3 Things Agencies f*** up

I've rebuilt Klaviyo accounts set up by some of the biggest agencies out there. These are three things they always mess up.

And I mean it. They alwaaaaaays get this same stuff wrong.

I have a full in-depth breakdown of all of this in my Skool Community here as well.

1. Splitting by purchase behaviour

Every message a subscriber who has never purchased before receives should have the welcome series offer within it

Every single message

Every flow should have two pathways, one for customers and one for non-customers

Every campaign should have two variations, one for customers and one for non-customers, with the welcome series

It's one of the easiest things you can do to move the 'subscription to conversion rate' needle (how many subscribers turn into first-time customers).

2. SMS Capture

I love it when I see this in an audit... because it makes me look like a genius when I pitch

Do not ask for SMS in the same form that you ask for email

You are going to see a massive drop-off in form completion rates. I talk about this in my Skool community, but the pop-ups are one of the biggest levers you have when it comes to increasing your site conversion rates.

Asking people for SMS consent (EVEN IF IT'S OPTIONAL) will cause a huge chunk of your subscribers to not see that final step of the form... which means... they will not see the discount code... which means, increased site bounce.

You are compromising on site conversion rates for SMS subscriptions. It's not worth the trade.

3. Shitty tech stack

The number of times I see retention.com being used, blows my mind.

The efficacy of this tool is not there. You are compromising your deliverability to get people into your list... who clearly said they do not want to be in your list by not subscribing.

I am not complaining.... about any of this above stuff either... it makes getting work for our team a lot easier.

But if you are reading this and you are a business owner, I highly recommend bringing these points up in a conversation with your retention agency.

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Agency update - November Results, New Launches, Pricing Changes

Every month, on my agency's following channel (YouTube: @agencyfollowalong), I document exactly what’s happening inside my email and SMS marketing agency so you can see what’s working, what’s not, and what I’m learning along the way.

November was a Big month, and December is already off to a strong start.

Here’s the full breakdown:

Revenue & Profit: Another Strong Month

November closed at $72,000 USD in revenue and $31,000 USD profit before tax.

That’s nearly identical to last month, which tells me something important:

• Our systems, client base, and capacity are stabilizing, even under the chaos of Black Friday.

Of course, Black Friday was the busiest month of the year for email marketers. But what really moved the needle wasn’t just the rush of campaigns. It was the strategy.

This year, we created a one-month standalone Black Friday offer for past clients and leads who hadn’t yet signed with us.

The result was better than expected, with many signing and many turning into ongoing monthly retainers

That meant we didn’t just make short-term revenue.

We also stacked new, long-term work on top of it.

Skool Community

One of the biggest milestones in November was launching the Skool community (link in the comments)

It’s a full training platform that teaches everything I know about email and SMS marketing.

Client Acquisition: YouTube + Upwork Still Dominate

We're consistently publishing content across both YouTube channels, and this is now one of our strongest client acquisition sources.

People watch for months, sometimes years, then reach out ready to work with us.

The second major source is still Upwork, and my strategy there continues to deliver predictable calls and deals. (It’s all laid out on my channel if you want to see how)

Team Updates & Pricing Changes

We currently have 10 full-time staff, and one of our biggest costs is salaries.

When you compare that to the revenue, it’s clear:

To keep margins healthy, we need higher-paying retainers, not more low-ticket ones.

So starting next year:

• Our minimum monthly retainer is increasing

• Fewer clients, higher quality, and higher revenue is the goal.

• We’d rather manage 15 clients at $3,000 than 35 clients at $1,000.

My reflections as a 'digital nomad'

I spent time in the States this month and realised the digital nomad lifestyle is incompatible with building a serious business.

Anyone selling “work from the beach on your laptop” is not running a real company.

Getting the Entire Team Active on LinkedIn

We’ve started a new initiative: all 9 team members will post daily on LinkedIn.

Why?

Because:

• More posts = more impressions

• More impressions = more awareness

• More awareness = more clients

To make it fun (and competitive), we’re running a monthly contest with the RallyUp team:

- The team member with the most engagement wins a prize.

Anyway, that's all I got for this month.

Resources to help with your email marketing

• Master outline of every flow of an e-commerce business needs: click here

• ChatGPT prompts for 6 automations: click here

• Editable design files that you can copy and paste for your own business/agency: click here

• Make more profit with your next email sale: click here

• My strategy for making money as a consultant: click here

• 639 different swipe files for email and sign-up forms: click here