Shit’s going down, we all know it. That’s why we wrote this guide to help!

It’s no secret that we’re going into a recession. And while it may not be affecting your business yet, it’s only a matter of time before it does. That’s why it’s important to take steps now to Recession Proof Your Business. We’ve written about the changes you can make to your agency to help protect it from the economic downturn (aka the potential Cashmageddon).

Looking at things like making changes to client reporting, sales focuses and staff training, as well as operational areas you need to consider. So whether you’re just starting out in business or you’ve been around for a while, read on for tips on how to make your agency as recession proof as possible!

1 – Strategy

Tl;Dr

• Build a strategy if you don’t have one (guide here)
• Review and adjust what you have in place
• Make it measurable, please make it measurable
• Communicate the plan to your people, they need direction too

If you don’t already have a strategy for your agency, get one!

A plan helps guide you and your team through what would otherwise be distracting or cause unfocused activity. If you know where you are going, the route is more clear, if the route is more clear, then having to take a slight detour because of an external situation doesn’t cause harm to the business. If anything, having a clear, and clearly communicated plan in your agency helps to keep people on-track and focused, even if things happen around them. Check out our strategy guide here for the basics, ask for some help if you need it!

Don’t panic that your strategy isn’t moving forward! Adjust!

Recessionary periods are a time to get scrappy, be entrepreneurial and save money. This will help you stay afloat whilst others around you are struggling. You need to have a clear understanding on what you want your business to achieve and how it will get there. This means having measurable goals in place so you can track progress and make changes where necessary. You might have worked hard on a strategy, it may have been working out well until recently but things are starting to look like that may not continue. What is important is that you don’t throw the plan in the bin, adjust it to fit the new situation.

It’s not a strategy if you can’t measure it!

Your strategy should have measurable goals so you can track progress and make changes where necessary. If you can’t measure it, how do you know if it’s working? This is important in good times and bad, but especially during a recession when things are more uncertain. Keep an eye on your metrics and review them regularly to see how things are going. If you need to make changes, do so quickly and efficiently. Look at the leading measures of success as more important indicators than the lagging ones. For example, monthly Client Churn rate as a ratio of New Closed Sales is leading indicator of potential future cash flow issues.

2 – Finance

Tl;Dr

• Keep plenty of cash to hand for running the agency
• Review where you’re spending your money and be smart, don’t just cut costs
• Get a GREAT accountant who will produce management accounts for you
• Price properly
• Make it easy to get the clients money

Make sure you have a solid understanding of your financial situation.

Knowing the numbers means that you can make more informed decisions about where to allocate resources, against your strategy or when external elements change. Do you have management accounts? Are you forecasting cash flow?

Financial Management Accounts

Having management accounts on a very regular basis (at least monthly) will help you understand the current financial situation of your agency and give you insights into potential problems that could occur in the future. This will then enable you to make decisions which protect your business, rather than putting it at risk. If you don’t have these in place, now is the time to get them! Your accountant, or an OMG Agency Financial Resources, can help here.

Forecasting Your Cash Flow

In any business, but particularly in an agency, cash is king. So it’s important to have a good understanding of your current cash position and what might happen in the future. This means forecasting your cash flow on a regular basis. This will help you identify any potential shortfalls and take steps to avoid them. It will also help you make the most of any surplus cash you have, by investing it in things which will help grow your business.

Lights Out Money

What we call “Lights Out” money is essentially a minimum amount of Cash at Hand within the agency to ensure all bills are paid, including salaries for a period of time. Imagine an unlikely situation where all clients leave at the same time, and you’ve lost all income, how long until the lights go out? Retaining at least 3-months of “Lights Out” money means you have time to find more clients as well as help your staff. If things still don’t improve, at worst you can dissolve the business having paid all your bills rather than declare bankruptcy, which impacts many other future opportunities.

External Suppliers

And finally, don’t forget to review your external suppliers. Are you getting the best value for money? Are there any areas where you can negotiate a better deal? Sometimes there is a $10 monthly spend on a tool that creeps into the stack and isn’t used anymore. Sometimes, especially in larger but not well operationalised agencies, there are lots of accidental external spends that sneak in by people being a bit lazy or forgetting they bought a tool, and someone else then also buys it. Get your P & L report out, go through it line-by-line and supplier-by-supplier and ask “can we afford not to spend this” and “is there a cheaper, similar, alternative” or “can we negotiate a lower fee”. It’ll shock you how much you can save in a year by doing this!

Get clients on a Direct Debit

There are two super good reasons to get a client on a Direct Debit. Firstly, it means you’re less likely to be spending time chasing invoices. This prevents wasted time and also causing friction with the client when you have to chase (which may increase churn). Secondly, if things aren’t going so well, from their perspective, they’ll cancel their Direct Debit before they email you. This will give you a heads up so that you can look into where the points of friction might be before you reach out to the client.

Pricing is tricky but important

It’s important to get your pricing right, based on economic factors externally but also internal factors connected to the ability to deliver with a profit. Below are some things to consider when thinking about your pricing strategy answer them all in full and it will help you pick the right price points:

• What does the competition charge?
• What are our overheads? (Staff, Tools)
• What is our desired profit margin?
• How much does it cost to deliver the product/service?
• Are we using any tools or technology which have a monthly subscription fee?
• Are there any other costs we need to consider? (HR, Office)
• How much time will it take to deliver the product/service? (People, Utilisation)
• What is the perceived value of the product/service to the client?
• What are our clients willing to pay?

You shouldn’t try competing on price as it often ends up as a race to the bottom. Instead, for us on competing on results and value. Focus on proving you are experts, with the expertise that warrants the fees you’re looking to charge.

3 – Marketing

Tl;Dr

• Don’t stop! Stupid people cut marketing in a recession
• Focus on things you can prove work
• Focus on things you know you can deliver best
• Get everyone in the business on marketing the business

Take a close look at your marketing efforts and see where you can make changes. This may mean reducing your overall spend but making sure that the spend you do have is targeted and effective. Cutting marketing is the fools approach to tackling a recession. Focusing spend on the right areas is the smart approach to tackling a recession.

How do you market in a recession?

It’s not easy! But there are things you can do to make sure your marketing is as effective as possible.

• First, take a close look at your target market and make sure you understand them. Who are they? What do they want/need? How will your product or service help them?
• Second, make sure your marketing efforts are targeted. Trying to appeal to everyone is a sure-fire way to fail. Focus your efforts on those who are most likely to buy from you.
• Third, make sure your marketing is effective. This means having measurable goals and objectives so you can track progress and make changes where necessary. If you can’t measure it, how do you know it’s working?
• Finally, make sure you have a plan. Having a plan gives you something to work towards and helps to keep you focused. Trying to wing it is likely to result in wasted time and money.

Focus your marketing on what will resonate with the audience

The audience’s needs will not have changed, what will have changed is how they perceive the needs and their allocation of budgets. It’s often the case that companies pull back on marketing in a recession, it’s part of the business psychology unfortunately. What is clear though is that marketing in a recession is usually still a good thing, just done right.

