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Search results for: agency management

How Big Should You Build Your Agency? with Drew McLellan

[easy-social-share buttons=”facebook,twitter,google,linkedin,mail” counters=1 counter_pos=”topm” total_counter_pos=”leftbig” style=”icon_hover”] Drew McLellan is the CEO at Agency Management Institute. For the past 23+ years, he has also owned and operated his own agency. Drew’s unique vantage point as being both an active agency owner and working with 250+ small- to mid-size agencies throughout the year gives him a unique perspective on running an agency today. AMI works with agency owners by: Leading agency owner peer groups Offering workshops for owners and their leadership teams Offering AE bootcamps Conducting individual agency owner coaching Doing on-site consulting Offering online courses in agency new business and account service Because he works with those 250+ agencies every year — he has the unique opportunity to see the patterns and the habits (both good and bad) that happen over and over again. He has also written two books and been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog “One of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read.”     What you’ll learn about in this episode: Why all agencies weren’t made to grow to the same size (and why that’s okay) Why agency owners have to work extremely hard when they’re at 0-5 employees and why all the employees in an agency that size have to wear multiple hats The bench strength problem for agencies with 5-12 employees and why there might only be one employee with a certain skill and no one to back them up Why the systems in processes must change for an agency once it hits 12 employees The change around 15 employees that takes an agency from being a family to being a team The decision-making process: why decisions [...]

November 13th, 2017|

AMI Eyes Only Agency Edge Research 2017

Thank you for signing up for the AMI/Audience Audit webinar where we walked you through the 2017 Agency Edge research study on what clients want/need/expect from their account executives. Here's the video of the webinar for your viewing pleasure and below that is the link to download the PDF of the deck we used. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTKQffHfm_U&feature=youtu.be Download the deck here. If you have questions -- reach out to Drew or Susan any time!

October 19th, 2017|

What You Need to Know Before Taking Your Agency Virtual, with Gerald Sexton

[easy-social-share buttons=”facebook,twitter,google,linkedin,mail” counters=1 counter_pos=”topm” total_counter_pos=”leftbig” style=”icon_hover”] Gerald Sexton is Director of Employee Enablement at Goodway Group. Gerald joined Goodway in early 2016 and brings significant experience in leveraging human resources to improve business performance and employee experience. Throughout his career, he has worked in the consulting, medical, aerospace and defense, and satellite-entertainment industries. His most recent position as Senior Human Resources (HR) Manager for DIRECTV’s premier customer-retention center in Boise, Idaho, allowed him to demonstrate just how much impact a strong HR partnership can have. Using an integrated approach with site leadership, Gerald helped the site reduce attrition by 7 percent, creating three million in cost savings. He holds a BS in psychology and an MA in organizational psychology. His fascination with solving complex problems in organizations led him to a career in HR with a strong emphasis on talent and organizational development. Gerald has a passion for cooking and enjoys traveling (and eating food from) all over the world. He lives in Boise with his wife, Robyn, and daughter, Rowan.     What you’ll learn about in this episode: The history of Goodway Group How Goodway succeeds with a virtual company with employees in 41 states The best tools for managing a virtual company What Gerald looks for in the hiring process to figure out if someone is suited for the hiring process or not Why Goodway looks at their team members results — not their hours working How to build and maintain a strong company culture when running a virtual team Goodway’s twice-yearly all company meet-up The costs involved in a virtual team The benefits of working from home — both on personal and business life Giving your team the freedom to plan [...]

October 16th, 2017|

2017 Agency Edge webinar/deck

This webinar was originally recorded in the fall of 2017 to walk participants through the insights from the 2017 Agency Edge Research Series study which focused on what clients want/need/expect from their account executives. Here's the video of the webinar for your viewing pleasure and below that is the link to download the PDF of the deck we used. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAeMMsjYjfM&feature=youtu.be   Download the deck here. If you have questions -- reach out to Drew or Susan any time!

