Marketing agencies are relatively easy to set up: you name a brand, hire some people, file some paperwork, and build an agency website.
However, growing your marketing agency profitably can be quite a challenge.
Today, we’ll share some trusted insights on how to grow your digital agency, along with examples for you to bookmark and follow.
1. Specialize in your niche
A common mistake when setting up a marketing agency is to assume your services will always be needed by every company in the world.
Identifying a specific area of expertise and becoming the go-to marketing agency for it can set you apart from the competition.
This specialization allows you to focus your resources, knowledge, and skills, providing superior service in that area.
And although it involves narrowing down instead of expanding your services, it has its advantages.
It enhances your reputation in a particular area.
You can specialize in several different ways.
By industry: Select a niche that you are well versed in. Even better if you have an existing network within the industry. It could be real estate, online education, or for medical practitioners.
By type: Choose from e-commerce, lead generation, or conferences.
By platform: Becoming an expert marketing agency for a specific platform can attract users from Wordpress, Shopify or Instagram because you're considered an expert.
You may also be featured as a marketing partner on these platforms websites.
Narrowing down helps you attract clients who are specifically looking for your unique services. Rather than serving everyone, specialized agencies are better off offering a small number of niche services.
2. Optimize for search engines
Consider creating content clusters around your services as well as optimizing your website around keywords, rather than competing on social media presence and paid advertising.
As a digital marketing agency, SEO can be an effective channel for you because of its cost effectiveness and long term results.
Suppose you own a digital marketing agency that specializes in website design.
You might write about the benefits and importance of web design for various industries that you serve, or you might mention best practices.
You can plug in your website's main topic into Surfer Keyword Research to get a list of content ideas that you can write about.
For example, here is a snippet from a list of 87 different blog post ideas that Surfer generated for the term "website design."
Covering all of them can help you establish yourself as a trusted source of information for search engines. But you can also use the displayed keyword metrics to prioritize your content creation.
Keep in mind that SEO is a long-term investment with significant benefits, so it might take a few weeks before you see results.
But when the results come, they are meaningful and consistent.
Practicing SEO can also help show your clients that you know what you're doing. If they see your website show up in their searches, they'll be more likely to believe in your expertise.
3. Establish a powerful online presence
If you want to start a digital marketing agency and want to offer digital marketing services to your clients, your digital presence must be credible.
Having a few social media profiles set up or writing a couple of articles might not be enough, even for full service agencies.
You should be active and present online.
Here are some activities that can help you build an online presence:
- Posting relevant content on your social media channels
- Participating in forums and social media groups. For example, if you want clients for web design, you might want to join small business owner groups
- Publishing a few opinionated pieces of content on agency growth, either on your social media profiles or on industry blogs
- Hosting or speaking in webinars or podcasts
- Starting a newsletter where you will share updates and valuable material for your target audience
Your online presence is your digital storefront.
Make it inviting, engaging, and a true reflection of your brand.
Getting your digital agency's name out there will help you build a loyal audience and attract new clients.
Think of SEO influencer Matt Diggity as a good example.
As an SEO, Matt could have stuck with just his blog for organic reach. However, he also has a thriving YouTube channel and is prominent on podcasts and webinars.
And he uses these channels to funnel users into his marketing agency and SEO course.
4. Host a user-friendly website
Your website is your digital business card. It should be professional, easy to navigate, and reflect your brand's identity.
An effective digital agency website does not have to be complex, lengthy, or contain numerous sub-pages.
Even a one-pager can be effective for lead generation as long as you pay attention to your call to action buttons and unique selling proposition.
Australia based agency, King Kong, for example, has an interesting website that immediately draws attention to its expertise.
There's no reason for you not to have a website today. With the ease of tools and available options, you could easily setup a website in less than half a day.
Your website should include the following:
Why you are capable
Clients want to see how good you are and if they can trust you. Showcase your bio and your team.
Communicate why you are experts. Speak about experience and domain knowledge, and showcase any industry or niche specific knowledge.
Use social proof in the form of testimonials, client logos, and reviews that effectively communicate that you are a successful digital marketing agency.
What you have done
Share case studies and previous results on your website. Demonstrate your work with screenshots and actual data pulled from your campaigns. Display tangible evidence of your successful clients.
What you can do
Of course, you should also have a list of your services and offerings. Think deeply about how you want to present them. Are you offering bundled services that take care of everything or specific services like web copywriting?
5. Provide free consultations
You might want to consider giving some of your services away for free at the beginning of the client onboarding process or when you are just pitching your potential client.
