Brian Abernethy, CEO of Service Direct | The SMB Marketing Agency Show

This episode of The SMB Marketing Agency Show features Brian Abernethy, Co-Founder and CEO at Service Direct. In his chat with our Growth Evangelist, Philip Kuehnen, Brian discusses everything from marketing tech and metrics to organizational structure and client acquisition.

Tune in to the full episode for a truly educational conversation. We've also covered the highlights below.

About Brian Abernethy and Service Direct

A proud "bootstrap" company, Service Direct is a digital marketing and lead generation agency for local service businesses. Brian and his team serve 1,000+ home service businesses across North America.

The Service Direct origin story is a little unusual. The four founders grew up together. After going separate ways to college and graduate school, they reconnected in their 20s and decided they wanted to work for themselves.

The team started out as a "traditional" digital agency in 2006. They sourced clients from ads in the Yellow Pages. "They were clearly spending money on marketing. And they were using something that we felt was a little outdated," says Brian.

The company gradually evolved from traditional marketing agency to software platform. The Service Direct app is a pay-per-call model, ensuring clients only pay for actual results — not irrelevant leads shared with their competitors.

The agency has grown from a team of 4 to 26. Service Direct has generated $300+ million in revenue, delivered over 1+ million leads, and worked with 2,000+ clients.

Key takeaways

• Most clients are more interested in how many calls and new customers they receive. Not impressions, clicks, or conversions.
• Cost per booking is a more worthwhile metric to track than cost per lead. Especially when you're closing 65% of leads.
• Be open to experimentation, but set some well-defined parameters to avoid going over budget.
• Not everything you do will work. Look at the bigger picture. Evaluate your strategies each year and each quarter to discover what works and what doesn't. Learn as you go.
• Be adaptable to change. Things move quickly at a growing company. Be prepared to shake up your organizational structure whenever it makes sense.

Narrowing down the key takeaways to just 5 was a challege! Let's dive in to some of the most insightful questions from the episode.

What's the company's marketing strategy?

"We really focus mostly on referrals," says Brian. "Once we got our first few clients in, we were not afraid to ask them for referrals."

As the agency continued to evolve, their marketing strategy shifted. "In the next phase of our company, when we had a little bit of a marketing budget, we primarily focused on pay-per-click."

PPC was the main channel for attracting new clients in addition to referrals and partnerships.

In recent years, the agency has focused on diversifying their marketing channels. Organic search, guest posting, paid social — these are just a few tactics Service Direct uses to drive results.

Do you have any managing expectations when you take on a new client?

When asking this question, Philip shared a bit about his own background in lead generation and attribution. He noted there was a "disconnect in terms of expectations."

Brian replied they approach new clients as partnerships. The agency has responsibilities and the clients have responsibilities.

"If we send 10 amazing calls in a week to a client, and they don't answer any of the calls, then it's obviously not going to be working for them. But clearly, performance is going to suffer if they're not holding up to their end of the bargain."

Fortunately, most Service Direct clients answer calls promptly, even for home service emergencies.

Do you have any regular rhythms as a leader and manager?

"Having a rhythm has been really important to us in the last 6 months or so," says Brian. Regular meetings are a big part of that.

The agency hosts quarterly managers' meetings and "all-hands" meetings to review objectives and key results. Brian has weekly meetings with direct reports.

"We try not to overmeet," notes Brian. "We're having most of our significant meetings quarterly. "And by doing that, I feel like we strike the balance of having everyone rowing in the same direction without feeling like there's endless unnecessary meetings."

Unlock the rest of the insights in the full episode

This summary truly only scratches the surface of Brian's insights. Tune in to discover the agency's preferred productivity tools, marketing goals, Service Direct's ideal customer profile, and more.

A big thank you to Brian for taking time out of his busy schedule to join us on the show. We're excited to follow Service Direct as the agency continues to grow and evolve!

Learn more about how Service Direct delivers results to local home service businesses.