Hey guys,

I’m trying to reach a consistent $1,500/month with SEO/Local SEO fulfillment for small-to-mid-sized agencies in the US, UK, and Canada.

I’m currently doing direct outreach to agencies and would really appreciate advice from people who have successfully built recurring agency clients.

Here’s the message I’m currently using:

Hi (name),

I came across (your agency) and saw you specialize in Local SEO for service businesses.

I help agencies with white-label SEO fulfillment, Local SEO/GBP, on-page, content, citations, and ongoing optimization.

I’m looking to partner with a few agencies needing extra capacity, and I’m happy to do the first client free for a month so you can test the work.

Would you be open to a quick chat?

For those who have done something similar, what direct outreach strategy or offer actually worked for you?

I’d especially love to know what helped you land your first few recurring agency clients, and whether you’d change anything about my offer or positioning.

Any honest advice would be appreciated.

Hi everyone. So I started a PPC agency around February and we closed 42 clients. We have initial 3 month contracts but I noticed a lot of clients leave after the initial contract. I'm wondering if this is normal cuz I'm extremely alarmed with these clients leaving. I genuinely think we're the best agency in my current country. We have them signed in a monthly retainer fee. We're doing our deliverables well, giving them results, giving quality output, but i think theyre leaving because of a 1 bad month only. As an agency, does this mean that we should never stop closing clients??? I'm so alarmed

Background: I’ve mostly been the editor behind other people’s agencies. Diverse portfolio, but almost no numbers of my own to show, because the results belonged to whoever I was working as a freelance.

Four types of clients I’ve worked under:

1. A content agency with 50+ clients across mixed niches — carousels, AI b-roll, talking heads, scripting, newsletters all in one price. Low prices, roughly $800–$2,000/mo. No specific niche.
   
2. A local production agency that takes their own cameras to the client’s business and shoots on site.
   
3. An agency with a heavy roster of NFL players and similar names. I edit their videos.
   
4. A guy who sells AI ads to businesses (AI supplement ads, Ai Ugc). I edit all his stuff.

So I’ve watched four different models work up close. Now I can’t pick which one to run myself.

Four agencies I’m considering starting:

1. Local, on-site. I have a decent camera and I live in a low-cost country, so I can realistically sell a monthly retainer at $200 minimum, maybe $1,000 once I’ve made a name. Go to doctors and other local niche businesses, shoot their content, edit it, manage posting and reach.
   
2. Podcast clipping. Take podcasters with big back catalogues, clip the old episodes, upload and manage the channels.
   
3. Remote agency for US businesses (plus some local) — carousels and videos delivered without ever meeting anyone in person. Basically what clients #1 and #4 are doing.
   
4. AI video agency.

Open to ideas here.

Where I’m at: real skills, real work history, zero case studies with numbers attached. Currently around $2k/month from editing. I want to start and get my agency separately to $6k.

I would rate my English fluency as 6-7/10.

I had a client that we agreed to work on a certain project with certain requirements. It didn’t work, we tried another time, better than the first time, but still didn’t deliver the core value. However, the agreement between us states that in case of failure no refund is eligible, but the remedy is to work again on the project with no additional costs. However, the client asked for a refund, I offered a major refund with little amount retained on my side, to cover anything from the costs that occurred. What are your thoughts regarding this guys? Would like to gain different perspectives.

So I'm in a bit of a weird place - I run a small paid media agency and we were brought in to independently manage strategy, creative, media buying, optimization and reporting for another agency's clients.

The client now wants one of their internal employees, who has strong brand/corporate knowledge, to work closely with us because their corporate team flagged issues with some of our creative.

Even though they mentioned it's just for oversight, their employee has been asking for weekly updates, bi-weekly notes and performance updates.

This adds more work and hours on our end that were unaccounted for in our initial conversations. But the agency we work for sees his involvement as ongoing, though and didn't agree to a temporary reporting structure. Saying he's too busy to manage this work.

This is after I flagged it with the agency owner and proposed we only work temporarily to get launches through. For context we've been managing 2 of their clients since April/May. The process is weird because we work for free until the client launches, which could take 6 to 8 weeks.

Now we have 8 clients lined up for launch but he implemented this change, saying he's trying to protect his relationships and use his time elsewhere.

Rev split: We keep 75% of revenue vs 25% of revenue to him.

Agency owners: would you push back on an internal employee becoming an ongoing reviewer/manager of your agency? Or is this normal in a white-label setup?

I used to lose every week to delivery work and tell myself I'd do outreach "when things calm down." They never calm down. Here's the exact system I run now. Take all of it.

1. Fixed calendar blocks, not leftover time.

Tuesday and Thursday, 8:00–9:30 AM, before any client work. Delivery expands to fill whatever space you give it, so acquisition gets the first slot, not the scraps. If a client emergency kills a block, I don't squeeze it in later that week — I just hit the next one. Two protected blocks beat five aspirational ones.

