How Digital Agencies & Their Clients Can Convert More Leads

11/27/19 • 19 min

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies

Is your agency struggling to convert leads? Are you looking for a new service that can deliver more leads to your clients? It's all about delivering personalized attention. And, everyone's attention is currently on Facebook Messenger. Your agency and your clients can convert more leads when you connect and engage in the right place at the right time. With billions of users and plenty of engagement, Facebook Messenger is one of the best ways to get in front of your prospects.

In today's episode, we'll cover:

Why your digital agency should be using Facebook Messenger.
How to use a bot to vet agency clients.
#1 way to convert more leads with Facebook Messenger.

Today, I talked with Mike Yan, Co-founder of ManyChat.com — a chat marketing automation company. Mike's journey to Manychat was simple. He identified a gap in the market, saw an opportunity, and pounced on it. Facebook Messenger is one of the highest converting marketing tools on the planet right now. And being able to automate workflows in Messenger is a no-brainer. Here's how Mike's tool is helping agencies create some seriously cool campaigns.

Why Your Digital Agency Should Be Using Facebook Messenger

Want some kick-you-in-the-pants statistic to get you going? Facebook Messenger's open rates are around 80%. CTRs climb as high as 60%. And it has billions of users.

If your agency hasn't jumped on the Messenger bandwagon yet, you should. You're sitting on a pile of gold. Just look down. And being an early adopter of a tool like Manychat in order to automate your Messenger conversations is going to help you dominate down the road.

Because here's the thing — your agency needs automation to win clients. You can have a team of salespeople that could sell ice in Alaska and an ops team with a bottle of growth serum. But if you can't actually reach your clients — you're going to run into a brick wall. Automation is the secret to reaching your ideal clients at scale.

How to Use Bots to Vet Agency Clients

I'm a huge fan of chatbots. I use a slick Don Draper bot to vet agency owners. And, I've talked a ton about the value of chatbots across digital channels. But when it comes to Messenger, you NEED to have a bot. After you've drawn up an incredible buyer's journey and target audience, you need to figure out which leads are high-value and which aren't. The key to effectively using a chatbot is to limit it to STARTING a conversation. It's not intended to BUILD a relationship. Use a bot to filter or categorize prospects but you need a human to continue the relationship... and that is what will set you apart from other automated agencies

With chatbots, you can run prospects through the gambit without having to lift a finger. Your chatbot can determine if they're just tire kickers or serious prospects. If they're in the former category, you can add them to your list and hit them with your barrage of top-funnel strategies without wasting real resources. But if they're in the latter category, you can instantly connect them to a real person and leverage your salespeople.

#1 Way to Convert with Facebook Messenger

What's the #1 problem with bots? People know they're bots! Stop thinking about chatbots as salespeople and start thinking about them as a digital concierge. Once prospects reveal their intentions, you can send the high-intent ones personalized video or audio messages.

This works doubly well if it comes from you instead of your team. This way your prospect goes from talking to a chatbot to getting a one-of-a-kind messaging from the person in charge. That switch from automation to personalization can help you win big by distinguishing your agency from the rest who are bot-ifying everything!

In a world that is fully automated, set your agency apart with custom and personal contact.

In today's episode, we'll cover:

Why your digital agency should be using Facebook Messenger.
How to use a bot to vet agency clients.
#1 way to convert more leads with Facebook Messenger.

Why Your Digital Agency Should Be Using Facebook Messenger

Want some kick-you-in-the-pants statistic to get you going? Facebook Messenger's open rates are around 80%. CTRs climb as high as 60%. And it has billions of users.

How to Use Bots to Vet Agency Clients

#1 Way to Convert with Facebook Messenger

In a world that is fully automated, set your agency apart with custom and personal contact.

Previous Episode

What Is VaynerX's Secret Agency Growth Formula? With James Orsini

Want a peek into Gary Vaynerchuk's and VaynerX's agency growth strategy? What can you learn about agency structure and growth from VaynerMedia? What does it take to become a "visionary" like Gary Vee? Great questions! And the President of The Sasha Group (a VaynerX agency) is here to share all this and more. Check out how you can apply some very Gary principles to your digital agency.

In today's episode, we'll cover:

What does an agency COO do?
3 things that make a good agency visionary.
4 ways to create a successful offshoot agency.
The biggest piece of marketing advice from The Sasha Group president.

Today, I talked with James Orsini, the President of The Sasha Group — an agency under the VaynerX banner that services $1 million and $100 million companies. James was also the former COO of VaynerMedia — and he's responsible for helping align and execute on Gary Vaynerchuck's visions. So, how did James go from COO of VaynerMedia to President of The Sasha Group? And how does The Sasha Group help VaynerMedia funnel smaller clients into their agency? Let's find out!

What Does an Agency COO Do?

James was the COO of VaynerMedia before he took on the President position at The Sasha Group. Why is it important to have a COO and what role do they play within the agency?

The Agency COO helps facilitate responsibilities and set strategies.

James explains it like this:

Gary sets the vision. James sets the strategy. And the senior leadership executes that vision using those strategies to create tangible results.

