Directive

I grew my agency to $20M+ ARR in 10 years, but I could have done it in 5 years. Here are the 5 mistakes that stalled our growth (that 99% of agency owners make): 1. I did not hire a recruiter until $6m in revenue Because I waited to hire a recruiter, I wasted SOO MUCH my time going through inbound applications. While inbound is an important part of our hiring strategy, outbound recruiting is critical to leveling up our talent (especially at exec level). If I would have invested earlier I would have accelerated growth much quicker. Once your agency breaks $3m in top line revenue, I’d hire a recruiter ASAP. 2. I delayed % of spend pricing By offering flat rate pricing via a base retainer, I did not focus on how we could grow spend under management. What this caused was a delay in moving up market, large spends come from large accounts. And you need practice learning how to unlock growth across multiple channels, ad units, campaigns, and strategies. By moving to % of spend pricing, we were able to better align with our customers and create a win/win environment. Once your agency's average spend per client is > $40k a month, i’d move to % of spend pricing. 3. I didn't understand NRR Because I was not focused on NRR, I launched 6 different service lines at Directive but did a poor job as CEO of building an internal sales motion that allowed me to grow revenue via cross-sells, not just referrals. Without focusing on NRR, I was not maximizing the growth rate of my service line investments. I could have grown exponentially faster if I had a a better understanding of how to structurally create an agency growth strategy — from the bottom up. Now, we have weekly meetings across all roles in the organization and are fully focused on recommending services that will help our customers exceed their goals with us. 4. I refused to offer a down market offering We always wanted to move up market and work with bigger brands, with bigger goals, and bigger budgets. I didn't realize it at the time, but this is a rare case where I could have my cake and eat it too. Given the current market conditions, our new low-cost Startups package is our fastest growing business unit, is driving NRR, and has a 4.6/5 CSAT from almost 12 months of surveys. Don't brand yourself as down market, but having a “more affordable” offering can be a strong driver of growth. 5. I delayed building visibility systems As we grew, I became increasingly reactive as CEO and could not clearly understand what clients were hitting goals and which were missing. I relied on second hand information and thus my ability to innovate our offering was limited. I spent much of the last 36 months in operations working closely with the COO and learned how important it is to have visibility around 3 core KPIs: client goal attainment, client satisfaction, and retention.

In the last 12 months, we've run $25M of LinkedIn ads for the biggest brands in SaaS. Here’s the exact LTV:CAC modeling we use to analyze, benchmark, and validate Linkedin as a channel for each client: This may surprise you, but... Most SaaS companies are underinvested in LinkedIn. They have budgeted FAR TOO little monthly spend on the channel. Why? Because they're unable to get out of the learning phase and truly scale. We have solved this problem and give SaaS marketers a methodology (Directive's Customer Generation™) that allows them to confidently take market share with their exact ICP. And it all starts with LTV:CAC modeling. Let's dive in... Step 1: Download our Spreadsheet (and video walk through) We developed this over the last 4 years and it has been a critical part of our client delivery process. Get it here: https://lnkd.in/e9q8zctp Step 2: Insert Business KPIs Your business needs to earn the ability to advertise. Here’s the biggest drivers I am looking at: 1. Are you charging enough to outperform the avg. cost per customer on LinkedIn (according to our benchmark data)? 2. Do you have a high enough gross margin for your LTV number to be substantial? 3. Do you retain your customers long enough to justify the required pay back period? Step 3: Model Out Expectations In the very first column of our worksheet, I have added a column labeled “Model”. The goal of this column is to understand how much can you pay to acquire a customer. Put in your current lifecycle stage performance, so what percent of MQLs > SQLs, etc. and then play with the spend data to to model different outcomes. Step 4: Review Cost Per Targets From here, you can now review the cost per lifecycle stage targets and evaluate if you believe your model/expectations are realistic. As a note, from our data, fully blended CPL is apx. $500 (these are people asking for a demo). By using this data point, you can audit your economic impactors as well as your funnel performance. The answer may be: - You need to raise price? - Or, you may need to improve close rate? - Increase retention? - Decrease cost of goods sold? The goal of the exercise is that you are properly aligning your business model to the reality of the baseline cost of an auction based advertising environment. TAKEAWAYS: The key here is not to attempt to drastically lower your CPL; but instead, focus on improving the actual economic drivers of the business. There’s an inverse correlation between lowering CPL’s in SaaS and increasing ACV, Close Rate, and NRR. This is not consumer advertising where growth comes from volume of widgets sold, don’t optimize for the wrong things. Do the math, do the work, grow the business.

