20 Unexpected Ways to Get More Agency Clients This Year Posted on September 22, 2022December 15, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick Every marketing agency wants to be successful. Signing a ton of clients means more billings and more revenue, but it isn’t easy. There are a lot of digital advertising agencies out there to compete with, and with a looming recession, businesses are scaling back instead of hiring additional help and expertise. However, with some creativity and proactive tactics, your agency can expand its business successfully, even in hard times. Here are some tips for getting your agency seen and finding clients that will want to partner with your marketing agency. 1. Business Review: Know What’s Working Before introducing something new, it is important to review current strategies to identify what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs improvement. Do you need to focus on creating more content? Do you need to spend more time on lead generation activities? Do you need to improve your onboarding process? Asking these questions will put you on track to identify the things that most urgently need your attention. Then, you can either focus on fixing the things that aren’t working or strike them and put your attention elsewhere. 2. Set Business Goals and Milestones Without concrete business goals, your agency is directionless. With business goals, you create a sense of purpose for your agency and a definite direction of where you want your agency to be within a specific time frame. Beyond providing direction for your business, spelling out your agency’s business goals impacts how you, your team, and others perceive your business. Start by ensuring your agency’s business goals and milestones are SMART. Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-bound 3. Shift The Focus: Create Unique Value Propositions Defining your unique value proposition is an important aspect of your agency’s sales and marketing activities. Your unique value proposition clearly shows prospects why they should use your services instead of doing business with your competitors. Shifting the focus away from pricing to your unique value proposition helps clients see the value in what you’re offering and how that benefits their businesses. With the right value proposition, you set your agency apart from its competitors, help clients understand what you’re offering, and attract the most relevant prospects. 4. Apply Proven Sales Closing Tips Your marketing activities will ultimately lead you to the all-important sales close. You must learn and apply proven sales closing tips and teach them to your sales team to get more business for your agency. There are many ways to close a sale, but the following traditional and modern sales closing methods have proven to be the best: Now or never closes – create an offer with a unique benefit and a sense of urgency to encourage prospects to act quickly Summary closes – Reiterate prospect’s agreed-upon points into one package Sharp angle closes – catch your prospects by surprise by agreeing to their add-on requests or reductions and introducing the close at the same time. Question closes – a win-win approach that addresses the prospect’s objections while pushing the sale. Assumption closes – assume good intent from the start of the sales process, which lends authority and credibility to how you interact with the prospect. Take-away closes – remove a feature from your offer to provide would-be clients with discounted prices. This is best for people who love your offering but are concerned about cost. Soft closes – state the benefits of your offering and give the prospect the room to learn more which also allows you to learn more about their business. 5. Introduce a Sales Enablement Framework Sales enablement fuels content tailored to your prospects’ needs, thoughts, feelings, and pain points using insights gathered from previous sales. With sales enablement, the focus is on content that helps the sales team prime and nurture prospects throughout the sales cycle. You could think of it as a fusion of your sales and marketing activities. With sales enablement, you can close business deals faster, improve the sales process, and improve your agency’s interactions with prospects and buyers. 6. Promote Yourself Get a profile on websites like Clarity.fm, where you can be easily discovered by others looking for the service you provide. The only downside is that these websites can be crowded. If you really want to stand out, consider giving away some free advice to build some trust and rapport. Alternatively, you can create a free or paid course on a site like Udemy, similar to Gary Vaynerchuk’s. This will boost your visibility and build brand awareness, allowing prospects to see your expertise and seek out your services. 7. Network Like The Pros Professional networkers understand that getting clients is a game, one which they’re determined to win. In addition, they know that they are in it for the long run, so they play their cards right. Real networking isn’t about a quick win. It’s about building a long-lasting relationship. First, you establish a connection, and then you look for ways to help your new connection. Don’t try to sell right away; that will just appear selfish. Here are additional tips from the experts that you should adopt: Research your target client, and then personalize your follow-up with them. Be mindful of your attitude. Positivity and tone can come through in emails, so take care to pay attention to them. Take a genuine interest in those you are trying to network with. Listen carefully when people speak and then try to add value to their lives before asking for their business (e.g., by connecting them with someone who could assist them with a problem they might be facing). And speaking of connecting with people… 8. Partner Up – Even with the Competition Partnerships are a great way to gain new clients. As a marketing or advertising agency, you can partner up with non-competing companies and organizations that are complementary to your business and whose target audiences are similar to your own. You can even partner with other agencies. An agency that’s much bigger than you can refer clients with small projects that are below their usual scope and vice-versa. 9. Prospect Strategically, with The Power Of Referrals When prospecting for new clients, it’s good to remember that there are three markets. Cold market: people you don’t know Warm market: people you know already Neutral market: people your contacts know The first market tends to have the lowest conversion rate while the highest conversion rate will come from the warm market. No surprises there, right? But what about the neutral market? Tapping into this is a great way to expand your client base. By asking people you know for referrals, they’ve broken the ice for you. What’s more, 92% of people trust referrals from people they know. A prospect is more likely to do business with you after you’ve been introduced by a mutual friend. 10. Don’t Give Lost Clients the Cold Shoulder Another simple way to get a quick boost in new business is to simply re-approach lost clients, especially when you have good news or something exciting to share. Don’t just come over with a request for a new business. Look into why they left in the first place, and then treat them like a fresh lead. The reality is that if someone has done business with you in the past, they’re highly likely to do so again (as long as you’ve found a way to address their previous issues). 11. Build More than Campaigns – Build a Product “Engineering as Marketing” is a term coined by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares in their book Traction. It involves building a free product to help your customers in order to generate leads. QuickSprout is a great example. QuickSprout has a tool that analyzes a company’s site traffic and pinpoints bugs and issues. It’s a win-win – companies get the advice they need for free, and QuickSprout has a new prospect in their conversion funnel. 