Last week, I shared my 99 Percent Manifesto where I argued that you should help the vast majority of your audience for free.
But what about the other 1 percent? Those are your clients — the small subset of your audience that you get paid to help.
Obviously, you won’t have much of a business without the 1 percent. It may feel good to help 100% of the people you encounter for free, but that won’t pay the bills.
So how do you find and serve that 1 percent so that you can have a thriving business?
I’ll explore that question a bit later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s check out Jen’s weekly roundup of insights and resources.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Upcoming Events
- Open Office Hours for Agency Owners (April 24)
- Webinar: What to do when employees leave you for another agency or a client (May 7)
Latest from SAGA
- Webinar replay: How to successfully manage an agency with multiple owners
Weekly Roundup
Below are some articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos that we came across during the past week or so that provide useful perspective and information for PR and marketing agency owners. While we don’t necessarily endorse all of the views expressed in these links, we think they are worth your time.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Articles & Blog Posts
- Writing Better Proposals (Bureau of Digital)
- Eight Key Tips for Simplifying Complex B2B Content (Spin Sucks)
- How Far Ahead Do You Need to Look? (Punctuation)
- Winning Strategies to Craft a Captivating Digital Marketing Proposal (AgencyAnalytics)
Podcast Episodes
- Language, Landmines And The Peril Now Facing PR Pros (That Solo Life)
- Love them or hate them, press releases can still deliver value (For Immediate Release)
- Earned Media: How to Design the Perfect Pitch (Spin Sucks)
- Integrating SEO into Your Agency’s Marketing Mix, with Michael Fleischner (The Innovative Agency Podcast)
- How to Price, Deliver & Sell Performance-Based Retainer, with Chris Rudolph (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- The CARE Framework: Jessika Phillips’s Approach to Relationship Marketing (The Personal Brand Business Show)
- Why You Should Sell Like it’s 1899 (The Digital Agency Growth Podcast)
Videos
- Internal growth goals (Agency Management Institute)
- WEBINAR: Invest In Your Growth with Blair Enns and Shannyn Lee (Win Without Pitching)
AI in Focus
- AI for communicators: What’s new and what’s next (PR Daily)
- Generative AI’s impact on search: Is the PR industry keeping up? (PR Week)
Serving your 1 percent
If you buy into my notion that you should help 99 percent of your target audience for free (as I strive to do), then how do you find and serve your 1 percenters that pay the bills?
First, you need to understand exactly what sets those two groups apart.
In my case, many agency owners may choose only to consume my free content in the form of articles, podcast episodes, videos, webinars, and more. They might only need the answer to one specific question at a time or perhaps they aren’t comfortable opening up to a business coach and advisor. Or maybe they simply don’t have the budget right now.
For the 1 percent, they typically value the ability to have confidential 1:1 conversations with me. They want help solving challenges with specific advice tailored to their own individual circumstance. They desire someone who can challenge their assumptions and provide a source of accountability.
My 1 percenters also often want to have an outside perspective based on what I have seen work (or not) in my own agencies and the others that I have advised. And they typically don’t want to spend time searching for an answer when they can simply ask me directly.
You need to understand why someone might choose to become one of your own 1 percenters and what they need beyond what you put out for free. What separates your own clients? For most agencies, it is the difference between someone wanting to DIY a solution versus having someone help them with both strategy and execution. But the specifics will depend on your agency and your business model.
Then you need to figure out how to surface the 1 percenters from your audience.
That means you need to educate them about how you can help beyond all of those free resources and advice. You need to zero in on those things that you provide above and beyond the public insights.
I’ll be honest — this is hard for most of us. Self-promotion feels icky to many in the agency community, so we often don’t do a great job of sharing what we do for our ideal clients.
But if your audience doesn’t really understand how you can help — including how you work and what it costs — then they are much less likely to raise their hands and move from the 99 percent to your roster of paying clients.
Last week I suggested you commit to helping the 99 percent, but this week I also want you to add a commitment to helping the 1 percent discover what you have to offer so that you can find those ideal fits that you can produce great results for while delivering strong results for your own business.
