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My Experience

It all started 15 years ago, when I was 20, when I started one of the first online nutrition websites and sold it to a large health conglomerate. It was a big stock deal, and when they quickly went under, I went bust.

Fresh out of eCommerce, I moved into the internet agency world and did not look back until my company, eVisibility, was named 169th fastest growing company in the 2010 Inc Magazine list and I quickly sold the company to LSF Network. LSF, together with the acquisition of eVisibility, is one of the largest privately held digital agencies in the US. (Maybe the world, I’m not totally sure).

Now, I dedicate my time to consulting and managing/running several service and eCommerce sites that I co-founded.

All of my current online entrepreneurial endeavors run through my holding company, Incubate.com, which offers both investments and internet marketing services to companies we own or partner with.

I would be lying if I said I am always successful. No one is. But I do have significantly more experience in building, managing, failing, and succeeding online than most other agencies or consultants out there. This gives my client a significant advantage over their competition.

If I don’t think I can help you, I am the first to tell you. Time is the thing I value most in life, and I wont spend 15 minutes on an account if I am not helping it.

I have been in the agency world for over 15 years

My goal is simply to make you more money. — whether that is from increasing your traffic or your conversion (or both). I have owned several internet marketing agencies, and many more online retail businesses.

Four was I can help your business
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Consultants are 330% more effective than most firms

Agency vs. Consultant
Agency Me In-House
Cost $150-$300/hour $200/hour $50/hour
Face to Face Meetings Yes Yes Yes
Experience Level 1-15 Years 15 Years 2-5 Years
Internal Politics Yes No Yes
Horse Power Yes Yes No
Technology Yes Yes No
Stay Up To Date Yes Yes No
Long Term Commitment Yes No Yes
Engagements Per Person 30 10 1
Breadth of Services Large Medium Small
Funneling Successes from other sites Yes Yes No
Coordinating Departments No Yes Yes
Turn Over High Low Medium

Agency vs. Consultant

Few people know about these 3 areas more than me, as I have done all of them.

I owned one of the fastest growing internet marketing agencies in the US, I have worked as a consultant for several Fortune 100 companies have had the benefit of working with at least 50 in-house employees over the last few years. I have a clear bias toward hiring a consultant for many very valid reasons, however, I tried to separate that bias for this exercise.

It is more important to me that you hire what’s right for you. A quick, unsuccessful engagement doesn’t do me or you any good.

Defining the Grid

Cost

By far the cheapest to hire is an in-house, typically because they only have 3-5 years experience in the market. Most Online Marketers with more tenure than that work for agencies or as consultants. The cost of an agency is very expensive, usually billing at a rate of $150-$300 per hour, even though the “talent” only receives a small portion of it. My rate is a standard $200, but when you pay me that money, I don’t pass the work to a junior associate with a year of experience and pocket the rest. I am the one that works on you account.

Face to Face Meetings

By far the in-house person takes this, but you need to decide what is most important and if you really need a real-time full time presence. Agencies are not the best at this simply because they have a lot of accounts on their own, and a lot of people touching your account. When I work with your team, I work with the entire team, very similar to how an in house would.

Experience Level

Hiring me or a consultant takes the cake here. Agencies have a lot of high-level people in them, but most of them are used to manage processes and employees, not accounts. In-house staff will typically have 5 years or less experience. I have been in the online marketing space for 15 years, and with me, when you hire me, you get me, not a 2-year associate out of college.

Access to Links

Agencies typically will win here because of buying power. However, I have a lot of relationships for SEO links, and I can often move quicker than an agency can. An in-house will undoubtedly lose this battle.

Internal Politics

Unfortunately, all to often politics tend to take time away from agencies actually working on your account, (on their own side and your side) and typically spend more time doing this than actually working on your account. With In-house people, you need to deal with internal employee motivations, etc. With me, I tell you how it is.

Horse Power

Agencies have the largest horsepower for sure. In-house people will always be at the mercy of your own staff. I have substantial horsepower, and have a lot of access to a lot of people quickly if needed.

Technology

Agencies and I will both have access to a lot more technology than your typical in house hire.

Stay Up to Date

I would say I would win this battle. Agencies are pretty good at this, but most of them are worried about legacy processes, and in-house simply don’t have the time to keep up on Search, Social and the ever-growing world of technology.

Long Term Commitment

Agencies typically require a 1-2 year engagement, and employees, (depending on your state laws) are — some times hard to fire. My term is 3 months at a time. Simply engagements as if it is going to work for both parties, then we keep going.

Engagements Per Person

Agencies have a lot of overhead that does not relate to your account that you have to pay for. This means that most of their account managers are managing 20-30 clients or more. I will typically have 5. An in-house wins here with only you!

Breadth of Services

Most in-house staff will have a particular strength, in Search, Social, Email, CRO, etc. Agencies have the largest breadth of services but typically costs a lot more money to access them all. I have a wide breadth of knowledge because I had to learn each of these sectors, first hand, for my own companies.

Funneling Successes from Other Sites

If the agency has good internal processes to share individual experiences with the entire team, then they would win this one. In-house people would have almost no insight. I am involved in a network of 5 other really high-level consultants and we share shifts and changes in the landscape.

Coordinating Departments

Agencies are not good at this as they are process-oriented and it is too hard to fit 100 clients processes in their own. In-house is probably the best here as they know most of the people in the company, but a consultant can deliver this well too.

Turn Over

Turn over is critical to the success of your account. Agencies have an abnormally high turn over it most instances due to the highly-competitive nature of their business. Employees will also leave at the first site of more money. Me? I am here to stay as long as you want me.

I may or may not be the right fit for your company, but we should at least talk. My typical minimum engagement is $5000/month. If this is something that fits inside of your budget, lets talk and see if it makes sense.

Call me on my cell phone: 760-494-0404 or email me: me@dannydemichele.com

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