Great Content from Client Interviews

Jeff Coon is creative director and one of three partners at Stream Creative, a Milwaukee inbound marketing firm that was nine years old and eight people strong when this was recorded. Gray MacKenzie hosted; Andrew Dymski introduced the episode and joined Gray for the recap. They cover how Stream Creative found its niche, the Experience Inbound event it ran at Miller Park and Lambeau Field, the client interviews behind its content, and the partners’ push to document their processes.

The niche was discovered, not chosen

Stream Creative had spent the prior year narrowing to insurance and manufacturing. Gray asked whether those verticals were picked or discovered. Discovered, Jeff said: the first insurance clients came by referral, and the whole business had grown that way.

In the beginning we were working with a high-end chocolate company where we did all their package design and all their marketing and built their website. But then on the other hand, we’re working with an asphalt paving company and then a group of attorneys… But all that onboarding and really truly learning the industry, it takes a lot of upfront work, and sometimes you spend a lot of time in the beginning spinning your wheels and getting up to speed.

(Listen at 7:02)

Experience Inbound: two stadiums, about 250 attendees, no speaker fees

Asked for a recent success story, Jeff picked a campaign for Stream Creative itself. Experience Inbound was in its second year, this time co-hosted with Weidert Group, a HubSpot partner in Appleton.

It was a two-day conference. The first day was held at Miller Park, where the Milwaukee Brewers play, and then the second day we went to Lambeau Field, where the Green Bay Packers play. And the idea was to be able to essentially take all the great stuff and that energy that we get from going to Inbound in Boston every year, and how do we bring it back to our market?

(Listen at 10:38)

About 150 people came to Miller Park and just over 100 to Lambeau Field. Jeff credited his team, venues that handle food and AV, Eventbrite, and speakers with a local following who promoted the event themselves (HubSpot sent Brian Halligan to keynote year one). Speakers got travel and lodging, not fees. Profit was never the point: break-even was fine given the leads, the team rallying around one project, and the chance to bring long-time clients’ sales teams along as a thank-you.

Client interviews: the process Jeff wishes they had started on day one

Gray asked for the process behind the agency’s results.

I think the big one, it would just be the client interviews. And that’s something that when we started the business, we just didn’t do enough of. And I think if there’s one secret to success, I think it’s really just not being afraid to pick up the phone, to schedule meetings, to talk to all the key personnel within companies… We don’t know what our clients know. We haven’t walked a mile in their shoes or spent a whole career doing what they do. So our job is to be able to pull that information out of their head and be able to communicate that and put that content out there.

(Listen at 20:20)

In onboarding that means 30 to 45 minute interviews with executives, sales, customer service, and HR, because the frontline people are where the buyer personas come from, plus three to five of the client’s customers. After onboarding, the interviews continue monthly, folded into the goals check-in and kept to 15 or 20 minutes.

Get the draft back within a week, keep three posts in the queue

Gray asked how long it takes an interview to become content. For a standard blog post, about a week.

Our writers, pie in the sky, they at least want to be working three to four weeks out so they can get social scheduled and all that stuff too. But from the time that we get that client interview, that’s really the key, is that our writers want to be able to get back to that person within a week’s time while it’s still fresh on our mind and they’re excited about it.

(Listen at 28:49)

Jeff’s safeguard is three posts in the queue, so a missed interview never leaves the calendar empty, and anything timely bumps whatever was scheduled for Wednesday. He added that this depends on responsive clients, and Stream Creative has had the other kind too.

Documenting processes so the partners can step out of the day-to-day

Asked what Stream Creative was working to improve, Jeff said it’s always process. The struggle: three of the eight to ten people are partners still needed on deliverables while also running new business and billing. His test is whether a document can replace a partner’s time.

If we have the repeatable processes to where we want them to be, that allows us to more efficiently bring in extra resources. So if you were to bring in some extra design help or you’re going to bring in a writer on a project basis or for a campaign basis, could you easily turn them over documents that would allow them to get up to speed quicker?

(Listen at 34:12)

The alternative is a partner spending eight hours getting a new designer or writer up to speed. Basecamp holds the to-dos for each project type, which works for long-timers; the question is whether a new hire or freelancer could follow it. Gray connected it to The E-Myth Revisited and building a business rather than a job.

The same thinking runs the culture: the founders agreed on a family-first business from day one, and if the team is worked so hard that there’s no room for a sick kid, Jeff’s view is that the agency wasn’t set up correctly. The full episode also covers his tool stack (Basecamp, Yammer, Evernote, Crazy Egg) and his morning routine.