Henry Ford said “Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” and Angela Ahrendts the CEO of Burberry said “Never waste a good recession”. This is the kind of thing you as the agency leader need to remember as much as the client. If everyone around you cut back, and you keep going or increase budgets, then you’re going to win the audience in the long term. Focus your marketing on what the audience need to hear, focus on long-term wins and investing in the future rather than quick wins and risky tactics.

What are the most effective marketing channels during a recession?

There is no easy answer here as it will depend on your target market and what you are trying to achieve. However, some channels which tend to be effective during a recession include PR, SEO and email marketing. Our guide on how to get more Digital Agency clients will be a big help here. The real answer is to look at which channels (on and offline) your audience live on. Where they are, is where you should be and the application of your resources should match their thoughts at the time… Marketing shouldn’t be too salesy, especially when the first thing a prospective client thinks of is the budget. Marketing should sell the idea, sell the result and scratch the itch!

Marketing in a Recession – Summary

In summary, when marketing in a recession you should:

1. Take a close look at your target market and make sure you understand them.
2. Make sure your marketing efforts are targeted. Don’t do it if you can’t be sure your audience will see it.
3. Make sure your marketing is effective. Stop what you can see is not working!
4. Make sure you have a plan, or don’t commit resources to it.

4 – Sales

Tl;Dr

• Make sure what you’re selling is simple to understand
• Sell on outcomes, not fluffy deliverables
• Make it easy to get the client to sign
• Read this other post on getting more clients

Review your sales process and see where you can make improvements. This may mean changing your focus to target new markets or segments. It could also mean changing the way you sell, or the products/services you sell. Whatever it is, make sure your sales team are on board and understand the changes.

Remember, you’re selling the invisible!

Selling a service is like selling something invisible. You’re selling the promise of a future result based on delivering things which are often not fully understood. If you were selling a computer, there is a physical product, the customer doesn’t need to understand how it works. You’re selling something intangible and asking for the money for it now. Back up your invisible with as many case studies, testimonials and evidences as possible. This book is an oldie but a goodie in that regard.

Make the sale easy!

You need to remove all reasonable barriers to the sale, otherwise you make it harder to get the real YES and ink on the contract from the client. Check out our guide on that. No long contracts, reduce the pitch process from 3 meetings and 6 presentations to something less slow. Make the sale results focused and show real or projected ROI figures, even if they are forecasts. Numbers make selling a service easier.

Remember that people buy from people.

In a recession, people are more likely to do business with someone they know, like and trust. So make sure you and your team come across as friendly and trustworthy! You need to make sure that you’ve got a credible presence online as well as presenting the same attitude throughout and following the sales process. If you’re trustworthy, and you’ve done what you promised in the past, then current and past clients will have no concern with recommending you or being reached out to by a buyer.

Do you have a CRM system?

If not, now is a good time to invest in one. A CRM system will help you to manage your sales process more effectively and help you to track progress. It will keep you on track and make sure you don’t hold things up. From a long-term perspective, the sales CRM can also support your future marketing efforts in both identifying and reaching new audiences.

Qualify, qualify and qualify!

If you don’t properly qualify your leads before using resources on selling to them you’ll be wasting time and money. You need to make sure that your leads are qualified against certain criteria, for example:

• Are they in the right budget bracket?
• Do they have an immediate requirement?
• Is the decision maker easily identifiable and contactable?
• Do they have a preference for the type of service you offer?

Not properly qualifying may mean you miss a potentially good client whilst spending time with one that isn’t, or selling something to someone who churns early and leaves you with a cost.

Collaborate with other agencies… it’s not a bad thing.

An unqualified lead for you may be a qualified lead for someone else. Speak to your peers about their qualification criteria and make a basic commercial agreement with them to refer prospects you don’t want to them for a small fee. Make it reciprocal and make a few agreements and you’ll get the leads they don’t want, but fit your agency too. It’s also worth partnering with agencies that offer services your clients will need and you don’t provide. You shouldn’t try offering their services as white labeled solutions, rather support your clients by recommending a complementary service which gets you a referral fee.

5 – Operations & Systems

Tl;Dr

• Automate everything you reasonably can
• Monitor and measure the things you cant
• Have proper processes!
• Keep the pulse of the client with NPS
• Outsource non-automatable but repetitive tasks
• Reporting should be bulletproof

Smoothly running agencies lose less staff, and retain more clients. They also waste less money on inefficient tools or activities whilst getting the right results for their clients. Review your systems and processes to see where you can make efficiencies. This may mean automating certain tasks or streamlining your workflow. It’s also a good time to assess your technology and ensure you’re using the most up-to-date software. This will not only improve efficiency but can also help with reducing costs.

Automation of Processes

Consider automating or semi-automating as many processes as possible. This will help to improve efficiency and free up time for your staff to focus on more important tasks. There are a number of software solutions that can automate various tasks such as social media posting, email marketing, lead generation and appointment scheduling. There are also more ‘God Mode’ agency automations that you can use with tools like SEO Powersuite and cloud technology for tracking, auditing and reporting at a tenth of the cost of a platform like Semrush for example. Get your team to keep a list of all repetitive tasks over a month or two and then meet together to see what can or can’t be automated. Even a simple Excel Macro can speed up the sanitisation of a data export so that it can be used for a client for example. Saving 5 minutes here and there over several people, over several months is time you can use to better effect.

Outsourcing

Consider outsourcing certain tasks or functions if it makes financial sense to do so. This could free up internal resources which can be better utilised elsewhere. Only outsource what you’re not good at or is not a high thinking based task. Not to suggest that outsourcing is for low-thought tasks, but focusing your agency on the thinking and any outsourcing on the doing is likely to keep your output consistent and result in better outcomes for the client.

Processes…Have Processes

Processes keep things consistent and to a standard that generates the results that clients expect. If there’s no process in place, this is an area that needs attention. Clients come to agencies for thinking and results, if your agency can be more consistent with both, you’ll have happier clients that stay longer. Ensure that your processes are measurable and you can track their progress. This is something you ought to have nailed down in any agency, even more important during a recession where any mistake or missed opportunity is a potential churned client or overspend you can ill-afford.

NPS is still a thing in a recession

Running regular NPS surveys for clients is a great way to get under the hood of the perception of your agency from clients. It helps you to make changes that may have been a blind spot, or you were unaware of. Furthermore, it’s a good way to keep clients happy and engaged with your agency. If they feel like their voice is being heard, they are more likely to stay with you during tough times.

Make your reporting bulletproof.

Take a close look at your client reports and see where you can make improvements. This is a great way to identify areas of your business that need attention and make sure that you are providing the best possible service to your clients. Think about what will show them that your current efforts are likely to lead to the results they are looking for. Make those leading measures obvious and include the right level of insight, both in quantity and in their language! Answer their questions in the report, before they even ask them. This helps to show that you’re doing that ‘invisible’ thing you sold them and helps them feel comfortable with paying the next bill!

Keep communicating!

Ensure you keep up your regularly planned meetings and calls with your clients, keeping in contact keeps them from assuming things that may not be the case. Leaving them to imagine their own interpretation of a report or data they look at is a sure fire way to creat conflict that may end up with you churning a client. If a client doesn’t want their scheduled call or meeting to discuss activities and results, record a screen share video (like a Loom recording) where you can interpret the results in a concise way as well as remind them of any actions outstanding on their side.

