In every presentation Steve did, he was able to inform, educate and entertain us. He knew the problems he wanted to solve and the benefits of the solutions he provided. Most importantly he connected with his customers by explaining to them why they should care. One of the other great things he did was bring numbers to life

4 Steps to Capturing Leads... Snagging Them Hook, Line and Sinker If your biggest issue right now within your agency is capturing leads, especially from big clients, then you are probably going about it the wrong way. There’s a big difference between generating leads and capturing leads… and it’s a lot like fishing. Think about the term “fishing” for a moment. Do you actually want to “go fishing” or do you really want to “go catching”? To be successful, it’s the latter. You can go fishing by dropping a pole in a random location with random bait and you might get lucky, but usually you just spend tons of time and come up empty. BUT, if you have some strategy in place: the right location, the right bait and the right tools you will have greater chances for success. [ctt title="4 steps to CAPTURING more leads and why it's like catching fish" tweet="4 steps to CAPTURING more leads and why it's like catching fish: http://ctt.ec/p8U4Y+ via @jswenk #leads" coverup="p8U4Y"] 1. Know WHO you’re fishing for: Be very spe

Are you finding it overwhelming in your agency working out what are priority tasks and what are tasks you can give to your team? Feeling overworked is a very easy rut to fall into as an agency owner and here's how you can get out of it. How to Focus on Growing Your Agency Instead of Just Running It    It’s common for every entrepreneur to feel bogged down by tasks and buried by a growing to do list. We are always so busy being reactive instead of proactive and there’s never a chance to get ahead. It’s like that client that is never happy and constantly calling or emailing… the squeaky wheel gets the oil, right? But that doesn’t add any horsepower to your business. You need to work on the modifications to the engine before you oil the squeaky wheel. Don’t focus on the little things that have no impact on the growth of the business and concentrate more on the high impact items. It’s Too Hard to See the Forest for the Trees That’s OK! I’ve created a worksheet that you can use when you are feeling overwhelmed. St

How can you create more video for your agency content? In this brief episode, Jason shares his tips and tricks for live streaming and video marketing. 

A lot of entrepreneurs like to create an e-book but they don't multi-purpose this content as well as they could. Check out this short #AskSwenk episode for some tips and tricks on creating micro content, across many different platforms to get more life from it.

Are you using CRM software the best way to track leads for your business? If you are facing some challenges, I can help. What are the best ways of using CRM Software to track leads and project cashflow? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is HUGE in any industry where you’ve got multiple leads at various stages in the sales process. CRM software is a must in keeping organized and optimizing every opportunity. The best way to use CRM is to create levels and use the levels to get a handle on cash projections. [ctt title="Here are 3 steps you can take to manage your relationships and get a snapshot of revenue. " tweet="Here are 3 steps you can take to manage your relationships and get a snapshot of revenue. http://ctt.ec/j_kgW+ via @jswenk #agencycrm" coverup="j_kgW"] Step 1: Create Levels My agency had four levels in our CRM system for prospects who requested to be contacted. Level 1 - This level is people we needed to chat with and qualify. Remember to use my NBAT technique to qualify leads quickly. If you

Are you starting to look into the opportunities available if you were to sell your agency? Are you unsure of how you can value your agency correctly and make it appealing to buyers? It can be super exciting when someone is interested in acquiring your agency… right up until the time that it gets super overwhelming. Here are the steps you need to take to make sure that when you sell your agency, it goes as smoothly as possible while also benefiting you and your employees the most. How to Sell Your Agency #1  Know what your agency is worth and the amount you need to have to walk away. Do you want to know the Agency Valuation Formula? These deals are done in a two-tier structure: cash amount and earn out. Come up with your cash amount figure, present it to the buyer and make sure you’re happy with the amount. Most earn outs are structured in a way that make them unachievable, so don’t get your heart set on earning it. #2  Resist the urge to celebrate. Celebrations and telling people too soon could seriously bite