S2 Ep. 15. Kevin Gibbons - How to Scale an Agency.

When does a start up become a scale-up mean to you as an agency?
- Every time you increase your team size by 7, you have to start again!
- At the Early stages you as the founder are potentially the best at every single part of the team
- Then as you mature you have to think about bringing in the best people for the role
- When you start having to systematise processes
- If we keep doing the same thing - we're not going to break through the glass ceiling
- What get us here - won't get us there
Did you niche down as an agency first - then build up over time?
- No actually did everything and then worked out what we were best at
- The best case studies and the best results are very clearly identified in a particular niche
- Where is our pitch to win rate the strongest - and go after that
- Bite the bullet and double down on a particular area
- Solving unique problems for specific brands in that one area
- Build the case studies where you can show that you've made a meaningful difference
Marketing channels for scaling an agency
- A lot of agencies don't know where there next customer is going to be coming from
- A lot is down to word or mouth but that is difficult to scale
- b2b is multiple touch points - so you need to be seen in different areas
- BEST to use the Bullseye approach to find out what works
- Being a lot more focused means it's clearer what is working for you
- Events have worked well - especially with speaking slots
- Introducing prospects to existing clients - this level of proof of what is delivered works well
- Need to consider how this is all tied together - where do you want to influence in the funnel
- Award entries have worked well - credibility factors
What is the best way of understanding attribution for an agency
- Certainly can be a challenge - But it is often a process that build up over time
- e.g. "We've seen you in so many places that we had to invite you in"
- Some things you've just got to intuitively know is good for growth, even if it's very difficult to prove
- E.g. Running an annual event very difficult to prove a ROI
Pitches and pipeline for a marketing agency
- Just being invited to pitches might mean that you're just spinning your wheels
- Being more targeted on which pitches to actually go for has changed the approach
- Not just replying to every brief - Need to prequalify
- Just having potential pipeline isn't actually that useful
- Who do we know in the company? This is very important and feels like there is a level of trust
- Don't be making up the numbers
- Saying no to new business
How have you scaled your team as an agency
- Delegating earlier than you thought you needed to
- If you want to scale 30% next year, you've got to delegate 30% this year
- Replacing what I'm doing with diligent people, that can step and do the job
- The ultimate test of this is going away for long chunks of time - seeing what breaks
- Making sure you're not the bottleneck e.g. client delivery
In-house teams vs. agency and consultants
- Hybrid process works best
- Having smart people in house - but providing the scale and specialisms of an agency
- An in-house person is always going to heave more brand knowledge - how much this can be passed to the agency is going to be important
As an SEO agency, how are you considering Google's move to AI results
- Long-term vs. short-term benefits
- 80-20 nearterm vs. longterm
- But also need to be considered in terms of innovation and what is coming down the track
What is the one most important thing for a startup agency scaling up
- Understanding different stages of growth
- Acknowledging what is going to be most important at each stage