From SMX East 2013 - Scaling Your Search Marketing Efforts - Agency Edition by Phillip Thune #SMX #23B

1. Scaling Your Search Marketing
Efforts: Agency Edition
Phillip Thune
CEO-Americas/Advisor-Europe
Textbroker
@textbroker

2. 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

3. 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

4. Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Broadening A Brand
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B

17. Broadening A Brand
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B

18. Broadening A Brand
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B

19. 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

20. Thank You!
Phillip Thune
CEO-Americas/Advisor-Europe
@Textbroker
Phillip Thune #Textbroker #SMX #23B