See what a marketing agency actually does in a week. Real client shoots, video production, social media, paid ads, and SEO for small business owners in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
If you own a small business or run marketing for one, you might wonder what a marketing agency actually does all week. This is the real answer. Here are my notes from a week inside Launch Kit, our marketing agency in Grand Rapids, Michigan. New clients, big data, and a 25K on the calendar.
We started the week at the Chamber for our Monday syncs. I sit down with each team member, go over projects for the week, and get them what they need. Best way to start the week.
Then I pulled up our sales chart in Databox. It pulls straight from Stripe. It's the same kind of marketing analytics setup we build for clients. We're crushing it compared to last year.
So why the jump? We focused down. We locked in on three core offerings:
"We stopped doing the stuff that was distracting us and not bringing enterprise value."
Fewer things, done better. Worth asking which parts of your own business are pulling their weight.
Evan and I went mobile. We drove about 50 minutes south of Grand Rapids to South Haven for our second shoot with Immersive Homes. We used one of the homes they built as a film set. Evan prepped video ideas ahead of time, so we pulled up ready to go.
It was pretty chill and straightforward. What stood out was how quickly we got into a good rhythm. Two shoots in, it already felt familiar.
This is something new I recently started. A 90 minute 1:1 workshop with a business owner. We send an agenda ahead of time, and they send their questions ahead of time.
This call was with a marketing agency owner doing around $15,000 a month in sales. He wanted to talk systems, hiring, and how to get from where he is to the next step.
He lives in Ireland. That is the cool side of YouTube. Making content connects you with people all over the world. I never thought I'd have a positive influence on somebody in Ireland, but here we are.
The call with Fearghal was a good one. He's a follower of the vlog and runs a marketing agency a lot like ours. His background is the opposite of mine. He started as a media buyer running Meta and Google ads for a bigger agency. Now he's adding organic with a local videographer named Mark. Photo and video content, organic social, and paid ads. The same digital marketing bundle we offer.
I shared what we learned. We did organic social only at first. We added paid ads two years ago, and it made a significant difference for our clients.
"It's not that one is better than the other, they honestly need each other. They prop each other up."
Here's the simple version:
He emailed back the next morning, even with the time difference.
"I pitched and sold an organic plus paid package to a client this morning."
Instant ROI. Always fun to see.
Reagan woke up with a fever, so I tapped in behind the camera. Rachel and I headed to Roots Therapeutic Services in Grandville. They're a new marketing client. That means four videos a month, social media posts twice a week, and ads running for them.
The secret weapon is a little teleprompter. A cold shoe mount on top of the camera holds my iPhone, which runs Teleprompter Pro. It cost about $20 on Amazon. I picked one up for Evan, Daniel, and Reagan too.
I know scripted content has a negative connotation right now. But small business owners are not expert actors. Reading lines just isn't their core competency. They still deserve great videos. So here's how we do it:
The result is a less stressful shoot and smoother editing. Chris from LeadScout told us a past shoot without one felt so tight and uncomfortable that the videos were horrible. Now he loves writing his lines.
I'm in the middle of a training block for the River Bank 25K. My goal is an 8:30 pace, which lands around a 2:12 race time.
Here's what I did:
It took about 17 minutes to run. The truth is I'm a little behind. It gave me a revised plan based on my real data and the weeks I have left. It cost me nothing. I'll check back in at 4 weeks and 3 weeks out, before the taper.
It's not as good as a real trainer. But the Apple Health data gives it insane context to work with.
This week's vlog felt a little scattered, and this is why. I spent a lot of hours in Databox building reports. I want clients to see the best data about their business, with the fluff cut out, so they understand their marketing and where it's headed. Pulse meetings are next week and I wanted to use them with some clients.
Maybe not the best vlog week. But we're still building, and still having fun.
The Launch Kit Mastermind has weekly Q&A calls, 1:1 time with me, and our ClickUp templates, Go High Level snapshots, SOPs, and Claude prompts. There's a 7 day free trial: https://get.launchkitdesign.com/home
