070: David Reske on building a digital marketing agency
David Reske is the founder and CEO of digital marketing agency Nowspeed.
He’s built a phenomenal business over the years. David is incredibly clearheaded and sophisticated about Nowspeed. But the journey has not been without challenges.
In this episode, we discuss his business, what's works, and what hasn't.
Highlights of this episode:
[3:15] The kind of people you hire creates the kind of atmosphere and culture your company will have.
[3:50] Nowspeed has evolved over the years to use whatever tools are available to drive engagement, traffic and leads.
[5:00] Dave started the company with his wife, which offers great flexibility for her as a working mother. But, leave business outside the shower!
[7:20] The digital marketing landscape has grown much more sophisticated, and it’s much harder now to land the big boys as clients.
[9:00] Nowspeed differentiates itself through platinum level service and expertise that goes beyond the capabilities of most internal marketing teams.
[12:30] In his business, Dave works primarily as strategist, accountability partner, business developer, management coach, and process/service tweaker.
[14:10] It’s risky for a service business to have one customer account for a large portion of the business.
[15:25] The way Nowspeed is structured, account leads communicate and work with clients and strategy, and they manage a team of experts who work in their particular expertise to execute the campaigns.
[17:10] There’s no magic bullet to getting work. They do the stuff they offer- inbound/content marketing, SEO, PPC, social media- to drive leads. But they are also very active in partnering with other agencies/consultants to drive referrals.
[19:20] Dave spends half of his time doing strategic sales/business development. They only reach out locally, but they have leads/clients from all over the US/world.
[20:45] Dave loves integrating all the pieces of the puzzle.
[22:18] Hiring when desperate = Big Mistake! Instead, Nowspeed hires (mainly fresh college grads) and trains in classes.
[26:30] You don’t know what systems/process you need, until you really NEED them. So it’s a continuous evolution, discovering new challenges/things that need fixing. It helps to get your team involved in this.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Traction by Gino Wickman
This episode is sponsored by Outbound Creative
Outbound Creative helps agencies and consultancies win their dream clients through eye-catching outreach campaigns. Learn more at OutboundCreative.com.