12. Fill Out RFPs It’s great to spend time networking at marketing industry conventions, meetups, and conferences, but there’s another marketing channel you may be missing out on: RFPs. Consider the fact that the average RFP win rate is 44%. This means that for every 10 RFPs you fill out, you stand to receive a positive response from four companies. To write a compelling and professional RFP that could land you new work, remember to: Introduce your marketing agency briefly and succinctly Outline your capabilities Explain how you plan to complete the project, including milestones and deadlines Demonstrate how your agency meets the selection criteria Include examples of past work that aligns with the demands of this potential new client 13. Influence Prospects with Awards Does winning awards in the industry really matter? And can it help you land more clients? In short, yes, it matters, and it can definitely assist you in securing quality leads. Awards can help to cement a marketing agency’s credibility, especially if the firm is relatively young. They provide free publicity, boost brand awareness, and promote the agency. To get started, scroll through usagencyawards.com for a comprehensive list of agency awards your business may be eligible for, but note that some of these awards have specific requirements. For example, some awarding bodies require marketing agency nominations to be submitted by third parties, while other awards allow the marketing agency to apply directly. 14. Revive PR to Build Inbound Links and Brand Awareness By using tools like pr.co or HARO, you can easily connect with journalists and pitch them your feature or simply contribute to the article they’re writing with a quote or statistic. This is, of course, if your agency has valuable proprietary data, a compelling brand story, or industry news to offer. Alternatively, you can pitch major publications to republish some of your best content, just as James Clear describes in his interesting article on the topic. These efforts are great when you’re looking to build your links, increase your SEO, and rank higher in search results—all help to put your agency out there in front of an online audience looking for solutions. By being easily found online, your audience is able to know more about you, access your website, and start to consider using you for their needs. 15. Warm Up to Cold Sales Cold selling is yet another tactic you may want to consider. Some of the recently available tools, such as Overloop, make it much easier to build clientele this way. As Steve Jobs famously said in a 1994 interview: “Most people never pick up the phone and call; most people never ask. And that’s what separates, sometimes, the people that do things from the people that just dream about them. You gotta act.” It’s rare for an agency to reach out to prospective customers cold, but there may be local customers who need your services and would rather work with someone in their community. We all know that cold calling can be a nightmare, but there are ways to do it right. 16. Diversify Spend with Offline Ads Direct marketing and offline advertising are considered obsolete, but they can work. Also, it’s cheaper than you’d expect and allows your agency to stand out in the crowd. Why not separate yourself from all of the internet noise with a billboard or radio ad in your target market? Be smart about it. Set out a small budget and experiment. Track your results and see where the business is and what works and what doesn’t. 17. Uncover Opportunity with Twitter Search Twitter offers some powerful search features that you can use to find people looking for help and referrals. You can use Warble to automate your searches and create alerts that get delivered to your inbox each day. 18. Tap Into Social Capital Social media influencers have an engaged and trusting audience. By partnering with them to promote your agency, you can get some incredible brand exposure. Using tools like BuzzSumo, Brandwatch, and Twitonomy will help you identify people with reach and influence. Connect with them using a tool like Traackr and start building a relationship. Instead of pitching your service, think about the ways you can offer some mutual value. However, when partnering with an influencer, keep in mind their audience and the specific area of influence they operate in. It needs to be a match for your agency in order for the partnership to work. 19. Flex Your Creativity with a Publicity Stunt Richard Branson has built a billion-dollar empire on the back of his publicity stunts. Who says you can’t do the same? Stirring a controversy or launching a hilarious campaign can get you some valuable exposure and boost your business. For example, a couple of years ago, Viceroy Creative launched a controversial campaign that got them featured in many of the major marketing media. 20. Consider an Unconference Apart from landing slots at relevant conferences, consider finding some relevant meetups on meetup.com and becoming a speaker. Many of these events are constantly looking for speakers and offer some exciting audiences. Alternatively, you can sponsor some or even launch your own meetups and events. For example, a London SEO agency runs what is now one of the leading industry events called SearchLove. Don’t let a recession get your agency down. Hit the ground running with these 15 amazing tactics, and you’re sure to sign some new business before the end of the quarter. Best of luck!
How to Grow Your Small Business and Make it Successful Posted on September 21, 2022September 21, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick Whether it is for the flexibility of work hours, to be your own boss, to pursue your passion, or for a better work-life balance, no one starts a small business to see it fail. Every business owner aims to succeed by growing their small businesses into profitable organizations. While aiming for success is excellent, not every business owner will be successful at running a business. What does it mean for small businesses to fail, and how do you safeguard your business from that? In this blog post, we’re going to dive into what it takes to grow your small business and make it successful, including how to grow your social media presence, how to get more customers, and how to take your small business to the next level. Small Businesses vs. Big Businesses – What’s the Difference? Before we get started, let’s differentiate between big and small businesses. It may seem like the difference between the two is simply the size. However, there are other indicators that will tell you where your business falls. Management Structure and Hierarchy Unlike small businesses, big businesses have a set management structure and hierarchy between employees due to the number of people that work in the organization. The CEO or board of directors are the highest decision makers and have the most control. In a small business, the business owner runs the business solely in some cases and sometimes with a few other people. However, that isn’t always the case. There are plenty of small businesses out there that are a team of one (and killing it). Target Audience While small businesses and big businesses may overlap in their target audience, big businesses can often target audiences in a number of different markets due to resource abundance, providing them with larger audiences. Since some small businesses are confined to locations and regions, their target audience can be more local. However, if they have the resources and invest in their online presence, they can expand their target audience exponentially. Finance Sources Small businesses focus on financial support from low-risk sources like crowdfunding, investors, venture capitalists, community development finance institutions, and government/small business grants. Big businesses, however, source money by obtaining loans from banks and other large financial institutions. They also issue equity capital, sell stocks or corporate bonds, and have assets that can stand as collateral when needed. What Percentage of Businesses Fail? We have all heard the saying that more than half of new businesses close during the first year. Data from The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says this is false. From the BLS data, only 20% of businesses close within the first two years of business operations. 