We just analyzed $55M in Google and Linkedin Ad Spend from companies like AWS, Outreach, and Supermetrics. Here are the 5 most surprising takeaways: 1. Cost per Conversion on brand search via Google ads is +212% more expensive for sales-led companies than product-led companies. If you’re thinking that’s a lot, it is, but it makes sense... A free trial or subscription offer on an ad is so much more enticing than having to attend a demo or meet with Sales to experience the product before you can even decide if you want to buy it. Sales-Led model companies can learn from Product-Led and to make their offer as enticing and user-friendly as possible. 2. Low AOVs and High AOVs Struggle to Monetize Non-Branded Search If your AOV range is above $500K+ or less than $50K, you should choose your keyword sets carefully, since costs can double compared to $50K-$500K AOV. You’ll want to narrow down to high intent keywords with modifiers to help searchers self qualify. 3. Competitors Campaigns on Google Search Are The Worst Performing Tactic in Google Ads Competitor campaigns are the most expensive type of campaign on Google Ads. The truth is this: Not every company can, or should, run competitor campaigns. This is because some competitor keywords may not have clear intent. Despite a poorer performance, the results suggest you can still drive optimal engagement from your audience — if deployed correctly. To correctly deploy competitor ads, try the following: - Exclude login as a negative - Exclude their brand name as a negative   - Add exact match keywords for:     - “Competitor Name” + pricing     - “Competitor Name” + reviews     - “Competitor Name” + alternatives     - “Competitor Name” + integrations 4. LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms have ~3x the conversion rate of landing pages It seems obvious, but you should always look to leverage lead gen forms on Linkedin. By using the data that users have already given to LinkedIn when creating their account, you convert at a higher rate, and utilize less resources for landing pages + tracking. 5. LinkedIn Conversation Ads have almost a 50% open rate With a $400 cost per conversion and a 50% open rate, I always test the performance of SDR teams against conversation ads. This is one of the most underutilized tactics in SaaS marketing today. TAKEAWAYS: Any tactic can work, the trick is matching your channels + ad units to your business model. Have high ACVs? LinkedIn will crush. Have low ACVs? LinkedIn will still crush, but you might want to prioritize conversation ads and lead gen forms. Google ads is still a deeply effective channel, but you need to setup offline conversion tracking and use your Hubspot or Saleforce data to optimize for demos and bookings. Remember: Benchmarking your performance is critical. Get the full report from Directive here and see how you stack up: https://lnkd.in/edwrqBBU

Without a descent copyrighter, your going to make so so so so many mistakes in your marketing Efforts!!1 Not just typos. Their will probably be a chance you will accidentally tell your audience to unsubscribe instead of subscribe, throw in some run-on sentences that never end but also never really start, and maybe even use the wrong form of to and too and two, and maybe even more. (😬 - sorry about that) Words matter. Invest in a copywriter who knows their stuff (and pay them what they’re worth). Your revenue will thank you later.

