"Like most business owners, you probably wish there was more time in the day. Finding the balance between meeting necessary deadlines and keeping space to be creative can be tough. But creativity in business is essential, and losing it means losing out on innovation, efficiency and (ultimately) revenue." In this piece I recently contributed to Entrepreneur.com, I discuss how as a leader, you must endeavor to build systems that help you find more creative space instead of more tasks for your list.

"A well-constructed creative brief is an essential tool for any creative project. Yet somehow, many creative briefs fail to live up to their potential and leave creatives with uninspiring work that ultimately wastes time, energy, and resources." In this piece I recently contributed to AdvertisingWeek.com, I discuss how to ensure your marketing strategy performs to the best of its ability by sparking creativity daily and generating inspiration among your team members.

Most of us aren’t thinking about what’s happening next week, let alone 10 years down the road in day-to-day business operations. But it’s very important to understand how decisions today could impact the future value of your business. This article will break down everything you need to know about what you should focus on to increase your valuation and why it matters to start thinking about your succession planning strategy right now. In this piece I contributed to CEOWorld.com, I discuss successful succession planning strategies include training and upskilling programs over time as well as specific takeover plans.

You might think that only a full-time, on-site employee can handle your agency’s work, but the reality is that remote and contract workers may have more specialized knowledge than your current team. In this piece I recently contributed to SpinSucks.com, I consider how agency owners can make contract workers team members rather than people to whom they just assign tasks.

In last week’s newsletter we started the conversation about how important it is to understand how our current clients are feeling about our work, our people, and our value.  And yet, customer satisfaction surveys are rarely done well. We’ve all been on the receiving end of bad customer surveys.  They ask us too often.  They ask us the same questions every time.  And we never hear back or see any real reaction to what we shared. No wonder why the completion rate is so low, and the input is so tepid. But it doesn’t have to be that way.  Customer satisfaction surveys, when done well, will give you a competitive advantage in terms of both client retention and new client acquisition. So how do we conduct our research in a way that ultimately serves both our organization and our clients? Last week we covered: Invite your customers to participate and tell them what you’re going do with what you learn Strongly consider getting both qualitative and quantitative input This week we’ll cover: Determine the timing Be thoughtful about the questions Determine the timing: This is one of the aspects most agencies miscalculate.  Most don’t ask at all but if they do, they err on the other side and ask too often — risking fatiguing their clients.  This is especially true if you keep asking the same questions repeatedly or the survey is too long. There’s no one size fits all answer to the frequency question.  If you want to stay on the surface and ask simpler, shorter questions, you can risk asking more often.  But if you want to dig deeper and ask your clients for more information, you’ll need to rachet back your frequency. [...]

Client satisfaction surveys are nothing new and yet, they are often done poorly.  The saddest part of when they’re done badly is that most agencies are missing a huge marketing opportunity. Yes, it’s wonderful to get the data points that you’ll glean from the survey but there’s also an incredible amount of goodwill and soft marketing that can happen when the research is done well.  (This is true for your clients as well, if you help them with customer satisfaction work.) Your clients will appreciate that you care enough about their business to ask.  But only if you also help them see how you are going to genuinely listen and react to what they tell you.  We’ve all been on the receiving end of the same survey, over and over, from a business who asks the same questions after every interaction, but we never hear about the survey results or how they’re going to put their new insights into action. This week and next, I want to dissect what we’ve learned from doing countless client satisfaction surveys for agencies.  You can build a DIY model or share this with your favorite research partner as a guide. Invite your clients to participate and tell them what you’re going do with what you learn:  Without a doubt, this first step is one of the most critical.  And yet, there are elements of it that are often overlooked or purposefully skipped.  Don’t miss a single nugget of this step if you want to maximize the value of the research. Start by sending an email or letter to your client base, telling them that you’re going to be sending them a link for an online survey or that your [...]

Inefficiencies could cost you as much as 30% of your revenue. They could also be wasting 26% of your team’s day. In this piece that I recently contributed to MediaPost.com, I discuss how to challenge conventions and find ways to improve upon your processes and procedures.

Although women have made great strides in the business world, the number of marketing agencies owned by women is unusually small. It's time to change that. In this piece I recently contributed to MarketingProfs.com, I discuss three steps to help you change the course of the industry for the better and how you can pave the way for more women founders and CEOs.