SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders 664: How Agency Did $750k First Year, Now $100k+/Month with Webris CEO Ryan Stewart
May 19, 2017
20:41
Ryan Stewart. He's a digital marketing expert with over 8 years of client facing experience. He currently owns and operates Webris, a Miami-based digital marketing agency specializing in SEO and content marketing.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Attached
- What CEO do you follow? – N/A
- Favorite online tool? — SEMrush
- How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Just self-awareness things about who am I as a person, where I want to go and how I want to live my life"
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:17 – Nathan introduces Ryan to the show
- 01:39 – Webris is an SEO agency which does a lot of digital marketing and link building
- 01:48 – They specialize in generating organic growth for any sort of clients
- 02:00 – Webris has a retainer model of 5K-6K a month depending on the work
- 02:15 – They require a minimum of 6 months
- 02:22 – Webris currently has 22 clients
- 02:30 – Webris is doing $100K minimum MRR
- 02:38 – Webris was launched March, 2016
- 02:52 – In Webris' first year, they earned 750K
- 03:00 – Webris also has a training program
- 03:11 – Ryan is doing concept marketing for himself
- 03:32 – Ryan had link building training where he taught how to build links at scale
- 03:44 – Ryan also did blogger outreach PR stuff
- 04:18 – Ryan didn't do any advertising on Youtube, but he has a good content
- 04:30 – He has a good email list and a Facebook group with 10K people, a Facebook page and Twitter page
- 04:42 – Ryan uses concept promotion on the videos with more views
- 05:30 – Ryan uses automation in Google Drive Suite
- 06:14 – Ryan launched a video regarding using Google Suite for automation
- 06:50 – Ryan thinks that YouTube is more powerful than the blog
- 07:09 – YouTube is much easier to use for engagement purposes
- 07:22 – Ryan also does mini-checklist processes for their clients
- 07:26 – If you have an email list and you can get 100 engaged views on your videos, it is more than enough to set you on the right direction
- 07:37 – Ryan's email list is 10K with 30% open rate
- 07:49 – Ryan would get 500 views in 12 hours after sending his content out to his email list
- 08:02 – Ryan uses SEO for his YouTube video titles
- 08:22 – They'll go after the keywords on their blog
- 08:31 – "People aren't really using the same keywords on YouTube"
- 08:37 – For YouTube, you need to grab attention from the titles
- 09:07 – Team size is 7, in Miami and some are remote
- 09:30 – Webris is doing a lot of content creation and they pay per article
- 09:57 – Webris can also negotiate with other people for content
- 10:06 – They pay $100-200 depending on the client niche
- 10:20 – Ryan posts job ads on Upwork and on the Facebook group Cult of Copy which is run by a copywriter, Collin Theriot
- 11:01 – Webris has an in-depth content generation process
- 11:12 – Webris mitigates the process with the research upfront and by building a really good outline for the writer
- 11:35 – Webris will also just google for bloggers in a specific niche and pay them around $500 to write
- 11:54 – Content is dependent on niche
- 12:28 – You just got to go out and pay writers the right amount
- 12:50 – Prior to Webris, Ryan was doing his MBA and realized he hated everything about that life
- 13:59 – What Ryan made last year is less than what he did when he was 20
- 14:21 – Ryan's #1 goal is that his people are happy
- 14:33 – Ryan spends $4K a month on their office space
- 16:00 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- If you hate doing something – just quit.
- Paying your writers the right amount will lead to great content.
- In every decision you make for your business – consider your people.
Resources Mentioned:
- The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
- Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
- Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
- Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
- Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
- Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
- Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives