Creative Is Key, But Strategy Is King
When you hear marketing agencies say "content is king," we don’t mean creative is king. Content’s supremacy has less to do with the creative genius behind it and more to do with the strategy that makes creation worthwhile. Businesses now [...]
Agency owners need to embrace the 50-20-30 rule
Given that it's the Monday after a holiday weekend, I have one question for you ... Where were you? Most agency owners can barely squeak out a long holiday weekend, let alone a family vacation. And even when you get [...]
To Market Digitally, You Need to Be a Digital Consumer
When you work in digital marketing, perusing (and gleaning inspiration from) social platforms comes with the territory. But when even a tech columnist for the New York Times admits he needs a break from his phone — and from social [...]
Stalled Projects = Shrinking Profits
You know the drill. Client or prospect calls. They have an urgent need and you drop everything to figure out how to help them. About a third of the way in — when you need something (copy, assets, information, etc.) [...]
Is Your Agency an Artisanal Bakery or a Wonder Bread Factory?
When I meet struggling creative agency owners, one of the first questions I ask is: what kind of agency do you want to run? Their answers typically involve the deliverables their agencies produce, or who their agencies serve, but that’s [...]
How to Get Paid When Clients Pull the Plug
It’s annoying and expensive when clients pull the plug on a project before you can recoup all of your upfront investment. And yet it happens all the time. So much of our work requires a huge investment on our part [...]
The Death (And Revival) Of An Agency Power Player
Production managers, also known as traffic managers, used to be everywhere in the agency world. They were responsible for plugging the gaps between departments and ensuring that creators, managers and clients all knew what to expect and when to expect [...]
How much will you owe in taxes for this year?
In my mind, as you read that sentence, you were thinking “Are you kidding? I just paid THIS year’s taxes. Why are we talking about 2019 taxes already?” Which of course is my point. If you’d like to pay less [...]
Keeping the Lights On at Your Agency is Easier Than You Think
You and your team are good at what you do. You’re smart, you work hard, and you’ve excelled in your professional skill area. But you’re not salespeople. Since money doesn’t grow on trees, and there’s usually a correlation between effort [...]
Avoid Elon Musk-Style Firing Sprees by Having Hard Conversations Sooner
In December 2018, Wired published a shocking account of Elon Musk’s infamous firing sprees during Tesla’s Model 3 production struggles. According to the article, Musk’s frustration with low productivity and failure to meet standards led to the firing of some 700 [...]