🚨SaaS leaders, this might sting a bit…🚨 You may think you’re leading your team to greatness, but are you just managing the chaos? 🤔 Spoiler alert: That’s not leadership. That’s babysitting in a tech company. 🍼 If your growth has flatlined, your team’s culture feels like a bad episode of The Office, and innovation is a buzzword you throw around in meetings—this one’s for you. In our latest blog, we’re serving up the leadership wake-up call you didn’t know you needed. 🚨 Stop managing the mess and start leading like you own the room. 👊 Step up: https://lnkd.in/g9j7RZJF Because, let’s face it, mediocre leadership doesn’t grow SaaS empires. 👑 #SaaS #Leadership #SavageTruth #GrowthMindset #Directive

We heard the last SaaS brand that tried to play it small got so messed up, they forgot who they were. It was crazy. We saw them... it was just... whew. 😮 How are *you* doing? Playin it big? Want to play it big? Want to feed your lion? Food for thought/tips to dominate in the comments...

If you’re a SaaS company spending +$50,000/mo on Linkedin ads, there are only 4 metrics you need to track (hint: it's not CTR, CPC or Conversions): BACKGROUND Too many marketers are focused on “In-Platform Metrics”. Things like CTR, CPC, and Cost per Conversion. This is a huge mistake. There is little correlation between these KPIs and bookings. In SaaS, the customers with highest ACV and the lowest CAC are often the “leads” with the highest CPC and conversions. So, most brands do not need volume; but instead, qualified volume. That's why you should build strong reporting around 4 core metrics: 1. % OF INTRO CALLS THAT ARE QUALIFIED Most LinkedIn advertisers believe they are focused on quality and evaluate KPIs like cost per lead. Unfortunately, this level of analysis is one step removed from a quality filter. What we really want to know when advertising on LinkedIn is, “What % of my leads made it past the first quality filter?” For Directive and many of our customers, that means we need to not only evaluate who is moving forward with an intro call, but what their title is, the size of their organization, industry or vertical. And equally important, what titles, org sizes, and other traits are NOT moving forward in our sales process. By optimizing for this first stage of filtration we have a higher volume of significant learnings and can rapidly improve our taregeting. 2. COST PER DEMO Demo/trial should be the foundation of your forecast. I have found that demos are the backbone of forecasting because they have the needed volume + statistical significance around both ACV (per segment/package) and close rate. By focusing on the cost to acquire demos and thus adjusting bids + budget, we are fully focused on the economic drivers of the business. To do this, leverage CAPI integration. This will will allow you to integrate directly into Hubspot and have clean, concise reporting. With the data clean, evaluate the following in your own pivot table: - Cost per Demo by Title - Cost per Demo by Industry - Cost per Demo by Employee Size - Cost per Demo by Ad Unit By creating depth here, you will be able to properly optimize spend without accidentally hurting bookings. *Ran out of room! Metrics 3 and 4 in the comments 👇

I am HIRING a VP of Marketing to lead the internal marketing team at Directive. My goal is for you to transform our go to market strategy. We spend millions on ads and I want to diversify our channels. In this pursuit, we have hired a Director of Content Marketing and are focused on campaigns around a differentiated POV + the creation of a Toolkit that can deeply empower SaaS marketers in their day to day jobs. To lead this vision, you will have a multi-million dollar annual budget. And, while we have been working hard here, there is still plenty of work to be done and strategy to be polished through your expertise and experience. You should have extensive experience in agency growth/marketing from working at independently owned shops doing greater then $20m in revenue (bonus points for experience in B2B SaaS). When it comes to your core skillsets, I am looking for someone who is deeply talented at building a team focused on the following: - Direct Response Advertising (our core channel) - Event Marketing (think roadshows, annual customer event, and sponsorships) - Content Marketing/Thought Leadership (think McKinsey’s content) - Partnerships (think dev shops, martech, VC/PE) - Brand Advertising (think Liquid Death) - Customer Marketing I believe that these channels hold the greatest incremental opportunity for us to improve, but I am always open to being challenged in my thinking. Directive is poised to explode in 2025 and has a service offering that can fully monetize and retain your efforts in the B2B SaaS industry from SMB to Enterprise size accounts. The job will be hard and you will be managing a large budget, but you will have the freedom to build + own. If you're interested, DM me or please repost if you’d like to support me!