6 – People & Culture

Tl;Dr

• Like marketing, cutting training and development in a recession is foolish
• Look after your people, they are humans too
• Review your culture and outward tone of voice if the situation needs it
• NPS your team too

Don’t neglect staff training and development.

Make sure your team is up to date on the latest industry trends and changes. This will help them be more effective in their roles and better equipped to deal with clients. Things still develop in a recession, they don’t stop changing. Arguably, not keeping up with people development during a recession will put your team on the back foot in the long-run. Yes the good ones will work on their own self development, but managing a programme of growth is what helps keep things consistent.

HR is also still a thing! Look after the people!

HR is often something only thought of in a hire and fire perspective, which it is for in many cases. It’s also the toolset you use to keep an eye on the wellbeing of your team members. Taking your eye off of the ball here may lose you a great member of staff because they aren’t being looked after, or you missed opportunities in key periodical reviews to support them. Digital Agencies are essentially people businesses, if you don’t look out for the people that deliver your services to the people who receive them, one side of the people equation will fall down. And that will cost you!

Align the Company Culture to the times.

Review your company culture and make sure it is aligned with your business goals. This may mean making changes to your values or the way you operate.

Some things to consider:

• What are your core values? Have they changed in light of the current situation?
• What makes you unique? Is this the same as it was before?
• What drives you and your team to get out of bed in the morning?

Ensuring that your company culture fits the realities that people face is something that needs to be checked against. If it doesn’t fit properly, it may need adjusting. An adjustment to the culture slightly may keep you from losing staff, or clients.

NPS for your team…really?

Yes really! Running regular staff NPS surveys help you understand how your team are feeling, what their motivations are and helps identify any issues early. Just like you do with your clients, make sure you take action on the feedback given! People need to feel heard, and valued! The best way to operationalise this is through NPS and then clear and concise communication of the results, with changes mapped to the findings. If people see that you’re listening and are able to plan actions, they’re likely to ride out whatever is bothering them. It may be that you identify a need to explain to them why you are not able to spend on things so that they don’t assume you’re being miserly.

In summary…

Now is the time to get creative with your strategy and make sure you’re doing everything you can to stay ahead of the curve and keep your business afloat. By making some small changes in the way you operate, you can ensure that your digital agency is prepared for whatever comes next.

Recession, downturn, depression – whatever you want to call it. It’s coming and there’s not a lot we can do about it. As the leader of a digital agency, it’s your responsibility to make sure that your business is as prepared as it can be.

This means making changes to the way you work, both in terms of the services you offer and the way you operate. It’s important to be proactive and make these changes now, before the recession really hits.

SE Ranking Webinar

Transcription

Andrew (Host)

All right, so good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Depending on where you guys are joining us from today, hope everyone’s having a fantastic week on Thursday so far, just to make sure that everyone can see and hear us find the chat and let us know where you are joining us from today. While you are doing that, let me just tell you that we have a really awesome panel discussion plan for you and we are going to be diving into that in just a few moments in case this is the first time you’re joining one of our digital events. Welcome. We hold our roundtables, webinars, workshops and onboarding days to help to share some insightful information. And with the SEO community as well as help you guys make the most of our tools. So as the rankings, tools and hopefully give you something something to to, to, to to walk away with that will help you boost the traffic to your website. Let me switch over the presentation and introduce myself. I’m Andrew Zerrudo and I’m part of the marketing team over at. The ranking all-in-one esopa. Platform and today we are going to talk about recession risk management for agencies, how to acquire customers, find revenue streams and maintain growth as businesses face face economic uncertainty and potential downturns. It’s important for agencies to have a strategy in place to manage their risks and. Maintain growth and this webinar in this panel discussion we will discuss practical approaches to acquiring customers, finding new revenue streams, sustaining growth. Like I said during times of recession we which we are unfortunately sort of going through right now. And let me now introduce the wonderful guests that we have here. So we have three SEO experts with real life experience running agencies and businesses. And let me introduce our first guest which who is Jaunte, Delane founder and chief strategist at digital Delane. So could you please say a couple of words about yourself and let the people people know how you got to where you are? OK.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

Awesome. Well, thank you, Andrew, and thank you for the SC ranking team for putting on this webinar. It’s a great topic. We look forward to talking about how agencies can really future proof their business and and what to consider doing a recession. As Andrew mentioned, my name is Jente Delayne. I am the founder. Of digital domain and chief strategist, we are a full service digital marketing agency located in Los Angeles, CA. We work with many clients across different industries and verticals and really looking forward to sharing some of our insights that we’ve learned while. Gearing up for the potential recession, I say potential and knock on wood here and some of the tactics that we use when generating revenue for our agency. So look forward to speaking with you guys today.

Andrew (Host)

Awesome. And I just notice in the chat that you guys can see in here. So hello from Germany, Canada, Estonia, Mexico, Canada, Poland, great, great to have you guys with us. Let me introduce our next guest, Ulrika. Vivek. She is an agency owner and senior SEO at Unicorn and Happy to have you join us. OK. And could you please tell us the? Long and short. Of how you got to where you are today, your story.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Thank you Andrew for for having me. So super fun to be in. This panel with all. You guys so much knowledge in one webinar. So yeah, I’m Erika Wieberg and the agency owner of Unicorn. It’s Sweden based SEO agency. We also have web analysis in our package. So we focus on. User centric SEO. It’s very neat. It’s called and holistic. SEO, so we. Kind of. We’re not doing everything, but we are doing the the things that you really need when you’re when you need it and might that be innovative as you or might it be a very specific technical task or might it be a very specific web analysis thing? Then we combine it and work with the people around us so that we create magic. Yeah. So I’ve been done this deal for a long time and at some point it’s seemed fair to to create my own business and and do it as I want to do it.

Andrew (Host)

So, great. Thank you for taking the time to join us and be here today. And I also want to introduce our final and 3rd guest, Chris Simmons, founder at the OMG Centre and owner of a really great Beard.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

OK.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

Yeah, that’s true that that, that’s that’s.

Andrew (Host)

A couple more things about yourself.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

Literally my personality.

Andrew (Host)

Just get the people acquainted with our with with you, Chris.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

So apart from only having a beard as a personality, I I built, ran and exited 2 agencies in the past. I made all of the mistakes I learned all of the lessons, and once I’d exited those agencies, I decided that the best thing to do was actually to help other agency leaders through their troubles, through their growth, build some strategies. Work with them to actually. Navigate exactly these kinds of situations that we’re going to cover today. So this is a perfect a perfect time for for me to be having these conversations with people like you guys and yeah, I’m, I’m ready to rock’n’roll.

