In this podcast, Carrie interviews Brett Cohen CEO & co-founder of emagine, a digital agency located south of Boston, MA. Brett shares his insights of sales and marketing the “hard way” where there is no substitute for calling and meeting people face to face.
What you will learn from this show:
- Brett met his partner by accident by doing only one cold call by stopping at a fish market. Bill Gadless became his partner in 1996 at emagine.
- You want to “future proof” your business so you are prepared for the feast or famine cycle that occurs.
- You want to stay “top of mind” with targeted companies. When a company is ready to spend money they will think of you because you stayed in touch.
- The portfolio of work that emagine has built has become their biggest asset.
- emagine first grew with high-tech businesses because of the physical location of their office near Boston, MA.
You will learn things like:
- You can still be very successful by being self-taught.
- The hard way of sales and marketing is still a successful model. There is no substitute for meeting people, email campaigns, and cold calls.
- Stretching yourself to take on different industry projects can help you expand your portfolio of work.
- The biggest differentiator for a business is that the project can be executed and delivered successfully.
- Technology is secondary to the business. It has changed many times over the past 10 or 15 years.
- emagine often introduces WordPress to their clients, but their work it is not hinged on the technology.
Lead Generation Tips for Freelancers:
- Proactively look for leads and industries that are spending money.
- Check in periodically so when the company is ready to spend money they may think of you.
- Identify your client’s characteristics and segment them into Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum.
- A Platinum client does not come around often and you are lucky to land on on that project.
- The Bronze client is easy to represent but may not have ongoing work and be difficult to work with.
- You want to focus on the Gold clients that will often have a dedicated marketing person that can help you get the work done on time.
- You can concentrate on a specific industry (ex: accountants, lawyers or doctors).
Episode Links:
About Brett Cohen
Brett Cohen is the CEO and Co-Founder of emagine, a 50-person WordPress-based Digital Agency. Brett started with his co-founder in 1996 (the dawn of the Web) as a typical “2 guys in a garage” web firm with no college degree and no money. Over the past 20 years, Brett has driven emagine’s growth to become one of the nation’s leading WordPress agencies focused on Healthcare, High-Tech, B2B and Construction. When he’s not running emagine, you may find him on a beach in South Florida listening to his favorite podcast or in his garage building some contraption. Brett lives outside of Boston with his wife and two kids.