Mastering CRO for Clients with Keith Eneix
Keith Eneix (rhymes with “Phoenix”) got his start in print marketing in 2009 putting together a coupon magazine for local businesses. During his time at that job, Eneix came to realize that many of these businesses were pouring money into the “Wild West” of digital marketing but had little understanding of what kind of ROI they were getting.
In 2010, Eneix and his brother Neil started Fannit Marketing Services, focusing on local SEO and promising better ROI for small business clients. In 2013, they pivoted to content marketing and a year later Fannit became a HubSpot partner agency.
In this episode, Eneix (who can be reached via Twitter) explains how he uses a system of bolt-ons (not to be confused with the Boltons from Game of Thrones) to evaluate small business clients and help them convert digital leads into sales.
Lord of the Bolt-On
- Fannit is based in the Seattle area, consists of an entirely local team, and serves mostly local clients, including many small businesses and a few new businesses.
- Eneix emphasizes four stages for a new business: Start-up, Bolt-on, Growth, and Exit.
- To move into the Growth stage, three bolt-ons must be in place:
- Financials → Sales → Marketing
- You can’t bolt on Marketing until you have Financials and Sales figured out.
- “When we signed up with HubSpot a few years ago, it really seemed like ‘Hey guys! Go do some content for your clients!’… You’re going to drive leads to the bottom of the funnel’… and it still sounded like that’s all going to happen with content.” – Eneix
- Some clients (especially those with longer lead conversion periods) lack the sales bolt-on necessary to convert bottom-of-the-funnel digital leads.
- Responding to this need, Fannit is moving beyond mere lead generation, focusing on conversion rate optimization and introducing a sales bolt-on for small clients that need it.
- “We love working with some of our smaller clients in that area. We just want to see them be able to… improve on the leads that we’re sending them with that correct sales process in place.” – Eneix
- The HubSpot sales certification has been instrumental in helping Fannit help its clients with lead conversion.
- Eneix also uses the concept of bolt-ons to help decide whether or not to take on a client.
- Because some clients offer plenty of revenue without having any of the bolt-on building blocks of success in place, Eneix prioritizes quality clients over high revenues.
- Clients who gained success through a fluke and are trying to Hail Mary themselves to the next level are unpredictable and stressful to work with.
- “It’s a huge part of your sanity… I haven’t lived very long, but I’ve finally figured out that quality of life is better than money.” – Eneix