45% close within the first five years, while 65% close down during the first ten years. The businesses that hit the 15-year mark after launch make up 25%. The statistics have remained consistent since the 90s. With that said, there are clear mistakes you could make that could drive your business into the ground. Stay clear of the following: Not Conducting Market Investigation Many people start businesses based on hobbies and passions. If your passion has an already saturated market, breaking into the market will be difficult. Instead, your product or service should be fulfilling an unmet need. It’s easier to sell a product/service that meets a need than to convince people they need to spend money on a new product for a problem they didn’t know existed. Make sure you conduct adequate market research to determine if your small business is offering a solution to a problem that people need solved. Straying From a Developed Business Plan A realistic business plan sets your business up for success. However, when you stop following the plan, you increase the chances of failure. If there’s something wrong with your plan based on observation, find out what that is and fix it, or develop a new business plan instead of making decisions without guidance. Every business plan should include things like your market analysis, company description, service or product you’re selling, sales and marketing plan, and financial projections, just to name a few. Poor Marketing, Internet Presence, and Location Poor location affects foot traffic which can become a problem if your business relies on in-store purchases. In the same way that a bad storefront location can hurt your business, so can poor internet presence. Even if you rely on some foot traffic, people like to purchase things online, so it’s crucial your small business site is easily found online. If not, your credibility could come into question and discourage people from doing business with you. This is where your marketing plan comes in. Poor marketing can affect your exposure, messaging, and how it connects with your target audience. It’s crucial that you have an advertising plan as well as an effective SEO strategy so you can be found in more ways than one. Otherwise, your sales and business operations could suffer, negatively affecting revenue and forcing you out of business. Sudden Scale-Ups Scaling up the business suddenly without proper research, planning, and strategy development can lead to failures for business expansions. This, in turn, can affect the entire business. Instead, treat every expansion as a new business and put in the work you did when you started your business. Don’t scale up too quickly and forget to take the right steps to ensure each new location, product line, or additional employee isn’t set up for success. If it means running a smaller operation until you’re ready to focus on a bigger commitment, then so be it. How to Grow Your Small Business and Take it to The Next Level Obviously, you don’t want your business to fail. And by staying away from the points mentioned above, you’re already doing a great job. But there are things you need to do proactively if you’re to see your business grow and prosper. Get More Customers You need to continuously bring in new customers for your small business. Doing so will keep a healthy flow of revenue and ensure things are running smoothly. Here are some ways to do that: Ask for referrals from existing customers. Don’t wait for customers to refer you without any request from your end – you’ll most likely be waiting a long time. Instead, set up a referral system and ask customers for referrals after successful transactions or when you follow up with them. Attend industry-relevant networking events and organizations. Provide value to other attendees and spread the word about what you do for the best results. This helps not just to get new customers but also to identify key industry partnership opportunities. Entice new customers with discounts and incentives. Create introductory or trial offers, track people who take the offer, and target them with marketing messages for conversion. Use a small business CRM that organizes your contact list regularly so you can easily identify dormant customers to re-engage with. Include a limited-time offer or discount to win them back for new business. Develop partnerships with complementary businesses that are not competing with you directly. That way, you get a fresh audience to market your products to while they also do the same. Nab More Market Share Market share is essentially how much of the market your business or product controls. You want it to be high, as that leads to business longevity, but it’s easier said than done. Here are some tips: Improve your business branding. It should embody the business vision, mission, brand voice, and unique messaging. When you put all this together in one design and present it to your audience repeatedly, you’ll make an impression on your target audience. Keep innovating and developing your products to meet current realities and trends. When you’re complacent, your product or business will go stale and become irrelevant. By continuously looking for areas of improvement or listening to the needs of your market, your product will become indispensable. Review your pricing and compare it with your competitors. If there are areas where you can offer discounts and bonuses where they can’t (without affecting your bottom line) and use it to sway prospects to your side. Appreciate current customers and make them feel valued. Engage and listen to them, and reflect on their suggestions. This will encourage repeat business and referrals that will expand your audience. Grow Your Social Media Accounts Everyone uses social media, including brands. It’s a great way to connect with your target audience and humanize your business, which can encourage loyalty and create a community. Your small business should be active on social media, using it to drive engagement and increase visibility. Here are some small business social media tips to follow: Develop a social media plan and tie this to your business goals. Know your audience and where you can find them on the social media space. Identify social media platforms that align with your business and set up your official pages on them. You don’t need to be on every platform, just the ones that your audience is active on and that make sense for your business. Observe viral and industry trends and take advantage of these to boost engagement. Use social commerce to keep selling and showcasing your products. Use different content formats to create variety and increase social engagement in new ways. Focus on producing helpful, valuable content instead of churning out posts to populate your feed, page, or timeline. Engage with your audience when they interact with your posts. Use the right tools for easy management and also consider using automation to take care of repetitive tasks. Track, analyze, and measure using metrics that tie to outlined business goals in your plan. Increase Customer Retention The cost of keeping a customer is much less than the cost of acquiring a new one. And while we highly recommend (and already have) actively gaining new customers, that doesn’t mean you should neglect to keep the ones you already have. While you’ll need new customers to fill your pipeline, increase sales, and grow, you must also work on retaining current customers for repeat business and stable revenue. To improve customer retention, try: Adopting a CRM for your business. Choosing the right CRM for your small business can give you insights into who your customers are so you can provide them with personalized, tailored solutions. Creating a loyalty program that rewards existing customers and encourages them to remain loyal. Improving your customer support efforts. If your customer support team isn’t receiving adequate scores from customers after they offer them help, it’s time to adjust your process (or hire new customer service reps). Using social media to engage more with your audience. By having numerous ways for them to get a hold of you, you’re showing them how accessible you are to them. Upselling products to existing customers. This will offer them more options based on their growing needs. Improve Your Products or Services The better your product or services, the better your customer experience. You may be able to get existing customers to purchase more and attract new clientele by simply improving the products or services you already offer. Some ways you can improve what it is you’re selling is to: Regularly test your product to ensure it’s working correctly. Be prepared to make tweaks when needed. Find new uses for your top-selling item, so it is more flexible and appealing. Set a customer service goal that will give you a higher feedback score. Re-examine your market to determine if there’s a new need your product can fulfill. Expand your offering to include products complementing one another. This can also increase your upselling opportunity and subsequently improve your bottom line. Diversify by brushing up on your product life cycle. Do some market research to identify new needs or pain points you can address with a new product or service. The growth opportunities are there for your business. You need to put the pieces in place to make that growth a reality. By implementing one or more of the above strategies and avoiding the mistakes common to failed businesses, you are well on your way to becoming part of the top 25% of businesses that make it past the 15-year mark.
