In this episode of the Leaders in the Trenches Podcast, I’m pumped to welcome a great friend of mine, Jason Swenk to the show! We are going to explore the journey he had in creating his six figure consulting business in about 3 months (that’s on-the-side to his full-time job). Well…actually he started before that 3 month period, but once he decided to really focus on Digital Agencies he began to make huge strides to success.

Target Audience: Digital Agencies (you know websites, online media buying, e-commerce, etc. companies)

Jason has a very interesting line of business that stemmed from a handful of conversations with me. Jason expressed his frustration to me one day with his blog.  (He couldn’t even call it a business at that time). He wondered why he rarely got subscribers on his list, and his bounce rate and time on site were dismal at best.  I  asked Jason a few questions about his business that got the wheels turning and eventually fine-tuned his website to focus on his target market. Pay attention to Jason’s struggles before narrowing his business, the fears he faced, and the success that he has enjoyed to see if you can relate to his story.

Profitable Niche: Digital Agencies under $2m in revenue that is looking to move up

Struggles Before Finding Target Audience: Low to no subscribers, low engagement on a website, bounce rate 60% and average time on a website under 2 seconds, no income (or ideas to offer a product or service)

Success AFTER Focusing:

• An increased engagement was the first sign (comments on a website, emails of appreciation)
• Decreased bounce rate on website dropped from 60% to 2%
• Average time on site increased from 2 seconds to over 6 minutes
• Traffic on websites (the number of pages) increased by 7 times (a 700% increase!)
• Offered free consultations to subscribers that resulted in monthly consulting fees
• Created passive income with his first online product “Agency Playbook” which is 40 individual lessons that Digital Agencies under $2m need to know.

Other Topics from this Episode:

• How Jason and I know each other (it started with social media).
• Jason’s success in niching started with his own digital agency (Solar Velocity) when he was the #1 partner for a small slice in the CMS market.
• Their niche is what is commonly referred to as a “horizontal niche” meaning it spans across industries. (Side note: A “vertical niche” is one that focuses on an industry e.g., Digital Agency or Lawyers).
• We discuss something called “stacking success” which refers to having a series of clients/projects that are related so that it builds up your expertise in that one area. This is how you become an authority and a trusted advisor.
• We discussed one mistake that is often made which is the “Jack of all Trades” mindset where they believe they can offer tons of services to any industry there is. It is what MOST agencies do and this is something I have been talking out against for nearly 3 years.
• Just like the success Jason has had with his business and our joint venture together that is focused on a specific industry (and a specific problem they want to address), digital agencies could seriously benefit from a clear focus on a segment of the market.
• Taking the BROAD approach to marketing just is NOT working anymore (if it ever did). You have to speak directly to a single person’s issues so that they stand up and say, “that is me!…I want listen to more of that or I want to comment on it.”

Practical and Actionable:

Paraphrasing Jason’s suggestion: To find your target audience look into your passions and what you really know well. You can also consider past clients that you enjoyed working with (and made money from).

Bonus: Jason’s breakdown of “No Budget Buster” which is his technique to get to the real budget that the client has for a project, but they are hesitant to share with you. If you ever want to pull a budget out of a prospect this is an excellent exchange that I have seen work every time he used it. It makes me laugh now just thinking about how easily it works. Listen in to hear Jason tell you exactly how to do this.

 THANK YOU JASON, AND I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!

Like I said, Jason and I have been friends for several years now, and we talk almost daily about business (and other stuff). Jason is doing a fabulous job of taking our short conversations and executing on them to create products, offers, and free content that is driving his business using a niched approached. It is also a blast to work with Jason on our joint venture for Digital Agencies to reinvent their business development process.

I would say Jason’s biggest strength in this is an ability to EXECUTE…he has an idea and just focuses on it until its done. He works quickly to make it happen and that is one major reason for his quick success.

Congrats Jason, and best of luck to you with your focus at JasonSwenk.com