October 10th, 2017|

10 Ways to Establish Order in Your Advertising Agency

It’s no secret: Most advertising agency owners come from inside the advertising industry.Naturally, they’re very good account executives, copywriters or art directors, but they’re not always seasoned businesspeople. Like most creative people, they’re not interested in restrictive, formulaic systems and processes to guide workflow, even though they’re necessary. Unfortunately, this misstep can singlehandedly create chaos in a busy advertising agency. Common Ad Agency Mistakes Most agencies rob themselves of income when they don’t track and bill work correctly. With these small additional revenue streams, the average agency could grow its bottom line by several percentage points every year—if not more. In addition, without continuous revenue growth, it’s tough to keep hiring and training, which can lead to increased turnover and stale ideas. Ultimately, that can result in an agency that isn’t a creative force any longer. It’s simply a production house, rather than a generator of innovation. In today’s environment, this is a risk that most agencies simply can’t afford. With a mix of employees and freelancers working together in different cities and time zones, process and project management become vital to ensuring proper billing, communication and project completion. Otherwise, details are dropped, deadlines are missed, clients leave and the bottom line takes a sharp dive into the red. It doesn’t have to be this way. 10 Tips for a Competitive Advantage Here are 10 ways to give your advertising agency a streamlined process and a competitive edge. Have a production process, and honor it. It’s important to create clear, easy-to-follow workflows for every kind of project. This ensures that steps aren’t missed and that the final product has been vetted at each essential stage. Create a culture that won’t honor workarounds for anyone—even the [...]

October 10th, 2017|

How to Scale Your Agency and Prevent Scope Creep, with Ryan Meo

[easy-social-share buttons=”facebook,twitter,google,linkedin,mail” counters=1 counter_pos=”topm” total_counter_pos=”leftbig” style=”icon_hover”] Ryan Meo has worked with hundreds of agencies and built thousands of websites over the years. About 10 years ago he started a company called Sitetology which turned into TheWebsiteProject.org and has been recently re-branded to ScaleSquad.com. They are a private label website services outsource solution for freelancers, small agencies, and even big agencies. They have helped more agencies than they can count go from trying to do everything on their own, to having a dependable, scalable, and affordable solution. What you’ll learn about in this episode: How Ryan started selling websites — even though he didn’t know how to build them Taking a custom service like web design and making it scalable Why you have to prevent scope creep by being firm with clients on what their deliverables are (or by moving them up to a higher package) How Ryan is able to charge a low, flat rate for his websites and why he puts a lot of focus on what isn’t included in those packages Why you shouldn’t turn away customers who can’t afford your bespoke services Why agencies make a big mistake by talking too much in the initial call with a prospect Building a strong relationship with an outsourced web-dev shop like Ryan’s Why your project manager makes or breaks your agency The importance of over-communication How to mitigate unrealistic expectations What the ideal agency looks like for Ryan The Golden Nugget: […]

October 2nd, 2017|

Agency Edge Research Series

Since 2014, Agency Management Institute has partnered with Audience Audit to develop and share custom research designed to help marketing agencies better understand their clients, their prospects, and even their employees. The research results are publicly unveiled each fall in conjunction with our media partner Content Marketing World (2019-now), before that - Hubspot's Inbound conference. (2016 - 2018) and before that, at the BOLO conference (2014 & 2015). We also offer summary reports of the data/insights and online webinars to walk agency leaders through the data and tackle their questions as we explore the research together. You are welcome to review this year's research as well as previous studies. Agency Edge 2024: Getting hired in 2024 - new insights to help agencies get found, hired, and retained Agency Edge 2023: Building Trust And Revenue With Existing Clients – How To Keep Them Spending With Your Agency Agency Edge 2022: Slam That Revolving Door! – Building Agency Employee Loyalty In A New Age Agency Edge 2021: Riding the Wave - How Over 1,200 Agency Clients Are Operating During an Economic Boom Post-Covid Agency Edge 2020: How are clients reacting/planning given COVID’s impact? Agency Edge 2019: How Clients in the US and Abroad Choose their Agencies Agency Edge 2018: When, What - And WHY - Clients Outsource To Agencies Agency Edge 2017: What Clients Really Want from Agency Account Managers Agency Edge 2016: Making the Most of Your Agency’s Millennial Workforce Agency Edge 2015: How/Why Agencies Get Hired and Fired Agency Edge 2014: Client Attitudes About Agencies

