[Podcast] Reputation, Retention, and ROI: The SmartSites Growth Formula
How do you achieve consistent 35% year-over-year growth for 14 straight years? 🚀
In the latest episode of the Deep Specialization™ podcast, I spoke with Alex Melen, co-founder and CEO of SmartSites, who scaled his digital marketing agency to over 450 employees and 1,000+ clients with this remarkable growth trajectory.
Alex shared incredible insights on:
- The ROI mindset shift agencies need to make (spending $5,000 to acquire a client paying $500/month requires patience, but pays off)
- Why reputation and client happiness trump profit margins in their business model
- How growth creates upward mobility for employees, preventing the "law firm partner problem" where career advancement requires someone to retire
- The importance of knowing when a client ISN'T a good fit (a lesson learned the hard way)
Alex has built a powerhouse agency without taking investor money, maintaining complete ownership with his brother. Their data-driven approach to marketing spend ($500K monthly) funds their growth machine, while maintaining an exceptional online reputation.
🎧 Listen to the episode now:
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–CQ
P.S. Want to know how ready your agency is to scale?
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