Local Marketing Agency: A White Label COO, a Rebuilt Operation, and a Successful Sale
The challenge
A specialist local and franchise marketing agency, working with multi-location brands across Australia and New Zealand, brought in Harry James, our Managing Director, as its white label COO in December 2020. The agency had grown fast. Its biggest client was a national fitness franchise with more than 70 locations, alongside salons, studios and other local businesses. But nearly everything still ran through the founder.
The founder was running sales, accounting and much of onboarding herself, and it had become too much. Every team member was a contractor, people had been hired and let go in quick succession, and nobody was clearly responsible for some roles, including copywriting and development. Onboarding information arrived late or incomplete, so campaigns started slowly. The franchise client needed offers and campaigns changed across dozens of locations at once, and there was no set process for it.
Our approach
- 01
Gave every job an owner
We mapped the agency on one organisation chart: sales, account management, and delivery split into Google Ads, Facebook, SEO, reporting, finance, design, development and copywriting, each with a named owner. Franchise and independent accounts were moved to the right account managers.
- 02
Built a 30-day onboarding process
Each new client followed the same path. On day 0 the deal was won, the questionnaire sent and the invoice raised. On day 1 a team was assigned, and on day 2 requirements were checked and analytics set-up booked with development. The strategy build started on day 7 and was finished by day 14, with a quality check on day 20. The strategy was presented on day 21 and the campaign launched on day 30.
- 03
Put the agency on systems
We set up Monday.com with project templates, dashboards and time tracking, set up HubSpot for sales, and documented how campaigns are changed across many locations at once.
- 04
Packaged what the agency sold
We reworked products and pricing, built franchise packs for multi-location brands and created a Digital Health Check as an entry product.
The results
The agency stopped depending on the founder for every decision. With clear roles, a repeatable onboarding process and its operations in proper systems, it became a business another agency could buy and run. Harry then helped the owners through the sale of the agency to another agency, and they were very happy with the outcome.
- Client
- Local and franchise marketing agency, AU and NZ (anonymous)
- Industry
- B2B & Professional Services
- Services
- Agency Services
- How we worked
- White label COO, from December 2020 through to the sale of the agency
Led by Harry James, our Managing Director and former COO of Online Marketing Gurus.
The white label team behind agencies across Australia
agency partners
client campaigns
deliverables completed
white label reports
Google Partner
The team are fast to respond and always have answers when I need them. He's helped us scale our agency faster than we would have done so by hiring employees. I can't recommend the service enough.
An agency that runs through its founder is hard to grow and harder to sell. Clear roles, documented processes and good systems make it easier to scale, and make it worth more to a buyer. That is what our agency services are for.
See how our fractional COO, systems and process build and agency audit services work, or talk to us about your agency.
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