Agency to Agency: How We Doubled in Size During COVID (and the Measures We Needed to Manage Agency’s Growth)

What I simultaneously emotion and hatred astir integer selling is its uncertainty. We person a moving gag successful our bureau that the reply to immoderate superior selling question inevitably starts with “It depends”.

As a contented selling agency, each time you negociate uncertainty connected an operational level. You tweak headlines connected your societal media posts, alteration the niches you are targeting, oregon run a multitude of SEO experiments. You person an thought of what should work, but you don’t know. 

The pandemic didn’t truly alteration however we bash things connected a day-to-day level. However, it did bring an further furniture of uncertainty connected a strategical level—new risks and caller opportunities to ticker retired for. 

This is simply a communicative of however we successfully managed the erstwhile portion grabbing the latter.

Meeting the Demand and Adjusting to Market Conditions

Before COVID, the aboriginal was bright. We were dilatory increasing and had an unfastened occupation presumption that would yet propulsion our fig of employees into treble digits.

And past the archetypal lockdown happened. Nobody knew what to expect and however agelong it would last. It was clip to beryllium down and marque a plan.

First Point of Order: Customer Retention

In the aboriginal days of the pandemic, we published a round-up connected adjusting a selling strategy during a crisis. One of the included tips talked astir the value of lawsuit retention.

At that point, we were mostly moving link-building campaigns with a fewer contented selling projects sprinkled successful between. Our personalized, flexible, and transparent attack is hard to replicate, and we were not acrophobic of clients switching to cheaper alternatives. The fearfulness was that if they had to chopped their selling budget, nexus gathering was bound to extremity up connected the chopping block.

Here are immoderate countermeasures we deployed to assistance existing customers:

• offered discounts to clients whose industries person been deed the hardest
• kept them apprised astir imaginable workflow changes 
• assured them that deliverables volition spell retired arsenic planned (and delivered connected that promise)
• proactively suggested adjusting their selling strategy (what to absorption connected with content, which niches/personas to target, channels to absorption on, etc.)
• reiterated the afloat scope of services we connection and ways successful which we could assistance them 

The result? We lone mislaid 1 client. And had a fewer campaigns paused for a period oregon two.

Second Point of Order: Pivoting to Growing Niches

While immoderate niches were demolished during lockdowns, others grew. 

Out with the likes of travel, the foodservice industry, event-organizing industry—hello to healthcare, SaaS tools for managing distant work, and the lawsuit work industry. You get the gist.

The extremity was to expect which industries are poised to grow—and propulsion our lawsuit acquisition efforts successful that direction.

Whether you were using societal media, sending acold emails, had a fleshed-out PPC funnel, oregon were focused connected converting integrated traffic, it didn’t instrumentality that agelong to fig retired which handbasket you should enactment your eggs in.

Third Point of Order: Being Brave Enough to Grow

Early connected successful the pandemic, we paused immoderate caller hirings. However, soon thereafter we were successful negotiations with caller prospects and immoderate of our existing clients wanted to importantly summation their budgets. 

We were astatine a crossroads. Is this the clip to grow the agency, oregon should we conscionable play it harmless until things settee down? 

Keep successful caput that hiring further unit comes with galore overhead expenses—hardware, accrued subscription costs for the tools you use, intra-organizational clip spent connected onboarding, etc. 

The rubric of this nonfiction gives distant immoderate suspense astir our determination and its consequences. 

What it came down to was this: we believed that we were agile (an vantage each tiny bureau has) and organized capable to rapidly set to existent and aboriginal marketplace needs. And that the hazard was worthy it.

While everything turned retired well, the maturation was accompanied by its stock of challenges. Here’s however we overcame them.

Measures You Need to Take to Manage the Growth of Your Digital Agency

The remainder of this nonfiction volition absorption connected applicable tips you tin usage to negociate the maturation of your integer agency, careless of what is happening with the market.

If you are successful the presumption to turn arsenic a tiny integer bureau successful a oversea filled with bigger fish, you are doing thing right. You apt person skilled and originative squad members. The situation is however to transportation those skills and cognition to caller hires. Your enlargement is definite to deed a partition if your maturation compromises the prime of your services.

Flesh Out Your Onboarding Processes

Point Visible is simply a contented selling bureau with offices successful Croatia. There are nary universities that thatch what we do. There are lone a fistful of agencies that dabble successful the aforesaid area. In translation, astir of the radical we prosecute person to beryllium taught from scratch. 

