[Top Agency Series] From Spare Bedroom to Agency Success With Dave Taylor of In Front Marketing

Dave Taylor is the Co-founder and Strategic Digital Marketer at In Front Marketing, a Calgary-based agency specializing in data-driven marketing solutions. Over the past decade, he has grown the agency to serve more than 500 clients annually, including prominent names like the Calgary Flames and Backyard Meats. With a focus on delivering measurable results, Dave ensures clients grasp the performance and ROI of their campaigns, driving significant increases in engagement and conversion rates. Under his leadership, In Front Marketing prioritizes transparency and communication, offering a full range of services, including SEO, digital advertising, and social media management.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [04:18] The importance of integrating data analytics into advertising campaigns
• [05:04] Crucial lessons Dave Taylor learned from his Yellow Pages experience
• [07:07] In Front Marketing’s startup journey and Dave’s early hustles
• [13:32] Why expanding office space was essential for the agency’s growth
• [17:02] The value of the first key hire in a startup agency’s journey
• [25:27] The milestone client that boosted In Front Marketing’s credibility
• [28:36] How programmatic ads fueled the early expansion and service diversification of In Front Marketing
• [32:37] The strategies behind winning and maintaining a major client
• [42:57] How a “helping people first” principle enhanced the agency’s success

In this episode…

What does it take to transition from working a corporate job to starting a thriving agency from scratch? How does one navigate the treacherous waters of entrepreneurship and carve out a niche in the competitive digital marketing space? Can a commitment to data-driven strategies and robust client relationships make all the difference?

Dave Taylor of In Front Marketing reveals how he tackled these questions throughout his journey. Starting in a spare bedroom, Dave’s agency has grown significantly by emphasizing the importance of data in digital campaigns. His early experiences at Yellow Pages and other corporate roles taught him what not to do, which he leveraged to build trust with clients by showcasing the direct impact of their campaigns. Dave’s collaboration with the Calgary Flames and other organizations highlights his agency’s success in providing clear, actionable insights that enhance marketing strategies and boost ROI.

In today’s episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Dave Taylor, Co-founder and Strategic Digital Marketer of In Front Marketing, about the evolution and success of the agency. Dave highlights the importance of data in digital marketing, the strategic steps involved in scaling an agency, and the value of fostering strong client relationships. He shares how his agency began in a small spare bedroom and evolved into a significant player in the digital marketing sphere, emphasizing a collaborative approach and community involvement.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Dave Taylor on LinkedIn
• In Front Marketing
• ClickUp
• Purple Day by Night

Special mentions:

• Calgary Flames
• Backyard Meats
• John McColman on LinkedIn
• Downhill Karting Calgary
• Klaviyo

Related episodes:

• [Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• [Top Agency Series] Navigating a Merger and Becoming an End-to-End Digital Partner With Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “Data was really a myth ten years ago. We focused on showing people that there was true impact.”
• “We don’t just grab boxes off the shelf; we look at each customer and determine what tools are going to be the best.”
• “For us, it was really about leveraging that data point of what dollar-for-dollar you’re doing.”
• “We stopped thinking about growing the business, and we started thinking about helping people.”
• “If you’re having that conversation of what’s the right time to hire, you’re probably past it.”

Action steps:

1. Leverage data for decision-making: This ensures decisions are backed by metrics rather than assumptions, opening up opportunities for optimization and growth.
2. Build strong relationships: Leveraging previous connections to secure clients can provide trust and support, crucial for leadership in any organization.
3. Scale your business environment strategically: Your physical space can influence your team’s collaboration and culture, contributing to overall business success.
4. Adapt and evolve services based on client needs: This flexibility allows leaders to meet evolving market needs and retain clients longer.
5. Give back to the community: This altruistic step not only supports worthy causes, but also builds your agency’s reputation and can lead to unforeseen opportunities and growth.

Episode Transcript

Intro 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Dave Taylor of In Front Marketing. Dave, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. 

Since this is part of the top agency series, a really good episode was Todd Taskey. Todd Taskey pairs agencies with private equity. He helps sell agencies essentially. And he’s got a great podcast, the Second Bite Podcast, second bite because he finds they’ll sell to private equity. They’ll take some money off the table, they’ll roll some equity in, and then the private equity will sell again. And sometimes the companies make more in the second bite than they do on the first. So really interesting talking about the agency space, the valuation space and just business in general. 

Another good one was Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech. Dave, he was interesting because he started in 1995, his agency. So we saw the landscape of business, the internet and the agency world all in one. So that was an interesting one. 

You know, going way back, we’ll even maybe talk about I know you had a stint at the Yellow Pages. If people don’t know what that is, it’s a big book that uses a doorstop now. But it used to be a main form of marketing for companies. And so we’ll hear about some of your experience there too, because that’s interesting to hear. You know, a lot of the fundamentals of online digital comes from print and direct mail and those kinds of things. 

So check out those episodes and more on InspiredInsider.com. And this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. And how do we do that? We do that by helping you run your podcast. And we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, the accountability and the full execution. 