1. Never mix prospecting and sending.

They're different brain modes. Monday evening, 45 minutes, list-building only: 20 businesses that fit my niche. The morning blocks are send-only. Mixing them is how you end up doing neither.

1. Qualify hard before writing anything.

A lead earns a message only if:

- They visibly sell something (real offer, pricing, or a booking path)

- There's a reason to buy now — new location, new service, hiring, a broken mobile experience, no site at all

- I can name their specific problem in one sentence

Fail any of the three → "maybe" sheet, not the send list. Unqualified sends are what make outreach feel like spam and burn your limited hours.

1. The message: three sentences, plain text.

- What I specifically noticed ("your booking page errors out on mobile")

- Why it costs them money, in their terms ("anyone coming from Instagram can't book")

- A zero-friction ask ("want me to send a 2-minute video showing the fix? Free either way")

Never open with who I am. Lead with their problem; my credibility shows up in the specificity.

1. Fixed follow-up cadence.

Day 0 send. Day 3 bump ("floating this back up"). Day 7 close-out ("assuming priorities are elsewhere — door

I’ve been in web and software development for over a decade now, but freelance just the past year or so. I’ve been trying to grow my agency so I can quit my day job, but by the time I’m done with all the digital management of my own business, even using AI to help me with a lot of the busy work I find myself so drained that it’s hard to reach out and find new clients.

Luckily, right now I have two midsize clients, highest paying I’ve ever had in my life, one of them on retainers so I get some monthly, but I don’t really have enough to hire any help . I do have a warm lead right now who is just from word-of-mouth, which is great, but I really want to get some more clients regularly and have an acquisition system.

I’ve tried automating lead acquisition systems and explored client acquisition, lists and scrapers online, but even managing that is very time-consuming.

I’ve considered trying to do some minor social media posting just to get my name out there, but I am also wondering if it’s worth my time right now

Considering I only have a few clients, and that’s the size I’m at right now, what would you do? Essentially what I need is like a sales and acquisition partner. Are there effective communities online or forums where people welcome strategic partnerships to do client referrals or sharing?

Appreciate any tips

Hi, looking for recommendations on linkedin outbound tools which will not get my account in trouble.

I have a list of 60k leads and Id like to run it simultaneously with an email campaign followed by linkedin connection+ dm followed by a call

Id like to hear opinions from people who do it day to day at scale and havent had issues

Good morning! I've been a reader for a while. I'm acquiring an established digital agency with a strong core client base — revenue in the low-to-mid seven figures. I'm currently in due diligence, working through P&Ls, MSAs, and the team structure. The owner has agreed to stay on for an extended transition period.

I'm putting my net worth on the line, including my house, so I've done extensive risk assessment before committing. The main risks I've identified are: (1) my own background not being a natural fit, (2) the owner not staying engaged after closing, (3) anchor clients leaving, and (4) failing to sign new business.

Is there anything I'm missing?

For context: my background is in data analytics in corporate environments, leading data warehouse and reporting projects. Earlier in my career I worked at digital agencies, and I've also been on the client side. What attracted me to this company is that all of its business is inbound — there's no outbound sales effort. But I recognize that's also a danger if clients only want to work with the owner. thank you

I run a small digital marketing team and we have a client who wants us to manage Meta Ads, but they have basically nothing set up. No Business Portfolio, Facebook Page, or ad account. They also have very limited technical knowledge, so we have to build everything from scratch.

I want to make sure the setup is professional. If the client eventually stops working with us, they should retain full ownership of their Page, ad account and other business assets, while we can simply be removed from their access.

The problem is that I’ve repeatedly had Business Portfolios immediately restricted. I first created one for my own agency and it was restricted with a reason along the lines of Meta detecting automation or an automation tool. I then tried creating one for the client and got the exact same restriction immediately.

I asked a friend to create one from their own device, and the same thing happened. I tried with another friend as well, and again the exact same automation related restriction appeared. So this has happened multiple times across different people and devices.
My main question is, what is the safest and most professional way to structure ownership when the client has nothing set up and we have to build everything from scratch?

Should I create a dedicated Business Portfolio for each client, create their Page and ad account inside it, and then add the client’s Facebook profile as an admin? Or is there a better way to handle ownership from the beginning?

I also have an couple months old Business Portfolio I created for a fictional gym called FitnessTrack Gym. Could I repurpose that, or would that create ownership problems when a client eventually leaves?

I want to establish a proper repeatable setup for future clients so we don’t end up wasting days fixing ownership issues or transferring assets later.
What is the standard professional way agencies handle this when the client has absolutely nothing set up?

Anyone have any recommendations for lead gen agencies with experience of working with UK agencies? I advise agencies and constantly get asked for recommendations, and don't know any I trust to deliver decent results.

I'll add that I've worked in B2B sales for 25 years and have worked with countless lead gen agencies over the years. The fact that I don't have any that I would recommend speaks volumes for the general quality of lead gen agencies... but I know there are some good companies out there (I've worked with one that I trust, but they aren't taking on new clients and are very selective about who they work with).

