For folks in marketing and advertising, the world is your oyster truly. Businesses of all sizes have woken up to the benefit of having professionals handling marketing, advertising, outreach, and content creation as well. But does that mean that your business will be fielding calls day and night with no effort? The reality is no, it will not. As big as the industry has become, the competition is quite stiff, and it takes hard work and a lot of smart work to hit your goals.
Often agencies rely on Word of Mouth rather than setting up robust systems for lead generation and customer engagement. The irony is that we recommend our clients not do that.
We hope that this meme does not apply to you. But if it does, then this is the time to invest in promoting your marketing agency. If not for anything, do it for the lead funnel you love so much. Nothing is permanent, even the best clients have budget cuts, and you have an agency to run irrespective of anything.
The marketing world can seem quite intimidating and effort-intensive to begin with, so here is a quick roundup of all you need to know.
Being in the industry, we know the impact of marketing. By showing up early and often on the platforms your customers frequent, you can scale your business with ease. But it so happens that in the humdrum of everyday agency life, the action goes missing. As Mr. Clear puts it in one of his bestselling books, Atomic Habits, actions make everything – you can be planning something for a while, but action is what makes it come alive.
So what does every up-and-coming marketing agency need to not fall off the wagon? Systems and tools that automate these processes to a large extent so that missing them is no longer an option.
We strongly believe that systems often win over random bursts of motivation and every social media platform (blogging to social media) agrees with us that consistency wins every time.
Some systems to put in place and smoothen your marketing process include:
It is quite basic, but just knowing what to post and when can help you cross a mental barrier in promoting your marketing agency. You can start with an excel sheet and then upgrade to tools like Evernote, Trello, Sproutsocial, and so on. Just put down your ideas on paper, and the sigh of relief will come instantly.
Marissa Pané, an online marketing strategist, uses Airtable to map out her firm’s content needs. She says, “The platform I use for my clients and my agency’s marketing calendar is Airtable. Each business is dedicated to one specific base and within the base, the tables are mapped out for overall marketing (blogs, podcasts, promos, events, etc.), social media marketing (which includes all platforms), as well as additional analytic information. Through Airtable, we’re able to see everything at a glance in the Calendar View and control who has access to edit which information.”
You can see how using a scheduling tool makes the process digestible and easy for the agency.
Automation is your savior. We know how intense things are at an agency with new clients coming on board and existing clients having queries constantly. You want your resource to handle those instead of remembering to upload the blog. Every algorithm appreciates a consistent content schedule, so leverage tools like Later, Coschedule, and built-in WordPress plugins to let automation take the wheel.
Last but definitely not least, you need someone dedicated to in-house content. If you are a budding marketing agency, then try to allocate dedicated days and time for content creation. Even if you choose to outsource some tasks like design or content writing (based on your requirements), having a dedicated team member handling it works better. Slips will be rare with one person keeping an eye on the ball.
Before we go any further, let us reiterate this most important piece of information: All marketing campaigns must begin with defining and understanding the target audience. For this,
Break down your niche: Are you a full-service marketing agency? Do you only do social media or influencer marketing?
Define the industries you want to target: Yes, you can work with everyone. But apply the 80:20 rule and choose industries and verticals that need you and are easy to convert. This knowledge will come from working with your sales and customer-facing personnel.
Use tools to build buyer persona: Hubspot has a buyer persona template that will make this easier. Or you can choose any template and set this out.
The answers you get here must guide the content you create, the platforms you choose to invest in, the content tone, and so on.
There is no hiding from it – video content is here to reign supreme for a long time to come. Irrespective of your niche and industry focus, investing in video marketing is important when you set out to promote your marketing agency.
Building landing pages to capture leads? Switch to video landing pages for better conversions
Sending newsletters to existing clients for referrals? – Include a video to improve your open rates and CTR.
Creating content on LinkedIn or using LinkedIn ads to attract HNWIs (High Net Worth Individuals) Use video to make communication easier and improve traffic to your website
These are just a few instances, but you get the point. Video can drastically improve the reach of your content and make life so much easier.
Start now even if you start small. Start by repurposing your blogs and other existing content into short-form videos on your platform of choice.
Reports suggest that customers go online to look for testimonials and reviews before opting in for any service. But why wait for them to look you up or chance to lose in the sea of content out there? Proactiveness is the name of the game so champion your reviews and testimonials on your handles – via newsletters, social media profiles, and website homepage, to name a few.
Sharing reviews online does not have to be boring. Be creative, repurpose them into videos, generate UGC from them, and even make memes from them. Pick the format that you feel resonates best with your audience.
Hearing from actual customers instead of influencers or business owners reduces friction in the conversion process like nothing else.
Your customers actually prefer brands that show them something new and go the extra mile in shaping perspectives. Sharing informative and well-thought-out insights can establish you as a leader in the industry, showing customers that you are the right choice for them.
Naturally, this is one of the methods that most marketing agency owners swear by.
Noah Kain, owner of Noah Kain consulting, says, “Twitter has been a fantastic channel to generate leads. It’s a great channel to share your expertise and case studies and grow an audience. I’ve found there are many brand owners and marketing managers on Twitter looking to learn from experts, and in turn, they often reach out to learn about becoming a client.
The most important factor to gain traction on Twitter is consistency. If you’re on there long enough and sharing valuable content, people will notice, and the leads will come.”
Danavir Sarria, who runs SupplyDrop, a firm that specializes in email marketing for ecommerce brands, has a similar strategy. “I focus on short-form Tweets and long-form Facebook posts where I share my email marketing philosophy. This, then, leads to leads messaging me directly or finding my agency site and applying to be a client. No video, but I will use custom images whenever necessary to help illustrate my lessons. The way to scale this type of lead generation is to get your winning concepts, turn them into long-form articles or videos, and use paid ads to promote it”, he describes.
This shows us that when you have something important to say, the key is to say it out loud and repurpose it until it reaches your audience.
A strong well-crafted social media presence is non-negotiable for a marketing agency. It is the key to building your personal brand, raising brand awareness, and connecting with your audience in their daily life. A marketing agency can leverage social media to:
Even if social media is not your forte, consider outsourcing to someone who can understand this and aid your growth.
See, staying on top of your game on social media is not that difficult after all.
On-brand ideas + Quality content = Social media success
After all, given that you have many resourceful tools that can help you create stunning copy and branding designs, what are you waiting for? Go change your social media strategy!
