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Who am I?
My name is James Sinclair and I'm the founder and CEO of The Partyman Group of Companies. I started building my business when I was just 16 as a family entertainer after that I built up an entertainment agency, then moved into building a leisure and day nursery businesses. Today we operate a £30 million business which includes leisure, childcare, outdoor attractions, commercial property, arts and crafts manufacturing as well as one of the UK’s oldest Ice cream companies; The Rossi Ice Cream Company.

[@RobinMWaite]

Couldn’t agree more about the full service agency, most are expensive and rubbish. And it’s the responsibility of the business owner to understand a little bit about everything so they can make wise choices about service providers. Love this 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@mattoates9050]

@@RobinMWaite Agree with most of this. Agencies can spin the data to make it look good or even fabricate it in some scenarios I’ve seen. The problem is from the marketing agency perspective, being a single service agency is a challenging business model. With a multi-agency model they will try to pitch for the other agencies work. It leads to siloed workflow and lack of collaboration resulting in stunted growth. There are pros and cons to both.

[@RobinMWaite]

@@mattoates9050 I'd say that marketing agencies that double down and do one thing really well for one specific type of client tend to do far better than those who don't specialise. I know podcast agencies, Meta Ads agencies, web design companies (ones who even are platform specific in WebFlow, SqaureSapce and even a Wix Developer), KZbin agencies, who are all specialising and doing $1m+ in annual revenue. There's enough demand out there for marketing services. It's a personal choice of course, I'd always choose someone who specialises.

[@ramonmarsman4719]

@@mattoates9050 yes and no. A niche agency should be seen as one of your employees, together with all the other niche agencies. And that's up to you as the general Marketeer of the business to organize. I run a Google ads only agency and there's no way full service agencies can keep up with every single marketing channel. Therefore they set up the basics, but leave so much room for improvement. You as a business owner gain much more by utilizing niche agencies than you will lose with inefficient communication

[@darrentaylordigital]

Digital marketing consultant and former agency account director here. You're not lying, the best agencies in the modern era are NOT just channel managers, they are niche specific and go beyond just the platform. And they act as an extension of your business. Unfortunately agencies on this better model are few and far between. However, expecting an agency to do product and market research before engagement, for free? Madness

[@JamesSinclairEntrepreneur]

The best ppc agency I know says to half their leads… ppc won’t work for you. What’s mad about that?

[@darrentaylordigital]

@@JamesSinclairEntrepreneur nothing at all. Lord knows I've said it. But if it's not so clear cut, when the product or service is tested in the market, if doesn't work, then the agency says the product isn't working, that's a legitimate observation, not a red flag (assuming the work is done well and in good faith from a proven good actor). But I agree that selecting an agency for an SME is a minefield and this video is required watching. It's just that part I don't fully agree with.

[@bilalabderrahmane7164]

​​@@JamesSinclairEntrepreneur - a PPC agency may just have a lot of experience in a few verticals so instead of actual unpaid research decisions are based on domain expertise and historical KPIs. they may reject unknown domains right out for the upfront research and trial expense. Disagree with the niche definition a good PPC, CRO, SEO agency will medium to long term beat any pure PPC or SEO agency by leveraging the synergies for example. Imo it's more important that their niche is in the customers business model/ vertical, deeply understand the buyer (+have the case studies to proof it). Similar to what you explain about your in-house marketing approach technical or channel focus should fit the buying process not vice versa.

[@simonbutler377]

@@JamesSinclairEntrepreneur I also did adwords consulting, majority of clients that enquired I just had one look at their keyword bid costs, and just said no. It's greedy account managers and firms who take these clients on. But it's horrible being the Adwords trying to do the impossible when the client doesnt have a good margin and the bid costs are just too high. Luckily I didnt work in agency, I was always a contractor who picked my own clients.

[@davida2653]

a bit of indepth research into the prospective clients product/service/competitors/potential etc helped me win business without pitching...which i always thought was a mugs game !

[@richt-1]

A tip on niche agencies - especially those working in performance marketing (PPC, Paid Social etc.) - if you do decide to engage one, then ask if they are able to work on a performance based fee structure. If they do, you have a chance to negotiate terms where the fee they receive is relative to the commercial performance they deliver - it means they are incentivised to deliver great results ongoing. The more you make, the more they make.

