The Agency Growth Blog - For Owners Who Want Growth

I hear this all the time. I can’t charge what I want because…fill in the blank here. “We’re too new,”  “We’re too small,” “Our customers are too little,” “They can’t afford a bigger retainer,” “We’re not good enough yet,” “We’re trying to win the business,” “We’re not a Diamond Partner yet” or “We’re not Square 2 Marketing.” It’s all bullshit, honestly. You don’t have to be any of these things to get paid true value for the services you’re providing your clients.

I’m speaking from personal experience. You might not know this about us, but we used to be just like you. Much smaller, hungry for new clients and much less certain about our abilities to produce big time results for our clients. We used to sell $3,000-a-month engagements. We sold these for years and signed up a lot of new clients at that level. But we quickly learned these were click crack, a fast track to unprofitable, unhappy clients and a team of unhappy people servicing these unhappy clients. It was dark times for Square 2 Marketing.

Not too many inbound agency owners can claim they’ve been doing inbound marketing longer than me and the team at Square 2 Marketing.

Back in 2003, when we started the company, we ONLY did inbound even before we knew it had a fancy name. Since then, we’ve probably had 500 client experiences and while most of our clients have seen results, only a handful have seen game changing results. Why is that?

When I watched Marcus Sheridan talk about what it takes to make inbound work during his 2016 session at Inbound 16, it resonated with me. He couldn’t be more correct. There are a lot of elements that need to be in place for inbound to produce business transformation.

However “What does it take?” in my opinion, is not really the right question.  The right question is why don’t more companies do what it takes? If we all know, and we’re all working hard to help clients do what it takes, why do the massive success stories make up just 1% of all the companies trying to make inbound marketing work?

AND How To Deal With Them Proactively

One prediction that I am 100% confident in is that the agency world is changing at a pace never before seen in our lifetimes.

What we do today is not going to be what we do in five years. How we do it today, is not going to be how we do it in five years and what our clients want from us today, is not what they wanted from us five years ago.

If inbound agency owners are not planning on how to keep up with the coming changes then your business is in grave danger. One of the entrepreneurs I used to work for had a saying, “you have to create the business that is going to put you out of business.” When you look back at Blockbuster, RadioShack and other businesses that failed to identify trends and then change their businesses accordingly then you know how those stories end.

I’ve been reading a handful of celebratory announcements on social media highlighting the ascension of several agencies to Diamond or Platinum status in the HubSpot ecosystem.

This is an accomplishment, no doubt, and one any agency should be proud of but as HubSpot’s first Diamond Partner, I can assure you that status is no guarantee of success, nor is it a measure of an agency’s ability to perform.

When you think about it, partner level status simply means you’re handling a certain level of business with HubSpot as the marketing automation platform. It signals that you have acquired a certain number of HubSpot clients. The number required to achieve partner level status is not particularly high. Silver only requires $1,125 in monthly managed licensing revenue and that you sold the same $1,250 in licensing revenue. That means you can get to Silver by selling ONE nice Pro level client. That hardly qualifies you as an expert.

You might have missed it, but the inbound marketing agency is dead. All of you agency owners who changed their website design, branding, SEO or PR firms into inbound agencies, it’s  time to change again. What happened? When did it happen? Why it happened? And most importantly what should you be doing about it?

If you think I’m wrong, check out this article from HubSpot’s FAQ section of their website. In full transparency, this was an article from 2014 that must have been high performing and they republished and updated it about a week ago. This is a guest article, not created by anyone at HubSpot. I don’t know Ritika or anything about her, except that her article appears to show the future of inbound marketing’s place in the wild world of marketing.

Last week we hosted eight inbound marketing agency owners from as far away as Milan, Italy at the Square 2 Marketing offices for Agency Week 2.0. This is the second time we’ve opened the doors at Square 2 and allowed agency owners to see a true “behind the scenes” at one of the largest of HubSpot’s partners.

The experience was a truly immersive experience and there is no simlar educational opportunity for agency owner coaching on the planet. 

The owners came to meetings, listened in on prospect and client calls, sat in on internal planning meetings and attended company-wide creative sessions. Their agenda included sales, marketing, client services, creative, project management, agency-wide retrospectives and our all-hands Friday brunch session. 

Over the past few months I’ve had a few inbound marketing agency owners email me regarding their agency and the consulting they do. This would be different than the services delivery model that most agencies operate under.

To be clear, you can tell people what to do and then expect them to do it—that’s consulting. Or you can tell them what to do and then help them do it—that’s services. 

Most of the time, I’m talking about the agencies who are responsible for delivering the services associated with inbound marketing engagements but I know there are agencies who simply consult. Today’s article outlines the differences and some of the benefits and challenges that go with both models.

When it comes questions this one is the most asked of them all. When and who do I hire? I think this is most challenging to inbound agency owners of small shops because the fear of making a mistake is petrifying. I do understand that. Hiring is a big commitment, a responsibility and one that puts someone else’s personal future on the line. No one wants to hire a new team member only to have to let them go in 30 days.

But the fear should be put aside. Fear can’t rule the day. No decisions are permanent, especially hiring decisions and yes, it would be difficult to let your new team member go, but everyone would get over it and move on—if it came to that. So, moving forward now. Let’s not “make it hurt” let’s stop this silly “boot strapping” entrepreneurial guidance we’ve all heard from experts. If you’re too busy to work ON your business it is because you’re working IN it every day, all day. You need help. You need a new team member.

Inbound 17 is behind us and we’re quickly coming to the end of 2017. Now is the time to make sure your inbound marketing agency finishes the year strong. What are you doing to make sure you finish 2017 as your best year yet?

One of the differences between inbound marketing agency owners I coach and owners I don’t is that agencies in my program are proactively working to change what’s not working at their shops. While others I talk to appear to be HOPING things change. Hope is not a strategy.

Instead of hoping things change, hoping clients sign, hoping your team gets better I’m suggesting you stop hoping and start working. I know most of you are heavily involved working IN your agencies instead of ON your agencies, but you have to find time to work ON the business and not IN the business.

Carving out this time for you to drive inbound marketing agency growth has to be your top priority. Never step on this time and never sacrifice it for anything or anyone.

It’s All On You To Make It Work, There Are No Short Cuts, Don’t Do Everything People Tell You

After Inbound 17, there’s been a bit of a dust up in the partner community around HubSpot’s role in helping us grow our agencies. If you’re curious to see what I’m talking about, click here to check out the post on Inbound.org. While I did post a comment, this forum allows me to get into a little more detail.

For the past three years, I’ve been working closely with agency owners, specifically inbound marketing agency owners. Over that time, I’ve had over 80 agency owner clients work with me at Agencies 2 Inbound. I think that classifies me as an expert when it comes to understanding what your challenges are and what’s holding you back from the growth you expect.