How to Start a Marketing Agency and Get Your First Client Fast
📖 Learning
Starting a marketing agency from scratch and taking it to the heights of success can seem like a big dream from where you are standing right now. We do not say it’s a piece of cake, but we do say that with the right guidance, knowledge, and resources, it is possible to turn your dream into reality.
Don’t panic; with resources here, we do not mean spending a large amount of capital, but the right skills that you will have to work hard for.
In this article, we will discuss everything about starting, running, and scaling a marketing agency. So, if you are struggling with questions like, Should I get into the marketing business? How do I get started? Where will I find my first client? Etc., then you have landed on the right page.
So keep reading...
The Marketing Business
How to Start a Marketing Agency
- Gain Some Experience
- Decide Your Niche
- Develop a Business Model
- Decide on How You Want to Scale
- White Labeling
How Do You Get Your First Client as a Marketing Agency?
The Marketing Business
If you would have thought of entering this business around a decade ago, the road was too difficult to travel. The primitive landscape was scary, and you only had limited options like physical and traditional media.
However, with the advancement of technology, the world has shrunk and is still shrinking. Anything you wish to know is just a click away. This has obviously made our lives easy, but the competition is tough.
The marketing business is huge, as marketing and advertising are required by every brand. This helps shape the public's sentiments towards their product. This is why it is also one of the fastest-growing businesses.
The Indian advertising market reached a value of INR 743 billion in 2022. Looking ahead, IMARC Group projects that the market will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2% from 2023 to 2028, reaching INR 1,412.5 billion.
How to Start a Marketing Agency
The advertising and marketing industry has attracted several big and small companies that have entered or are still trying to enter and make their mark in the field.
If you are also trying to do the same, we have provided you with insights into this business. Through this article, we will guide you on how to start your own marketing agency in five simple steps. Let’s get started.
Gain Some Experience
If you are a newbie it is strongly recommended to gain some relevant experience along with the required skills before you actually begin. You might be creative and intelligent and would have watched a number of YouTube videos and read many blogs on how to run a marketing agency, but this is not enough.
To run a marketing agency you have to have practical experience and knowledge of the field. If you are thinking of learning while earning, we are sorry, but you are planning to fail miserably.
And not just that, the mistakes that you will make during this initial phase of your career may ruin your reputation forever ultimately forcing you to give up on your dream. Therefore, you better consider this as a life-saving tip. Get some experience and develop the right skills before you get started.
But the question here is how do you do that? There are a few ways in which you can gain some experience as well as brush up on your skills to prepare yourself for the marketing niche. They are:
Take a job: You can work with a marketing agency to understand how things work. This will help you understand more about the ground-level realities, how to deal with the clients and provide them with insightful details.
Partnership: If you want to get started really early but lack the relevant experience you can partner up with some existing marketing experts. However, remember that only complementary partnerships last in business. So, make sure you have something to offer in return for their experience.
Hire an expert: You can also hire a veteran from the field if you have enough capital to invest. This can be the first step in developing the right team that can help you establish yourself in the business.
Collaborate with vendors or investors: They can help you during the early stages of your business. However, this option is recommended only if you have some knowledge and experience in the field. This will help you learn some business tactics and strategies.
Although learning is a lifelong process, having appropriate experience in the field before entering it can benefit you in more than one way. Lacking the skills to manage accounts and client relationships can cost you years of failure.
There are multitudes of expectations as well as politics that you will learn through your experience. This will help you develop a better understanding of the field and make you an all-around professional.
However, skills must accompany your experience as the latter can only help you gain and manage clients but the first will help you generate customer satisfaction that will work as a magnet for the success of your business.
Decide Your Niche
You might be looking at the marketing business and thinking of conquering the entire landscape but before you do that, we have some advice. Looking at the long goal, it is obvious you would want to try every single field however, beginning with a simple goal is a better idea.
We understand how eager you are at the initial stages of business, wanting to take up any offer that comes your way, and turning down an opportunity at this point can be heart-wrenching. But trust us, this is how it works.
You cannot be the master of all fields right from the beginning. Therefore, it is advised to choose one niche at a time and move forward to the next as soon as you gain expertise. Meanwhile, if you can expand your business you can also delegate or reallocate your responsibilities to your juniors.
This also helps you find your ideal customer and streamline your business which will help you keep things organized for the long run. Also, it is easy to gain information and skills related to one field at one time, this will help you grow faster.
Further, it will also save you time as you clearly understand your target market, customers, and their requirements. You will be able to provide a pleasant experience to your client who can then turn into your loyal long-term customer and may even recommend you to other allies in the field.