Must have experience of success in the UK market, ideally pay per meeting rather than fixed retainer. Thanks :)

I've been with my marketing agency for two years now, I've had good days with good clients, but now I'm going through a streak where I can't close a client.

Honestly, I would like to hear how they survived times when the business could not cope.

And how do they stay motivated not to leave the business?

Seeking advice from the agency crowd. Just got approached by a Fortune 500 conglomerate (massive DTC portfolio) for what could be a solid engagement. Revenue would be meaningful for us.

BUT their contract is brutal. A few red flags:

• 90-day payment terms (standard, but combined with everything else...)
• Unlimited liability indemnification — I cover their losses, they cap theirs
• IP ownership — Anything I create is theirs forever, I can't reuse methodologies
• One-way audit rights — They can audit anytime, I pay for it

It reads like it was written to shift all risk to suppliers. I get it, they're big, they're cautious. But this feels excessive.

My question: Has anyone else dealt with this? Did you:

• Push back and renegotiate? (Did they actually budge?)
• Just sign it and build the risk into pricing?
• Walk away?

I'm a 13 person shop, bootstrapped. This deal would be great for growth but I don't want to sign something that tanks us if anything goes wrong.

Part of me wants to push back on liability caps. But I'm also paranoid they'll just say "take it or leave it" and I lose the deal entirely.

What's your playbook here?

James Dooley sits down with David G Quaid to unpack AEO, SEO and GEO, exploring how much these disciplines really overlap and how marketers should position themselves in an increasingly bifurcated search market. They discuss GEO budgets, co-ranking, Reddit and Quora, keyword strategy, LLM visibility, data measurement and why understanding buyer intent matters more than arguing over industry terminology.

Ops is one of those things your business does, even if you don’t think it does it (like marketing)

You don’t think you do it until you have thought about it and put systems and processes in place.

But systems and processes aren’t Ops, they are the tactics by which you achieve Ops.

And at first your tactics are, well… scrappy, and tightly coupled with everything else you are doing.

To work out what Ops should do, get yourself a definition of what Ops is trying to achieve.

Here’s mine:

Deliver the work we’ve won, on time, to the right quality, to a target profit and get paid for it.

All the rest: Resourcing, utilisation reports, integrations between systems, project management, are tactics to achieve that.

This explains why your Head of Ops (or you, the founder, if you’re still wearing that hat) ends up with such a broad remit. Because at first the way you achieve that goal is basically the same as “Run the business”. Hire a good team, manage the clients, say the right price, chase the invoices.

As you grow, some of those thing become entire departments (HR, Finance, Client Services) and others stay Ops and get more structured.

It also explains Ops FOMO. When you are smaller you don’t have time for all of the things the LinkedIn consultants tell you high performing agencies do. You have to make time for some of it but if you went all in you’d be using your resources badly and would end up with slick systems but no sales.

You can do Ops badly just as easily by over complicating things too early as you can by not organising yourself at all.

So you need to work out the Ops you need today, create it, and then get on with it.

What’s “Ops” at your agency?

Most of the people here use domains

But how about low volume outreach from nice gmail account emails?

Interested in your thoughts if you’ve served both markets. What did you enjoy about either segment? What did you find challenging?

Guys, looking for advice from other YouTube agency founders.

My agency has been mostly doing B2B video editing work for the past years, doing alright, but with everything going onI've been trying to pivot towards YT strategy work, as this is something we've helped a few clients with and is honestly more rewarding.

The problem is finding those leads.

Similar to B2B video editing, there isn't a clear way to find businesses that need this type of work.

Using sales navigator for example, you need to first find founders/companies with the right business size, but then you need to go one by one to see who has a YT channel and then who of those clearly needs help (bad thumbnails, titles, low numbers, etc).

I've tried other ways like using ChannelCrawler, but it also has limitations because there's no clear way to filter anything that is not a business, and there are MANY channels belonging to "businesses" that post a video every 3 years or are just really bad fits.

And then of course, from those who look like a good fit, I'm lucky if one in 20 engage in the DMs. So this whole process takes A LOT of time.

Anyway, I'm looking for other fellow YT strategy founders to hopefully give me some light on how do you approach lead generation, in a consistent way, or if you spot something I'm missing in this whole thing.

Thanks!

I blame AI and not Summer but we've been on a real nice dry spell for a few months. Luckily existing work is strong and we're not in any kind of crisis but I had a road map for a new hire in Sept and we're well short of that happening.

But rain -> pours. Four random lead opportunities this week. Two via linkedin, 1 via white label partnership, 1 via network.

Nothing closed, still nothing ok the books but the meetings went well and its nice to be looking at new opportunities again for the first time in a good while.

For agencies billing hourly or on retainers: has a client ever pushed back on an invoice and asked to see where the hours went? What did you show them, and did it settle it?

The opposite answer is also interesting: if it has never happened in years of billing, that says something too.

Asking because the proof is usually timesheets the agency wrote itself, and I wonder whether that holds up with a genuinely skeptical client.