What is a Fractional CMO and Does Your Business Need One? Posted on September 15, 2022September 8, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick Whether you’re a brand new startup or a tenured business, at some point during your company’s growth, you may find the need for an experienced chief marketing officer (CMO) who can lead your marketing team and efforts. When hiring a CMO, many businesses assume their only option is someone who will be full-time. The truth is, hiring someone part-time may be a better fit for their needs. This is where hiring a fractional CMO is the best option. A fractional CMO is someone who works on a part-time basis, usually for around 20 hours per week. So, when is the best time to hire a fractional CMO? And why would you want to hire one? Keep reading to find out! Who is a Fractional CMO? A fractional CMO is a Chief Marketing Officer who works on a part-time basis. This means that they aren’t employed by your company full-time but instead work for you for a set number of hours each week – usually around 20 hours. Fractional CMOs can be freelance or employed by an agency, and they will work with you to create and implement a marketing strategy that meets your specific needs and goals. They are experienced marketing professionals who deeply understand how to market businesses effectively. And because they are not employed full-time, they can often offer their services at a fraction of the cost. The Responsibilities of a Fractional CMO The fractional CMO will work with you to create and implement your marketing and organization strategy that meets your specific needs and goals. This may include developing and managing campaigns, conducting market research, overseeing social media and content marketing, managing budgets, and more. In short, the fractional CMO will be responsible for all aspects of your marketing, just as a full-time CMO would be. Some responsibilities can include: Directing your marketing team Recruiting and onboarding new employees Designing customer retention strategies Designing content marketing strategies Determining ideal product pricing, go-to-market strategy, and launch Directing branding and PR efforts Overseeing marketing communications Directing brand management Conducting market research to identify market needs and understand the competition The Benefits of Hiring a Fractional CMO You may be thinking that bringing on someone in this role part-time is doing your business a disservice. However, that just isn’t true. There are some compelling benefits to hiring a fractional CMO, like: Cost Savings The most significant benefit to hiring a fractional CMO is cost savings. An average CMO in the US earns $150,000 annually. While the value they drive for businesses justifies the cost, your small business might be better off putting that amount to work in other business areas. Because they are not employed full-time, fractional CMOs offer services at a lower rate than a full-time CMO. Flexibility Fractional CMOs offer you the flexibility to scale up or down your marketing efforts without committing to a full-time CMO. Objectivity As an outsider, a fractional CMO can offer you an objective perspective on your marketing efforts. They are more inclined to challenge the status quo and help you to think outside the box. What Are The Cons of Hiring a Fractional CMO? While hiring a fractional CMO offers several benefits, it also has some drawbacks. Limited Availability Because fractional CMOs are not employed full-time, they may have limited availability to work on your marketing efforts. Slow Onboarding If a fractional CMO is one of your first marketing hires, you may find it challenging to onboard quickly. It’s important to have clear communication set in place with a designated person that fractional CMO can ask questions of and reach out to when needed. When Should You Hire a Fractional CMO? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question – it depends on your specific needs and goals. However, there are some general guidelines that can help you to decide whether or not hiring a fractional CMO is right for your business. If you are a small business with a limited marketing budget, hiring a fractional CMO can be a great way to get access to experienced marketing help without breaking the bank. If you need help with specific aspects of your marketing but don’t want to commit to a full-time CMO, hiring a fractional CMO can also be a good option. And if you are not sure whether or not you need a full-time CMO, hiring a fractional CMO can give you the opportunity to test out the waters and see if having a CMO is right for your business. If your small business could use some marketing direction, but you aren’t sure you have the means to bring someone on full-time, a fractional CMO is definitely something you should consider. Don’t feel like you have to default to someone full-time, try your hand at a part-time, fractional CMO first.
Sales Enablement: What it is, How to Practice it, and How to Measure Success Posted on September 14, 2022September 14, 2022 by Tricia O'Donnell An empowered sales team will go on to engage with prospects positively, close deals, and help you achieve business goals. What’s the best way to empower your sales team? Provide them with tools for success, be it software, content, or other resources. There’s a lot of ground that sales enablement covers, but since sales are essential to keeping your business running smoothly, it’s so important that you have it mastered. In this piece, we’re diving into everything related to sales enablement so your small business can improve its sales process and see more returns. Ready? What is Sales Enablement? When you provide your sales team with tools, resources, information, content, and training to engage effectively with your target audience, it’s considered sales enablement. In fact, every bit of help you render to support your sales team to facilitate more closings and sales comes under the sales enablement umbrella. Why is Sales Enablement Important? Sales enablement benefits your organization in the following ways. Provides your business with a skilled, knowledgeable, and productive sales team. Helps you develop effective sales systems and processes. Offers a consistent and valuable content resource that helps the sales team with its tasks and goals. Promotes long-term success for your business through consistent training for sales teams. Improves business revenue by helping the sales team improve closing rates. Reinforces sales leaders and managers, putting them in a position to better support team members whilst also supporting the business’s sales strategy. As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into sales enablement, which is why some teams find it beneficial to have a designated person to manage these efforts. What is a Sales Enablement Manager? The sales enablement manager is in charge of everything that supports arming your sales team with the resources and tools they need to be better at their jobs. Since sales teams are constantly busy attempting to close deals and meet with important contacts, they don’t always have time to check in with the marketing department on content collaboration. It’s in these instances that having a sales enablement manager is extremely beneficial. This individual has a lot of tasks, including: Developing regular training for the sales team. Spearheading the creation of sales content needed to educate and engage potential customers. Managing tools and technology used by the sales teams, such as the CRM or CMS. Implementing new processes, strategies, tools, and changes that ultimately affect the sales team and their efforts. Developing and improving sales strategies, learning styles, and implementation. Providing feedback to the marketing team on materials the sales team needs. What is the Sales Enablement Process? The framework your business adopts in implementing sales enablement in your organization will ultimately determine whether or not those efforts are successful. Your sales enablement process covers everything your organization does to search, gather, organize, and share needed information with the sales team. The goal is to get input from different departments and develop a strategic plan to achieve set objectives. What Are the Elements of a Sales Enablement Process? To build an effective sales enablement process, put the following in place. Appoint the right sales enablement manager to drive the project. Align key departments that need to work closely together (like the marketing and sales teams). Have a documented marketing plan and content marketing strategy. Assign the roles and responsibilities of each department and member. Align all departments with core business incentives to keep everyone on the same page. Develop processes for regular sales enablement activities and check-ins. Establish key performance metrics to measure. Sales Enablement Tools Sales enablement tools bridge the gap between content, marketing, and the sales cycle for ultimate success. With sales enablement tools, you can view content usage and performance, see the sales process at a glance, and track analytics to identify what’s working and what isn’t. The sales enablement tools you choose should be easy to use, integrate with your CRM, have reporting abilities and help organize and manage sales content. Some sales enablement tools to consider include: BenchmarkONE – Our CRM can help you track lead and customer conversion rates and identify which of your content prospects engage with the most Salesloft – Use for training your sales team for improved performance Datapine – Will show you multiple sales KPIs at a glance Monday – Sales cycle tracking so you can see