Andrew (Host)

Great. Awesome. I just have a couple of more slides just to show you guys before we get to the main course of today’s event. Let me just tell you a couple of things about it’s the ranking in case you guys don’t know enough about us. So we are an all-in-one. Intel platform that covers tools for. For data hungry experts as well for steel first steppers and we try to support. You all the way. Across your journey, we not only with the tools, but we have an excellent support team and a lot of material just to get you through the the knowledge curve curve of SEO. And just to back up what I said, we have different tools for different. Sorts of sorts of businesses, so if you run an A digital business on your own, if you’re an SEO pro working on different clients, or if you have a digital agency. And you want to have everything you need to cover all your needs. We have all of that, so make sure to explore what we have to offer. Now I’m going to hide my presentation and switch over to the to the presentations, not the presentation presentation, but bring us all of us up on this up on the screen. Yeah. And let’s start off with the very first question. Just to get an understanding of the topic better, how can businesses tell if a recession is coming and whether it will attract them specifically? So what? What, what do you look out for? Perhaps Chris, you could start.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

So typical SEO style question. It depends. So it depends what where you’re looking. Uh, what kind of clients you have. If you’re in specific niches, then it’s a lot easier to see trends that are happening because the niche, every all of your clients are that are pretty much the same type of. Type of niche, but if you’re more full service international, things like that, you should probably be looking for leading indicators of of a of a recession that are outside of your clients there. So the things that are before the client, so supply chains and things like that. And if you start seeing your client talk about their cost of delivery going up or you notice on their website they’re increasing delivery costs and small prices here and there, you know they’re feeling the pinch already. And and that usually then means that 689 months down the line you’ve got. You you’ve got that a difficult conversation with that with that client, maybe they want to leave, maybe they want to reduce their their fees. So that’s when you should be kind of making plans.

Andrew (Host)

Yeah. Great point, Chris. And do any of you guys want to want to contribute or would you perhaps?

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Yeah, so as I’m working very closely to my clients, I notice when there’s a reorganisation happening or when they’re talks about that, then I know that the OK, something is going on. Something’s coming. They know something that I hasn’t. Hit me yet? And then yeah, they want to cut costs. And they want to be like thin make everything thinner and smaller and more effective. And that’s what I know like. OK, I have to pitch in here to to, to to make my my company stay inside that type in the business for the client.

Andrew (Host)

Right. Got it. Yeah. And yeah, if you have anything to add with your personal experience, maybe what do you look out for to notice these these? Red flag.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

Yeah. So just much to what Chris alluded to earlier, it’s really if you pay attention to the news, you’ll see things that are going on in the market such as companies laying people off. You have, you know, your GDP, gross domestic, domestic product. The increases and decreases there. You have so many other sort of market trend factors that you can consider. But with but what you also want to consider is when having those conversations with the client to to determine where they are going with their organisation with regard to their their budgeting for the upcoming fiscal year. Looking at what type of resources or activities that your clients are investing in. Are they investing in more long term marketing tactics or are they focus more on short term, are they? You know, we were going through a reorg, our, you know, are the team members or stakeholders having to do more work as well as are also key indicators there. And just by having that general conversation with the client, which of course. All agencies we should right? We should have our finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the organisations that we are promoting. So those are all some key factors that I consider when determining where we are with regard to a recession.

Andrew (Host)

Appreciate it. So if if our viewers notice anything going on with their clients, anything that our that our speakers have just mentioned that this is a good, good opportunity for you to actually focus in and and just try to try to try to figure out what what the best next step for you guys is. That this yeah, our session basically is coming. If you notice anything from what what our guests have mentioned. Let me then let’s switch over to a bit more specific question cause it was basically just a starting point point to understand if if this applies to your business or if it doesn’t. So if if the if this does apply, then you’re in the right place and the next question I wanted to ask you. Is is what are some of the key economic indicators that agencies should monitor to and to identify and mitigate risks potentially like besides what what you what you mentioned like more specifically or like in terms of the financial indicators maybe something happening like because I because I want to help our our viewers. Just basically like sort of understand at a glance if something is happening without digging further. Obviously have to dig in further, but without digging too much further, just at a glance understand something is wrong. So what is something that that key economic indicator that to to pay attention? Into besides like the delivery costs or maybe in addition to the delivery costs and I would love to hear Jentes answer on well thoughts on this and answer with thoughts on this.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

Yeah. So you know I I think, Andrew, that paying attention to consumer spending, especially if you have clients that are in the B2C industry and really when we look at the consumer spending, we’ll be able to determine how much.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

OK.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

Growth or demand there is for a specific service, right? And if consumers are obviously cutting back, then naturally they’re not going to patronise some of your clients as an example. So we consider. Consumer spending, I think it’s important to focus on. You know where where the industry is going with regard to to spending. I think also looking at B. We from what we’ve noticed is especially, you know, during the onset of of the pandemic, we started to notice that it takes a little bit longer for us to convert any new potential clients. I mean, naturally, as you guys all know, the larger the client, usually the more the the longer the. Virus cycle is for that. For that client or industry, and with the pandemic we we noticed, you know, there started to be, you know, it took a little bit longer basically for us to to close deals. And with that said, you ultimately want to determine well, how can you possibly respond, right? Because of the elongation of that buyer cycle and for us it was creating a great deal of content and of course educating the clients so that we can position ourselves as someone that is hyper focused on their industry and their needs. Because now they’re they’re really being critical during, especially during the session about who new vendors that are coming on board and the value of that marketing dollars starting to be really criticised greatly, especially bringing on new vendors. So consumer spending overall. Is is one I think key. Metric to to take a look at.

Andrew (Host)

Only come. I’m sorry. My mic is on. Yeah, I thought my mic was off for a second.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

No worries. Yeah, I agree with John Taylor. That’s looking at looking at the consumer spending. I think that is the key, right, that when stuff is going to happen and then you’re going to a recession are people are going to be more careful about what, where they spend their money. But then also like. Other things. I mean for for the this is also for the consumers and and everything costs more and then the companies or the our clients, they have less money to spend on us or other types of of marketing, so. One thing that. I see is that my clients want? To push down the costs of paid marketing. And then there’s this organic. Free thing that’s is more lucrative. What they see. And then I have more discussions about that. So I I am called into meetings about that more than I was. Or before or would be. Before the recession happening, if that makes sense.

Andrew (Host)

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for contributing to the question, Audika. And Chris, perhaps you have something that you that you look out for it.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

Yeah, I’m. I’m gonna. I’m gonna go a little bit more away from the the normal. I I suspect. I don’t know. So there’s there’s there’s two sides to this. One is what you’d see directly in the agency, and that would be maybe smaller or less deal flow coming through. So yes, things take less time, more time to to convert. Potentially, but you’re actually potentially getting less leads in or the leads that do come in. If you’re doing any kind of lead scoring, which you absolutely should be if you if you’re running an agency, you should know that the scoring of your leads is potentially getting less valuable or or less likely to convert because they don’t fit you. They’re too small or something like that. But then a bit like Jante was saying about consumer spending like the real world version of this, you don’t have to look at consumer figures. You’d have to look online. You have to do anything. Walk down the road and see how many people are walking around with coffee cups in their hand like the paper coffee cups. Less people walking around with paper coffee cups from the coffee shop. Means that they’re either making coffee at home. Or they’re not buying anything, any coffee or anything like that. From wherever it is that that charges like like 5 bucks for a for a cup of coffee now. Though if if people are spending less money on the small little luxuries when they’re walking to their office or something like that and you’re getting less deal flow than the chances are the jurisdiction you’re in the country you’re in is probably having a slowdown economically. And given the global situation, it’s potentially that that country will then. Into a recession. Obviously not the the whole world doesn’t enter a recession at the same time, so look for coffee cups in. Your own town.