In addition, it also gives you a competitive advantage. It has been found that clients are more likely to trust agencies that serve similar businesses. They are able to trust you better and you are able to relate to their requirements. This helps you build a bond with your client which is very important in this field of business.
Parnas Ghosh
Develop a Business Model
So now you have the desired skills and also know the niche you would like to pursue. The next question is, How do you plan to get paid?
Although the price you can ask for depends on the quality of services you can provide and how efficiently you are able to manage your clients, you will have to let your client know in advance how you expect your payment to arrive.
There are multiple models of payment in the marketing industry. They are:
Hourly Basis
This payment model is usually adopted by counselors who have to spend a major part of their time in one-on-one meetings with their clients, either on-call or in person.
However, there are a number of issues related to this model. Normally, it is difficult to convince the client of the number of hours you have given for their work. This becomes more difficult when the association is short-term or the client does not appear satisfied with your work.
It is complicated to convey that you spend "X" number of hours per week on a particular task. This usually creates confusion. That is why this model is least preferred unless one-on-one consultation is a part of your service.
Monthly Basis
It is one of the simplest payment models. A contract can be signed with the client indicating a fixed amount of money to be paid in lieu of your services.
This helps you avoid any complications that may arise at the time of invoice generation. The client already knows his dues and you are also aware of what to expect at the end.
However, this model is only useful for long-term clients as the payment has to be made at the end of each month.
Moreover, you might face difficulty if you sign a contract with a fast-growing business that makes much profit through your work in comparison to the amount offered to you in return for your services.
In such a situation, it is advised to sign a quarterly contract so you have the opportunity to renegotiate your prices at the end of the contract.
Percentage of Spend
This is the pricing model most popular among the big marketing agencies. As they are dealing with big companies as clients, it is often a good idea to set aside a profit margin for your services.
However, during the initial stages when you are building your network, this might not be the best option to go for. This is also true as, in the beginning, you are mostly dealing with smaller companies that have a relatively small budget for marketing.
In this scenario, earning some percentage of that small budget might not be the best idea, especially when you have to devote ample time and effort to the work. Therefore, it is advised to keep the monthly payment model during the initial stages and switch to the percentage-based payment model as your company grows.
Commission-Based
This is the competitive model of payment. This means you are only getting paid in return for the business your client is getting through your services. This is an extremely powerful way to develop a trustworthy relationship with your client, as you can assure them that you are trying your best to help them attain success.
As soon as you propose this model, the client gets patently inclined toward your deal. However, unless you are an expert in the field, we would not suggest you opt for this model, as in the case of unsatisfactory results, you might have to bear huge losses. Another thing that you should incorporate into your business model is the liabilities and taxes that your company has to pay to the government.
Instead of taking the entire burden on your shoulders, we would recommend outsourcing an expert for this purpose. This will not only help you save a lot of money but will also allow you to focus on your business while leaving the worries in competent hands, just like your clients.
Gorish Dua
Decide on How You Want to Scale
When you think of starting to build your marketing agency, you are obviously inspired by the companies that have big offices in commercial areas with a number of employees working for them. This can be your future provided that you start your business on a profitable side and keep enhancing the profit margin.
However, opting for a big office and other facilities since the beginning of your business may only increase your bills and you will take longer than usual to attain the profit stage. Also, this can severely impact the scalability of your business.
Our suggestion will be to begin alone and aim for personal survival in the business. This will not only help you enhance your skills but also give you the confidence to lead a team in the future.
Later, when you decide to expand your business, you will be able to hire talented and skilled employees who can actually be an asset to your business. Moreover, within this time you will be able to estimate the routine cycle of business like how long it takes to find new clients or how much you can earn within a month, etc.
Further, dealing with things at a personal level initially would help you provide job security to your employees as your business is in the growth phase. However, if you are unable to handle everything on your own you can find contractors. These are skilled people who help the agencies on a contract basis. This will give you a priceless business experience while running a profitable experience.
White Labeling
As a beginner, even if you do not have an in-house facility for many services, you can use white labeling. These white-labeling companies will brand the services under your name so you can easily sell them to your client.
This way you will have a large number of services to offer to your clients who would not mind paying a handsome amount in return as they don’t have to run from place to place for every small or big thing.
You can keep the price slightly above what you are paying to your partner company. This way the client can avail of the services at a reasonable price and you will also have a good profit margin.
You must remember that your initial clients are not just clients they are also your human advertisements. If you serve them well they will spread the word faster than you expect and you may soon have a list of clients to serve.
So do whatever you can to make your first clients happy offer them discounts, give extra benefits, and work until they are actually satisfied. This will earn the referrals that you and your agency deserve.
How Do You Get Your First Client as a Marketing Agency?