In 2025, Directive will drive $2.5M in pipeline with content. Here's our exact Content Calendar and publishing Cadence (broken down by content type): BACKGROUND: Last month my team and I spent 50 hours designing our 2025 content plan. Then yesterday, we threw it out. Why? Because we decided to ditch the Hubspot Spoke and Wheel model. The Hubspot model WAS great for PLG brands to drive massive amounts of low CAC users via SEO. The problem is most companies don't have that model. Instead, they have high ACV users in a SLG environment. And high search volume traffic rarely fits into that constraint. The future of content for high ACV brands is campaign focused on a differentiated POV. The goal is to create functional content that your ICP can use in their daily job function (think: tools and datasets). This content doesn't need to be highly searchable, but instead highly sought after. Here’s what our calendar looks like: 1. Create Campaign (For us, "Garnishing Attention") This will be a landing page that we integrate into the homepage and celebrate as the home for the content it supports. Hubspot Model: Big Guide on Keyword in Resource Hub + Blog Posts that internally link back to it with contextual keywords associated with the Big Guide. New Model: Landing Page to celebrate POV on subject relevant to audience. Host principles of the POV and then go deep with supporting content. See “Customer Generation” on our site. 2. State 5-6 Principles: These will be chronologically organized as the key principles required to (in this case) Garnish Attention. 3. Build out content for each principle For example, here’s the plan for our first principle: "Know Your Audience" Why this Matters: "Knowing Your Audience" helps a brand connect with target markets, and enables all content, campaigns, and sales tactics to drive engagement. Topics to Consider: - TAM Development - Persona Development - Identifying JTBD via Job Descriptions - Messaging per title Worksheet Content Types: - Webinars - Worksheets - Videos - POV blogs - Q&A in Forums - Weekly Series on Social 4. Craft your Cadence Here’s our campaign cadence for each principle: - Principle Content: 1x/mo - Principle Blog Series POV: 6x/mo - Short videos: 4x/mo - Customer Story: 1x/mo - Social-first content: 25x/mo - Newsletter: 4x/mo 5. Build Evaluation Criteria How will we know if this campaign approach works? We're evaluating three core Organic KPIs every month: - Traffic - Proposals Held - Bookings The key is to benchmark historical performance YoY and MoM. TAKEAWAY: You don’t need more blog posts. When was the last time you read a blog post as part of YOUR buying process? Your content strategy needs to match your sales + pricing model. If you have a high ACV, you need to attract the right traffic NOT more traffic. So, create content you would actually consume. If you watch videos on your phone all day... Don’t log into your computer and bang out a white paper.

AI is way too early and I believe that 95% of marketers who are toying around with the new technology are wasting their time. Last week I tried to make a deck using AI (see below). I think the experience was illustrative. Here's what happened: Step 1: write memo Step 2: wonder if I should present or read memo to team on screenshare Step 3: think, ah hah, I’ll use AI!! Step 4: search “Ai for Google slides” Step 5: choose xyz, cool name / vibes app Step 6: integrate account and go through onboarding, was easy Step 7: upload 1 pager Step 8: slow, wait, holy cow slow. Also, don’t know why I thought should be fast, but slow Step 9: done, close window. Step 10: review deck, absolute crap Now tell me, is AI too early or are you scared you’ll miss out on the next Bitcoin? As a marketer, your time is best spent on challenging what you accept as best practice. But you have to avoid pursuing shiny objects. (Have you thought about your NFT collection lately?) My point is not to debate whether or not AI will or won’t transform the marketing practice, instead the purpose is to highlight the importance of focus. If you have a manual task that could be automated (and is not artistic in its pursuit) then I believe that AI should be explored, in its current state. However, temper expectations. There’s vast differences in each application of AI and its current efficacy. Want to have AI build a deck from your memo? Goodluck. Want to automate a content brief? No problem. We have AI automated content operations at Directive, it’s epic and gives us a competitive advantage on price. You see AI is too early but specific applications exist. Test, taste bad, pivot. Test, taste good, integrate. You don’t get extra ice cream if you show up early to the party.