Summary: As VP of Strategy for a super fast-growing digital agency, Mike Corak knows something about creating a successful content marketing strategy, for both his own agency and his clients. He also knows how to help clients to see the value of content marketing. And Mike's client list is impressive, including big shots like Coca-Cola, ConAgra Foods, ConocoPhillips, FedEx, Fujitsu, Nike, Office Depot, and Walt Disney. Mike shares with us the tools that work for his agency, including lead generation, onboarding strategies, and how they're scaling to deal with their growth. A must-listen for all agency owners. Listen now and you'll hear Mike and I talk about: (02:55) Introductions (06:35) What type of customers do you work with? (10:36) How are you landing clients? Relationships or a sales engine? (11:25) What does your lead generation system look like? (14:45) Which verticals do you have traction in? (17:55) Please describe your client onboarding process (23:55) How does content marketing fit in with the strategy? (27:55) Please describe a content strategy for a client (31:25) What would you say to a client that is on the fence about investing in content marketing? (37:55) What makes content helpful and why is that important? (40:55) Why did you raise money to start? (43:27) When did you raise the money? (44:55) What is the mix of public and private companies you work with? (46:15) Which type of client is easier to land? Resources Mentioned Basecamp Attask @mikecorak Mike's Linkedin profile More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now [Tweet "How to Rapidly Grow a Media Buying Agency with Mike Corak #thebrightideaspodcast #contentmarketing"] Transcript Trent: Hey there, bright idea hunters, welcome back to episode number 125 of the Bright Ideas podcast. I am your host, Trent Dyrsmid, and this is the podcast where we help entrepreneurs to discover ways to use digital marketing and marketing automation to dramatically increase the growth of their business. So, if you are an entrepreneur looking for proven tactics and strategies that will help you to increase traffic, conversions, and profits, this is the podcast that you want to listen to. In this particular episode, I am joined by a fellow by the name of Mike Corak, who is the Executive Vice President of Strategy for a very rapidly-growing three-year agency by the name of ethology. I say "rapidly growing", because within three years, they are already at somewhere between 70 and 80 people. The client roster that they have is impressive, to say the least.In this episode, Mike and I are going to talk about four main topics. The first is how they are generating leads and creating a sales engine that is scalable. The second topic is the actual processes around scaling the business with respect to onboarding new clients: what that looks like, what processes they have, what tools they use. We then transition to talking about content marketing, how to develop a strategy, and the types of conversations they have with prospective clients that aren't fully convinced that there will be a sufficient ROI for content marketing, which is referred to as "earned" or "owned media" versus what they may be already accustomed to, which is "paid media".Finally, we are going to round up by talking about their funding that they received from an incubator called Tall Wave, why they did it, how they did it, when they did it, and so much more. We are going to get into that episode in one quick second.
