Setup guide: marketing and creative agencies

Who you are reaching

Owners and marketing leads at the businesses you serve. Not other agencies, who are the loudest people on LinkedIn about marketing and the easiest trap to fall into.

Prospects settings

• Their Job Titles: Owner, Founder, CEO, Managing Director, Marketing Manager, Marketing Director, Head of Marketing, General Manager. If you serve a vertical, add its titles: Dealer Principal for auto, Practice Owner for medical and dental, Broker Owner for real estate.
• Their Industries: the verticals you serve. This ranks, it does not filter.
• Words to Watch For: leads, slow month, Google reviews, no-shows, referrals, website, ad spend, cost per lead, rebrand.
• People to Skip: Marketing Agency, Agency Owner, Marketing Consultant, Freelancer, Fractional CMO, Growth Consultant, SEO Specialist.
• Words to Skip: hiring, we're hiring, agency life.
• Target Country: where your clients are. If you serve one metro, mention it in the audience description when you generate.

Train Allen

Bio: what you do, who for, one line on results, one on how you talk. Rules: "never mention our agency or services", "never say we can help with that", "no marketing jargon: funnel, omnichannel, synergy". Goal: show expertise through specifics. Length: medium.

Sample comments

On a dental practice owner posting that their new patient numbers dropped:

• Add insight: "When new patients drop and reviews are steady, it is usually the Google Business Profile, not the website. Hours, categories, and whether you have posted in the last 30 days move the map pack more than most people expect."
• Respectful pushback: "I would check one thing before blaming the economy: how many calls went to voicemail last month. We have seen practices lose a third of new patients at the front desk, not in the ad account."
• Ask a question: "Are the drop-offs in people finding you, or people finding you and not booking? Those are two completely different fixes and the second one is cheaper."

Autopilot

Five a day, weekdays. One audience per vertical if you serve several; tick them all. Agencies are the group most likely to have Allen comment on peers by mistake, so check the first week's morning emails closely and add any peer titles you see to People to Skip.

Watchlist

Your current clients (so you stay visible with them), your past clients, and the twenty companies you would most like to sign. Add the owner and the marketing lead at each.

The first DM

"Appreciated the reply. The voicemail thing is a quick check: call your own front desk at 12:15 on a Tuesday. If it is useful, I can send the two-minute checklist we use; happy to, no pitch attached." Specific, generous, no deck.

If you run Allen for clients

Each client connects their own LinkedIn and gives you their own example comments. Set up their audience with them on a call, turn on approvals in the Team workspace so you see every comment before it posts under their name, and keep approvals on. See the team guide.