Agency Incubator is a new multi week course from Iman Gadzhi that costs $791. There's many SMMA courses out there now, but does this one deliver or is it another overhyped launch?
Let's find out in my Agency Incubator review.
Who is Iman Gadzhi?
Iman Gadzhimagomedov claims to have started his first business at the age of just 17 and this allowed him to travel the world. At 18 years he dropped out of high school and claimed to have made over $300,000 in his first year of business.
He now runs several apparently successful social media marketing agencies based in London.
He claims to be making $50,000 per month so decided to launch his first course called Six Figure SMMA, this year he's launched Agency Incubator off the back of his success from his first course. He also claims to work with clients 1-2-1 for rather hefty hourly fees.
His company is IAG Online Services Limited.
Agency Incubator Review
The course is split up into a 7 week training series. It's hosted on the Teachable platform ensuring videos look and feel great regardless of whichever platform you're using such as mobile, desktop, tablet.
These seven weeks are titled:
- Foundations
- Mindset
- Systems & Processes
- Finding Leads
- Sales
- Service Delivery
- Operational Supremacy.
Agency Incubator Impressions
The first noticeable thing is just how short this course is. Given the hefty price tag you're only getting access to, 42 videos of which 7 of these are those typical mindset videos to get you in the mood. I don't know about you but it should be fairly obvious you've got to have the right mindset to start a business.
Regardless, in Week 2 you'll get taught how to eliminate and focus, upgrading your health, breeding a circle of support and transcending your identity. It's clear Iman is no Tony Robbins, but this is complemented with a video on Brain Gym and Building 'Rome' brick by brick.
In fairness to the course this mindset module is over 4 hours long, but I think it's a little unnecessary.
Week 1: Foundations
The first week looks at the basics of getting started. The main videos include how to follow the course and make the most of it. A video on what SMMA is and how the business model works is included. I'd hope you know about this business model before buying the course though, right?
You'll learn what types of services you can offer, there's a few. Then you'll pick a niche and you can work with any type of business but Iman shows you some stand out niches to focus on.
A video on the tools you need to succeed with SMMA is included as well as a gettinf started video for laying out the foundations of the course.
Week 3: Systems & Processes
These are operational videos such as how you are going to get paid for your services. You'll also learn how to price your services correctly and distinguishing between good and bad clients.
You'll learn with a short video how to on-board clients correctly, covering your ass is especially critical here so you'll need a brief contract drawn up.
You'll also learn how to keep track of your accounts correctly and dealing with cashflow correctly. This links back to the different pricing points offered.
Lastly there's a video on how to communicate effectively with your clients.
Week 4: Finding Leads / Meetings
The course gives you a basic overview on how to find leads, cold calling and appointment setting. I was hoping there would be further insights into using appointment setting services, especially if you're not confident on the phone.
You'll learn how to find leads using Iman's technique, storing these and organzing them before cold calling or cold messaging.
If you're from the USA cold messaging might be legal but in most parts of the world it's not and is considered spam. Something to note as it wasn't mentioned.
I'd have liked to have seen some real life examples of Iman cold calling himself, showing us how to do it.
Week 5: Sales
This week you'll learn about the sales process and how to go through the sales script to sell prospective clients on your services.
You'll also learn how to deal with rejections and those that are stuck on the fence.
A decent amount of content here but again it feels like it's lacking a lot of information that a beginner would really need to know to actually get sales.
Week 6: Service Delivery
This week looks at social media management and how to handle everything when you're actually working with a client.
You learn the foundations for Facebook Ads and assembling audiences. You'll learn how to create your first ad, what types of ads to create and ultimately go live.
You'll learn through a one hour video how to become an expert copyright and win the Click through rates your client will need.
Lastly there is a section on increasing your ad spend and scaling plus how to create and tailor ads for local businesses looking for local clients.
It's a great module but the Facebook Ads section was very short. I've seen some courses offering 20-30 videos on the entire process whereas Iman has got 4.
Week 7: Operational Supremacy
The last week looks at outsourcing by creating a team to help you. Another mindset video is included on staying on top and lastly a video on increasing your bottom line.
If I'm honest it feels like the course ended suddenly without warning.
What’s Missing In Agency Incubator?
I believe this course is a great introduction to SMMA but the course is far from complete in my opinion.
Iman has had huge success with his Six Figure SMMA course and of course he has launched another course as he's making a lot of $$$ from selling courses.
But here's what's missing that I feel a beginner needs to know:
- There's no done for you contract examples to give clients (crucial)
- There's no sales scripts that can be downloaded and adapted
- There's no real life examples of him or students getting clients
- There's a real lack of Facebook Ads understanding and guidance
The real deal breaker here for me is this,
Iman gives you the foundations but after Week 6 you're pretty much on your own.
There's no guidance on what to do when your client calls you saying no one is actually using the special offers you're promoting. Anyone can chuck an ad up on Facebook offering a 50% off voucher for a local business but actually getting those people to use the voucher, go the store and redeem it is a different story. Also how can you track those people to justify if it's worthwhile running those ads?
Reporting and analytics, follow ups, lead generation is a huge part of SMMA and it's just been left out?
Can you make money with SMMA?
If you compare the number of small to medium businesses in the United States and around the world, you'll understand just how big the market actually is.
Recent reports have said that less than 1% of businesses actually knows how to use social media effectively to drive traffic to their business.
While most business owners have sleepless nights, hoping the phone will ring from those yellow page listings they placed last year, savvy entrepreneurs are using social media experts who can run ads for them.
And that's where you come in, offering your services through your own SMMA.
It's a win win for both parties, you get a monthly retainer as well as any commissions and your clients get new leads and hopefully sales too.
Any one who would turn down free leads for their business must be smoking something funky so you're already half way there with your marketing too.
Offer a free trial and you'll start to see results fast.
So in answer to my question, yes you can make money with SMMA.
My #1 SMMA Recommendation
I've spent years running a social media marketing agency, long before courses such as Agency Incubator came along.
I know what it takes to be successful with SMMA and you need a lot more information and real life examples such as cold calling scripts, done for you contracts, email templates, done for you Facebook ad examples.
You also need a coach who can help you and isn't going to launch a new course every few months claiming to offer the next big thing.
After reviewing over 20 SMMA courses, The SMMA Blueprint is definitely the largest and most concise course available right now.
Agency Incubator is a good course, (it's not a scam) for a beginner but it's lacking in a lot of areas to justify such a high price tag. There's a ton of good information out there so when buying a course you expect something different. As far as I'm aware there is no discount coupon code for this course.
Last Updated on January 7, 2021 by Rhys Dale
Rhys is the owner and chief editor at Im Rhys and is living in Chisinau, Moldova. With over 15 years experience in eCommerce and Affiliate Marketing he has started many successful 6 and 7 figure businesses. After successes with USA and China dropshipping, he expanded into building 70+ micro affiliate websites in 30 different niches that generate money on autopilot. He now helps his wife to run her social media agency as well as travelling the world at every opportunity.