where any holes or issues may be Saleshandy – Tracks sales reps’ quota so you can see how/if goals are being met Sales Enablement Content Sales enablement content is most definitely a tool your sales team needs. This is content your sales team uses to engage and win sales from buyers at different stages of the sales cycle. The content should be relevant, helpful, and offer value to prospects. To ensure effective sales enablement content, consider the following: Audit available content to make sure that existing materials are of the right standard. Get key insights from internal documentation when developing new content. Continuously improve available content, especially as new products or services are developed. Align content creation with every step of the customer journey. Determine the best content format for your target audience. Track content adoption and usage within the sales team and measure performance. Create room for sales team members to request needed content. With any of these programs and strategies, you need the ability to measure your results to prove what is working best for your operations — clear through the entire marketing and sales funnel combined. Below are a few ways to track just how successful the implementation of sales enablement tactics is. How to Measure Sales Enablement You can measure sales enablement success using the following metrics: Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate The lead-to-customer conversion rate is one of the most important success measurements to track. This metric helps measure the impact of your sales enablement activities in its simplest form. Certain sales enablement tools should help the sales team identify hot leads and should have the ability to let salespeople respond faster or communicate more targeted messages to the prospects to move them further down that sales funnel. All of these things drive better conversion rates. A little extra tidbit of advice: the funnel doesn’t end with this lead acquisition. Continue to nurture the relationship and turn the lead into a loyal customer (think content creation and nurture email campaigns using your marketing automation platform). Time Spent on Selling/Length of Sales Cycle When a salesperson is focusing their time on non-core selling-related activities, such as looking for leads, creating case studies, or building their presentations or expense reports, they will not reach their peak performance and likely won’t meet their sales goals. It’s the marketing team’s job to equip the salespeople with all the tools they need to sell successfully, having these materials at their fingertips will leave them more time to sell. Those extra hours spent searching and building non-templated materials can add up quickly. Reducing the need for that will most likely increase revenue, but measuring the success of this effort is a little trickier unless you use a time-tracking tool or model. Quota Attainment It’s key in sales enablement to help bring new salespeople, or underperforming team members, up to their peak performance. Any time your program can move these colleagues from underperforming to meeting their quota will have a massive impact on your top line. To optimize sales enablement efforts, you need to measure the effectiveness of every salesperson and how it relates to their onboarding of customers. To do this, you measure how long it takes for a new seller to achieve established sales quotas. Long ramp times indicate that training may need to be revisited. And vice versa, decreasing ramp times suggests your efforts are improving. Content Usage Quality content goes a long way, and should include testimonials, case studies, and product overviews. Compelling content is one of the most useful tools for salespeople and one of the most valuable products for a marketer to create. However, there is A LOT of content out there for prospects to absorb. For this reason, it’s important to measure and understand how well (or not) content is working. The best way to gauge how content is working is to use it in your drip campaigns and post it online. With drip campaigns, you can use your CRM and marketing automation to see if the email was opened and if the content was clicked on. By posting the content online, you’re able to track who is viewing or engaging with it and if it’s contributing to site traffic (this is for content placed offsite). Use attribution reporting to see how much influence your content had in converting leads to customers. Some other sales enablement metrics to check include: Average selling price Win rate Customer churn rate Without sales enablement, your sales team may fall behind on winning deals and lose sight of best practices. An effective sales enablement process keeps your sales team grounded, skilled, and up-to-date on the best strategies for closing sales. We hope this blog post helps your team improve their sales enablement tactics, leading to more sales for your business.
How to Make Your Next Campaign Successful Posted on September 8, 2022September 1, 2022 by Natalie Slyman Email is still one of the primary ways people communicate. There are more than 4 billion email users worldwide, which is why many businesses use it as a direct channel to communicate with their customers. Email marketing involves communicating with current customers and prospects to nurture leads, increase engagement, and move contacts down the sales funnel. Email campaigns have proven to be effective and profitable for marketers. In 2020, Statista reported that the average ROI of email marketing was $36 for every dollar spent, with the consumer goods, retail, and eCommerce industry getting the highest ROI with a $45 return on every $1 spent. Here are steps you can take to ensure that your email campaigns land successfully: 1. Understand the Goal of Your Email Campaign Your email campaign should have a clear goal that fits with your current business objectives. Before starting your email campaign, you need to know what you want to achieve and what actions you expect your contacts to take after receiving your emails. There are a variety of goals that you could set for your email campaigns that will prove immensely valuable for your business. Some of these are: Increasing website traffic Increasing brand awareness Nurturing leads Promoting a product Once you have a goal, no matter how small, you can take strategic actions that will impact your email campaign’s success. 2. Specify Your Target Audience Your business likely has various types of customers that make up your target audience. They can be categorized into smaller groups based on factors such as the following: Location Age Engagement levels Segmenting your subscribers will lead to better conversions. By segmenting your email list, you can craft emails that appeal to what the people within a specific group perceive as valuable. And when people receive content that is of value to them, they will begin to build trust with your brand and be more inclined to take the desired action you want them to take. 3. Personalize Personalization involves using subscriber data to tailor email content to appeal to prospects. Email marketing personalization can increase open rates and revenue by up to 760%. Each of your subscribers likely receives numerous emails daily. When you offer individualized content, your email immediately stands out and will elicit more desirable responses. Personalization is a natural follow-up to audience grouping. By segmenting your subscribers into lists based on unique qualities shared by individuals within each list, you can easily personalize email content so that it promises to meet their specific needs. This will foster a healthy and long-term relationship between your brand and your audience. Personalizing your email content will also make your emails relatable and relevant. When your customers know that your brand is attentive to their needs, they feel valued and are more likely to interact with your email content. 4. Use a CRM Customer relationship management refers to the set of technologies, strategies, and practices that businesses use to manage their interactions with current and potential customers. A CRM tool is essential for successful email marketing. With BenchmarkONE’s all-in-one CRM, you can: See which of your site content and emails your prospects, leads, and site visitors interact with Score leads based on how informed they are and how ready they are to make a purchase Track outcomes of your email campaigns A significant part of CRM is sales automation. Using the automation feature in BenchmarkONE, you can automate manual tasks and streamline the sales and marketing processes, including emails. It helps to drive sales, increases your sales productivity, and moves you towards your sales goals. Sales automation saves you the trouble of performing all your email marketing tasks manually. You will no longer need to: Click the send button on each individual email you send to your prospects and customers Keep track of which leads need to be followed up with, as our tasks feature will remind you Spend valuable time individually qualifying your leads. Our tagging feature can score them automatically and create easier segmentation options. Your email campaign aims to get your audience to perform an action. It is important to remember that your target audience is made up of real individuals who have real needs to be met. If you can communicate with your audience in a way that makes them feel valued while delivering helpful information, you will be more likely to have a successful email campaign and a successful sales funnel. Contact us today to learn more about how BenchmarkONE can help you automate your marketing and track campaign success!
