5 Key Steps to Start a Digital Marketing Agency
[00:00:31] - Researching the Right Way
[00:01:35] - Creating Your Own Game
[00:02:18] - Starting Small
[00:03:11] - Defining Your Vision and Why
[00:05:07] - Empowering Your Team
[00:05:28] - System 1: Clarity
[00:05:49] - System 2: Positioning
[00:07:03] - System 3: Offering
[00:10:14] - System 4: Prospecting
[00:12:21] - System 5: Sales
[00:15:08] - Additional Systems and Agency Playbook
Are you starting your agency and struggling to figure out how to get your ideal clients? Have you figured out who your target audience is and how you can solve their biggest issues? We've all been there - staring at the mega agencies, mesmerized by their slick operations and overflowing client rosters. But here's the truth bomb: trying to replicate their strategies from day one is a surefire way to failure.
When you start an agency, it’s natural to want to look at what the bigger agencies are doing. Don’t do this! You’re not at their level yet and not ready to compete with them. You have to create your own game and the first step to get there will be niching down.
If you look at the bigger agencies you’ll see they offer a variety of services and work with many clients, but you don’t see how they got there. For example, Facebook didn’t compete with MySpace by going after everyone; they started with Harvard students, eventually expanded to many universities, and so on.
Agency owners need to focus on a specific niche, understand the needs and challenges of potential clients. This helps you position the agency as a trusted advisor rather than the as hero of the story. Ask yourself: What do I have knowledge in? Who can I help the most? What am I most passionate about? If you have your answers, start researching your niche and learn everything you can about it. Doing this will differentiate your agency from larger agencies and attract clients who align with your expertise and passion.
The next step is to figure out your why, what’s the vision? Where do you want to go? Clarity on these questions will help you identify what to say no to and course correct if you’re starting to lose focus.
Five key systems that are essential for agency growth:
Clarity: identify the why. What’s the vision? Where do you want to go?
Positioning: put the focus on the client as the star of their story.
Offering: figure out your pricing according to the value you deliver. Create a foot-in-the-door offer to make it less risky for people to commit to start paying for your services.
Prospecting: Don’t rely on referrals. You should have 3 channels for prosecting: inbound, outbound and strategic partnerships.
Sales: Keep the N.B.A.T framework in mind (Need, Budget, Authority, and Timing) to qualify your prospects and confirm they’re the right fit for your agency.
Once you’ve qualified your prospect and covered these five steps, it’s time to go through the three I’s. What’s the biggest issue? What’s the impact, and how important is it to them? You may be noticing one hundred different issues, but stick to what’s the biggest issue for them so you don’t overwhelm them. Next, have them define the impact your help could have on their organization. It should come from them so they’ll believe it. Finally, figure out how important it is to them. If it’s not as important, then go back and figure out their actual biggest issue.
If you want a more detailed version of this breakdown that covers each of these systems, check out the Agency Playbook. If you’re really serious about starting and growing an agency, this program is for you. Following these principles and implementing the five key systems outlined, aspiring agency owners can set themselves up for success and accelerate the growth of their businesses.
