eROI Days Email Agency

Agency owners don’t have any peers in our own companies. It’s too cliche to say that we’re a lonely breed, because we’re way too social to be lonely. However, we have a lot of questions that need answers from other agency entrepreneurs who’ve been there before. What is normal for an annual profit margin goal for other agencies? Should our agency charge for the value of an idea or simply charge for our hours? What operational efficiencies can we learn from one another?

We want to know what other agency owners know. Recently, a group of agency owners in Portland, Oregon started a peer group discussion called the Agency Owner Roundtable facilitated by the Portland Advertising Federation. These conversations are completely confidential, so I’m not able to share any individual responses. One of the most interesting pieces to the discussion overall are the topics of interest to our group of a dirty dozen agency owners:

• Intellectual Property and Agency Compensation from clients
• Employee Recruiting and Retention
• Employee Training
• Organizational Structure

I like all 4 topics above, but the first one surrounding the concept of clients “Paying for the upside of the idea, instead of just hours” is of particular interest. Check out these articles:
1. As Agency Work Gets More Engaging, So Does Compensation
2. Fed-up Agencies Quit Punching the Clock
3. Portland ad firm tries pay-for-results

If you are an agency owner in Portland and want to talk about employee issues, agency compensation, or innovative ideas of where the marketing industry can evolve, please shoot me an email (ryan at eroi.com) or comment to this blog posting.

Normally, I don’t mention anything in one of our press releases, but this was a recap to 2006 and I’m feeling a bit philosophical from a business perspective. If things go well for us this year (‘07), we will grow smart and build employee evangelists and customer evangelists. Halleluiah! (I’m not religious, but I couldn’t avoid it with all the evangelist talk). There’s a lot more to it then that, but let’s start the discussion there. I hope to gain a lot of insight from other creative agency owners in an Agency Owner Roundtable (among Portland agency owners) discussion that begins tonight and hopefully will continue to happen every couple months.

Our Press Release:
eROI Delivers Strong Finish to 2006 with 61% Revenue Growth; Adds Over 150 New Clients and Expands Management Team

PORTLAND, Ore. (January 22, 2007) eROI, Inc., a full-service e-marketing company, today announced that the company continued its pattern of profitability, recording its fourth consecutive profitable year as a 4-year old company. In 2006, the company grew their revenue 61%, making 2006 their strongest year. Last year, the company brought on over 150 new clients, including The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, Montinore Vineyards, Annie’s Natural Foods and Digimarc Corporation. Furthermore, eROI grew to 32 team members and expanded its management team through well-deserved promotions.

eROI’s positive growth continues partly because of its consistent high quality of service and distinctive creative approach to online marketing. Additionally, the strong momentum is fueled by an increase in the demand for email marketing, e-commerce functionality, and social media tools and platforms. New and current clients such as retailer Dunderdon, gamer Konami and foodie Kettle Foods are realizing the value of direct consumer feedback that social media tools provide. “We’ve helped implement some very successful online viral marketing campaigns for clients by using customized versions of available social media tools. Social media allows organizations to build online communities of loyal brand evangelists,” said Maureen Pimley, recently promoted Vice President of Client Services. “These tools are key to tapping into a much larger audience of interested prospective customers.”

See the Full Press Release on our site >>

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