7 Kinds of Software Every Small Business Needs Posted on September 7, 2022July 3, 2024 by Jonathan Herrick As a small business owner, you have your hand in every department. Being the head of sales, customer service, accounting, marketing, etc., can become overwhelming and pull you in a lot of different directions. That’s why having a collection of software tools can be a lifesaver for small business owners and make running your business smooth, convenient, and less time-consuming. Instead of doing a ton of research on the array of platforms out there, we’ve collected a list of the essential business tools you’ll need to run your small business smoothly while freeing up time to focus on other things. 1. Accounting Software Record keeping is an integral part of your small business. Not keeping accurate financial records could not only affect your business spending, but it could run your small business into the ground. The best accounting software can make the numbers less messy to assemble. It can help you keep track of your income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and cash flow. You’ll get an accurate picture of your business’s financial performance, which helps you make informed business administration and operations decisions. No need to go back to school for a degree in accounting. The following are examples of easy-to-use accounting software for your small business: Quickbook: Choose from four plans depending on your needs. Packages start at $15/month. Xero: Plans are based on what stage your small business is at. Whether you’re just starting out or are more established, there are packages that will fit your needs. Pricing starts at $12/month. Wave: Perfect if you’re looking for a simple, straightforward tool. The price is simple, too, starting at $0/month for their basic plans. 2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software With just a few customers, keeping to manual processes for managing your relationships with clients as a small business owner is easy. Once your customer base grows, it becomes hard to stick to manual processes for managing interactions with customers and prospects. CRM tools help you manage your customer relationships across different touch points. This, in turn, helps build loyalty and increased customer retention. Opt for tools that are easy to use and scalable. Below are the CRM tools we recommend: BenchmarkONE: Our CRM software is simple to use and helps small business owners track their customers’ behavior, so they can capitalize on sales and marketing opportunities. Pair our CRM with our marketing automation, and you can nurture your leads towards a sale, all while getting other things accomplished. Your small business can choose from our Lite or Pro plans, both starting at $0/month. Or, you can sign up for free and upgrade when you’re ready. 3. Project Management As a business owner, it’s not uncommon for your day to get away from you. Some important tasks can get buried in the flurry of other business activities and distractions, leading to ineffectiveness, increased stress levels, and a decline in productivity. Opting for project management software helps you to identify essential tasks that need to be completed, how long they should take, and how much budget to allocate to them. This helps you maintain productivity and a practical task management system. Project management tools to try for your small business are: ClickUp: Depending on the size of your team, ClickUp offers a few plans to fit your needs. They even have a free forever plan. Trello: Trello offers a similar pricing plan as ClickUp, and each plan is based on your small business’s particular needs. They also offer a free plan. Monday: Monday offers plans based on how intricate your team projects are. If you’re a business of one, there’s a free plan; otherwise, their pricing starts at $8/month. 4. Website Builder A website amplifies the visibility of your small business, making it easy for people to find you in the digital space and in person too! Once you have a small business, getting your website up and running is vital. Depending on your skills, you can choose to build your website yourself or hire a skilled website designer to get it done. Even if you choose the latter, you need to familiarize yourself with the platform the website is built on for regular site updates and maintenance. The following are versatile website builders to try: WordPress: One of the most widely used content management and website building platforms, WordPress offers personal and professional plans starting at $4/month. Wix: Wix website plans offer tons of templates so you can find a design that fits. Packages start at $16/month. Carrd: Carrd uses a different approach and lets you start building your site asap. It offers tons of modern designs, and you can build up to three sites absolutely free. 5. Sales and Marketing Sales and marketing are the lifeblood of your business. After the excitement of getting your business started, the next thing is to get the word out and put your business in front of your target audience. That’s where marketing comes in. Then, after cultivating prospects, you’ll need a plan to move them down the sales funnel. Marketing software helps you to get the message about your products and services out to your prospects. Below are some examples of helpful sales and marketing tools for a small business owner: Benchmark Email: If you’re exclusively looking for lead generation and email marketing software, Benchmark Email is a simple tool that helps you create website forms to grow your email list and has tons of email templates for newsletters and email outreach. Benchmark Email has a free plan available to businesses just getting started. BenchmarkONE: Our marketing automation software has sales and marketing dashboards so each department can keep track of deals and the success of their email outreach. They can track prospects and set up drip campaigns for continuous email nurture. Sign up for free and upgrade when you’re ready. 6. Team Communication and Collaboration Fostering good communication between team members will improve the growth and success of your small business. When you establish an effective communication system, you build a solid foundation that helps staff stay focused on business goals. Stay in touch with team members, practice effective communication, and share information easily with the following communication tools: Slack: One of the most popular online communication tools, Slack packages start at $0/month. Zoom: Great for video calls and meetings, Zoom keeps teams in contact no matter where they’re based. Pricing depends on the amount of users and what tools you need but starts at $0/month. Google Meet: If you have a Google account, this tool is perfect, easy to use, and totally free. 7. Document and File Management Track down important data and files, improve team productivity, and effectively disseminate information amongst team members with a document and file management system. Without one, your team could rack up hours looking for important files for different tasks, causing issues for collaboration and task management. Use the recommended software below to store, track and share critical business files and documents: Google Workspace: Every plan includes Google’s suite of tools to help your team stay aligned with easy file sharing and managing. Plans start at $6/month. Dropbox: Dropbox offers easy sharing and document tracking, as well as electronic signature. Pricing starts at $9.99/month. SharePoint: SharePoint is a Microsoft product that aims to make your work life easier through seamless sharing and collaboration. They have a small business plan for $5/month. These solutions can help you to streamline your business operations and administration, build effective workflows, and improve productivity. With the right platforms, you can free up precious time that can be used doing the things that matter to you. Good luck finding the right tools for your small business!
