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1,097 viewsBreynan Hammons is the managing partner of Innvio, an award-winning digital marketing agency, and a co-partner of RevuKangaroo, an online review management company. He coaches business owners on how to drastically increase sales and revenue using digital marketing strategies such as SEO, funnel creation, Facebook marketing, systems automation, and numerous other growth hacks, to generate more revenue. He’s a contributor at Forbes, a Certified Google Partner, and a Digital Marketer Certified Partner. His clients come from various industries including, but not limited to, the medical, financial services, and real estate industries.
Please tell us about yourself.
Breynan Hammons founder of Innvio (Growth Marketing Agency) Co-founder of Revukangaroo (Review Management Systems for local businesses)
How do you think digital marketing, more specifically SEO has changed over the last 10 years?
Ten years ago when I was introduced to the SEO world, many companies were still focused on the number of links built, then we saw a shift to quality content, now with the so much weight on social media, engagement becomes the focus. We’ve also moved to the use of video as our primary source of content for clients then repurpose it into blogs. It’s increasingly harder to rank on the first page with all the content has been created over the years. You need to become a detective and understand the data. I just watched an interview with Shawn Ellis and Larry Kim of Wordstream. Larry mentioned how last year they produced over 200 pieces of content, and they only had three unicorns that performed and ranked well. So you see even the game of producing massive content every day which many companies still do to hit a quota of X amount of pieces a month has changed.
The state of regular Google and Facebook updates are uncertain and challenging right now — how are you and your team managing through it?
I think companies that have gone all in on being a FB agency or just an SEO agency are building houses on a fragile foundation. We started as an SEO agency ten years ago and quickly shifted when we understood that our client’s goals were more than ranking, traffic, and leads. The reality is that most businesses only care about revenue and profit. We’ve transformed our agency to be aligned with growth. Simple out we focus on ways to increase profitability in a company. We do this by looking at their internal systems and making changes that have compounding impacts on their business before driving new traffic and generating leads.
Everybody knows about what you have achieved, I would like to talk some major failure stories and how they impacted your professional life? (We know Rome wasn’t built in a day)
Complacencies is dangerous. When I left my corporate six-figure income to start an agency during one of the worst economic crisis in America I had one goal, make money while on the beach somewhere.
Two years later I’m visiting a buddy in Newport who lived right on the boardwalk. We went out for drinks on a Thursday night, and the next morning I wake up on his couch looking out to the ocean when I feel my phone buzz. We had signed a nice size client the month before, and I got the email that billing hit again. It was at that moment I realized I had accomplished my goal.
The failure in that moment was that I didn’t reset my goals or the goals of the company. We were billing a little over 80k a month in revenue and life was great!
I soon ventured into a few other projects including Revukangaroo (our review management software) and took my eye off what we were doing at Innvio. I think my lack of interest trickled down to the team because we made mistakes that cost us clients and we did not continue to grow the business during that time. After spending ten months building out Revukangaroo, I jumped back over to Innvio only to have $600,000 in client revenue cancel in a three-month time frame.
The lesson I’ve learned is to reset your goals once you reach your pre-determined success. People close to me always ask when enough is going to be enough, and I always tell them probably never. As entrepreneurs, I think it’s in our DNA to want to innovate and give back to the world.
Two years later I’m visiting a buddy in Newport who lived right on the boardwalk. We went out for drinks on a Thursday night, and the next morning I wake up on his couch looking out to the ocean when I feel my phone buzz. We had signed a nice size client the month before, and I got the email that billing hit again. It was at that moment I realized I had accomplished my goal.
The failure in that moment was that I didn’t reset my goals or the goals of the company. We were billing a little over 80k a month in revenue and life was great!
I soon ventured into a few other projects including Revukangaroo (our review management software) and took my eye off what we were doing at Innvio. I think my lack of interest trickled down to the team because we made mistakes that cost us clients and we did not continue to grow the business during that time. After spending ten months building out Revukangaroo, I jumped back over to Innvio only to have $600,000 in client revenue cancel in a three-month time frame.
The lesson I’ve learned is to reset your goals once you reach your pre-determined success. People close to me always ask when enough is going to be enough, and I always tell them probably never. As entrepreneurs, I think it’s in our DNA to want to innovate and give back to the world.
Who are some of the remarkable people you connected within the industry who’ve made a memorable impact on you? (And how they have helped you stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the marketing/ startup industry).
Probably two people I’ve worked with that I have a tremendous amount of respect for are Russell Brunson (Clickfunnels founder) and Brad Martineau (CEO Sixth Divison).
Both of these guys are very systemic in their approach to business.
Brad has a fantastic skill set on simplifying systems and creating automation to support business!