[@Blackrokkitchendesign]

Brilliant. Spot on advice as always. We employed a specialist agency who just produce organic social content within our sector and so far the results have been very encouraging. I completely agree that the onus is on the business owner to figure out who their customers are and where their attention is. Then employ the right, specialist agency to find them. Keep up the good work, James!!!

[@GDCMax]

Great insights, thanks for sharing your experience with marketing agencies. Hope you don’t mind me suggesting a small improvement to your video production by using manual focus on the camera as you can see it trying to refocus and buzzing constantly. All the best!

[@CloudCareerMentor]

I love the placement of your book, it's encouraged me to go on your website to buy the 3 book bundle! Thanks for all the free content on this youtube channel and the Podcast!

[@JamesSinclairEntrepreneur]

Hope you enjoy it! Thank you!

[@alexthomas5201]

I own a UK specialist SEO agency (Breakline) and I agree with everything you say. I was very impressed by you knowing the AIDA formula.

[@JamesSinclairEntrepreneur]

Why did that impress you?

[@alexthomas5201]

@@JamesSinclairEntrepreneurmost people I speak to don’t know about that and I spend 10 minutes explaining why we do what we do when writing landing page copy. I mean it’s not common knowledge.

[@gbat]

@@alexthomas5201 It's common knowledge for those who work in marketing and ads. Like CPL, marketing mix, 4P etc. Basically it's first grade of marketing))

[@shanehummusunfiltered]

Love the content you’re making and your unique way of delivering information. Keep it up!

[@roavrgroup]

100% on the money and exactly mirrors my experience in growing to 7figures and beyond. We now have a person doing external niche PPC and everything else is in house through me the business owner.

[@robertbiegala9958]

Great video. Record more of them, James.

[@thedappercook]

Mate beautiful Suit, tie and shirt. Love it. Fantastic advise thank you.

[@chriswilcox8977]

Controversial but true! Though as a web design agency owner, built on collaboration with individual specialists as required for each project, what I do see is that sometimes when a client picks their own specialists, they can all blame each other for things that don’t work. I’ve been exceedingly careful with who I will personally recommend. I have seen clients leave for agencies who pitched perfect but failed entirely to deliver what they promised. And perhaps not ironically, the agencies who have failed those clients are those who offer it all in-house 🧐

[@johnbuckley1533]

Good morning James, great to start the day with your video.

[@hlvisuals]

Excellent video as always, James!

[@Callofdootie]

My rule is: if I keep seeing adds and it’s getting in my way (like KZbin adverts) I will actively refuse to buy the product. Adverts should supplement my life, not stop me.

[@JamesSinclairEntrepreneur]

Hey - get KZbin premium and all the ads go away. It’s the best thing ever.

[@HudsonLighting]

James, put the link of the video at the end of the video, like a watch this video next, promise it will be magic. Ed at film booth had me binge video after video with that technique

[@cruddy9336]

23 years old and been watching you for 4 years. I feel like I’m years ahead of everyone my age psychologically 😂

[@Anonymous56657]

You made your first million yet? You sound like a genius. You must have multiple businesses and be the envy of everyone around you… cruddie.

[@alladvertising]

Really do not agree with this (not a great surprise) Why? While niche agencies offer deep expertise in a specific area, coordinating multiple agencies can be challenging: Fragmented Messaging: Different agencies may have varying interpretations of your brand, leading to inconsistent messaging. Increased Administrative Work: Managing contracts, timelines, and deliverables across multiple agencies can be time-consuming. Potential for Silos: Niche agencies may focus solely on their area without considering the broader strategy, resulting in missed opportunities for synergy. For example . . . Any PPC agency that doesn't know SEO and vice versa really cant be doing a great job as they are integrated and coordinated? The full media mix needs to work together to get economies and a coherent marketing message. Love you Jim, but dont agree with you on this one at all mate.

[@realcorkdan]

the business owner must drive the gears in the business….. and hand pick key contractors and tie work to KPI with profit share

[@MrTj145]

James, could you not add some info on online marketing that you do with your 9 staff on to the entrepreneurs university?

[@danmawdesley14]

Years ago, there were only a handful of elephant traps to capture your audience. It’s about ‘what to say’ & ‘how to say it’. Today the ‘where to say it’ is overwhelmingly complex and lead to an explosion of data driven companies who shouldn’t be anywhere the strategy or creative work. Tip 1 - Audit the agency, have the partners, founders, personnel...worked on serious clients (National / International) and/or for a serious Ad agency and/or Digital agency before setting up (Linked In Check)? Tip 2 - Audit your competitors in the same space, what are they saying? how do they present themselves (visual / verbal tone of voice) ? Google websites, you tube channels, social feeds etc. etc. I’m amazed at the number of clients that don’t do this & it’s the first place I start, whatever I’m working on. Nice click bait headline James.

