How To Ensure That Your Marketing Agency Stands Out & Succeeds
Whether launching a new marketing agency or looking to take your current venture to the next level doesn’t matter. The harsh reality is that it is a very crowded marketplace. As such, a clear strategy must be put in place to ensure that yours is set to succeed.
It might sound like a daunting prospect, but this guide will show that small steps can yield huge results. Use the following advice for guidance and you won’t go far wrong.
Define Your Niche
As is the case with any business, it’s only natural that you want to reach the biggest possible audience. Ultimately, though, a generic approach may cost you a lot of sales. Your clients need to know that your marketing agency is the right match for them, which is why a defined niche is essential. Notably, the marketing sector is now worth $1.7trn. When combined with the number of firms that turn to agencies for their online and offline campaigns, you will not be short of potential clients.
The niche could be defined by the industry, such as offering marketing services for the health and fitness sector. Or you may prefer to limit your reach by geographic location. Once you have found your place in the market, it should guide all future decisions relating to branding, services offered, and pricing. Building a strong reputation in your chosen field will give you a far better shot at success than becoming lost in a sea of generic agencies.
Get To Know Clients
Understanding your place in the market and showing that you can provide the right services is one thing. But clients also need to know that your marketing agency will provide a tailored approach that aligns with their objectives. The good news, however, is that once a strong relationship has been cemented, it’s likely that you’ll retain their custom. This could lead to the addition of new products later on or recurring monthly services. After all, effective marketing is an ongoing task rather than a one-off assignment.
Offering a free consultation to all prospective leads is advised. It shows professionalism, adds value to them, and helps you get to know their needs. In turn, you can build a defined marketing strategy to hit their marketing objectives. Meanwhile, onboarding SEO clients and setting clear workflows before starting is key. It will make the subsequent processes far smoother. Not least because it opens up a dialogue where services can be tweaked if needed later on.
Focus On Your Agency’s Online Visibility
Before worrying too much about the marketing strategies used to support your clients, you must master your own campaigns. Firstly, effective branding is needed to show prospective leads that your agency is a suitable match. More importantly, though, you cannot expect a company to trust you with their strategies if you couldn’t even get your brand noticed. With this in mind, it’s important to see yourself as your first client. In truth, it may be the most important business relationship of all.
Frankly, you do not need advice on what makes a good marketing campaign as this is your area of expertise. Nonetheless, it’s important to put yourself in the shoes of your prospective clients so that you can make the most of your campaigns. Understanding where they are likely to discover your agency allows you to spend time and money more effectively. They will research your business too, which is why testimonials are a key factor. Embrace it.
Provide An All-In-One Solution
When thinking about what clients want from a digital marketing agency, you should land on a few key factors. They crave affordability, measurable results, and convenience. Most businesses will want their marketing efforts to run seamlessly in the background. This lets them focus on running their company. With this in mind, it’s important to show that an agency can satisfy all of its immediate and long-term marketing needs. Keeping all marketing campaigns under one roof will make life easier for clients.
In turn, you should find that the all-in-one approach leads to more conversions and increased lifetime customer values. Whether you plan to offer bespoke packages or use multi-tiered pricing structures is up to you. Either way, an all-in-one approach to marketing should cover online and offline matters. You can extend this to ordering printed materials, managing PPC budgets, and delivering reports. Deliver results, and clients will stay loyal for life.
Be Open To Collaborative Efforts
Just because you will provide an all-in-one solution, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll manage everything. As an agency, your primary skills may be found in web design and SEO or video marketing and audio content. Or you may be focused on bringing brands to life so that future marketing campaigns will resonate with an audience. Either way, you will quickly discover that you needn’t be an expert in every aspect of marketing to deliver incredible results. Outside support is readily available – as long as you are open to it.
This could mean hiring an outsourced agency to handle certain elements of the overall strategy. Perhaps more common in today’s market is the prospect of teaming up with influencers. Whether reaching out to them directly or connecting to an online talent agency is up to you. When the right personalities are selected to promote the brand you’re working for, visibility with the desired audience will soar. Influencer marketing can bring amazing ROIs.
Invest In Your Workforce
When launching a modern marketing agency, outside support isn’t the only help you need to consider. Designing, developing, and delivering comprehensive marketing campaigns is far from easy. Not least when you have multiple clients to manage, including many that require ongoing services. It is far too much work for one pair of hands, which is why a strong workforce is essential. Firstly, you need to recruit a group of individuals that boast a diverse set of skills. This is as well as the creativity and work ethic to provide high-quality work.
Employees will often be responsible for managing accounts and interacting with clients. Likewise, their innovations will be at the heart of all marketing campaigns. Therefore, you need to keep them happy and engaged. Creating comfy workspaces with ergonomic chairs and great breakroom facilities should aid the cause. Other businesses will buy into the people behind your agency. A focus on your team will bring out the stand-out quality.
Be Approachable
The value of communication has already been mentioned in the consultation and onboarding phases. However, it needs to be an ongoing commitment too. For starters, you should ensure that the business is approachable. You can do this through the use of chatbots, live chat assistants, and other client care tools. Most businesses that your agency serves will benefit from a dedicated account manager. Offering monthly meetings to discuss progress and plot the next steps is another useful step.
Your job is to deliver client satisfaction. This will become a lot easier when the customer feels comfortable in providing feedback and asking questions. You will subsequently be positioned to modify your approach and keep satisfaction levels at the desired levels. While some clients won’t care for it, offering the opportunity to educate them on some of the marketing aspects is ideal. It can be achieved with tutoring or explainer videos.
Prepare To Say No
The thought of rejecting a potential client seems counterproductive. However, the truth is that your marketing agency needs to take a tactful approach. It is particularly noteworthy in the infancy of your business venture because taking on the wrong client may stop you from helping a better one. Even if this isn’t an issue, problematic clients can quickly harm your momentum. Employee morale can fall, unfair revisions can harm your finances, and it’s likely that your reputation will suffer too. Especially if the client is vocal.
The good news is that you probably won’t have to reject a client or sever the ties very often. More commonly, though, you may need to advise them that a service isn’t necessary. While you could complete the task, the fact it won’t benefit the client will lead to low satisfaction levels. Therefore, showing transparency and making suggestions is vital. The end decision should be with them, but at least it will be a calculated decision.
Plan Your Growth
All of the above steps are essential in your pursuit of immediate success. In truth, though, navigating the phase of establishing your business is only the start. If your agency truly wants to succeed, it will need to expand and grow over time. Even if this does not occur for several years, you should think about it today. If your niche is focused on a location, the obvious route to expansion is to reach new geographic markets. Or if you focus on a niche industry, starting a sister marketing agency in a similar field could be the answer.
Another possible solution is to slowly take care of more services through in-house efforts. For example, if you have used a video marketing company, you could look to make this a new branch of the operation. Alternatively, you may wish to consider turning the marketing agency into a franchise. In this instance, you’ll let other marketing entrepreneurs use your blueprint in return for a percentage of their profits. Perfect.
Melissa Stewart is the founder of SheOwnsIt.com. She is a Purveyor of Possibility, Entrepreneur Advocate and Coffee Addict. She believes that behind every successful woman is her story. What’s your story?
