In this monologue, Ed Weeks Jr., founder of HV Social Media, argues that digital marketing agencies should not limit themselves to a single industry niche. He emphasizes that the true value of an agency lies in converting traffic and content into real revenue for clients, regardless of sector. Weeks explains that while many agencies focus on generating clicks, likes, and impressions, the ultimate goal should be measurable sales, leads, or foot traffic. He warns that a niche‑only focus makes agencies vulnerable to economic downturns that affect specific industries (e.g., real estate). By mastering conversion tactics, an agency can serve a wide range of businesses—gyms, dentists, lawyers, retailers, restaurants, HVAC, roofing, etc.—and maintain stability. Weeks also critiques the outdated mindset of hiring niche agencies, likening it to the old Madison Avenue model where agencies bought media rather than specialized by industry. He discusses content creation, noting that good content can be repurposed across clients and that great content should involve the business owner. Finally, he advises both agency owners to stay broad and business owners to seek partners who understand revenue‑focused conversion rather than niche expertise.
Chapters
Hey everybody, it's Ed Weeks Jr., the founder of HV Social Media. Here it is, my beautiful brick wall here in my office. Lots of brick walls around. I want to talk to you today about one thing, and I'm gonna lean on this and the camera's gonna bounce a little bit because I have a stand-up desk, but the reality of niche, being a niche agency. All right, I can't do that because we shake too much. So being a niched digital marketer and why you really shouldn't do that. So this goes out to digital marketers, this goes out to companies and owners that are considering hiring a niched-focused agency. Why should you not niche? Why have I in 3+ years never niched myself? Simply because it's not— to me, it's not about delivering traffic. It's not about delivering content. It's about taking All of that content, traffic, everything, everything, your web presence, your digital footprint, it's about taking all of that and converting it to actual revenue. And that to me is the science, that is the art, that is where the real agencies excel. That's what they're very good at. And That is what I pride my agency in. That's what we are masters at— conversion. Anyone, and I repeat, anyone, from your intern that you can bring into your business to anyone that you can go out here and find, and that includes a lot of people that are out here selling services. Anyone can drive those aspects. They can drive content. They can drive— Yeah. Traffic. They can drive a whole bunch of eyeballs to your content. What does that matter? I've always had this thought process on Facebook, on Instagram. What does it really matter that somebody likes your content? It doesn't help as much as you think, right? It doesn't. The reality is what you want is someone who can take all of that and now convert it to Real money, real revenue, real foot traffic into your location, people into your restaurant, people into the mall, people into any retail, into your gym, whatever it may be. It's not about being the gym person. Ah, I'm the number one provider of this $350 program. If you don't make this weight, you got to pay to stay. Whatever it is, as far as Gym-focused? You don't have to be gym-focused. We at HV Social Media and several players that I know can take any amount of traffic, any objective that you want, and convert that into filling your objective. Yes, that takes real dollars, and yes, that takes a certain mindset of an owner to understand that, but I'm not niching myself. The flip side to niching yourself is when we see in the next maybe year, maybe 2 or 3 years, when we actually have a downturn in the economy. If you're solely focused on, say, real estate, you're all in on just helping real estate, that's great right now because real estate is booming everywhere. What happens when the economy goes this way? Yes, as a real estate agent, you want to think about this too, but as a Digital marketer, when real estate goes this way, your real estate-focused agency goes this way. So why be 100% focused on only that? Why not help real estate agents convert more sales? Oh, and you can also help lawyers convert more leads, drive more phone calls, drive more business to the dentist, to the lawyer, to the real estate agent. to the HVAC guy, to the roofing guy, to the gutter guy, to the retail location, to the restaurant, to the whatever it is. Because at the end of the day, when the economy goes down, not everything goes with it. So if you're good at converting and driving actual revenue to businesses, you can do that across multiple industries and really prevent yourself from going completely off the bridge or off the deep end, which will happen to a lot of other agencies. So do me a favor, stop thinking about niching. Owners, stop thinking about hiring niched agencies. It doesn't make sense. Go back to the traditional realm. Which anybody who knows me thinks it had its time and there's just people that Don't understand. It's completely shifted, but that's a whole nother conversation and a whole nother video. But just go back and tell me that there was so many Madison Avenue agencies or so many traditional agencies. If you went to TV, you went to find someone who was good at buying your media, correct? Yes, correct. I'll save you that. You did. You didn't go find somebody who was good at buying TV for your dental practice, for your bank, for your law practice. You went to somebody who was good at buying the media, not at being niched. I don't understand why people think you have to niche or you have to hire a niche source. If it's from a content perspective, let me cover that quick. In my eyes, it's easy because I've created content for a lot of different people. So now I can just go in copy that content and use it for you as your dental providing content going forward. And where you really want to start to think is that you want to hire a provider of content that works with you to create that content, whether it's video, whether it's just straight regular post content on Facebook and Instagram, which Just so you know, have so much less power than they once did. But the reality is, if you're gonna work with somebody, make sure they're also passing and sharing the torch with you. Good content comes from the people that create it within the business. That's great content, right? It is. Good content can be created by anyone. Great content should be created with an owner. So those are a couple things that I take. This is, again, my opinions. But as an agency owner, you should really consider not ditching yourself. And as a business owner, you should really think about why you would bring in a fresh perspective from somebody who understands ultimately the goal of your business. And that goal can be so many different aspects, right? There's so many different things that you can do with digital marketing. You can be— you can do a great job recruiting. You could do a phenomenal job of driving leads for your sales team. You can do Uh, you could drive e-commerce. There's so many things that you can do if you understand the power of conversion. So that's what I have for you today. It's a little longer video than I like, but just wanted to share it. Hopefully it helps a lot of people out here. Maybe it pisses some people off. Just tell it the way it is, or at least the way I see it. So have a wonderful day. Peace.
