Marketing and advertising agencies are in a unique position right now. Business owners in every industry are either pivoting their offerings or migrating online—and they need smart marketing and advertising strategies to stay relevant.
That’s where your company comes in. Here are five tactics you can use to grow your marketing or advertising agency.
1. Highlight your core offering
Promoting your agency’s core service offering is a good way to stand out and attract new clients. Plus, narrowing your focus can free you up to accept more work. After all, when your team doesn’t have to switch strategies for each project, you can tighten your workflow and reuse the same methods of measurement.
To identify your agency’s strengths, start by reviewing your portfolio, project analytics, and financials. Which service accounts for the majority of your work? Which one generates the most revenue? Which verticals do you have the most experience and success in?
Once you pinpoint your specialty—whether it’s SEO, video marketing, or branding—work on promoting it. You could:
- Redesign your website’s landing page to feature an example of your core service offering.
- Add your specialty to your social media bios and posts.
- Update your company description on local and industry business directories.
- Create a digital marketing campaign to highlight your core service.
- Include your specialty on Google Ads.
2. Expand your content
Your agency’s growth depends on you prioritizing internal marketing and advertising—even when you have a full plate of client projects.
A good place to start is with your content marketing efforts. Take an inventory of your website to see what might be missing. If you don’t feature case studies, for example, consider building a section to highlight client successes and show off your team’s work. Case studies have a high success rate for converting leads (second only to in-person events), according to the B2B marketers surveyed in the Content Marketing Institute’s B2B 2020 report.
Blog posts, on the other hand, are a smart way to build brand awareness and show prospective clients you know what you’re talking about. Say your target clientele is fitness and nutrition companies, for example. You could write a series of posts speaking to their pain points, discussing fitness and nutrition industry trends, or offering B2C marketing tips. One creative agency, Masterworks Creative, turned their equestrian hobby experience into a bonanza for niche marketing to the equine industry. Listen to their story on our Fundbox podcast.
3. Productize your services
Transforming your agency’s services into products accomplishes two goals: 1) It helps you attract and serve a wider range of clients and 2) provides a source of passive revenue. Plus, offering products at a lower price point than your services is a great way to appeal to clients who have a smaller marketing budget but still want expert guidance.
If you specialize in graphic design, for example, you could develop an online course that explains how to create the most compelling graphics for every social media platform. If your expertise lies in SEO, consider writing an ebook that shares secrets for optimizing every type of content—from article headlines to social media posts.
4. Improve company efficiency
Streamlining your workflow can give you more time to nurture leads and create proposals, both of which are essential to growth.
To figure out where you can improve, review your agency’s projected and actual project timelines, then ask your team which tasks or workflow stages they struggle with most. You may discover you need fewer meetings, more detailed client briefs, better communication between team members, or a completely different approach to projects.
Consider the following time-saving strategies as part of your plan:
- Outsource content creation to freelance writers, illustrators, or graphic designers.
- Use software to automate tedious tasks or increase productivity. There are apps that can facilitate project management, help employees track their hours, and even block your calendar to let you focus on completing important tasks. Schedule one weekly team meeting to set goals and measure progress.
5. Invest in thought leadership
Increasing your agency’s thought leadership footprint is a long-term investment in your success. Not only will you gain exposure and reach new clientele, you’ll also establish yourself as an authority on specific subjects.
Once you choose someone to represent the brand, look for opportunities to contribute to both topical and evergreen conversations in a meaningful way. That can include everything from writing a book to leading a conference panel.
Here are a handful of strategies to try:
- Sign up for newsletters like HARO or ProfNet to connect with journalists who need marketing and advertising sources.
- Pen an article on Medium or LinkedIn.
- Pitch yourself to podcast hosts looking for guests.
- Contribute guest blog posts to resource sites or business blogs.
- Sign up to speak at an online conference.
- Host a live webinar.
To grow your marketing or advertising agency, you have to treat your company as your most important client. Promoting your core service, streamlining your workflow, and testing new content can help you find leads and maintain momentum.
Some of these initiatives may require a substantial capital investment. If you’re looking for a way to get the funding you need to take advantage of timely opportunities, a line of credit from Fundbox may be able to help. You can get a decision in minutes, and if approved, get funds as soon as the next business day.
Fundbox and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.