Every agency does the Tango with those three primary pillars (i.e., vision, strategy, and execution.) But it can be tough to do all of it alone. Typically, the visionary type isn't the best strategy person. And that strategy person may or may not be good at execution. You don't want one person trying to do all three things.

And that's a major problem for some agency owners. We love to do everything. Not only do you not have to set strategies and execute those strategies, you probably shouldn't. Hire for your weaknesses, and hire an A-team that can help facilitate your visions.

3 Things That Make a Good Agency Visionary

We all know Gary Vee is a visionary. He's in the all-star category with Seth Godin, Rand Fishkin, Neil Patel, and all of the other marketers who are the brand of their agency. Gary has an insanely popular YouTube channel, tons of clout in the industry, and a massive agency to back it up.

But what makes someone a good visionary? Is it an inherent trait? Or something you can learn?

Is it when their image transcends their agency? Is it their ability to lead, inspire, and innovate broadly? Or maybe visionaries are freak occurrences that just happen. Maybe it's just in their DNA. Maybe we're born visionaries...

I believe anyone can be a visionary. You just have to focus on three things:

The Big Picture: You can't get emotionally attached to projects, and you can't sweat the small technical details. Visionaries see and communicate the big picture and trust their team to carry it out.
Leadership: Gary calls himself the "moldable dictator." He's the main man but he's also willing to pivot ideas and adjust plays when necessary. Hold the reigns to your agency. But be willing to listen to the ideas of those smart people you've hired.
Find the Attention: Find what the people want — not what you want them to want. Gary Vee understands consumer attention is focused on social platforms. So, he is present on all social platforms and he started a social media agency. Steve Jobs understood what people wanted (i.e., gorgeous devices that are simple and contained.) So, he focused on well-designed devices that existed in a closed-source ecosystem. Focus on what the marketplace wants and demands.

4 Ways to Create a Successful Offshoot Agency

When your agency starts to grow, you have to start saying no. But, every time you say it, a little piece of you dies inside. After all, someone is sitting cash on the table in front of you, but you have to tell them no because you'retrying to stay focused on the right projects and clients to grow your agency.

So, why not make an offshoot agency? Whether is SaaS or a complementary service, your smaller agency can handle some of the smaller clients, and you get to keep the revenue. It's a win-win... right? Maybe. But here's the problem — offshoot agencies have a bad habit of failing.

But The Sasha Group is far from failing. And, with their mission statement of "we'll help you outgrow us into Vayn...

Next Episode

How to Quickly Grow Your Agency Beyond 6-Figures

Not sure when you should add to your agency team? Wonder who the first hire should be, and when? Growing an agency can be difficult and lonely. But when you have the right kind of support, the right people, and identify the right clients you'll grow leaps and bounds.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

How to know it’s time to add to your agency team.
#1 thing to grow your agency beyond 6-figures.

On this week’s podcast, we are hearing from Drew Schulthess, owner of Catchfire Creative. Drew’s agency has been working in the consumer packaged goods and lifestyle brands space since 2011. He’s on the show today talking about the steps he took to get over to the million-mark and beyond in revenue.

How to Know It’s Time to Add to Your Agency Team

Drew’s first hire was a mere four months into starting his agency. That’s super quick, right? He said that at the time, a resume came across his desk that was just good to pass up. The person was multi-faceted and seemed to have experience in many different areas that Drew wanted to grow. So even though it was a stretch on the budget, he took the leap to bring the person on board... and eight years later, he’s still with the agency!

Of course, Drew says his first hire has been amazing and able to adapt and evolve as the agency changes and grows.

Here’s the thing about hiring. When you’re just starting out, you might feel like you need to “sell” the agency to the candidate and convince them to want to work with you. (I remember thinking, “why would someone want to do this with me?”) But remember -- it’s supposed to be the other way around, of course! Make the candidate sell themselves to you. And hire for culture fit first, over skillset.

#1 Thing to Grow Your Agency Beyond 6-Figures

Here’s why I really dig Drew... he listens to me :) Drew credits a nugget of advice he picked up in one of my videos about setting prospect qualification criteria. He says taking the time to do that made the difference for his agency and helped them sky-rocket to the million mark and beyond.

Once you have a framework for who your ideal clients are, you can stop saying yes to everything. (Like you can quit taking on the clients with unreasonable deadlines and outrageous requests, like this one.) It might seem counterintuitive to turn down work, but when you start saying no to the wrong work, it frees you up to only saying yes to the right stuff.

Drew says that creating the criteria and actually putting it on paper was an important exercise for his agency. It gave him the clarity he had been missing and was the turning point in the agency’s growth.

Related: https://jasonswenk.com/nbat/

Would You Like More Leads for Your Agency?

If you want to get more leads with an 80% open rate and 25% click-through rate, you need to check out ManyChat. Engage prospects and build relationships with simple personalized experiences using the #1 bot platform for Facebook Messenger.

I've been using ManyChat for 3 years for connecting with prospects and converting leads. ManyChat bots are ideal for marketing, e-commerce, and support; making it easy to have automated conversations with prospects and customers. To connect with the 1.3 billion daily Facebook Messenger users, head to ManyChat.com and enter code: SwenkPro for a free one-month trial.