The Agency Model is Broken - UnGagged LA 2019

The Agency Model is
Broken
Ruth Burr Reedy
Vice President of Strategy, UpBuild
Ungagged LA 2019

Featuring Bad Stock Photos
@ruthburr #GetUnGagged

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedThere are a ton of SEO agencies out there – and a lot of
them SUCK to work at

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedThey’re also producing terrible work like this…

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedAnd this…

"We can rewrite the text, but we do not believe having personal injury mentioned 2-3 times is going to give us
the best opportunity to rank higher...
● In some tests we conducted, the first internal page to show in the rankings (other than directories) is
[URL REDACTED]. The overall density on this page for the phrase "personal injury" is
3.36%. In comparison, the overall density of the page we sent over is 3.2%. While
keyword density isn't the only factor in why a page ranks, it is certainly something that plays a role when
Google is determining if a page is relevant for a particular topic.
● The density of the overall content will go down slightly when added to the page because there are
other words in the side bar and in the footer.
Article stats:
● 499 total words
● 16 mentions of Personal Injury
● Overall density of 3.2%
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedAnd this…

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedAnd this (this is a report for a lawyer who works in
Oklahoma City. It included no further information).

1 Weird Trick to Improve Your
Agency: Focus on Employee
Retention

https://www.conductor.com/learning-center/marketing-salary-guide-2019/

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedDigital marketers at the specialist level stay in a job for
about 2 years.

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedSame at the Strategist level.

City Average SEO Specialist Salary Average Content Marketing
Specialist Salary
Chicago $34K - $71K $38K - $52K
Atlanta $30K - $61K $62K - $78K
Dallas $23K - $79K $30K - $88K
Phoenix $42K - $77K $42K - $77K
Denver $36K - $65K $38K - $93K
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedAverage salaries are all over the place for these roles,
because how much you make depends on experience as
much as title.

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedMost companies probably aren’t giving $26K raises at the
2-year mark.

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
This means that agencies who hire people right out of
college basically become SEO factories for all their
competitors.

http://info.workinstitute.com/retentionreport2017

Have you tried not working
people into the ground?

10
Clients per person
40
Hours per week
160
Hours per month
16
Hours per client
per month

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedThis math only works if this person never goes to the
bathroom (or goes to internal meetings, or checks her
email, or eats lunch, etc)

30
Minutes of
unbillable time
for every
60
Minutes of billable
time

10
Clients per person
40
Hours per week
~107
Billable hours per
month
10.7
Hours per client
per month

~2
Hours per monthly
report
2
30-minute calls per
client per month

8
Hours per client per
month

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedThis already sucks – but what about when someone
quits?

12
Clients per person
40
Hours per week
~107
Billable hours per
month
9
Hours per client
per month

6
Hours per client per
month
The only way this person can survive is to under-serve
some of her clients and hope they don’t notice.

This is not news. This is just
math.

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedThis is how we get reports like this – people don’t have
time to customize reports to their clients or provide
useful analysis

Are your metrics making you
a bad employer?

Revenue Profitability Leads New sales
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedYou can’t NOT focus on these things – but they can mask
the bigger picture

Hours per
person
Clients
per person
Attention
per client
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedIncreased hours and clients per person means decreased
attention and value per client. This results in…

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedTurnover!

Offboarding
Job posting
Interviews & hiring
Paperwork
Training
Extra work
Interviewing
Training
Materials &
Equipment
Lower quality
HR Costs Team Costs
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedThere are a lot of explicit, easily-tracked costs associated
with employee turnover that you can look at.

Performance Differences
Lost Business
Lost Institutional Knowledge
Lower Productivity & Morale
Damaged Reputation
Hidden Costs
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedBut don’t forget the hidden costs. These are harder to
quantify but definitely a problem.

Successful agency work is
about relationships.

LTV Recurring
Revenue
Client
Retention
Employee
Retention
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedYou need to invest in both sides of the relationship:
clients and employees. Here are some metrics for a
retention-driven business.

Longer employee tenure
Stronger client
relationships
Higher teamwide
expertise
Better value delivered
Higher billable rate
Increased recurring
revenue
Increased employee retention helps you get a flywheel
going – you’re forming better relationships & doing better
work, which you can charge more money for

Make the team happy, make
your clients happy.

4
Clients per person
40
Hours per week
~107
Billable hours per
month
~27
Hours per client
per month
Have a hard cap on clients/person. You can do a lot of
SEO in 27 hours a month. Even more when more than one
person works on a client’s account.

Close Bigger Deals
To make this work, you need to close bigger deals; stop
relying on a whole bunch of small deals to hit your
revenue goals.

https://zatomarketing.com/google-ads-for-small-budgets/
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedHave a hard floor for how small a client you can work
with. Or, like Zato Marketing does, have a separate
service line for smaller budgets.

Hire Proactively
Hire proactively – don’t wait until your team is carrying an
entire person’s worth of work to start the hiring process.

When people have enough time to spend building
relationships with clients, you can rely less on an account
management layer. Clients love this.

Don’t Pay on Commission
If you’re turning down smaller-dollar deals, it’s no longer
fair to pay salespeople on commission. Try reducing
someone’s client load and having them do biz dev.

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedBe very clear about what you do and don’t do. Cultivate
an expertise and resist the temptation to be all things to
all people.

Partner Strategically
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedPartner strategically with people who do the things you
don’t do. Get some passive revenue going with a referral
program.

Resist the Whale
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedDon’t let one client make up more than 60% of your
business’ revenue. Don’t hire someone just to work on 1
big client. If the client leaves, you’re hosed.

Fire Problem Clients
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedBe very clear about what abusive behaviors you won’t
tolerate, and have a clear system for firing problem
clients. Let the team know you have their back.

No One Cares About Your Foosball Table
Give people benefits that make their lives better – like
401(k), parental leave, PTO, great insurance. No one’s
going to stay w/you because of your foosball table.

Have Clear Paths to Advancement
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedDon’t want people to leave after 2 years? Make paths to
advancement clear. When you promote, base salary on
market comps, not % of existing salary.

Automate Your #%$^& Reports
@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedDon’t waste your clients’ money spending hours on
reports – automate dashboarding so they can see their
metrics whenever they want.

https://www.tinypulse.com
Implement Feedback Mechanisms
Get feedback when things are going well, so it’s easier to
spot when things are going wrong.

Why do I even care if my
competitors suck?

@ruthburr #GetUnGaggedIf I hire a plumber and they don’t fix my shower, I don’t
conclude that plumbing doesn’t work – but people make
assumptions like that about SEO all the time.

Do the right thing.

Thank You!
Ruth Burr Reedy
Ungagged LA 2019

The Agency Model is Broken - UnGagged LA 2019

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