Here is another installment in an ongoing series of stories, personal anecdotes, and real business cases shared by our founder, Jed Jones, PhD.
Sometimes life tests you to find out where your true strength lies.
In 2007, I left a high-powered digital marketing position at Dell, Inc. in Kawasaki, Japan to open my own small agency, JCJ Interactive, in Round Rock, Texas. That little shop would eventually grow into Ambient Array.
It was just me, my little laptop, and a small article marketing business that I expanded into a more full-service agency over time. The picture on my desk of my toddlers at the time was all I needed to stay motivated to make it work.
When I first launched the agency, things were a little rocky trying to find that right agency-client fit.
The mistake: taking every client who would pay
My biggest challenge was that I took on clients that were small because I felt like that’s what I should try for at my first stab as an agency guy. And frankly, it just felt good to start making money of any kind, no matter the client, no matter the project. I wasn’t particularly picky.
The problem with not vetting my clients first was that many of them didn’t know what they wanted. In fact, they didn’t even know what good marketing really was. Whether we knocked it out of the park or it was more of a work in progress, they couldn’t tell the difference. So their approach was to jump from one bright and shiny object to the next without ever recognizing what real value was. And in my inexperience, I didn’t know how to show them.
The result: I wasn’t putting myself in a position to charge what I was worth. Which also meant I couldn’t really afford to give them the full impact of what I could do for them.
Why the wrong clients cost more than they pay
It was only when I started getting clients with real marketing experience, who could identify their own needs, that my skills could be properly employed. It became a more satisfying relationship for both me and my clients.
What I was really learning is that not all revenue is equal. Some clients cost more to serve than they will ever return, and the decision almost nobody makes on purpose is deciding which clients to turn down. After a couple of years of ignoring agency-client fit, I started realizing what the wrong kind of client was costing me.
The machine only works on boulders
The best analogy I’ve found is a machine built to pulverize boulders into gravel and dust. Feed it boulder-sized problems and it works great. Feed it pebbles and they fall right through the cracks while the machine sits there doing nothing. The problems are too small for it to even engage with.
The machine needs big rocks to do what it was built to do.
Fast forward 19 years: I can tell you that finding the right match between agency and client is paramount. It is not a small thing. It makes all the difference.
Marketing, like finding the right career path, making friends, choosing a hobby, or dating, is not one size fits all.
The clients my agency is built for
For my agency, I have found that our sweet spot is companies with the following characteristics:
- They have an in-house marketing director, CMO, or marketing manager (or are a fellow agency partner with complementary skill sets)
- Ideally, they also employ a couple of in-house marketing coordinators
- This is not their first rodeo with marketing, or even just their fifth
- They have at least two or three different data platforms in operation, such as (but not limited to):
- CRM
- Advertising platforms
- Transaction databases
- Call log systems
- Analytics platforms
- Survey tools
- Review collection tools
- And more
- They understand that not every target company or household is their best prospect
- They understand the value of a true data-driven approach
- They understand that you get 80% of the value from the top 20% of your customers
Clients who have not hit most of these stages of growth just are not the right fit for my agency. Notice the pattern: the best-fit clients are the ones who already live by that same truth about their own customers. They know not every prospect is worth chasing.
Knowing which ones the machine was built for
On the flip side, when the conditions are right and my agency is fed boulders instead of pebbles, we can pulverize with the best of them.
When data, experience, and the right budgets all come together, we feel like we can crush any marketing problem sent our way.
It turns out that is where the test led me. Not to taking every job that came along, but to knowing which ones the machine was built for.
Find out how to grow your marketing with the professional marketing minds at Ambient Array.