This is the most important question, as without an actual client, all the strategies, knowledge, and every single point discussed above will be useless. So, how do you get your first client?
With the high level of competition, finding your first client and establishing yourself in the market can be really tough. Fortunately, there are ways that will help you stand out from the crowd and make your mark on the field.
Use Social Media
Yes, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter are not just here to advertise for your clients. You can use them to your own advantage as well.
Connect with your friends and tell them you have started a marketing agency and are looking for clients. As a marketer, there is no room for shyness, so be clear and confident. You are not asking for a favor, even if someone refers a client to you, they will only stay if you can provide them with quality service.
Tell everyone around you about your area of expertise and how you can help brands advertise themselves.
Jhalak Mogra
Join Professional Groups Online
These groups are available on Facebook, LinkedIn, and most other social media channels. Just log in to your account and search for marketing agency groups and join each one of them.
These groups will help you generate leads so you can connect with your ideal target customers and also with other people from the same industry. Remember, your agency is as good as the number of leads you can get. You can also join your niche-specific groups. For example, if you think realtors are your ideal clients, go start joining some realtors groups on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Once you have joined try posting something relevant and impressive to get noticed every once in a while. Don’t spam the group with very frequent posts, nobody likes that and you may even be thrown out.
Create the content yourself, do not just copy and paste, everyone these days has access to the internet and can easily find the source of the stuff that you posted. Be unique and provide valuable content.
You can also post content like past client success stories or similar things. The idea is to stay in the eyes. So anytime, any of these people think of hiring a marketing agency your name pops up first in their mind.
This way you will be able to earn the trust of your target customer and establish yourself as an authority as you are providing information that is not available easily. This makes getting clients way easier. There is A high chance that the customers start to approach you instead of you having to pitch them.
You can also add people from the group as friends but do not do it in one go as this may lead to Facebook blocking you. Add 15 to 20 people every day. This might take around half an hour of your day but it is the easiest way to earn clients without spending money.
Also, make sure you connect with everyone who comments or likes your post. Answer any questions in the comment section as early as possible. Check your inbox frequently even the spam folder as many messages land there.
Make Yourself Visible
The entire purpose of the marketing industry is to make a brand highlight itself amongst its competitors. As a marketing agency, you must first be able to do that for yourself.
In terms of digital presence, you must follow good SEO practices because if you do not appear in the initial few searches of the client how they can trust you can help them do that?
Frequently appearing in searches will help you make a great first impression that will last with your client as your actions are already speaking loudly about your work.
Roshni Tamta
Use Google
If you are thinking of setting up your business locally, use Google to search for relevant clients. For example, if you are planning to serve realtors, you can search real estate agencies near me.
Most of the agencies that will appear in your search are already using some kind of advertisement services to appear in the list. This means they already understand the power of marketing for the growth of their business.
This will make it easier for you to convince them to use your services. Also, as they are already an established business they have the money to spend on advertising.
You can get contact details by visiting their pages or websites. There you can also find some details regarding their services and the company history which will help you prepare a better pitch.
Still, even when you are able to generate leads and get clients to remember only your services can make these contacts last. No company is stupid to keep investing its money in services that offer no returns.
So give your best shot while working for your clients. In the initial stages of business, we even recommend working for free for a few clients to gain some experience as well as a reputation in the market.
If you are not comfortable working for free you can make offers that may be irresistible to your clients and also make them trust you. For example, a very powerful idea is telling your client that you will only charge for your services when you are able to bring results for them.
This will make them believe in you and also will make you work harder to earn your money.
Conclusion
Running and managing a marketing agency can be tough, especially today when the market is loaded with competition. The key to success is confidence. Most people out there are offering similar services. The only difference is the ability to convince the client.
Marketing and advertising are all about understanding and relating to human psychology, both for yourself and for the benefit of your clients. In the end, remember that failures are inevitable. Everyone experiences failure at one point or another in their career. So don’t let them take over your confidence. Learn from each of your mistakes and keep moving to become invincible.
We can assure you that if you are committed to your goal and ready to keep learning, you will soon be able to run a successful marketing agency.
FAQs
What is the value of the Indian advertising market?
The Indian advertising market reached a value of INR 743 billion in 2022. IMARC Group projects that the market will increase at a CAGR of 11.2% from 2023 to 2028, reaching INR 1,412.5 billion.
How do you start a marketing agency?
To start your own marketing agency, follow the following five simple steps:
- Gain Some Experience
- Decide Your Niche
- Develop a Business Model
- Decide on How You Want to Scale
- White Labeling
How do you get your first client as a marketing agency?
You can get your first client as a marketing agency by using social media, Google, joining professional groups online, and making yourself visible.
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