So, Dave, we call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background and make it look easy for the host and the company so they can create amazing content, create amazing relationships, but most importantly, run their business. 

 You know, for us, you know, for me in particular, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships, and I found no better way over the past 15 years to profile the people in the companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on and their stories and their journey and their lessons. So if you thought about podcasting, you should. If you have questions, go to Rise25.com to learn more or email us at [email protected]. 

I am excited to introduce Dave Taylor. He’s been in the digital media space for over 15 years. He’s co-founder of In Front Marketing. You can check him out at InFrontMarketing.ca. And they’re a decade old, believe it or not. They work with clientele in all industries. They often have a long list of over 500 clients annually. They help organizations basically with digital advertising and anything that they need around the digital realm, and they make sure it helps their company’s overall bottom line. Right? 

They’ve worked with companies such as the Calgary Flames, hockey organization, Backyard Meats and many, many more. Dave, thanks for joining me.

Dave Taylor 03:38

Thanks for taking the time.

Jeremy Weisz 03:40

So talk a little bit about In Front Marketing and what you do.

Dave Taylor 03:46

Yeah, we’re a full service agency. I mean we’re located here in Calgary Alberta. We incorporated in 2015. Both my business partner, John and I come from corporate backgrounds, as you mentioned, working within Yellow Pages, working within Sun Media and Postmedia, which is our large newspaper organization, and we founded the company really just based on a need from customers asking questions for more data. Really not being able to understand, you know, if their campaigns were doing anything for them. 

You know, ten years ago, data was really a myth. And so we really just focused in on a couple of products that allowed us to connect in market advertising, to direct conversion points, to show people that there was true impact. And then over the years, we just formed into more of a full service agency offering things like website design, SEO, Google ads, social content creation, video photography. It really comes down to the client and the needs that they have.

Jeremy Weisz 04:47

To talk about. What were some of the learnings that you brought in your agency. Early on, I mentioned the yellow page groups. I know you did all advertising consulting for many years. What did you learn from those organizations that you kind of brought into your agency?

Dave Taylor 05:04

Well, I mean, for me, I learned a lot of the things that just were not being done properly. And the Yellow Pages is, I believe, still guilty of this, where they’ve got so many clients that they choose to turn a blind eye to data. And when I went, I actually left Sun Media to go to the agency side and working within an agency, it was only a couple of months that I realized that they were all kind of doing the same thing that they really wanted to promote, you know, branding, create your brand, create your tone of voice. And then once that brand is in market, people will really relate with it and that’ll do the work. But they weren’t leveraging any data points to really optimize campaigns or really help understand who they were targeting and what those people were doing. 

And the Yellow Pages, you know, is still doing this on a very, very large scale. And so are a lot of the large corporate entities where really they just want to, you know, customers with budgets, they’re running ad campaigns. Customers are very unaware of what’s happening. And this, you know, for agencies to really take a data first approach creates a lot of opportunity. And because we can very quickly come in and show where there’s opportunities for business owners to really connect the dots and see the impact that these campaigns are having as well as, you know, opportunities to see better performance. 

Because if you’re running campaigns without a connection to data, the systems themselves don’t have an opportunity to learn what a purchaser looks like or help you find more of them. And so that’s where I mean, that there’s a ton of opportunity when you uncover these businesses who are running blind in their campaigns. And, and really, that’s what helped us get started. And, that narrative is something that we’ve kept really close to the chest with, with all of our customers.

Jeremy Weisz 06:52

Talk about what life looked like when you first started the agency and took the plunge, because it’s not like you moved into this fancy office. You were hustling at the time. So talk about that time.

Dave Taylor 07:07

Yeah, well, it was honestly, it was probably two years until we really took a paycheck. And I think this is a really important thing to note for a lot of people who are considering starting an agency, is that the best thing that you can do is find a way to pay your rent without, you know, taking money from the company because there’s going to be a lot of bumps in the road and, you know, customers coming and going while you’re building trust and and trying to showcase what you’re capable of doing. There’s going to be some big increases in revenue and some quiet months. And so I was working in a restaurant, you know, I was waiting tables and, you know, 9 to 5, I was working on the business. I was working with my business partner John in his spare bedroom and, you know, two desks facing each other. 

And really, that was, you know, that was it for us, that tiny room for, for a couple of years and you know, at one point we just kind of looked at each other and said, I think it’s time for us to find some real space. But really, all that meant was we moved into a co-working space and a spare bedroom in an office building. And so it was a great choice because we moved into an agency focused space, and we built some amazing relationships with other agencies. And really part of our way of building the business was to be collaborative and to help, you know, find people who we could offer services that they weren’t offering in the market and vice versa, leverage the services that they were doing. And then kind of build relationships and have this collaborative approach towards clients so that we didn’t have to hire creatives, we didn’t have to hire designers, we didn’t have to hire website people or SEO technical experts. 

We were able to leverage the work that other people were doing and bring our client relationships there. And then we were able to act as media buyers and build programmatic campaigns and run Google ad campaigns and, and really just focus on the data aspect for a lot of other, you know, small, freelance or small agencies who didn’t offer those services. So that was our approach from the beginning. 

