Post on 18-Oct-2014
description
Scaling Your Search Marketing
Efforts: Agency Edition
Phillip Thune
CEO-Americas/Advisor-Europe
Textbroker
@textbroker
About Textbroker
› Custom content creation in 10 languages
– US English, Spanish, UK English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish
– Textbroker.com only allows US-based authors
› Almost 300,000 Freelance Author Accounts
› Almost 100,000 Client Accounts
› 5 million orders delivered
– Articles, blog posts, product descriptions, press releases, newsletters, white papers, etc.
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
About Your Speaker:
Driving Rapid Growth at Three Companies
› Broadcasting Partners, 1996-2000
– Bought/built 38 radio stations in 11 cities
› FindWhat.com/MIVA, 2000-2006
– SEM platform (US/EU), toolbars, shopping cart
– 35 to 500 employees
– $500k to $200 mil. in revenue
› Textbroker, 2010-2013
– Crowdsourced content writing
– 20 to 150+ employees; #836 in 2013 Inc. 5000
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Textbroker Growth in Employees
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Q1'10
Q2'10
Q3'10
Q4'10
Q1'11
Q2'11
Q3'11
Q4'11
Q1'12
Q2'12
Q3'12
Q4'12
Q1'13
Q2'13
2010 – 2013
EU
US
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Exec Milestones at a Growing Company
› Not everyone reports to you
› You no longer interview every new hire
› You cannot fill key roles by promoting
from within the company
› You need an annual budget
› You no longer know everyone by name
› You need a division called Corporate
› You no longer make, or should make, every
key decision
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Exec Responsibilities Not to be Delegated
› Overall strategy
› Potential new big deals
– Big new client; acquisition; merger
› New HQ office space
› Opening a second office
› Reviewing your cash and cash flow
› Interviewing key hires
› Compensation structure
› Culture (??)
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Exec Milestones at a Growing Company
› Not everyone reports to you
› You no longer interview every new hire
› You cannot fill key roles by promoting
from within the company
› You need an annual budget
› You no longer know everyone by name
› You need a division called Corporate
› You no longer make, or should make, every
key decision
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
How to Hire Professional Managers
› Focus on candidates with previous
management experience in that role
› Make their sphere of responsibility very clear
and don‘t invade it
– But have a weekly/bi-weekly update meeting
› Give them sizeable bonus and/or equity
compensation and think very carefully about
the metrics they need to hit
› You work for them, not vice versa
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
How to Deal with Turnover
› Nobody – including yourself – should be
indispensible
– Which is easy to say, but hard to adhere to
› Key is that every manager should know who
on their team could replace them
– In a growing agency, there are always new
opportunities
– Good employees want new responsibilities; can
only pursue them with strong understudies
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
How to Deal with Turnover
› Turnover at the entry level is ok
– The best should get promoted, others might be
a better fit elsewhere within the organization,
unfortunately some might not work out
› Ultimate goal is for every employee to find
where they fit
– For some, that might not be in your agency
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Compensation Structure
› Rule #1: nobody thinks they are paid enough
› Rule #2: employees shouldn‘t compare their
compensation, but you should be able to defend
yourself if they do
– People with similar roles should be paid roughly
the same unless there is a big gap in experience
or education or clients won/mgd
– Entry level employees should all start at the same
salary, but those who do good work should have
the ability to make more with bonuses/promotions
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Compensation Structure
› Rule #3: bonuses – even small bonuses –
clarify the company‘s goals and have a major
impact on employee behavior
– Be very careful of unintended consequences
– Try to mix bonus criteria between overall
company performance and individual or
departmental performance
› Rule #4: your best employees should have
significant upside to their compensation
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Changing Strategy – Case Study: Textbroker
› Founded as self-service
– Marketplace of thousands of freelance authors
– No guaranteed deadlines
– No editing/proofreading
– Great but reactive client support
› Revenue grew quickly – strong demand from
SEO agencies for inexpensive, adequate
content, driven by AdWords and referrals
› Then: New Sales Team / Panda & Penguin
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Changing Strategy – Case Study: Textbroker
› To continue revenue growth, some clients
needed to get perfect content, on time
› Key decision: hire in-house authors?
› Key decision: use freelance editors?
› Key decision: how to price this new full-
service offering?
› Key decision: how to broaden our brand
– move from Mini to Mercedes, or
– move from Mini to GM
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Broadening A Brand
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Broadening A Brand
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Broadening A Brand
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Acquiring / Being Acquired
› Very few agencies stay independent for long
periods of time – so an acquisition should be
seen as a milestone, not The End
› Change as little as possible at first –
introduce bigger changes gradually
› Do everything possible to lock key employees
in for at least a year
› Reassure key clients and expand their team
until you know which employees are staying
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B
Thank You!
Phillip Thune
CEO-Americas/Advisor-Europe@Textbroker
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B