From 400 Video Calls to Sold-Out Lunches: A Different Way to Grow an Agency on Happy Teams

During the pandemic lockdown, agency owner and digital marketing expert Nathan Lomax faced the challenge of virtual networking, conducting an overwhelming number of video calls. "At one stage, I was having 400 conversations a month. I had a super militant process of 20 calls a day, 30 minutes of time, 10 hours back to back," he recalls.   His business networking solution was simple: "The idea was to create a lunch, but in London that would allow us to have 40, 50 meaningful conversations, albeit in a two hour slot over lunch." This initial success led his agency Quickfire to pioneer in-person marketing events, scaling to host 45 professional networking events.   "The cost of running that amount of events comes to about £250,000 a year," Nathan shares. "So we said, okay, we will work with the ecosystem of partners, to sponsor. And so we will go to the tech partners. We'll organise it. We'll book it. We'll sort it."   The event marketing investment delivered solid ROI for the digital agency. "I've got 102 active deals in the last 80 days. We're booked on projects until probably October within reason. And realistically retainers have hit their yearly target at the end of March." But Nathan states that immediate sales aren't the expectation, instead, it's about building long-term business relationships.   Want to learn more about agency growth strategies and event marketing success? Listen to the full episode on the Happy Teams Podcast, your guide to digital agency leadership and business development.