And then we discovered there was a company or a coworking agency, really that was kind of speaking our same language. And we moved into a 300 square foot office and stared at each other in there for three years in that same room. And, and you know, what it taught us was A – that we could afford to pay rent and and you know, that was kind of important for us to understand that we actually had a growing agency. And, you know, we didn’t have to worry so much about where the money was coming from and staring at the bank account all the time. We were able to pay rent and pay ourselves and quit our full time jobs. 

And so two years in, we went all in to the business and never looked back. And then so three years in the co-working space, and then we moved into a 2,000 square foot office. 

Jeremy Weisz 10:09

That was after the 300 square foot office?

Dave Taylor 10:11

That’s right.

Jeremy Weisz 10:11

That’s a big jump.

Dave Taylor 10:12

Big jump. We had four physical offices in there and eight desks, a boardroom and a nice lounge area, kitchen, big patio off the back on 17th Avenue, which is sort of the vibrant community space in Calgary. And again, very welcoming. We made sure to keep an office open for people that in our space could rent. It was rented by a website designer, it was rented by a freelancer, and then it was eventually rented by a business coaching company, which we built a great partnership with. And they’ve come with us now to our new space.

Jeremy Weisz 10:53

So it kind of offset some of the costs. Maybe you didn’t need the full space, but you rented one of the offices, kind of offset the cost and built in partner potential too.

Dave Taylor 11:02

That’s right. And we did the same thing with some of our desks. So we had a videographer who rents a desk from us. And and again, it’s just people who offer services and have access to clients in ways that we may not. And an opportunity for us to collaborate with them, share, work with them. 

And we always said, you know, anybody we meet along the way who doesn’t have an office and is in marketing, if you need a boardroom, we’ve got one. Come and host your meetings here at our space. It’s an opportunity for them to be introduced to us. It’s an opportunity for them to have a professional working environment. And really, you know, rather than having that room sit empty or an office empty or a desk empty, we just offer it to people. 

And now, you know, crossing into ten years in the business, we’ve moved into a beautiful 3500 square foot office. We’re kind of looking at the next ten years of the business as being a staple within the marketing community and growing. And we’re in Inglewood, which is sort of the agency dream. You want to know an agency in Calgary? Inglewood is where you want to own it. 

Some of the largest agencies in North America have a headquarters here in Inglewood. And this is a great community that just continues to grow. It struggled for a little while. If you came in ten years ago, there’s some empty spaces. There’s not a lot of restaurants, not a lot going on. 

It had kind of hit a bit of a roadblock, but now they’ve really invested into some nice multi residential units. There’s higher income earners living in here. It’s right along the river. So there’s beautiful homes that have been built and the restaurants have come back. The retail has come back. It’s become a lot more vibrant and it’s just a great place to hang your hat and own a business. And this is the first time ten years into business, we hung a sign on the street and we got the Inglewood Night Market here, which is just tons and tons of businesses all along the street, thousands of people every Friday night coming through, and they get to see our sign. And we’re super proud of that.

Jeremy Weisz 13:10

Dave, talk about, okay, so you go from 2,000 to 3,500 in that part of the journey. I know a lot of people in the past couple of years have downsized their office. So talk about the decision to actually double down and increase almost double your office space.

Dave Taylor 13:32

Yeah. Well I mean, we were forced just like everybody to do the work from home thing. And, you know, even during the move we spent, you know, 3 or 4 weeks with everybody disjointed and working from home and it just doesn’t work in marketing in a lot of ways. I think people are making it work. But the whole idea of owning a marketing agency is to have fun and really enjoy the relationships that they’re building, not just with your clients, but with your employees. 

And you know, for us, even we sat together yesterday and we’re talking about what can we do together as a team to go and have some fun together. It’s not just about going for lunch, but should we go to a paint night or should we go do something and we’ve been very fortunate over the years to always be able to do that sort of stuff and not just wait on a Christmas party. 

And I can tell you, when we’re working from home, the amount of stuff that just kind of goes by and, you know, timelines get longer. People aren’t asking questions. People feel like they’re on an island. They’re struggling with, you know, how to help a client when they have a question that they’re unsure of how to answer sometimes. And for me, I love being able to just walk out and talk to the team and pose a challenge and get an answer and have five, six, seven different voices speak up and say, you know, here’s how I would approach that. 

And so we don’t necessarily need right now all the space that we have, you know. We have eight working desks that we’ve moved over from the other space. And we have an additional at the back side here, six that we are in the process of building. And so we’ve allowed our team to almost double in size in the office. And then we still have a couple of remote, you know, opportunities that are here and there. 

But without that collaboration and the space to collaborate we can feel it just in the culture, in the work, in the personalities in all of it. And so it wasn’t a hard decision for us to move into a bigger office. It was actually an easy decision. And really for us, we can feel that we’ve got lots of opportunities to grow. The business, you know, almost grows. I wouldn’t say by default, but we get a lot of, you know, a lot of interest from different customers and we’re able to be a little bit more selective now. So we’re in a really nice place where we just again, we have opportunity ahead of us and we have to be prepared for it.

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