Jon and Zach Ball in 2011
What does it take to build a $10 million agency? Let’s break it down. A $10 million agency generates an average of $833,000 in monthly revenue.
Page One Power does link building i content. Their average customer is $7,500 a month. That means we need 111 customers to clear $833,000 per month. Because this is the SEO industry, we lose about 5% of our business every month because clients change their goals or simply want something else, so they move on.
That means we have to sell seven new deals a month to keep the business we have. We close 40% of our qualified leads. So we need about 20 quality leads per month to close seven deals.
Knowing the numbers helps you develop your plan. We have measurable lead generation goals to help manage our business.
We have been in business for 13 years. We have learned a lot since 2010. We have a long list of clients so we are very busy. We are almost always at maximum capacity.
When you can get the clientele you want through marketing, great service, and a great product, you can market, create demand, and control volume with pricing. Getting to this point was our business goal from the beginning.
It’s important to set an income goal and make a plan to get there. We’ve seen your business grow in the direction you focus on. If you focus on negative outcomes like fear of loss, mad customers, or employees leaving, you will go in that direction. You always grow what you focus on. Focus on growth and you will grow.
It sounds simple, but it’s true.
positioning
In SEO, the old adage applies: “The riches are in the niches.” Inside marketers, website operators, publishers and business owners are struggling with their marketing and looking for solutions to their problems. Often, the more precisely you can position your offer, the higher the percentage of finding and closing your lead.
Doing general SEO, incl Local SEOlink building, PPCvideo, Social media and other services, is an option that many choose. Narrowing your focus gives you many benefits, including more accurate marketing, higher quality products, and a staff that becomes experts.
All we do is create links. For 13 years, we have focused on this work. Our staff improves every day. They have worked very hard to build an impressive system. Our single-minded approach is what has allowed us to become industry leaders. We have never been distracted.
Luckily for us, SEO is a huge industry. It’s big enough to get us to a point where we only take clients that we think we can be successful with. We reject more leads than we accept. The better you get at what you do, the more quality you can produce, the better the clients who will work with you.
marketing
Marketing is simple: set a clear message and send it in as many ways as possible. The first step is made much easier by clarifying the product you offer. The more accurate your product, the more accurate your message. Perspectives that match your frequency will answer
Imagine a radio signal. The clearer and more precise your message, the more effective you will be in finding people to tune into your frequency. Be the clearest message out there for people looking for you.
Your tagline should tell your potential customers what you can do for them as concisely as possible. The biggest obstacle to sales is often confusion. Confusion about what you offer, confusion about how to present your offer, and confusion about your product. Clarify everything as often as possible.
Our tagline, “The Link Builders You’ve Been Looking For” tells the prospect that we do link building and we understand that finding a reliable and quality link building solution is a journey that many SEOs encounter. We are the solution to this problem.
go to break
We outlined the problem of business attrition earlier. We need 20 qualified leads per month to sustain our business. We need more tracks if we want to keep growing. Marketing is how you get those qualified leads. Try it all and trade like crazy. Marketing never ends. You can slow down your marketing when you want to scale back your business.
When we started Page One Power in 2010, we used almost half of our revenue for marketing. It didn’t make a lot of financial sense when we were grossing $100k a month and spending $50k a month on marketing, but we grew rapidly over those years because of marketing. Now, we market just the same, but we allow ourselves the luxury of being extremely picky about the opportunities we pursue.
people
SEO is a service business. Your product is made by the people you hire. Therefore, finding and training the right people to produce SEO is one of your biggest challenges. So how do you find them? How do you store them?
Finding people is a big job. We look everywhere. Locally, we use a talent agency to find qualified SEO people. Nationally, we use Indeed to find potential employees. Be careful who you hire. If you make a mistake, it’s okay to shoot quickly.
Keeping good people is one of the most important jobs you have. We don’t have a formula to keep people. We only have principles which are born of common sense.
People are people. People want a fair wage, working hours that make sense, managers who treat them with respect and good benefits. The best people thrive when they can express their creativity. People are successful when they have some control and can create something.
Micromanagement, excessive rules, corporate politics, cut wages, mistrust, conflict, infighting, greed, and other dangers can ruin your entire company. Replace them with trust, compassion, an attitude of cooperation and generosity.
You also need to protect yourself from anyone who brings negative energy to your company. Watch your staff carefully and fire when necessary.
delegation
Delegating means letting go of control. Some people can’t do that. It’s too hard. But if you want to grow your agency to $10 million, there will be a lot of responsibilities you’ll need to delegate. You will have to delegate and trust. Trust that someone can do something for you in their own way, even with 70% effectiveness. Tell people what you want them to do. Not how to do it.
Not trusting your staff means you’ll have the worry and struggle of micromanaging. No one wants to work for a micromanager. This is the fastest way to lose staff. You can’t afford to lose staff. You need quality people.
Working in the business
If you want to strategize, plan and execute a quality SEO campaign for your clients, there is a lot of work to be done. Someone has to be capable enough review the contentstrengthen the navigation, optimize the internal link, suggest new content, and of course set up a sustained link building program. You, as a business owner, will have a hard time doing all of this work if you’re also trying to pay bills, work with potential clients, hire, do marketing, etc.
In the beginning, the founders of Page One Power separated work into two categories: working in the business and working in the business. We focus on working on the business. This is the job you can do best. You know the business better than anyone.
Spend your time perfecting your website, developing training materials, establishing helpful health insurance plans, supporting your staff, and establishing direction for each department of your agency. Working on your business is the path to a highly successful agency.
Of course, there are many other principles to follow, but these are the basic ideas behind our agency. The SEO industry is a robust and vibrant industry, and you can make a lot of money if you can organize your business to capture your small piece of the pie.
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