6 agency mistakes that result in client failure (with Alex Berman)

Alex Berman (left) with Dennis Yu, 2018. Alex’s channel; Dennis was introduced as BlitzMetrics CTO.

About Dennis Yu and Alex Berman

In 2018 Alex Berman sat Dennis down as a guest on his agency channel. Dennis was then CTO of BlitzMetrics, which partnered with schools to train young adults on real client work. The specialty on camera is Facebook ads and mentorship — specifically how an agency grows without inventing the client’s creative. Alex is the YouTube creator and operator behind Experiment 27 / Email10k; see also Alex Berman, the Cold Email King and the Dollar a Day story of how Dennis and Alex remade the Facebook Dollar a Day course.

Alex Berman recorded this highlight on 3 August 2018 on his own YouTube channel: How Most Agency Owners Do It Wrong (Mindset Behind Growing an Agency) w/ Dennis Yu. The four-minute-fifty-four-second cut is the source for this page. In 2018 Dennis was introduced as CTO of BlitzMetrics; the operating company today is Local Service Spotlight. The method in the video is the same Content Factory line: the client makes the content, the client owns the data, and we amplify what already works — the promote step of Dollar a Day.

Young employees – the elephant in the room

Agencies are composed of a lot of young adults, especially in New York. They’re hustling, working hard, saving money, and most importantly making sacrifices. We can see three of them sharing this tiny little one-bedroom thing because they want to be in Manhattan. Same thing in San Francisco. As an industry, we should be open about it. After all, we’ve got kids too! And we’ve got smart kids and you’ve got smart kids. However, this is not a comparison of who’s got smarter people.

It’s about the process more than people

We all have smart people, but we should have a process that we must be transparent about. And we hold ourselves accountable to a checklist. So, if you’ve got an agency working on stuff, the first question to ask is – where’s your checklist? Clients should insist on wanting to see it.  And if an agency doesn’t have one, the clients are going to question whether you have repeatable excellence. A client can also doubt whether you can scale getting the same thing done. Furthermore, now the clients know that the agency is not lying to them. It has a transparent process and most clients know what is going on.

If you got an agency working on stuff, where’s your checklist, I want to see it. ‘Cause if you don’t have one, I’m gonna question whether you have repeatable excellence, whether you can scale getting the same thing done.

Dennis Yu, on Alex Berman’s 2018 highlight, 1:04

Creative freedom for clients is a must

Having a process in place, also allows for creative freedom and transparency for a client. At Content Factory, Dennis harnesses the power of analytics. He allows the client complete creative freedom, whatever their niches, whatever funny video they have, whatever thing they have on TV. They’re so proud of their content. GoDaddy’s got their latest Super Bowl commercial. Awesome! You guys be as creative as you want! Creative freedom also amplifies to the different audiences the different projects that an agency may have worked on in the past. And ones that it thinks will work in the future based on what they observe or maybe it’s a lookalike audience. So, at Content Factory Dennis will amplify the content that they create. And that is how they have a creative agency that is awesome at everything they do. May it be SEO or advising clients on using free Google Tools.

Dennis Yu (L) with Alex Berman 

Three rules that are the holy grail of client satisfaction

At Content Factory, rule number one is the client makes all the content. They do not make their content, just don’t. The number two rule at Content Factory is that all the data is owned by the client. Most agencies, on the other hand, hold the client hostage because the ads are running via their account. It’s hard to figure out what’s going on. You can’t switch because if you try to switch, you lose all the audiences and all such kinds of bad things. The third and final rule at Content Factory is that the process should be followed based on a checklist. They execute checklists on ads and analytics and amplify what they are working on for the client. Processes put in place at Content Factory have helped clients with business and digital PR strategies. With these three easy rules, the benefit for agencies is that they can double their prices.

There’s three rules that we always abide by for every client. And this shows your differentiation, and shows you why we have no risk. One, is the client makes all the content. We do not make their content. We just don’t. Number two, all the data is owned by the client. … And, three, because process is so important. We have a single point of contact, and then we execute a checklist on ads and analytics and we amplify what’s working for the client.

Dennis Yu, 2:41–3:07

Believe in yourselves and work with the right kind of client

Dennis believes that agencies should believe in themselves – unapologetically, and in what they are selling. They must believe that they are worth a lot. And even if their stuff is shoddy, let’s say the quality stays the same. Agencies think, well if I double my prices, I must double my quality. Not really the clients that pay you more are the ones that treat you better.

There are clients that we do very little for and they pay us an embarrassing amount of money, but they see the value. Because all it takes is a few tweaks and that’s worth millions of dollars. This is all I got, I got $500 a month. I expect magic. And they’re going to call you up like three times a day. No right? So, the first thing agencies must do is double their prices so that they can talk to a different kind of client.

The clients that pay you more are the ones that treat you better. … So the first thing you have to double your prices so that you can talk to a different kind of client.

Dennis Yu, 3:27–3:44

Competition vs partnership

And then there is competition. Dennis says that they’re not out there trying to compete against other people. In fact, the other people that do Facebook ads, they’re his friends, and they often come to them for help. And Dennis goes to them for help on certain things like, for example, professional sports teams and retail and big brands, events, B2B, SAS, etc. So, competition turns into partnership leading to referrals.

Alex Berman (L) with Dennis Yu