Andrew (Host)

We we we have a question coming into the chat since the onset of COVID, have you found that content is even more important to provide credibility to your agency? Because yeah, definitely cause definitely COVID. COVID did change a lot of things and everybody was sort of holding on to their to everything they have without making any sudden moves just to be just to be more prudent in this. So like once again going back to the question is like has content helped you helped you provide not provide but help you with? Credibility and in in in terms of in terms of. I’m sorry, something is wrong with my. I’m not speaking properly today. Ability to your agency and what has the role of content been since the onset of COVID?

Speaker

I think people were.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

People always want a safe pair of hands, and when they’re worried about money, they want an even safer pair of hands. So if you’re producing good quality authoritative content for yourself, you’re proving that you practise what you preach for for your clients potentially, and it means that you may be safer with their mom. That’s my take.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

Yeah. And I agree as well. And I think you know content not only helps with establishing your credibility in the space, but in particular during COVID people, the average person I think would not be in the position to to buy, it’s more value based purchases. If you’re making a direct impact on their bottom line on their life, they’re certainly going to make those purchases. If not, they’re going to perhaps interact with their brand or interact with their content as a way to be informed or entertained. And I I see a lot of the brand voice change and obviously being more personal and and essentially have more personality and because of COVID, consumers started to really double down on digital because they had to, right they had that’s the digital separation between physical bodies and. If, as a brand, whether your agency or or. Any other company? You have to have content available, so you can say top of. Right. Because although during the COVID era, consumers may not be looking to purchase, but you ultimately want to say top of mind because when things. Start to pick. Back up, which they certainly have, especially in the US, you would be the first company or business that they that they engage with. So I think creating content. Especially during recession, I think it’s critically important to maintain your maintain your your market share.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Yeah, and I agree. And and for like creating content for both having people say feeling safe about the COVID and the implications of of the business, but also that it was like a situation of two things where when COVID happened was that one. We couldn’t go to stores anymore or we couldn’t meet people. There’s no physical networking. For a while and then content had to be there. Answer all the questions that we still have about like before purchasing stuff or or services. But the other thing was also Google had a crazy time with algo updates during COVID. There was like insane and a lot of them were were about. Content. So we had to like we. Think a lot about how to create content and how to service them and and and how to think about it. And it was super important. So I think that during COVID those two things happened at the same time and sort of forced us to rethink content into a whole new era. You know, world of of how to create that and how to talk to people.

Andrew (Host)

I can I can add from AC rankings point of view that definitely content has has helped us and we’ve to to change our message to take into account the time. So to address all of our clients, not just like a general like as if we’re not going through the same thing. So that’s this was a big focus for, for our communication process and I want to go over to the next question. Which is what are some strategies that you can use to different differentiate yourself from competitors as and attract new clients during this recession? Perhaps like developing a unique value proposition or? Having a special discount or anything, whatever it worked in your experience, we would love to. We would love to hear from you from you guys. So we haven’t started off with with you guys in a while. So if you could start with how would you differentiate yourself from the competition to attract more clients? Well, not more clients, but at least attract clients during.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

The right kind of clients. Yeah. So yeah, so I did that and specialised in things that are a niche where I saw that the clients that I wanted to have. Contract that they needed in this time of both COVID but also now because they need to focus on on their transition into a digital market which is. Like has grown like the last couple of years. A lot for many, especially if they had physical shops before and now they have to be online and and have like online retails. I don’t believe in discounts. I believe instead of. Giving extra. I I I don’t want to sell my hours cheap because they are not cheap to me and but if you want to have my extra magic, yes, treat me nicely and pay me and then you will have. You will have that. I will be the Unicorn. Nothing, Chris.

Speaker

I don’t know.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

I love it. It’s brilliant. You can get your extra magic and have the Unicorn. It’s.

Speaker

Very good.

Andrew (Host)

It makes total sense, and I’d love to hear what your thoughts are guys on this. How would you, how would you set yourself apart from the competition or what would you suggest to a digital agency that is trying to get more clients? And but it’s but it’s struggling to.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

Gently. You, you, you.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

Yeah. Yeah, sure. So. You know, I I think Erica said. It it it? Well, when it comes to providing value, right, that’s the. First thing that you want to do. And what we consider is if we’re providing any extra ad hoc projects or spec work, we would determine it’s about usually if it’s 10% of an incremental cost, then we’ll go ahead and and do it. We may want to expand that to 25%. And sort of depending upon the relationship of the client, right? In in terms of adding more value, other things is obviously being that true partner right. I know this is. Kind of cliche in the agency. Yeah, we’re sure we’re. Partners. But really, what are ways in which we can showcase that we are to partner by being proactive, right and really being into what’s, what’s going on with the. Client as well as their industry and relaying information about potential roadblocks that may come about for that client right issue that they may need to tackle and not in a sense of of we are doing this to upset. Tell them, but really just to. Let them know that we have their back and and here’s some some more valuable information or or tactics or consideration that they need to make right? So value I think is definitely important. I think the other thing too is when when we’re naturally promoting to anyone marketing to anyone we want to. Focus on the problem right and and the challenges that they have. So I think the biggest challenge for any brand during a recession is. What are we doing? And is it contributing to the bottom line? Right. So ROI is is a major consideration. So that would mean for any campaigns that would go on during this time you may. Want to tweak? Your language a. Little bit to focus more on ROI, right and the things that are doing to build ROI. Transparency is obviously key. They want to see sort of what’s going on within the organisation, how we’re doing things sort of, you know, how the how the sausage is made, so to speak. And if you give them that insight, that transparency, have them, you know, the ability to go underneath the hood. So to speak and kind of really be that true marketing partner. Depending upon the right. Client, right? That’s at the preface that. And I think that will also help to differentiate you as well, because now they’ll have more trust established with regard to what’s going on if things are operating efficiently, the impact that is that your agency has on their bottom line that only waiting for. The revenue to come in or the projections or growth, but actually seeing things being done I think is something to to that any agency can do to different agents differentiate themselves during this time. Chris, I want to know your thoughts about.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

I agree with almost every point everyone’s made, which is great. Uh, naturally, I have more to say. I I always think that if you play with pricing, you’re in a race to the bottom. Pricing isn’t a differentiator. Uhm. Reducing prices? Uh, if? You ask to. Reduce prices. Those clients are probably the most at risk. To leave in a crisis anyway. So you’re essentially reducing your potential profit margins and cash flow before you have to, because they’re gonna go if you, if you look at a bit like what Jonte Jonte was saying around ROI and things like that, you don’t have to, you don’t have to play with pricing, but you can make it provable, you can make your process provable. You can provide some kind of guarantees and I’m not saying guaranteed Page 1 rankings. I’m not saying guaranteed. Whatever the the keyword is to to be number one or something like that on a specific number of sales. But you can you can guarantee the leading measures that would normally provide a return on investment for a client and. And if you don’t deliver your deliverables in a certain period of time and you don’t show that those those leading measures of success. Such as under impressions increasing or click through rate change in search results done. Change then you. Then you can. You can work on on a guarantee there and I think to differentiate yourself in that way is essentially saying we know we are hot stuff. I don’t know whether I can swear on this. I I said that instead. It’s probably sound really weird, but we know we’re really good at what we do. We’re so. Good at what we do. Even though there’s risks involved on our side, we’re taking a risk with you because we can prove that we can do it. That’s a that’s a pretty decent differentiated there. And the other thing as well, if you’re not already niching into a specific service type or service line, you should probably be niching into a specific sector and and if you can have, if you can choose one, choose a recession proof one as as recession proof as they can get, and and quite often. It does end up boiling down to to finding the right clients like like both of these guys have said if you’ve got the wrong clients, you’re going to have difficult conversations, which is just noise that kills the cash flow.