[@DanMitchell_]

Spot on JS. The whole industry is full of amateurs because its so accessible for anybody to setup over night - this has killed it as a business and for many clients.

[@richt-1]

Three tips to help avoid this - Always check the background of the people behind the agency, ask a bucket load of questions about their methodology and case studies, and ALWAYS speak to previous clients.

[@matinmagic]

Great video. Copywriting Is The Mother Of Advertising

[@StiffyToffeePudding]

Very good. Thanks

[@DH-zp7bc]

The trouble im having is how you market yourself. Your dressed nicely but the colours clash it's distracting from what you're talking about. With that jacket and shirt swap the tie out for a solid maroon maybe knitted and have a handkerchief the same colour. If nothing else the tie and hanky have to match its critical.

[@thedappercook]

Knitted tie? He's not your grandad lad. He looks sharp asf. Ahh after a quick scroll of your comment history is get it now, you're a negative pessimist.

[@brettharter143]

Female energy

[@famerazak]

You could have just said marketing agencies are learning as they go and they're not worth the money. In fact, just cut out the middleman and hire people yourself and then they really would have hated you.

[@mattoates9050]

I own a six figure marketing agency. You mentioned about shouting louder, but on the other side of the fence this is a big red flag if you need to do that. A good marketing agency will manage the client, you shouldn’t need to manage the agency. If you’re managing the agency, get rid of them! Another red flag is that they’re reporting data from the ad platforms. Meta, Google etc all want you to reinvest budgets back into their platforms and over credit their campaigns. Choose an agency that focuses on profit or profit on ad spend (POAS) not return on ad spend (ROAS). At the end of the day, anyone can start up a marketing agency. You don’t need any credentials. This has meant the market is full of sharks who don’t understand how to add value to your bottom line. Be careful, it’s a minefield. Everything else…you’re spot on!

[@MrTj145]

would the POAS mean they need your individual cost per product? im currently using an agency and our average cost per acquisition is £33 which is far too high. The past few months ive actually realised the google ads is not making us any money after we've paid their retainer

[@WintuhLiving]

James doesn’t even pay his suppliers on time so i wouldn’t take everything he says as gospel.

[@MrTj145]

@@WintuhLiving i don’t think that’s him personally paying each and every supplier …. Grow up

[@mattoates9050]

@@MrTj145 POAS is calculated using your gross profit (COGS + Shipping Costs + Payment Gateway Costs) over ad spend. If you’re working to a CPA model, you need to be able to stitch the sale back to the lead to evaluate the profitability of the leads you acquired through Google Ad. You can then evaluate POAS from the ad spend. I’d also be questioning where the £33 CPL is being reported from and that your measurement is accurate. Hope this is useful!

[@mattoates9050]

@@MrTj145 POAS is calculated using your gross profit (COGS + Shipping Costs + Payment Gateway Costs) over ad spend. If you’re working to a CPA model, you need to be able to stitch the sale back to the lead to evaluate the profitability of the leads you acquired through Google Ad. You can then evaluate POAS from the ad spend. I’d also be questioning where the £33 CPL is being reported from and that your measurement is accurate. Hope this is useful!

[@stevo728822]

All products and services are essentially a form of physical or emotional pain relief. From buying a chocolate bar to booking a holiday. They are paracetamol under a different guise.

[@ClearmindstatlCoUk]

Great video, I’ve just launched our content marketing agency for tradespeople. My goal is to be the best content marketing agency for tradespeople only,

[@rayd2906]

I usually agree with your advice but this video is just completely wrong and cliche and like you mention "From your experience" yet you generalise ALL marketing agencies. You said if they - need more time - running Google ads or Meta ads takes time to see results. That's common sense. - most marketing agencies don't prioritise your business over others? How could they even scale and manage without systems to scale. They run similar services for similar businesses which makes it easy to scale. -marketing agencies that are "jack of all trades are a master of none" - this is such a foolish thing to say. Business is about solving problems, if they can help people with websites, then their clients also need help with SEO or ads, that is an additional service they provide. That's like saying McDonalds should only sell cheeseburgers. Regurgitated, guru advice.