The only way to keep your agency growing is to get comfortable with discomfort

When you think back on those first few years of owning an agency, somehow the tough parts get muted. You remember the late-night pizza strategy sessions and the euphoria of signing that first big deal. You even remember stressing over payroll problems or going without paychecks (sometimes for months) just to keep the doors open. [si_guide_block id="74955" title="Download our Free Resource – Agency digital marketing services - the top 10 mistakes to avoid" description="This guide explains the 10 most common (and costly) mistakes that agencies can make."/] But it’s easier to forget about the fear of saying "yes" to a prospect and wondering how you were going to deliver. It’s even easier to forget about how you were often one mistake or choice away from having to call it quits. OK, maybe we don’t need to rehash all those…

Follow Michelangelo’s lead and turn a daunting task into a work of genius by planning strategically, collaborating with stakeholders, and using your resources

Great marketing and great art have a lot in common. After all, marketing without art is just mkeing. To create something meaningful in either field, you need to be creative, innovative, and able to connect with your audience — all while being business savvy, on brand, and aware of the market in which you’re operating. It’s no easy feat, but great art has a long history of engaging people and capturing their imaginations: just think of the countless pilgrims who have flocked to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa since it went on display there in 1797. As marketers, we know how essential that kind of engagement…

If you're trying to market an agency, these 7 resources and our 'Marketing your Agency' guide will help you

Where do you turn to, to check your Agency’s new business framework is as comprehensive and potentially as effective as it could be? Well if you're reading this, then Smart Insights is one of those places. But there are other ‘new biz’ coach or consultancy voices out there with lots of experience to share. So I thought it would be useful in this post - that accompanies our recent guide about marketing your agency  - to share a few of those with you.

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Marketing an agency

As part of my work with agency clients, I talk about taking a structured approach to raising their profile,…

Millennials (or Generation Y) are people born between the early 1980s to the early 2000s. Statistics show that in the near-future, millennials will make up most of the workplace. In fact, these young people are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force.

Most marketing agencies will simply not survive if they don't hire millennials now.

Flexible hours and remote working are becoming more and more common options that are offered in order to win the new generation over.

In addition to remote working, young people love technology. For many, it's an absolute must that the agency they work for has the right types of software tools or gadgets. As older generations begin to retire and the younger workforce steps in to fill their…

Stop slaving over custom proposals that lead you down dead-end roads. Instead, start with a proposal that’s already 90% to completion for every prospect. You will save time, create happier clients and close bigger deals

How? It starts with a template. That’s right. Similar to your email template, or your newsletter template, or your website template. It’s the same concept, you start with a basic, proven framework and you add what you need and take away what you don’t. You’ll be finished in half the time and you’ll win three times the deals. Download Digital Agency Coach's proposal template to help push your proposal in the right direction. Keep reading to find out how to maximize the template and get every last drop of value out of it. Before you submit it make sure you run it by our Ultimate Digital Agency Proposal Checklist to make sure you’re submitting only the creme-de-la-creme of…

At the tender age of 20 I started my digital agency Optix Solutions. 18 years on we are still going and employ almost 20 staff. Here are 5 useful tips if you're thinking of starting your own business.

At 38 and as a relative old timer of the industry, I thought it would be useful to tell my story. Hopefully I can inspire the next generation because although the internet might have changed dramatically in the time I've been going, good old common sense business fundamentals haven't.

When I started my agency back in 1999 Google and Ebay were both in a garage somewhere. Many companies didn't have websites so my job was to persuade them this Internet thing was worth investing in! 18 years on and its a little different! In that time we went through the dot com bubble bursting, the birth of ecommerce,…

Digital Strategy moves into 2nd place whilst Branding advice becomes less sought after

Many senior marketers search for an agency starts exactly where you might expect, by searching. Agency Spotter, which helps connect agencies and buyers have analysed their search traffic to reveal just what marketers are searching for when they are looking for an agency. The results can be used to help agencies adapt their offering. The data reveals the services that were being searched for the most and the change over time. Advertising, digital strategy, social media, as well as marketing strategy and mobile marketing stayed top consistently from 2014 to the first half of 2016. Searches for these terms didn't change much at all over this period, suggesting longevity of the needs for these services. Branding, design strategy, eCommerce and communication design searches declined heavily over the period. Interest in user experience and email marketing also…

And clients need to stop listening to their HiPPOs

When I first meet a new client team, it’s always interesting to hear about how they got to where they are. It’s always different and often complex – but there are some similarities across the board – from multi £m businesses to start-ups. The most common theme I hear surrounds clients simply not getting business advice. I use the work business pointedly here. What can happen is clients have a back-story that then leads them to a self-perceived solution or service that they think will solve the problem.

For example:

I spoke to a really smart marketer yesterday who represented a £100m turnover membership business. She had a ‘web design’ brief for a new website and a budget of £25k. It had all kinds in there – better SEO rankings, new…

A good relationship with your agency is key to creating solutions to your marketing efforts, both yourself and the agency are happy with.

As an extension of yesterday's post, today we are looking at the top challenges of working with an agency. The work comes from Clutch who surveyed 500 respondents all of whom work in companies with over 500+ employees for their 2016 Enterprise Marketing Survey. They asked marketers, "What is the biggest challenge of working with an outside agency?”. Unsurprisingly "communication" came top of the list, with 18% if respondents claiming it to be the toughest thing about working with an agency. Whether there is a lack of, or complete miscommunication, it is something that has to work for a successful business relationship. On the agencies behalf, it can be tough to juggle multiple clients emails and phone calls, whilst…

84% of companies hire at least one agency for a marketing or advertising service.

Not only this, but companies are choosing to hire 2 if not 3 agencies across the multiple disciplines. Clutch highlight that this is hardly surprising given the vast amount of disciplines and channels the average CMO is having to work across. Given this, it makes sense that they are choosing to hire multiple agencies, as well as their own in-house teams to tackle the multi-channel campaigns targeting multiple audiences, sometimes across different sectors. Data: Survey of 500 respondents who work in a marketing role at companies with at least 500 employees. About half come from companies with 1000+ employees. 88% are manager level or higher Source: Clutch Enterprise Marketing Survey Date: Aug 2016 …