Andrew (Host)

Yeah. Appreciate all of your answers. Yeah, there’s definitely a lot to think about. And depending on on the business that you’re in, specifically the, the answers can vary. And so it if you have any specific questions for our audience members about your specific agency, you’re welcome to throw them. Into the chat. In the meantime, I. Want to throw another question at you guys, so we businesses have long term goals. And sometimes things happen in between that we have to sort of adjust and change our short term goals as well. And so my question is, what are some of the strategies for balancing short term short term revenue goals with long term strategic objectives for a company? Like so, yeah, you basically have at the next year you you want to have these figures and something changes? What? What? What are the steps that you doing between how do you balance reaching your ultimate goal but having all? These all these all. These different obstacles in the way. In your experience was that.

Speaker

You’ve got to.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

Know where you’ve got to know where your cash is coming from. You’ve gotta you. I I sound like a really boring accountant, but you have to have ridiculously good accountancy management accounts, cash flow reporting, because you’ve got a long term goal of say, two or three years into the future. That’s quite a long horizon when there’s a lot of. Certainties so that long term goal is still worth going for. You might need to just adjust the timeline, not the plan. But if you know where your cash flow is going and where you’re spending and where you’re not spending, you can make decisions that will impact the short term because you have to impact the short term. That will not make it tangible. Range on the long term, so rather than cutting staff or cutting tools and things like that, or reducing spend on in certain areas that you know will have an impact in six to nine months time. Spend money on training your team, spend time looking after and retaining working with your clients. But as long as you know that you’re not knocking on that cash flow to a point where you then become an at. Risk business. That’s that’s that’s what I think you should do. You balance it that way.

Andrew (Host)

Thank you. As a welcome to add, if you if you have anything or we can move on, but I I’d love to hear your thoughts if. You have anything specifically. To share.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

Yes, I mean really, really quickly. I’m sorry. No, you can.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

No, go ahead. Go ahead.

Andrew (Host)

No. Ladies first, let’s let’s yesterday was International Women’s Day. We have to.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

We have to totally agree, and I think that so cutting, cutting down on everything, it doesn’t make her happy.

Speaker

Right. Right. That’s right. That’s right.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Happy workspace or it doesn’t make you happy customer. It doesn’t make anyone happy. The the staff is not going to be happy. So then you’re not going to do a good job and it’s very, very hard to sell a staff that is not happy or a job that is not done. Well, so I. Think that you will have to. Maybe cut down on. Things like some things, but please don’t do that on your stuff or or and you also need the tools because we work in the CEO, so you need them and also spend some time with your customers or your client. And and wine and dine them. Treat them well. Make them feel happy. I think that is super important. So that is. Our way to. Invest ourselves out of the crisis, so to say. And I think that’s it’s necessary to do that.

Andrew (Host)

Yeah. Thank. Thank you. You want to add something?

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

Yeah, just you know, for for us digital delaying we short term we focus on customer retention and and going back to the point that earlier made in terms of providing extra value and adding extra magic as much as possible, that’s an immediate. Short term. Solution there. Obviously we know as marketers it it costs more to acquire a new customer. Than it is. To than it would be to retain a current one. So that’s our short term philosophy there. In the long term, it’s training and development of our team, right and really making sure that. They have the right training and educational milestones and we provide as much support as we can to help them get there so that long term we have more talented and skilled individuals on. Our on our team.

Andrew (Host)

Appreciate it. Yeah, we have. Let’s I want to talk about partnerships and collaborations as a way of strengthening business, like even in the digital agency. So maybe have some, some, some, some cases from from your, from your experience about. Collaborating with the with the not not not not not not exactly your rival, but perhaps maybe a company that handles design for or some something. Like a bit. Additional that will sort of boost your your presence in the on the market. So basically is there any way of you of using partnerships and collaborations? To to cultivate your presence and have a have a stronger presence online due to being a part of like, well, partnering up with bigger, but not necessarily bigger brands. But just like other brands and sort of presenting yourself as an. Event of. Going along with other tools is that is that something that that has worked for you guys in the past?

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

1,000,000%.

Andrew (Host)

OK. And then I would love to, I would love to hear, hear more on this because partnerships are something that anybody can take, take advantage of and I would love to hear from you guys. Maybe we can start from from jente this time. I’m sorry, Chris, you you sort of start it. But I wanted to sure. Sure, yeah.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

So, you know, I think that’s the the probably the number one thing I would recommend during a recession is collaboration with potential partners or affiliates. Obviously you’re able to create some Co branded. Initiatives that are essentially going to help to save some some marketing dollars there, right. And so when we determine what type of partner you could or collaborator you should work with, you ultimately want to focus on a organisation or brand that can provide. Sort of. From an ancillary standpoint, assist you with any of the services that you may provide or an ancillary brand or service that your target audience would. Also if if that that brand would also resonate with your target. Audience. So those are some key factors to consider there and this could could range anywhere from creating a Co branded ad campaign to an event to research, survey so on and so forth that both organisations can push through their marketing. Type one. I think they’re all critical when it comes to, you know, leveraging a a recession and working sort of smarter, not necessarily harder.

Andrew (Host)

Sorry I have. I have a question follow up about this. So say. One SEC. One SEC. One SEC. Sorry. Lost my train of thought. It was about. Yeah. So so say say I I’m a just just not not a not a business but I’m a client and I see two options. I can pay one business that I see as as a stand alone one or I can see I I can pay another one where I see that it partners up with the other ones. My thought is this one business is not going to take a lot too much money from me, but when I see that it’s Ben is collaborating with other partner other brands. Source. I started thinking like, OK, these are three brands now collaborating and obviously my my I’m going to have to. Pay a lot. More ultimately, because they are, they are. They present a a sort of a big bigger ecosystem that definitely will will help me, but still like I’m thinking about like the financial risk because if if people are. I don’t want to pay or not don’t wanna pay, but like the, there’s a finite amount of resources and money is one of them. And, for example, the person’s not a person, but like a a business is trying to figure out where to spend their money. The best and like well from what I see, partnerships. Yeah, it’s it’s more established a position, but I see that it’s going to pull a lot more money from me. Is that something that that is popular, a popular thought or? Or am I just alone on alone alone on this?

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

I want to challenge.

Speaker

Well, I mean.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

You here and say that if you go. If you go to start the stand alone agency. And they work in a silo. And then you notice that or actually these three other marketing things as well. And then you’re going to contract the other three agencies and then they’re going to start competing against each other. And then you’re paying for agencies instead of having one collaboration with one partner where you have. You get exactly the bits and pieces that you need, and they are actually doing that in a synchronised way, and they’re not competing with each other and and you’re getting it like actually cheaper.

