Sharp Pen tripled in size from 2021 to 2022, our first full calendar year in business. But the company also experienced a plateau in monthly recurring revenue over the summer, prompting pointed reflections about what we did wrong and how we could improve.

The three lessons I’ll take away from this year concern content strategy, talent, and agency growth. Here’s what I learned about how to set up successful content programs, foster a content talent pipeline, and foster predictable and sustainable agency growth.

Setting up a content program for long-term success

Creating great content that speaks to a company's target audience is not a strategy. It might be part of a messaging strategy, but messaging strategy needs to be complemented by a distribution strategy.

Setting up a distribution strategy means understanding how you'll get the content in front of your target audience, how you'll measure interactions with them, and even how marketing/sales will turn those interactions into qualified leads and new customers. 

You'll need far more than great content to turn content into a revenue generator. You'll also need some combination of a media relations pro, an SEO expert, and social marketing managers — just to name a few common pairings. 

And you'll need a way to measure progress. Because, if not, the company (whether your client or your own firm if you’re in-house) is going to give up on the content. No one stays happy with just 'great content' for long. Content is part of a business growth strategy, or it's terminal.

Nurturing content talent

When you hire writers, think about the long term, and that means thinking beyond their writing capabilities. 

All my writers complete a few paid freelance projects before they join accounts. So, I ensure their writing is up to Sharp Pen standards. But I still need to know if they are:

+ potentially interested in being full-time

+ interested in editing, not just writing

+ capable of writing across media

+ trustworthy enough to own accounts

+ socially deft enough to interview and liaise with clients

+ comfortable working across verticals

Being a great writer is the tip of the iceberg. As the content manager or agency owner, you need to dive into the details, which often have more to do with personality than writing ability. 

Fostering predictable long-term agency growth

Have a system to grow your business, or you can't expect to grow your business.

This sounds obvious, but there are many decades-old, multimillion-dollar marketing agencies that just rely on referrals and word of mouth to gain new clients. 

If you're not concerned about predictable and sustainable long-term growth, that's fine. Agencies are often lifestyle businesses. Sometimes haphazard growth is enough for an agency owner.

But that's not what I want, and when my agency plateaued at about $60k in MRR, I was unable to identify the number-one reason: I didn't have a marketing and sales system.

I was creating LinkedIn content and occasionally having new business conversations on the basis of it. But I didn't have a system to document and measure leads, reach out, and move people down the funnel. 

I didn't have monthly targets or an understanding of how leads turn into qualified leads, who turn into sales calls, who turn into customers. 

To grow an agency beyond $1M/year AND have long-term, predictable growth, you can't wing it. So, systemizing my business instead of winging it has been the focus of late and will be the main goal of 2023. 

What did you learn about what makes for a successful content agency or in-house content marketing program this year? Reach out at joe@sharppenmedia.com.