Being a digital marketing agency can be incredibly stressful and time-consuming. Trading dollars for hours is a difficult proposition not for the faint of heart even under the best of circumstances.
Having worked as a digital marketing strategist for an agency in Toronto for the better part of 6 years, I deeply understand the hardships of running a profitable agency.
The margins, even on large 5 digit projects (which was the majority of projects I worked on) are slim at best due to the many hours required to pull them off successfully.
While there will always be an element of unknown, risk and reward living the agency lifestyle, there is a way to make the future more predictable!
The methodology for creating replicable success with every client you have, with replicable results and replicable returns, is to create replicable processes.
Replicable processes allow you to decrease your overall workload per client allowing you to charge the same rate for fewer hours. This will increase your margins and therefore profits earned! You win and your client wins.
Here are 7 ways to make more replicable processes in your agency, and how Groundhogg can help you implement them!
1) Consolidate Technology!
The biggest time suck when I was in the agency was the acquisition of products and connecting them altogether.
We had to get WordPress, Infusionsoft, WooCommerce, Shopify, Zapier, Calendly, Appointment Core and many others all working together in perfect harmony. Easier said than done.
So, to save yourself some time (and grief), try consolidating technology to as few providers as possible.
When we initially designed Groundhogg, we had the goal of removing as many moving (SaaS) pieces from the technology stack as possible. We wanted as much of the sales and marketing experience to take place inside of WordPress as possible.
With Groundhogg you can have your sales funnels, newsletters, CRM, sales pipeline, scheduling ecommerce and more all in one place, WordPress.
2) Portable Strategies!
One of the pitfalls of working with SaaS marketing automation providers is the fact that the strategies you create are not “portable.” This means it’s difficult, or short of impossible, to copy a working funnel/strategy/email from one client account to another.
SaaS Companies do this by design to make moving in between platforms difficult so that the cost of leaving is greater than the cost of staying.
We addressed this in Groundhogg by making almost everything exportable. You can export entire funnels with the click of a button, or export the entire Groundhogg installation and move it to another site.
This means you can, with a few clicks, install a prebuilt marketing stack with funnels, emails and more into any client WordPress site, reducing your leg work by up to 90%.
One strategy we’ve seen agency customers deploy is the use of a WordPress multisite. You can pre-install all the tools you and your customer need and simply duplicate a subsite for a new client with Groundhogg already pre-configured.
3) No More Software Acquisition!
When taking on new digital marketing projects it’s rare that the customer already has all the necessary software.
This means you need to chase after credit card details and acquire everything you need. A tedious and time-consuming process.
Or worse, the client insists on doing it themselves and purchases the wrong product! Yikes…
Groundhogg offers the “Agency License,” a package focused to help agencies remove this painful process from their workflow. You can use your agency license for up to 50 clients! You can remotely deactivate your license at any time in the event you stop working with a client.
Feel free to include Groundhogg licensing as a monthly service cost or as part of your monthly retainer, it’s totally up to you!
4) Simplified Client Handoff.
If your agency terminates the client relationship at the end of a successful project there is usually a “handoff.”
This can be a call or a series of calls where you walk the client through everything you’ve built and show them how to use it.
I’ve done many of these calls, and honestly, it was rare that someone “got it.”
I used to train clients on Infusionsoft, and like a deer in the headlights, the client usually had no idea what I was saying or showing them.
Groundhogg, because it’s entirely inside of WordPress, can eliminate a lot of the confusion. It looks like WordPress, acts like WordPress, and feels like WordPress. So if your client can use and understand WordPress, it’s a short learning curve to understanding how to navigate Groundhogg.
5) Productize Everything!
It’s much easier to provide quotes with definite prices for particular strategies than it is guessing the number of hours it will take you to fulfill the client’s request.
Because Groundhogg is “portable” and the duplication of strategies is fairly simple, you can figure out exactly how much time it requires to implement a strategy. Hint, it will be much less time than it is with other platforms because the grunt work will be done with an import!
With the knowledge of having time and Groundhogg on your side, you can confidently cost out each requested client strategy without much fear of scope creep or unknowns hurting your margins.
6) Avoid The Software Bill Conversation…
The one question on every client’s mind is, “How much is this going to cost me?”
Clients will generally be accepting of your service fee, but when coupled with the expenses of all the SaaS products they have to sign up for, they may be less inclined to move forward.
4-5 products charging $15-$50 a month can add up really fast.
By using Groundhogg and other WordPress powered plugins you can make the move to yearly billing for clients, or remove their expense altogether by investing in our agency license.
7) Software Transparency And Data Ownership!
Since WordPress, Groundhogg and other related tools are all installed in WordPress on the client’s website. The client doesn’t need to be afraid or worried about the tools you are using to build their project.
Since WordPress and Groundhogg are open source software, the client can rest assured that they can make any modifications, updates, or development changes as required by their project.
Since WordPress and Groundhogg are self-hosted software, the client will have full control over their data. Billing or license-related issues will never affect the client or their website uptime, meaning business will operate smoothly.
Thinking Groundhogg Might Help Your Agency?
If you’re thinking Groundhogg may be able to help you overcome a few roadblocks in your agency workflow, then I invite you to try it out for yourself and see the potential benefits.
There are a few ways for you to get started. You can…
- Take our free Official Quickstart Course to get your first lead magnet download funnel operational in under 1 hour.
- You can sign up for our $1 paid demo to test our premium extension offerings.
- If you’re more of a DIYer, download the free plugin from the WP repository and start plugging away at it.
- If this article was super convincing and you think this is the solution you need, sign up for the agency license now!
I’m sure you’ll have questions, and we’re happy to answer them, there are several ways for you to get in touch.
- Message us via live chat. (Bottom right of your browser window)
- Send us a message through the contact form.
- Join us on Facebook and post in our support group.
If you’d like to book a meeting with me that can be arranged as well, just message our team via any of the above channels and request a booking link!