Andrew (Host)

OK, so it’s probably a matter of wording it properly so that people will not even think about this. The thing that I just thought about because I’m just thinking like one like 2 is definitely more than one that’s that was my logic. So like and it’s probably gonna going to cost more, but I I love, I love the response that you gave so it. Makes sense to that you that you will eventually pay less because there are sort of. Closing the gaps from each other.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Exactly. Yeah. So we are working with a.

Speaker

OK.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

A number of different partners in collaborations, both who are doing other things, other disciplines within marketing, digital marketing, but also with other SEO agencies because you have different skill sets and you have different things that you’re good at and then you can have a better. Full service with everyone and then that pick in whatever I need at the time that I need it. And then for for the client this is more seamless and they get get the holistic digital marketing. Service only Unicorn isn’t delivering all of it. We are doing it together and then since we’re friends because we have, we’re collaborating with each other. We also have these sessions where we teach each other or talk to each other. How to evolve our our? Proposition and how we can synchronise our services better. And how we can create more and better results for our clients together, which you cannot if you work in silos then you will work against each other and the client is the one who is. Going to pay for that?

Andrew (Host)

I’m so I’m so thank Zach guys. I just wanted to like if if anybody’s listening to this and they have the same thought, I just wanted them to have this answer because if you’re on the fence like definitely now I’m convinced that it’s definitely to partner up. Any do you want to contribute on this to maybe have an experience collaborating with somebody? We yeah, we we we can actually move on because we have don’t have that. Much time.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

Just a very quick one. Agencies like to silo within agencies as well. So if you consider partnerships with other types of. Finances and you’re going to get leads from other businesses that will recommend your services. So create partnerships with the accountants and the lawyers and the insurance brokers because they work with people that you want to sell to as well. And you can create referral agreements that are that you don’t have to worry about all of the other stuff.

Andrew (Host)

Great point. Great point. Thank you. OK. So let’s let’s move on because we don’t have that many questions left and I wanted. To talk about. Yeah, let’s talk about how we can leverage automation in AI to improve operations and better serve clients. So just basically we can talk about anything because AI is sort of there’s all different ways of of using it, implementing it, taking advantage of it and so on. So I just want to hear your your thoughts on. On how has AI worked or helped you automate anything in terms of ultimately presenting clients with a better offer and and so on. Like how has automation and AI helped helped you and I wanted to start off with let’s go for Chris to this one.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

And so I don’t run an agency anymore. But the agencies that I do. Work with are. Are playing around and experimenting with all of these things at the minute and I think. The best way to use a tool for automation AI tools in particular is to leverage the scale that it can do around the high volume low value types of tasks. So a million page pages of titles and meta descriptions or something like that, that’s going to take someone months and months and months and months. You can then use those tools to those tools to to to do the the the heavy lifting kind of work that isn’t hugely impactful in a in in, in in of itself that then allows you to to upskill your team or use your team for the brains that you hired them. More to actually do the cool creative. Stuff that generates the results, that is. The thing that the clients come for.

Andrew (Host)

Thank you. Thank you. Ludica, what about? What about your? What about Unicorn? Do you use? What have you automated so far? Cause obviously automation has been around and like AI is is sort of taken the foreground now even more. I just love to hear you hear you.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Yeah, we’re using it as a tool. As Chris said, like things that are boring and actually cost a lot and doesn’t have. As much of an impact if you would do it manually as as as it cost to create it, so that’s where you can use the. AI for sure. I I haven’t seen like all the applications yet where I would like to use the AI. I think it’s still like a bit like mentary tool to use, but yeah for sure it’s fun. It’s really fun to use. To to play. With yeah. It’s more fun than you.

Andrew (Host)

But I’m I’m not only explicitly talking about AI like ChatGPT, but but for example like like any automation process that maybe analyses bulks of data. Well, what what do you use to help you get more, get more done for your clients in less time like so. So if somebody in our audience is right now not using enough automation tools. This would be a great opportunity to let them know what they can automate to to just do a lot more, be more efficient.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Yeah, yeah.

Andrew (Host)

OK. OK, you. Being too big of a question, sorry. Sorry guys.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

That was a. Bit too vague. Yeah, you have to be more specific. I think.

Andrew (Host)

Well, because yeah, because there’s we have a question on the chapter specifically for a about AI content on web pages for agencies and and is the question, do you think that will work for Google, will it? Rank on Google.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

If someone cheques it first. If someone proves.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

Yeah, like human curated.

Andrew (Host)

But but this is like the question is from the standpoint of Google, Google, how will Google know if this has been proofread by a professional? Or is this just purely an? Output of an AI programme.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

You will have. You will have to put your name under it and said proof read by. This is AI content. Proofread by and then. That’s how you do it.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

I’m just going to create an AI author. Author Page creates an eaat behind the AI author and then let it be the author of my. Content. See what happens.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Yeah, I also I thought Chuck, give it to you a bunch of stuff. So I know I can’t creative text format that is not true, but it’s.

Andrew (Host)

Yes, very confident for sure about the lies that it tells. Well, you can teach it for sure. We have a question from Chris Rolfe. Do your command for the time being starting, uh, starting to offer your monthly engagement at a lower price. For example, our lowest level of engagement was $2000. Now we’re thinking about starting at $1000. What are your thoughts on this? I see that you’re not, you’re not in your head. What? What would you say to Chris unless?

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Yeah. No, that’s.

Andrew (Host)

Yeah, cause you’re. Not a fan of cutting down the prices, right?

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Because you you’re not gonna do good work for lower prices. So and like as as Chris said before the the clients who wants to have. So it’s the same service but for a lower price. They’re the ones who are already at risk and you need to cheque your own home. You’re you’re the number one. Your agency is the number one customer. Brian, for you and you don’t want the. The clients who who can’t pay and because you’re going to work a lot for them and then working a lot for less money, makes you actually being able to earn less money from clients who actually can pay you. It takes both time, but also energy from you to do that. So if you have a client. I mean, if it’s your uncle or if it’s for a good cause, yes, do it. But that’s pro bono. But for a client who can’t pay and they still want you to work a lot for them. Don’t sign the contract because. You can find better clients for in the cost of that energy it would take to to work for these low paying clients.

Andrew (Host)

Yeah. OK, thank you. So I understand you’re a strong supporter of not cutting down your prices and and we’re almost done with the with the event. And I wanted to have your takeaways on this as well. So, yeah, we’re gonna get to that in just a bit. And there’s one more question. That I. Want to talk about in terms of? Just retaining the plans of that, I I know that we touched on this a lot. We talked, we talked about like being adding the personal touch, adding the magic, not cutting down the prices. But this is like the one of the. Most important things. Is the clients. Is like retaining them definitely. So I actually actually because we already talked about this so much. I don’t want to have this as a separate question again, but I wanted to have your takeaways on this topic of of basically. Of what you can do right now to sort of recession proof, your agency for the future, for the near future at least. And you you can. You can go as concise as you want or elaborate as much as you want, but it would be good if you if it if it was just sort of 1 big point and I would love to start off with would you kind of sort of close off and. Post off our panel discussion and just remind our viewers in do you have any questions you can throw them into the chat right now and we? Will address them. But at the moment I wanted to have a take away so that people can summarise and know what they can do right now to sort of. Recession proof their business.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

There, there’s a big, big question, but it’s OK. I I I would say that stay true to yourself and and be also be transparent to your, to your clients who are who are your clients now I think that is integrity and transparency and help them through that and help them say like OK if we do these. These things is going to help you through this and actually pay attention to to what their needs. And maybe focus on them a bit more and show them that you are here with them, that you have their back, you’re going to get them through this together with you and you’re going to help them do that.