October 1st, 2017|

5 Big Agency Owner Mistakes Make and How to Avoid Them

All agency owners have one thing in common: the desire to create a company that does it better and does it their way. But you can’t realize your vision if your agency isn’t financially successful. It’s simple: Your agency must bring in revenue, and your team must be rewarded for its hard work. Agency owners still trip up on the same five mistakes over and over, despite having a straightforward goal. These five agency owner mistakes aren’t unique, and fixing them isn’t optional. Get back to your main goal, and get over what’s making your agency more complicated and less successful. The Big Five Agency Owner Mistakes These five mistakes are probably things you already know you need to fix. They’re the things holding your agency back and keeping you from being as efficient and successful as you could be. 1. Your agency doesn’t have a business plan. Most organizations don’t have one; of those that do, very few actually use them. But without one, how do you recognize areas that need improvement? Your plan needn’t be a 20-page monstrosity that sits on your bookshelf collecting dust. It can be a single piece of paper that identifies your most pressing needs in finances, management, staffing and more. If you commit to your business plan, you can increase your bottom-line profits significantly. The plan should focus on your vision for your company. What do you want for your future? Take your ideas, make a list, and then make them real. 2. You don’t stick to your processes. No one violates an agency’s procedures more than the owner. But we both know the problem with that. If you don’t do it, neither will the rest of your team. That’s why [...]

September 29th, 2017|

How Can Agency Account Managers Build Better Client Relationships

Innovation doesn’t happen when you’re taking orders from a client. It happens when your agency and your client work together to build something groundbreaking and different. And that’s where every agency sets out to be: on the cutting edge of new ideas and trends. Today, thriving agencies aren’t just selling their clients marketing tactics; they’re helping them solve business problems and build better client relationships. The advantages of business savvy So, how can you begin to earn the kind of client relationships you’re looking for? You have to start by earning your clients’ trust and the first people to begin to build that relationship are the ones communicating with them every day: your Account Executives. It’s not enough for your Account Executives to simply be good communicators, though. They also need to prove that they’re good Business Advisors, and that means understanding every aspect of business, from finance to production to distribution. It’s simple: The more an Account Executive understands how business works, the more effectively he can serve his clients’ businesses. Here are a few proven benefits of Account Executives with real, working business knowledge: 1. It allows you to create better, more complex solutions to your clients’ problems. The best account management allows your agency to be a valuable resource for your clients, rather than just a vendor. Having smart, proven business knowledge to back your creative recommendations won’t just help you sell to your current clients. It will also differentiate you from other agencies that are still simply selling “marketing stuff.” 2. It allows you to charge a premium price because you can document the value you deliver. Your Account Executives won’t just run more profitable accounts. They’ll also be able to prove [...]

September 27th, 2017|

EOS Model: Why Your Agency Needs a Visionary and an Integrator with Mark Winters

Most agency owners are visionaries – able to see the future and come up with idea after idea to keep their agency on top of things. But most agency owners struggle to move those ideas forward on their own. They need an integrator to help them get things done – to wade through the details and processes. The integrator is the one to follow through and put the visionary’s ideas into practice. This perfect combination of visionary and integrator is what my podcast guest Mark Winters focuses on in his book, Rocket Fuel. Mark is a Certified EOS Implementer, working with agencies to identify this combination of the “visionary” who makes it up and the “integrator” who makes it happen and puts them together within a framework that will get your agency to extraordinary. See how identifying the visionary and the integrator in your agency can push you to the next level of success by learning: The “visionary” and the “integrator” from “Rocket Fuel” by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters How visionaries and integrators can build trust so that integrators can take control of what visionaries create What business owners need to do when they are an integrator and they need a visionary (most owners are visionaries) If you are a visionary, how to determine if you have an integrator on your team and what to do if you don’t The seven-step visionary integrator connection process for finding the right integrator How to know if you’re going to be able to sell your agency to your integrator or not (and what your exit plan can look like in both scenarios) Things that make visionary-integrator relationships fall apart The five rules and five tools for [...]

September 21st, 2017|

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