6 Marketing Tactics You Need to Stop Doing (and What to do Instead) Posted on September 1, 2022September 22, 2022 by Jess Lunk Marketing is a must for any business that cares about increasing revenue and scaling up. However, it’s a complex industry. Marketing practices and tactics are ever-changing, and it can seem like new industry-shattering trends emerge every month. It can be challenging for busy business owners to keep abreast of the latest tactics and to keep their knowledge sharp. Play that game for too long, and you’re bound to make lots of marketing mistakes that you’ll be paying for. For example, what worked some years back may be outdated by today’s standards. In this article, we will point out some marketing tactics you should let go of and what you can do instead. 1. Promotion-Centered Social Media Posts Yes, social media marketing is important for businesses, thanks to the overwhelming number of users on various social platforms. However, you can kiss the benefits of social media marketing goodbye if all your posts are focused on sales and promoting your brand or services. Social media allows businesses to connect intimately with their audiences for increased engagement, leads, traffic, and sales. Instead of salesy posts that will push your audience away, focus on strengthening your brand visibility and engagement using helpful content that your audience can relate to and engage with. That’s not to say you shouldn’t use paid ads or incorporate some promotional posts into your social media. Just make sure that you still focus on posts that share helpful resources or showcase your team so your audience can truly get to know the brand behind the business. A great way to maintain some balance with your posts is to create a social media calendar that has all these posts planned out in advance. 2. Focusing on One Audience Base You’ve probably heard about the dangers of selling to everyone. Irrespective of the products or services your business offers, your business cannot be for everyone. One common marketing mistake is to target everyone when promoting your product while hoping that those interested will be attracted to you and buy from you. Selling to everyone burns through your marketing budget with little to no results. With that said, it’s okay to sell to more than one segment of your audience base. In fact, we highly recommend it. It’s rare that a brand has only one audience base, so as long as you conduct appropriate research to establish your target audiences and do everything to get to know them and what influences their purchase decisions, there’s nothing that should hold you back from targeting more than one group with your marketing. Where you get into trouble is assuming your product or service is for everyone. And as nice as that sounds, that is never the case. 3. Focusing on Print Marketing Brochures and printed newsletters used to be excellent marketing practices. Often these pieces were sent directly to someone’s mailbox, which was a great way to reach prospective customers directly. However, with the development of digital marketing and more buying being done online, businesses have expanded their marketing approaches, meaning print marketing is quickly losing its appeal. Using print marketing occasionally for specific purposes in your environment may not be a bad idea, but do not rely heavily on this medium for ticking off your marketing goals. It may be a method you’re more familiar with, but that doesn’t mean your consumers are. If needed, take some online courses or webinars that show you the ins and outs of digital marketing. Or build an internal digital marketing team that can focus on these efforts. 4. Not Utilizing Inbound Marketing Tactics With digital marketing comes the practice of inbound marketing. Your inbound marketing strategy is comprised of digital marketing tactics, which include: Online paid advertisements SEO practices Social media marketing Content marketing – blog posts, guest-contributed content, press mentions, gated content, etc. Email marketing The beauty of inbound marketing is that when it’s implemented effectively, it brings your audience to you. It leads them back to your website, where you can convert those visitors to leads and engage and nurture them via your email marketing until they’re ready to purchase. This approach is effective because modern consumers aren’t huge fans of being pressured into their purchase decisions. They like to search online for solutions, perform their own research before buying, and feel like, ultimately, the decision is in their hands. Inbound marketing caters to that mentality, all while allowing businesses to stay top of mind with their consumers through consistent, permission-based outreach. In order to implement inbound marketing, you need the right tools to help you get the job done. Investing in a marketing automation tool like BenchmarkONE will help you convert website visitors to leads, keep track of their actions, and send them drip campaigns that will eventually convert them into customers. 5. Blogging Without Distributing Educating your customers with valuable content that answers their burning questions is excellent for building thought leadership, credibility, and engagement with your client base. But it is not enough to create blog posts and leave them sitting pretty on the blog section of your website. It is crucial to get the word out and let people see the content you are putting out. You can do this by sharing content on your social media pages, spreading the word via email newsletters, and optimizing your posts so they can be discovered in search engines. Below are some other non-traditional distribution tactics to try for your blog posts: Send them to dormant prospects in an attempt to re-engage Share them with a previous brand partner and ask them to share with their networks Create a social post promoting the content and encourage your internal team to copy and paste it to their social networks Add a link to the content in your email signature Add them to your drip campaigns 6. Creating Generic Content While we all agree that content is king, generic content won’t do your business any good and may even hurt your brand’s credibility. Ensure that the content you create is suitable for your audience – is it helpful to them in any way? Does it solve a problem? Does it provide any new information? For best results, create a content library, segment your audience and target them with content that aligns with their position on the buyer’s journey. That way, whenever they come across your content, it strikes the right chord and helps build trust for your brand. Also, don’t just stick to one kind of content type. Sure, blog posts and guest articles are crucial for your content strategy, but make sure you mix it up with infographics, whitepapers, eBooks, and video tutorials. People like to engage with content in various ways, so by keeping your strategy robust, you’ll create a more enjoyable experience. You have to market your business to be successful, and not every strategy is going to work for your business. Conversely, mistakes in your marketing strategy can cost you potential customers. Prevent this by staying away from marketing strategies that are no longer effective, and update your marketing plan to what works today.
How to Audit Your Website for Local SEO Posted on August 31, 2022December 1, 2022 by Natalie Slyman For small businesses, ranking in search results is a great way to get in front of an online audience and expand your reach. But that doesn’t mean you should no longer seek out local business for your storefront. Small business owners and local businesses can benefit greatly from appearing in local searches. Optimizing your small business for local search allows your company to get more store visits, phone orders, bookings, and appointments. It can also help establish your business as a local hotspot and put you on the radars of visitors and vacationers. Let’s dive into what local SEO is and how you can take advantage of it for your business. What is Local SEO? Local SEO refers to business and website optimization for local products or service-based businesses that have physical stores, with the goal of appearing in local searches within specific regions and locations (usually the areas these businesses serve). Why is a Local SEO Strategy Important for Small Businesses Many consumers are turning to Google to evaluate local businesses. In turn, small businesses need to make sure their business is easily found by these consumers in the process. Let’s get a bit deeper and break down the benefits local SEO offers: Improved Online Visibility With local SEO, you not only improve the chances of being found via local search but improve your overall small business visibility. Optimizing for Local SEO involves submitting your business name, address, and phone numbers to different directories. Doing this means there’s an increased probability of being found when people actively search for the specific products and services you offer in their local area. Increased In-Store Traffic Part of the reason for local search is to connect people with local businesses that are closer to them. Review Tracker’s November 2021 report found that 42% of millennials who used local search paid visits to discover businesses most of the time. If you optimize your business for local search, there is bound to be an increase in store visits as your company is being discovered by people looking for what you offer. Contributing to the Local Economy Small businesses are pillars of their community and local economy. When consumers choose to source products they need locally and are prioritizing shopping from neighborhood stores and small business owners, they’re putting their money back into their local economy, which is good for building their community. Optimizing your small business for local SEO ensures consumers close to you in your geographic location can actively find you when they need to source products and services like yours locally. This, overall, encourages consumers to support more small businesses instead of big brands and companies. How to Audit your Business and Website for Local SEO Now that you understand what local SEO is and how it benefits your business, the next step is to audit your business for local SEO to put it on the map and ensure visibility. While it may look like a complex process, your business could be on its way to getting local SEO-ready in just a few steps. 