The Innovative Agency

Customer lifetime value. You buy till you die. Seriously, though. We've all heard a lot about CLV, but most of us don't know how to leverage it. Savvy agencies realize that lifetime value is the new metric that matters. Recently on The Innovative Agency, I chatted with Michael Greenberg, Founder & CEO at Retina.ai, about CLV, lifetime value, and accurate predictions. What we talked about: - The meaning of CTV & LTV, and how to measure them - Mediating between agency, customer, and brand - Developing meaningful lifetime value metrics - How to talk about LTV with CMOs - Creating models based on LTV To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

Don't allow your people to do agency work off the side of their desks. Instead, treat yourself as a client by giving your team actual hours to utilize. In this episode, I interview Jillian Bannister, CEO at Ext. Marketing Inc., about what your agency needs from you. In other words, self-care. What we talked about: - The rule of thirds for budgeting time - Employee recognition and confidence - Agency self-care and client responsibility To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

How do you stay in your respective swim lanes when you're running a business with somebody you're married to? In this episode, I interview Jean Freeman, Principal + CEO at Zambezi, LLC, about how she worked with her spouse to build the largest female-owned business in the advertising industry. What we talked about: - The key to thriving as an agency in a recession - How to evolve an inclusive culture and why publishing your diversity stats is critical - What entrepreneurial maturity really looks like - How to scale your business and live your life with the same partner To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

Your conversation rates could be between 70 and 100 times better if you do this right. Lose the MQL metric and learn this: the brand creates the most demand. In this episode, I interview Chris Walker, CEO at Refine Labs, about why his agency says no to most clients and the differences between performance and brand. What we talked about: - All about metrics: what to measure and what not to measure - Finding and keeping talent and what agency talent does better than in-house - Why brand is a tangible business metric - Telling clients things they don't want to hear for their own good Resources we mentioned: - Chris's podcast is State of Demand Gen To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

What a tough year for everyone. (Tough does not describe it.) Some agencies have done well, though. Some of the lessons they've learned are translatable beyond 2020. My recent guest on The Innovative Agency, Anson Sowby, Cofounder and CEO at Battery, shared how to thrive in uncertain circumstances. What we talked about: - Growing and scaling an independent agency - How being a serial entrepreneur affects your 2nd agency - Takeaways from 2020 beyond the pandemic To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

Just like a tree grows toward the best sunlight, your agency needs to be open to innovation in order to survive. This is how it worked out for David Searns and his agency, Haley Marketing. Due to the evolving landscape of his market, David found himself in a very particular niche. In this episode, David and I discussed: - Looking for opportunities to pivot - Adjusting to demands in your market - Optimizing your assets - Finding a narrow niche To hear this episode and many more like it, subscribe to The Innovative Agency Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

Your proposal sucks. And by the way, your content is not nearly specific enough. And if you're going to sell to entrepreneurs, you need to throw B2B out the window and embrace B2E. In this episode, I interview Maggie Patterson, Owner & Editorial Director at Scoop Studios, about why she embraces specificity as a lead gen approach. What we talked about: - Be specific about your 3-5 core competencies (& get your clients to do the same) - How B2E is different than B2B - What it means to take ownership of the result To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

The design of a content marketing program seems simple - most agencies do it every day. But it creates challenging questions for agencies and clients: What metrics of success should be used? How are we going to collaborate? How does each piece of content fit into a client's broader marketing strategy? These are questions every agency has faced, and Xenia Muntean knew these issues far too well at her digital marketing agency. So, she founded Planable — a tech company designed to help approve and create content. On this episode of #BestofTIA, Xenia gives agencies 4 ways they can ensure a smooth content creation process with their clients. Xenia is the CEO & Co-Founder of Planable and a Forbes 30 Under 30. To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

Mixed reality is how your customers want to interact with your brand. Why haven't you made it there yet? In this episode, I interview Taj Forer, Cofounder & CEO at Fabl, and Daina Middleton, advisor to Britelite, about what mixed reality means for agencies. What we talked about: - What mixed reality is & isn't - How the last 9 months have accelerated technology - The importance of putting customer experience first - How agencies should respond to mixed reality - Tons of examples of successful pivots into mixed reality To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

How do you stand out in a cluttered space? A couple of ways: education & diversification. In this episode, I interviewed Kurt Ouchida, Managing Partner at Braintrust Agency, about how he pivoted by positioning his agency as an educator for his clients. What we talked about: - Delving deeply into digital (with Braintrust's Director of Digital Marketing, Dustin Klein) - How the language of hospitality can communicate shared goals with other industries - What it's been like in Las Vegas with hospitality & gaming hit so hard - Fostering relationships by being available To hear more from Innovative Agency owners, listen to The Innovative Agency podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.