RetainFM – Build your Digital Agency on Recurring Revenue

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   Most common reasons why  projects go wrong: Scope Creep Misaligned Expectations Misaligned Budget Inaccurate or insufficient discovery Even long term retainers have a life span   The importance of thinking how to get our of something, before you get into it...   The difference between qu...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel! Key metrics to track Targets to aim for & industry benchmarks Exactly what formulas to use to calculate them Example metrics: Financials (Revenue, AGI, Gross Profit, Net Profit, Overhead Spending) Utilization Rates Average Billable Rates Labor Efficiency Ratio   Marcel's Bio:  Marcel Petitpas is...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   My 5 minute SEO Assessment of any client website!   Disclaimer: this isn't a process for running a full SEO Audit on a website. Instead, this is the process I go through when a lead comes in to talk about SEO. Before any project has been confirmed, or any money has exchanged hands, this is the pro...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   #1 – look inwards – "What do YOU want?" What type of lifestyle do you want? What interests you? How much money do you want to make? Do you want to be in a location? Do you want staff? How will it serve you?   #2 – where can I make a difference? What is your skill set, and how can that commerc...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   Why did I start this? Leaving previous employer No Leads Contractual Obligations   How do I do it? It's in my to do list I have some habits that happen regularly I have one-offs that happen when they need to A lead is never ignored or left to stagnate Some days it takes 5 minutes, other days it ta...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   Process: Pre-Discovery Session Lead comes in Brief 20min phone call to validate lead / project – outcome is to present Discovery Session as next best step 1 Page Agreement / Checkout for Discovery Session   Post Discovery Session: SEO Health Audit Current Rankings Reports Backlink Toxicity Report...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   Process: Pre-Discovery Session Lead comes in Brief 20min phone call to validate lead / project – outcome is to present Discovery Session as next best step 1 Page Agreement / Checkout for Discovery Session   Post Discovery Session: Project Specification Document Prepared Project Proposal Prepared &...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel! The Importance of Internal Focus Treating Your Agency as Your Own Client: A Strategic Approach: Self-Assessment and Goal Setting Implementing Internal Marketing Strategies The Option of Outsourcing: When to Make Your Agency Someone Else's Client Balancing Internal Focus and Client Responsibilities  Join...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   As an agency, we need to take responsibility for the quality of leads we have coming through our doors. Having defined products and services is key to aligning yourself with the right clients Having a clear marketing process that guides clients is key to not wasting anyones time   Defining your pr...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   There are multiple levels of service that an agency can work on... Clients Staff and their dependants The owner The wider world A business is only really a sustainable force when it can serve all four (OK, if you're content at being a solo-agency, then maybe not number 2).   Why is service importa...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel! The Importance of Local Clients: 1. Understanding the Market : Local clients operate in a market you’re inherently familiar with. As a part of the same community, you can understand their target audience better, as you share the same environment, culture, and trends. As a Digital Agency, you often need to tar...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel! Why Google Bard is better than ChatGPT for certain tasks: How ChatGPT and Bard are different: ChatGPT Database until Sept 2021 Uses a volume of written text to understand and produce new output. Bard Trained by a specific data set for conversations Main goal is to provide simpler results than the SERPs and tr...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   Agencies as a Commodity vs Marketing Partner The perception of an agency as a commodity service can have several negative impacts on its growth. Here are the key issues:  1. Price Competition : When a service is viewed as a commodity, the price often becomes the primary differentiator. This can le...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel! Sales that drive growth aren't incidental – they come about through a persistent drive to build a business. ( Get the 50 business development ideas you can use every day ).   Savvy business owners know that all business is an investment. Their profit is a direct multiplication of what they put in. So the...

Main talking points include:   Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!     Part 2 of a mini-series about User Generated Content – go back and check out episode 160 about what UGC is, how to create a UGC strategy and how agencies can help clients with UGC as a service.   The benefits of these tools are where the efficiencies lie for agencies. It's the tools...

Main talking points include: Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel! What is User Generated Content (UGC) Simply put, UGC is any content that is published online that is generated by your audience. Some of this may be autonomous, but businesses can also have a UGC strategy to help stimulate this content production.  It is good practice to showcase the best UGC your busine...

  Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!     Setting the context – the agency where I found my feet Working with Client Services Working on BIG clients Our agency was NOT a commodity   The problem – we see it all the time through SEOHive . Clients identify with what they can see and understand easily – that's why content retainers sell so well.   What...

Main talking points include:   Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   The challenge: We're all exceptionally busy – and if doesn't matter if we're an agency of 1 or 100, we all need to make sure that items of work aren't forgotten, deadlines are hit, our company is marketed, the booked an payroll are done, invoices are sent and that we have some time for ourselves...

Main talking points include:   Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   Understanding Customer Experience in a Digital Agency Context: Explanation of customer experience (CX) and why it's important in the digital agency business. This includes marketing to new clients, servicing clients professionally and retaining / maintaining a lasting relationship with them. &nb...

Main talking points include:   Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   Why Local SEO: 46% of all searches on Google include local intent 24.4% of all clicks go to the first result of local business searches “Near me” mobile searches grew increased by 136% in 2022 56% of businesses haven't yet claimed their Google Business Profile The average timeframe to see ROI-po...

Main talking points include:   Prefer to watch this show? Subscribe to the YouTube Channel!   Part 1: Understanding Scope Creep Definition of scope creep Scope creep in digital agency work refers to the phenomenon where a project's scope of work expands beyond the originally agreed-upon goals, tasks, and deliverables, without a corresponding increase in budget, timeline, or other project...

Main talking points include:   This is part 2 of a two-part show. Check out Part 1 of this podcast – Generating Leads through the 1/9 Rule   In this episode, I share a comprehensive process that digital agency owners can follow when they receive a lead or enquiry. Tune in to learn how to convert more leads into clients by following these steps: Initial Lead Capture : Streamline your lead...

Main talking points include:   Reasons Digital Agencies complain about leads: They "don't have any" They "don't know where to find them" The "don't have the time"   ... All excuses...   What I've actually found is that all the digital agencies I've coached have easy access to leads, they just don't (really) know what to do when they've got one... so they pass on it or don't even cla...

As with everything you need to apply the 80:20 rule – AI can get you 80% of the way there, but you still need to do the other 20% (thanks Bob Gentle for the inspiration here). Internally Marketing Social media Meeting summaries Externally / with clients Keyword clustering Content ideas & briefs Content Structures Social Media Ideas / Posts Content Summaries Meta Descriptions Meta Titles Custom...

There are many different models of pricing recurring (and non-recurring) services... ... but all of them rely on you building profit into your pricing structure.  In this episode, we walk through how to rice a recurring service to make sure you're making money EVERY TIME (including a base price calculator for you to use) and discuss why profit is so vital to every business.  The Base Pri...