According to the folks at Oberlo, more than $571 billion US dollars will be spent on global digital advertising in 2023 alone. This is a whopping 16.2% increase from the $481 billion spent on digital marketing in 2021, showing clearly that demand for these services is rising at an astounding rate. All types of businesses need digital marketing services, and many seek out skilled and experienced agencies to handle their marketing efforts online. That digital marketing agency could be yours. Find out everything you need to know to start your own agency and build a business blueprint for future success.
What is a Digital Marketing Agency?
A digital marketing agency interacts with customers and leads using websites, social media posts, emails, blogs, and other online channels of communication. They work to help their clients grow their customer bases, boost their sales, and get them noticed by the right people.
Most digital marketing agencies offer one or many of these services:
- Social media marketing
- SEO
- Pay per click (PPC) advertising
- Email and video marketing
- Influencer marketing,
- Web design
- Content marketing
Is Digital Marketing a Good Business to Start?
Digital marketing is an excellent choice when starting a business – and we can back this statement up.
The CMO Survey notes that marketers were expected to spend 57% of their total budgets on digital marketing activities in 2022 and that they’ll probably increase this expenditure by 16% in 2023.
How to Set Up Your Digital Marketing Agency
Setting up your own digital marketing agency may seem challenging, and the truth is that it will require hard work and dedication. Use these steps to simplify the process and cover all your bases.
#1: Decide Which Digital Marketing Services to Offer
When deciding which services to offer clients, it’s important to note that some agency types are more popular and in demand than others. Your choice will boil down to one of these three types:
- Full-service digital agencies. These agencies can serve pretty much all their clients’ needs, and often have large teams consisting of marketers, analysts, developers, and designers to handle SEO, social media, ad campaigns and more.
- Multi-channel agencies. These agencies don’t offer quite the same breadth of services as full-service agencies, but they specialise in a few key marketing channels.
- Single-channel agencies. These agencies specialise in a specific digital marketing facet, like social media management or SEO. Their laser focus allows them to deliver excellent results while dominating a specific niche.
#2: Define Your Target Audience
Digital marketing is a very competitive industry, so you’ll need to pick a niche to ensure that you stand out from the crowd. The more specific your niche, the better equipped you are to locate and communicate directly with your target audience.
#3: Set Your Business Goals
Your agency needs clear, concise, and achievable goals in place to grow and make progress. Setting goals in line with your vision and purpose for your agency will ensure you move forward in a beneficial direction with clarity about which steps to take next.
#4: Structuring Your Digital Marketing Team
If you’re running a digital marketing business alone, you’re a freelancer. If you’ve got a team, you’ve got an agency.
Building a capable team demands finding skilled, motivated employees to help you reach your goals, and putting the right training, recruitment, and management systems in place to ensure that they build a strong team dynamic.
#5: Getting Leads & Clients
Next up is securing the clients you need to prove your agency’s skills and help it grow.
Our top tip for attracting and winning clients is to spend as much time as possible marketing yourself in a way that sets you apart with a unique value proposition.
Start by creating a user-friendly, informative website for your agency. You can use it to showcase your work portfolio and web design skills, address your target audience directly and build trust with them, use content marketing and ads to send leads to specific pages on your site, and foster credibility in your brand and services.
From there, you can branch out into cold calling and cold emails, creating an impressive portfolio of your past work, skills, and success metrics, launching content marketing strategies with quality blogs, videos, and images, reaching out through your social media accounts, and mastering how quickly and reliably you deliver services to your existing clients.
#6: Where to Find Potential Clients
Social media networks, open directories like Yelp, and bulk website extractions will be your best bets for finding digital marketing clients. As your agency grows you may find more and more potential clients contacting you directly! There’s also:
- Direct outreach. Reach out directly to prospective clients using personalised phone calls and emails to introduce your business and detail your services.
- Word of mouth and referrals. Keep your clients happy and they’ll be likely to refer you directly to their colleagues, managers, and anyone else they know!
- Paid traffic. This includes PPC advertising, adverts, banners, and pop-ups, which generate new leads and sales at a rapid rate by increasing your exposure in search engines.
#7: Pitching and Working With Clients
Once you’ve secured a client’s interest, it’s time to prepare yourself for your initial meeting with a personalised elevator pitch; a rapid summary of the services you offer and the value you bring to the table. This should be no longer than a minute, as the key is to engage clients immediately.
If you secure the client, communication needs to be consistently clear, transparent, honest, and in alignment with their goals. Your reporting on progress needs to focus on their needs and concerns, and they should be involved in your process as much as possible.
#8: How much should you charge?
The average cost of digital marketing services in 2023 ranges between $1,000 and $7,500 per month (or £662 to £1,262 per month in the UK) for small to medium businesses, and more for larger organisations.
When deciding how much to charge, look at the average prices of the services of young agencies like your own, and use these as a guide.
#9: You Shouldn’t Do Everything!
No digital agency owner can do it all alone. You’ll need a passionate and experienced team to help you with client outreach, sales, marketing, working with clients, and handling any projects you take on.
If your budget is limited and you can only maintain a small team, consider using automation technology. This will streamline and simplify processes like customer relationship management and accounting.
#10: Building an Online Presence
There are five key aspects to your agency’s online presence:
- Your website
- Social media strategy
- Visual media production approach
- Paid advertising
- SEO
If you can build a strong online presence through your agency’s website and written copy, channels like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, and paid ad channels, you’ll be well on your way to reaching your target audience with tailored messages that address their specific needs.
Remember, you can use your online presence to build trust and loyalty between your brand and your clients as well.
Ready, Set, Go
Starting your own digital agency is no easy feat, but if you take the process step-by-step, you’ll be able to establish a successful business in your niche of choice. There’s never been a better time to break into this thriving industry.