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An Inbound Marketing Agency Scorecard: How Is Your Agency Doing?

Posted by Mike Lieberman on Jul 30, 2016 4:30:00 PM

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Balanced Scorecard for Inbound Agency OwnersJuly is quickly coming to an end which means the summer’s end is not too far behind too. Now is the perfect time to assess how the first part of the year went and make adjustments so you can finish 2016 strong.

But what inbound agency numbers do you used to measure your agency? Do you compare yourself to other agencies or do you compare your performance against your own expectations and goals?

I’ve always loved the scorecard concept. Setting up some measurable goals and then grading those goals over time. I also like the Balanced Scorecard concept because it makes sure that our goals are balanced across the company.

Here’s a Balanced Scorecard and the specific metrics you should be looking at monthly. Use these ideas to grade how your agency is doing with just over half 2016 behind us.

Sales and Marketing

  • Actual Revenue vs. Target Revenue Projected
  • New Revenue vs. Projected New Revenue
  • Website Visitors vs. Goals
  • Conversion Rate vs. Goal
  • Leads vs. Goal
  • Sales Opportunities vs. Goal

Your Internal Team

  • Retention Rate vs. Goal
  • New Team Members Hired (if that’s in the cards for you)
  • Team Member Happiness Score vs. Goal
  • Number of New Team Members Referred vs. Goal

Financials and Profits

  • Net Profit Margin vs. Goal
  • Gross Profit Margin vs. Goal
  • Cash On Hand vs. Goal
  • Annual Revenue Per Employee vs. Goal
  • Average Monthly Recurring Revenue Per Client vs. Goal

Clients

  • Net Promotor Score vs. Goal
  • Client Referrals vs. Goal
  • Client Reviews vs. Goal

Program Performance

  • Number of Clients who hit their Quarterly Revenue Goals
  • Number of Clients with Exceeded Lead Goals
  • Number of Clients with Exceeded Website Visitor Goals
  • Number of Clients with Early Delivery of Website

Now take each of the 22 Scorecard elements and give agency a grade- A, B, C, D or F. Here’s how I’d suggest you apply the grading system.

Inbound_Marketing_Agency_Owner_Grades.jpgTo get an A in any of the category elements you should have exceeded your goal by 10% or more. To get a B you should have hit your goal up to the 10% mark that would have earned you an A. In other words, at goal up to 9.9% above goal is a B. Ten percent below goal up to 99.9% of goal would earn you a C.

Twenty percent below goal up to the 11% of goal would get you the D and then anything below that mark would get you the F.

I don’t think we really need to worry too much about the calculations on elements in the F vicinity. Obviously, a lot of work is needed in this area if you’re looking at giving out any Fs.

If you have all As then you clearly had a killer first have of 2016. If you’re showing As and Bs then you should be happy with that performance as well, but anything less means there are areas were you need to be working on improving your performance to set up a better second half of the year.

Once nice benefit of the Balanced Scorecard is that it can focus your attention on those areas that need help. Once you prioritize those areas then you can come up with an action plan to address those areas of the business that still need better grades.

Start Today Tip – Small agencies often make pennywise and pound foolish decisions. Do you think you can afford $500 to $1000 a month if the value you get from that investment helps you go from a $500k agency to a $1M agency? Yes, you can. Your tip for today is to look at your agency through an outsider’s lens. If you’ve been trying to fix one of the areas above for more than 60 days with no solution in sight, you might need help fixing it and any amount of money is likely going to pay off for many months to come. Outside guidance can help you solve a challenge in a much shorter time frame than if you keep working on it on your own. Identify your challenge areas and get help today.

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Topics: inbound agency metrics, inbound marketing agency metrics, balanced scorecard for inbound agencies

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