Russell is probably the most genuine Marketer on the planet! He over delivers on everything that he does. What I’m most impressed is the study of psychology that he puts into his business. He has truly mastered the art of sales & marketing. I watched him close $3.2 million at Grant Cardone 10X conference. He had the crowd so dialed in he almost had me getting up to go repurchase Clickfunnels! I had just renewed my membership two months prior!
Both of these guys are very systemic in their approach to business.
Brad has a fantastic skill set on simplifying systems and creating automation to support business!
Russell is probably the most genuine Marketer on the planet! He over delivers on everything that he does. What I’m most impressed is the study of psychology that he puts into his business. He has truly mastered the art of sales & marketing. I watched him close $3.2 million at Grant Cardone 10X conference. He had the crowd so dialed in he almost had me getting up to go repurchase Clickfunnels! I had just renewed my membership two months prior!
What makes your business/ company so unique among its competitors?
We focus on compounding growth within a company and then lead generation. Most agencies only talk or care about throwing new leads to clients. If they have (and most of them do) internal issue in how they handle their customer’s journey, then there are internal leaks in the business. We’ve seen that dramatically impact the results that clients get. It impacts customer lifetime value, churn, and them becoming advocates for the company.
We focus on that internal plumbing, and when we feel we have sealed the cracks in providing a better customer experience, then we focus on driving new leads through digital marketing strategies.
Our clients see compounding impacts across the board.
We focus on that internal plumbing, and when we feel we have sealed the cracks in providing a better customer experience, then we focus on driving new leads through digital marketing strategies.
Our clients see compounding impacts across the board.
Tell us about the time when you were seven or eight. Who/what did you want to be? Is it different from what you are doing now?
That’s a great question. I grew up playing football and other sports my entire life. Football always seemed to be where I excelled the most. I ended up playing at a Division I school. However, if I had to reflect on who my two heroes were, I’d say it was Michael Jordan for just being relentless in his will to win (also the greatest of all time) and Laurence Taylor.
I still carry the fire to win like Michael had when he played. LT was a little bit of a trash talker. That has never really been my style. However, the thing that ignites my fire as it did for both of these guys is people saying I couldn’t do something or more importantly losing!
I can’t stand losing! It is probably the most painful thing in the world that could happen to me. I love competition and I tell everyone betting on me is the safest bet I’ve ever made in life.
How that applies to my life now, I know if I’m involved and half influence in a project we will win. It may not always be in the timeframe I like but losing is not an option.
I still carry the fire to win like Michael had when he played. LT was a little bit of a trash talker. That has never really been my style. However, the thing that ignites my fire as it did for both of these guys is people saying I couldn’t do something or more importantly losing!
I can’t stand losing! It is probably the most painful thing in the world that could happen to me. I love competition and I tell everyone betting on me is the safest bet I’ve ever made in life.
How that applies to my life now, I know if I’m involved and half influence in a project we will win. It may not always be in the timeframe I like but losing is not an option.
Looking towards 2019, how do you think things are shaping up?
I think video will continue to become a significant point of content distribution. Leveraging that and repurposing it to fuel all other distribution points we be vital in growing your brand.
I also know that AI and bots are having tremendous success in communicating with audiences.
Last and I think most importantly is the acquisition of data. Facebook continues to get slammed by media outlets questioning the use of data they have on people. What the majority of the public doesn’t understand is Facebook is nothing more than a database.
Very similar user data is available outside of Facebook is available if you know how to find it. We partnered with a Data company late last year that allows us to get a tremendous amount of data points on existing customers, that then allows us to go and purchase that same exactly looking database of people we don’t know and then upload them into Facebook with 80%-90% match rate to target them for ads.
I know of only a handful of people who are using this model. Dennis Yu at Blitzetric as the only Facebook Ad Agency I know of using this model for client’s everyone is still relying on a Facebook interest which is being taken away slowly because of external pressure.
I also know that AI and bots are having tremendous success in communicating with audiences.
Last and I think most importantly is the acquisition of data. Facebook continues to get slammed by media outlets questioning the use of data they have on people. What the majority of the public doesn’t understand is Facebook is nothing more than a database.
Very similar user data is available outside of Facebook is available if you know how to find it. We partnered with a Data company late last year that allows us to get a tremendous amount of data points on existing customers, that then allows us to go and purchase that same exactly looking database of people we don’t know and then upload them into Facebook with 80%-90% match rate to target them for ads.
I know of only a handful of people who are using this model. Dennis Yu at Blitzetric as the only Facebook Ad Agency I know of using this model for client’s everyone is still relying on a Facebook interest which is being taken away slowly because of external pressure.
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