Andrew (Host)

OK, thank you, Erica Gente. I’d love to hear your thoughts on like what business can do right now just to. Yeah, it’s the same question, but just to have a leg up against the competition. After this panel discussion. Yeah, please.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

Yeah. No, I think I think digital marketing agencies can be recession proof by focusing on providing as much value as possible to their current clientele. That is the most important thing. Keep your clients right. So reduce that churn. As much as you can. Hopefully, by providing a great deal. Of value you’ll be. Able to do that. The other thing is basically as is had mentioned, you know stay true to yourself. There’s going to be some tough decisions that are going to be made during a time of recession, so by staying true to yourself, your core values I think are going to be very important. Make sure that you hire new team members, take on new clients based upon those specific core values, because at the end of the day, no matter what happens, you stuck to those. Poor values, right? So you. Can never go wrong. And then ultimately looking to create as much content as possible is certainly going to help, especially during this time consumers, it doesn’t matter if you’re AB or BC, they are consuming a great deal of content. So one of the ways you are able to effectively stay top of mind and increase your reach. Ultimately, is by creating a great deal of content, so those will be my my few recommendations to maintain a future proof brand as a digital marketing agency.

Andrew (Host)

Thank you, Gentle and Chris. Well, what would you like our our viewers to walk away with?

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

The boring bit know the numbers know, know where it is. But then I think I think the the other part. Is you’re. You’re. With digital marketing in particular, you’re selling something that’s invisible and it’s not a tangible, physical service at a physical product, it’s that you’re selling an invisible thing. So you need to have. Clear. Concise. Very obviously, honest communication with your clients and you need to be a good leader. You there are, like Junte said you you’re going to have to make some tough decisions at a certain point in time. But the businesses across every industry and sector that do well out of a recession invest in a recession. They don’t cut.

Andrew (Host)

Thank you. And I want to get you guys to share your handles. Social media handles as I see the up on the screen, you already says it says at Orica Audika Viberg and at Gente Gente. Sorry Gente Delane and Chris. Yeah. Thank you for for turning it on right now. So you guys. Our viewers are welcome to reach out to the to our experts and. Also in the follow up e-mail that you guys will get, we will send a a special off. So just be sure to cheque that out. And I also wanted to to, oh, hold hold on. We have a question. Let me just bring it up on the screen because this is what we’re here for. I’m starting to identify new revenue streams that are relevant to my niche and I’d love to hear your insights on how to do this effectively. Thanks. So yeah, if we could also help. This sorry. Help Harry out a bit. Before leaving. Any takers? Didn’t want to hide the question. Actually, I let. Let’s leave. It up on the. Screen yes. Again revenue streams, new revenue streams for my niche.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

Find people that that those that the companies that you work. With in that niche. They buy from other service providers as well. So partner with other service providers that give you a Commission for referrals.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Exactly through that and and. Find where. Find out where, who they are working with and if you can like partner up with with maybe paid media. Maybe they do PR, maybe they do whatever UX and be friends with those agencies and. Yeah, cheque in. Cheque along. Say hello. Can you please drop the name in in this field when you’re talking to them or yeah, or just be where this is the classic be where the classic client is. But that is very important in these in these times actually to be where and have your content. Displayed where your clients are, that is. That is how you do it.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

Yeah. And also you may want to expand your consulting or perhaps add on a fractional CMO. Service as well.

Andrew (Host)

Thank you. And yeah, let’s take one more question. How can you sell SEO to small companies? Can you sell SEO without offering phone calls, constant phone call consultations to be able to scale better? I see uh, Chris, nodding your.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

Head. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention another platform, but it’s not a ranking at all or anything. So can I just mention it? Yeah. Cool. There’s a there’s a platform called SP Dot IO which essentially allows you to productize small portions of of the services that you offer and.

Speaker

Yeah, yeah, sure.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

And in the background, there’s a ticketing system, so you can essentially make a small ecommerce store for like really low value SEO stuff. So content audit keyword. Research technical audit as individual small products and then add-ons of you know, blogs or whatever. And the whole thing can be done through a a back end ticketing system. So you don’t ever really physically talk to the customer and it’s again it’s it’s it is low value, but small companies will want small things.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

You can also sell like smaller packages of classes or courses or educations where because that that will that cost very have a very small fee for company. But since you attract like with 3050 people or companies at the same time. For you, it’s gonna. Be worth it. And then you can have also manuals and guidelines and everything that is within this package and then essentially this is self help for the small smaller businesses.

Andrew (Host)

Appreciate your answers and I think we’re gonna end it here. Let me just show a couple of more slides before we end everything. And oh, sorry and everything. It sounds so. So dramatic. So I just wanted to let you guys know that if you haven’t tried this ranking, you’re welcome to take advantage of the extended free trial and try out all of our tools. We have about more than 30 tools including AI powered ones. Couple of rolled out. Just just last month, we also have our community on Facebook. You realise that Facebook is not the place to be right now, but we’re working on on having a place on Reddit, so we will invite you there once everything is set up. And if you have subscribed to S ranking, you already have access to the SEO basics course and we just rolled out our content SEO course about a month ago. So you’re you’re welcome to cheque that out also for free and I will show you how to. Take advantage of our of some of the specific tools related to the topic and as well as go from SEO0 to a small sort of SEO small hero. But on on your way. Well on your way there and. And yeah, you’re welcome to reach out to our ranking on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube. We have a lot of materials there, plus you can catch this webinar or this panel discussion up on our YouTube channel. And once the video. Will end and also on Twitter. Yeah, you can find us there as well. So and be sure to keep an eye on your inbox. We will send out an e-mail with the special offer and and if you have any questions, we reach out to us at this ranking or reach out to our expert guests today at their specified social media. Handles and I want to thank everyone for being here and hope everyone gets through this recession. Knock on wood. We’re not going to have it, and this topic was for nothing. Hopefully, hopefully nobody’s going to have any problems that we talked about today. I was just, yeah.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

So for that.

Chris Simmance (The OMG Center)

Yeah, this was an massive waste of. Time everybody. Have a great day.

Andrew (Host)

Hopefully, hopefully, yeah. Yeah. So I want to thank Ladika, Chris and Jente for taking the time out of their busy schedules to join us. And I want to thank our viewers for being here and thank again thanks to you everyone again and we’re going to end here. Bye.

Juntae DeLane (Digital Delane)

I know. Bye everyone.

Ulrika Viberg (Unikorn)

Bye everyone. Thank you.