It can be beneficial to offer free services to attract new clients.
Without any financial commitment, they can experience your expertise and professionalism for free.
This is also an opportunity for you to understand their needs and show them how your services can be of help to them.
KlientBoost, a popular and successful agency, offers a free marketing plan on its homepage in a bid to attract new clients.
The idea of free services doesn't mean giving full marketing packages away for free or working for nothing for months on end.
Instead, the idea is to offer audits or a free consultation.
If you have a SaaS product, you can also offer free trials, like Airtable does.
Your client or potential client can see that you are on the same page and that you have the skills to handle the communication.
It will also give you some idea of how the collaboration with these new clients might look and work in practice.
6. Showcase your success with case studies
Case studies from satisfied clients speak volumes about your expertise and capabilities. They go beyond typical reviews and testimonials.
In depth case studies describe the challenge, the solution, and the result your digital marketing agency delivered for a particular client.
Case studies provide concrete examples of how you've helped clients achieve their goals, often step by step.
Even a single case study can be more effective than a pitch deck in showing your potential clients what you can do for them.
Take the example of Victorious, another digital marketing agency. They have an entire page dedicated to their successes with past clients.
Case studies can also aid your content marketing by showing up in organic search results.
They can also work as a lead magnet for paid campaigns.
A good case study can serve as a learning tool for your team, helping them understand what strategies work, how they were put into motion, and, actually, why so.
Case studies can be instrumental in the decision-making stage since anyone considering your company can see how you've helped clients.
7. Prioritize client communication and transparency
Open and transparent communication builds trust with your clients.
And then, transparency leads to long-term client relationships. It simply ensures that everyone is working towards the same goals and managing expectations.
Preparing transparent and easily accessible marketing agency client reports with some space for notes is always a good idea so that your clients can comment and ask for progress.
You can also use project management tools to share progress with your clients.
Arrange regular meetings with your clients and keep each other informed on possible challenges, roadblocks, and achievements.
You don't have to spend a lot of time on them, but catching up can be good for customer satisfaction.
A good way to ensure strong client communication is to automate reports so that the client can receive a weekly summary of how things are going.
Acquiring a new client is often more expensive than retaining an existing one.
Implement a client retention strategy to keep your clients satisfied and loyal by monitoring their churn behavior. Review the points at which clients began to taper off so you can identify any at-risk folks.
A satisfied client is the best advertisement for your agency to potential clients.
8. Encourage internal professional development
Great results are the best way to retain your clients.
And a great team is instrumental to delivering success for clients.
To stay competitive in an ever-changing field like digital marketing, you need to invest in the training, development, and growth of your team.
Establish regular training sessions
Schedule periodic training sessions for team members to learn about digital marketing tactics. These sessions could be led by internal experts or external professionals, and they will keep your team abreast of industry developments.
Encourage professional certifications
Support team members in becoming certified in their area of expertise and offer to cover the cost of these certifications as part of their professional development.
Create a learning library
Create a 24/7 repository that includes books, online courses, webinars, and podcasts, along with guidelines, case studies, standard operating procedures, and tutorials. Make this asset accessible to all team members.
Promote attendance at conferences and workshops
As conferences, virtual events, and workshops are excellent learning and networking opportunities, encourage team members to participate in selected initiatives.
Implement a mentorship program
Pair newly hired team members with seasoned professionals within your agency. This can facilitate knowledge transfer and provide guidance and advice for less experienced members.
Provide opportunities for corporate marketing training
Present and match various areas within your agency so that members can broaden their skill set and gain a better understanding of the agency’s overall operations and growth strategy.
Encourage continuous feedback
Make feedback a priority and hold regular team meetings where members can share their valuable insights and learn from each other.
Recognize and reward learning
Providing verbal recognition, internal marketing awards, or promotions to people who make significant efforts to learn and grow can motivate others to take on and continue learning.
Make use of tools to gain a competitive advantage
To deliver the best results to your clients, carefully select, test, and use tools with your team. Experiment with new applications, and don't be afraid to add them to your tech stack.
A continued learning culture ensures your agency is always ahead of the curve while keeping your team at its best.
The teamwork and continuous learning environment make it easier for employees to stay in the company and deliver results.
9. Diversify your services
Offering a wide range of services makes your agency a one-stop-shop for all things digital marketing, making it convenient for clients to get all their needs met in one place.
This approach not only enhances client satisfaction but also supports a scalable digital marketing agency business model, as diversified offerings can increase revenue without the need for acquiring additional clients.
Rather than pleasing every client, it's more important to adjust your workflow for what your clients may need.