1. Conduct Keyword Research Conduct keyword research to discover keywords that customers use to search for your products or services. Ideally, local search keywords usually include “near me” or the city’s name. For example: “Lawyers near me” “Dentists in Florida” “Home decor services in Glendale” Make sure to note all your service offerings, as customers could be searching for any of them specifically. 2. Do a Website Audit Once you have a list of keywords, it is time to audit your website for links and authority. This step is more than just doing website maintenance. When auditing your business’s website, you need to: Optimize the web pages for relevant keywords Work on internal links and ensure there are no dead links Delete duplicate pages or tag them as canonical pages, so Google does not downrank you for that Take care of your web content by optimizing the copy for your keywords Work on creating and updating the content on your blog Your website audit will take the longest to implement, and it’s an ongoing process. To make it a bit easier, start by seeing what content you already have ranking and for what keywords. Then, reverse engineer by updating the content that’s ranking for high-priority keywords. 3. Update Your Google Business Profile A Google business profile allows you to put your business details on Google, which comes up during local searches. The details include information about your business like name, address, phone number, website, opening hours, business category, and other vital information. Keep up-to-date information on your Google business profile to increase credibility and increase your rank in SERP. 4. NAP Citation Analysis Name, address, and phone number (NAP) citation is any online mention of your business and its details. You should have as many citations as possible to boost your local search rankings. Submit your NAP to multiple local and online directories, yellow pages, or your local chamber of commerce website. Take care to keep this information updated regularly. 93% of consumers say they are tired of getting incorrect information from business directories, while 80% lose trust in such businesses. 5. Review Analysis Reviews are essential for your business’s local SEO and sales. Consumers are more likely to patronize a business with positive reviews. Stats show that 97% of consumers will read online reviews to discover local businesses, while 12% do so daily. Ask past customers to leave reviews on your Google business profile page, and consider adding an incentive to encourage your customers to take action. Take a look at past reviews and observe the pattern. The presence of many negative reviews may mean you need to do a review of your business and what you can improve on. Take time to respond to some reviews, as this cements trust and portrays your business as responsive. 6. Social Media Audit Social media is a marketing channel, and your small business should be utilizing it. Your presence on social media also impacts your local SEO and search rankings. You do not have to be on every social media platform, but you should choose the ones that your audience is active on and complement your business and stay active on those. Look for brand consistency across your social media pages, and consider your activities – are you consistent with your posts and engagements? Do you respond to questions and inquiries from customers? Consider building out a social media calendar to help you stay consistent with your posting and presence. 7. Analytics Review and Competitor Analysis Use Google Analytics to audit your website. Look at the numbers and identify the successful keywords your business is already ranking for and the ones you need to work on. Use analytics to discover where your traffic is coming from, how visitors typically get to your website and your website performance. Use SEMRush’s keyword gap analysis tool to search your keywords and see how your rank against your competitors. Look at the content that’s ranking for those terms (both yours and your competitors) and analyze the strengths and weaknesses. Also, take time to check in on your competitors on their social media pages and Google business profiles. Identify what they are doing that you are not doing, what they’re doing differently, and how you can improve to stay competitive in your local marketplace. As a small business owner with a brick-and-mortar store looking to improve sales and grow business, it is important that you optimize and audit your business for local search with local SEO. Use this seven-step guide, and your business can reap the benefits of local SEO in just a few months.
The 6 Most Common Things That Kill an Agency Posted on August 25, 2022August 19, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick When it comes to running your own company, mistakes are inevitable. However, one mistake too many at the wrong time could threaten to put your agency out of business. You can better prepare your agency for challenges and set up ways to overcome them if you are aware of common pitfalls that agencies like yours face. Read on to learn about six things you should avoid at all costs. 1. Absence of Retainers/Productized Packages Revenue is important to your agency’s success, but not all revenue is created equal: some dollars are a lot harder to bring in than others. One-off projects will have you constantly pitching for new work and new clients to keep generating revenue, which can lead to burnout. If this becomes a norm, it leaves you vulnerable to financial problems that could eventually kill your business. Retainers and productized packages, on the other hand, will provide your agency with more predictable earnings. It also makes it much easier to allocate time to different tasks when you already know the jobs ahead of you. 2. Absence of Structured Business Operations and Tools Running a business involves annual and quarterly planning, assigning roles and responsibilities, maintaining good internal communication, and many more aspects. Whether you are a veteran agency or just starting, you need to manage operations efficiently with appropriate tools for business success. Failing to do so could mean that important things slip through the net. A CRM tool can help with managing clients and client relationships and automating repetitive marketing tasks, whilst an email marketing tool helps you with connecting with clients and provide updates. You should also consider a project management tool for managing clients’ projects as well as internal projects. 3. Little to No Marketing Marketing is the lifeblood of any business, and your agency is no exception. Marketing your agency helps you remain visible and relevant, builds your reputation, creates demand for your services, and helps you overcome objections from prospects. However, some agencies slow down on marketing activities because their clients’ needs take precedence. The reality is that putting a halt on marketing your agency is a big failure that can result in less business and exposure. So, make marketing your agency a priority. It is important to always have a pipeline of leads and potential clients to which you can always pitch your services when needed. Also, more business means more revenue, which can aid your agency’s growth and help you scale up more quickly. 4. Focusing On One Big Client Anchor clients are great, but depending on just a few major clients for the bulk of your agency’s revenue is a disaster waiting to happen. What if something happens and a major client has to suspend business with you? Not having that monthly recurring revenue could put your agency in the ground. Make sure you have a solid book of business, ranging from clients with large budgets to more conservative ones. And make sure you have enough clients to keep your revenue strong but not too many so that your work suffers due to lack of resources. If your agency has less than ten clients, it could be a huge financial knock if one or two decide to take their business elsewhere. More than 25, and you’ll have multiple people demanding your attention, stretching you thin. So it’s important to strike the right balance here. And remember, continuous marketing will help you get more leads to pitch your services to, and you can always sign on new clients when the need arises. 5. Lack of Preparation for Business Crunch Agencies will sometimes have multiple projects that all come to fruition at the same time, leaving the business with more revenue than average. When this happens, most agencies regard it as their lucky period and fail to prepare for the cash crunch periods that may lie ahead. Business won’t be fast-paced all of the time – clients can go on vacations, take leave, or have emergencies that may stop them from doing business during certain periods. However, your business operations won’t stop – team members, contractors, and vendors need to be paid. Use the cash flow from the good times to prepare a reserve for unavoidable cash crunches to avoid being forced out of business. 6. Misalignment of the Sales and Marketing Team Most agencies use the silo system, which is a good way to lose potential customers for your agency. In the silo system, the marketing team does the hard work of bringing in leads and hands them off to the sales team for closing. The separate system may present misalignment in lead acquisition and management. When your marketing and sales teams work together, both teams have input to develop effective strategies, and business goals and objectives are unified, transparent, and shared by both teams. It’s not always easy to align these teams, so make sure you hold regular meetings and use tools, like a CRM and marketing automation, that will give them access to the same information and processes. Running an agency is stressful and time-consuming, but it’s also fulfilling and exciting. Make sure you follow the six tips above to ensure your agency sticks around for the long haul so you can continue to offer your amazing services to your clients (and future clients).