This is wherefore we developed a robust onboarding process. Luckily for us, it turned retired that having ~10 radical is simply a captious wide that fuels aboriginal growth. Only astatine that constituent did we person the luxury of dedicating 1 idiosyncratic to soma retired the onboarding workflow and to walk a 3rd oregon much of their clip mentoring caller net selling specialists.

Of course, nary of that would substance if we didn’t prime radical who showed creativity, demonstrated the quality to larn quickly, and person a genuine involvement successful integer marketing. 

Build Up Your Knowledge Library

Various probe reports that employees walk 10 to 20% of their clip looking for the close document/information. While we tin statement the prime of those findings, you conscionable request to reappraisal your past enactment week to recognize it is existent to immoderate extent.

One solution to that occupation is creating an interior cognition base. It tin incorporate everything from however to make a caller workspace successful Slack to ways of uncovering interaction accusation erstwhile pitching a impermanent post, to guidelines for penning for the web. 

It is rather tedious to physique one, but it is immensely adjuvant erstwhile it is done. When it is up and running, marque definite to see it successful your onboarding process.

Two tips for those that determine to prime up this project:

1. Have 1 idiosyncratic successful complaint of creating and maintaining it. It is ne'er a priority, truthful you request idiosyncratic that volition marque definite owed dates are being respected.
2. Take your clip to outline the operation of your cognition base. Based connected the instrumentality you are using, it tin beryllium cumbersome to rearrange antithetic pages and sections. 

Create Easy-to-Follow SOPs and Checklists

Every concern has a unsocial workflow. Even if you person 2 agencies pursuing champion manufacture practices, the nonstop database and bid of steps for executing a circumstantial process (i.e. content audit, keyword research) volition differ.

Alongside training, modular operating procedures and checklists are the astir straightforward mode to support the prime of your output arsenic an bureau accordant and astatine the desired level.

Identify who are the astir skilled radical successful your enactment astatine circumstantial processes. Ask them to outline their workflow successful the signifier of a checklist oregon a diagram. If needed, they tin see screenshots oregon adjacent grounds a video. 

Keep successful caput that these checklists service much arsenic a reminder—people inactive request to spell done due training/workshops.

Set Up a Clear Hierarchical Structure (with capable flexibility)

When hiring sped up, we rapidly realized that we needed to physique a clearer hierarchy. Up to that point, we had everyone doing everything.

Everyone had their ain project. They had to bash niche and people assemblage research, brainstorm topics, constitute and nonstop pitches, negociate writers, etc. While that worked, it wasn’t a bully semipermanent approach. 

People person antithetic accomplishment sets. Some volition constitute 10 absorbing taxable titles successful 15 minutes, others volition request an hr to bash the same. 

We decided to divided radical into antithetic teams according to their skills and interests. Every squad ended up having its ain leader. In essence, these were seeds that were already sprouting into full-fledged departments.

Initially, we tried keeping everything escaped to debar creating a firm environment. However, astatine a definite size, you recognize that creating authoritative departments is simply a necessity. It is the astir businesslike mode to determination forward. Also, astir radical consciousness much comfy knowing precisely what their duties and responsibilities are. 

We recovered that adjacent highly originative radical don’t caput fitting into a hierarchy, arsenic agelong arsenic you springiness them capable state connected an operational level. 

Use Targeted Incentives to Drive Continuous Improvement

As you grow, it gets harder and harder to pass institution values and marque definite they are represented connected an operational level. 

This is often reflected successful the prime of your services. One precise effectual mode to woody with prime issues is to usage targeted incentives. 

For example, erstwhile we wanted to rise the mean prime of our content, we organized a contention where, each month, squad members submitted 2 contented pieces they worked on. In this case, the reward was a bonus successful their paycheck.

A fewer months later, we had to power to a antithetic process due to the fact that everyone was pursuing champion practices and it was hard to determine connected a wide winner.

These days, incentives are directed toward radical that tin find a amended mode to execute an existing process (or are simply madly productive). For now, it seems similar a decent mode to enactment connected continuous improvement.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Growing a integer bureau comes with a batch of challenges. You request to prosecute the close people, acceptable up a bully onboarding process, springiness radical the close tools, and physique a nurturing situation with a wide operation astatine a strategical level—and capable flexibility connected an operational level.

In retrospect, what I deliberation worked incredibly good for america is that we fto the maturation hap organically. 

The organizational operation was flexible until it became problematic—so it was changed. We intentionally hired astatine a slower pace, which allowed america to efficaciously transportation intra-organizational cognition to caller employees. As those capabilities grew, truthful did our hiring speed.

I anticipation you volition find occurrence pursuing our approach! But not excessively much, we are inactive competitors ;)