You can diversify your services while staying specialized.
For example, if you offer paid marketing services for a specific industry or platform, you can now include SEO, or influencer marketing in the same space.
This way, your clients aren't dealing with multiple agencies for their diverse marketing needs.
Since you have already established your expertise and delivered results in one area, potential clients will be more willing to take up additional service offerings.
Offering additional services can have the same effect on your revenue streams that a new client will have without any additional spending.
This can also reduce the chances of other agencies poaching your clients because they offer more services than you.
Controlling a client's entire marketing funnel can tie down clients long term and make them less reluctant to move away from your agency's services.
10. Increase your average order
The growth of your agency naturally leads to a growth in revenue.
You can do this by getting more clients on board, selling them more services, and also up-selling your current clients.
Cross-selling and up-selling are effective strategies to increase your revenue.
If your client is happy with one of your services, they're likely to be interested in others.
Your turnaround times, quality prices, and actual method of communication are familiar to them, so selling them some complementary services on top of what you already offer might be more successful than you think.
It's also a relatively easy way for you to structure your sales.
Working with a particular client means you know their needs, their pain points, and what else they might need when it comes to digital marketing services.
For example, if you offer SEO services, a natural up-sell would be to include content writing services as well. And once you've taken care of content, you may also offer link building services to build on your SEO strategy.
You can do the same thing with social media marketing. If you offer paid advertising, you can also expand to different platforms or content creation.
Whenever you see that a client might use some help with marketing, assess if that could be your next opportunity for sales and growth.
11. Collaborate with other digital marketing agencies
Digital agency networking can be very effective. This is why collaboration with other marketing agencies can be beneficial for both sides of this transaction.
Collaborating with other agencies can help you take on larger projects.
It allows each agency owner to pool resources and expertise to deliver superior service.
A solid collaboration can lead to growth and new opportunities.
For instance, if you own a copywriting company with a lot of talented copywriters on board but lack SEO skills, you might consider collaborating with other agencies on SEO content writing.
Alternatively, if you're a social media marketing agency without a graphic design department, consider reaching out to successful agencies in this field and asking whether they'd be interested in working with you on some projects or making client referrals to you, and vice versa.
Reaching out to agencies can be lucrative, but ensure that you are not reaching out to potential competitors.
Another way of partnering with agencies is to work under white label services.
In such an arrangement, you can offer a potential client marketing services that you are not actually implementing. Rather, you are outsourcing them to another agency that is willing to forego recognition in exchange for their fees.
Develop relationships with other agencies and run a referral program where you’ll be paying some sort of commission for qualified leads and prospective clients.
It’s better to be friends than foes in the digital world.
Key takeaways
- Identifying a specific area of expertise and becoming the go-to marketing agency for it can set you apart from the competition. This specialization allows you to focus your resources, knowledge, and skills, providing superior service in that area.
- As a digital marketing agency, SEO can be an effective channel for you because of its cost effectiveness and long term results. Creating content clusters around your services and optimizing your website around keywords can help you establish yourself as a trusted source of information for search engines.
- Your digital presence must be credible. This can be achieved by posting relevant content on your social media channels, participating in forums and social media groups, publishing opinionated pieces of content on agency growth, hosting or speaking in webinars or podcasts, and starting a newsletter.
- Offering free services at the beginning of any potential collaboration or when you are just pitching your potential client can be beneficial to attract new clients.
- Case studies from satisfied clients speak volumes about your expertise and capabilities. They provide concrete examples of how you've helped clients achieve their goals.
- Open and transparent communication builds trust with your clients. This leads to long-term client relationships and ensures that everyone is working towards the same goals.
- To stay competitive in an ever-changing field like digital marketing, you need to invest in the training, development, and growth of your team.
- Offering a wide range of services makes your agency a one-stop-shop for all things digital marketing, making it convenient for clients to get all their needs met in one place.
- Cross-selling and up-selling are effective strategies to increase your revenue. If your client is happy with one of your services, they're likely to be interested in others.
- Digital agency networking can be very effective. Collaboration with other marketing agencies can be beneficial for both sides of this transaction. It allows each agency owner to pool resources and expertise to deliver superior service.
Conclusion
It takes more than lead generation and customer satisfaction to grow digital agencies. For you to succeed, you must be prepared to drive constant growth in all areas of your agency.
While you should be looking to attract new customers, retaining successful clients will drive your agency's growth more efficiently.
Also, keep your financial health in mind when trying to grow your agency. You don't want to be in the red with higher overheads for too long.
