Starting your own marketing agency is a bold move. You are your own boss, which is a good thing, but you are also the employee, which can be a bad thing.
You are your own employee as you will be marketing yourself. You will be selling yourself and your agency to potential clients and accounts. This takes a lot of confidence in your work and skill set.
You have to be able to price yourself competitively while still earning a decent income. You have to factor in business expenses, too. Otherwise, you will not survive as an agency for very long.
Marketing agencies can charge clients based on an hourly rate, a fixed fee for a project, or some combination of the two. Both of these can change depending on the size and scope of the project.
This article will discuss how to properly price your new marketing agency so that you can earn an adequate income while winning projects.
Clients love to talk about how great their products and services are, but they don’t always like to talk about who helped them.
Clients love to talk about their problems, but they don’t always like to hear solutions. It can feel awkward for clients to accept solutions or help.
By asking your clients if they know of anyone who may be needing marketing or advertising services, you are indirectly asking for a referral. Clients feel more comfortable referring people to you if they know you are good at what you do.
By asking for client referrals, you are also putting your confidence in the hands of your previous clients.
As a marketing agency, your customers will be other businesses. You will market and advertise for them, creating opportunities for them to sell their products and/or services.
Because you will be helping businesses improve their marketing strategies and campaigns, your clients will come to you with requests. These requests can range from simple social media posts to full-on advertising campaigns.
Your job is to coordinate all of this so that the client leaves feeling satisfied with the work they received. This also builds their confidence in using you again in the future.
The best marketing agencies have a wide range of clientele. Some clients may be small business owners that do not have much money to spend on advertising. Others can be large corporations that throw around money for ads easily. Having a mix of these clients helps keep the agency afloat financially.
Client referrals are one of the best ways to find new clients. As you deliver great work for your clients, they will want to share their experience with others.
Having a good reputation is one of the biggest assets you can have as a small business owner. A strong reputation will bring you more business than any advertising you can pay for will.
Client referrals are a way to start new business relationships with people who already trust you. When someone asks you to do work for them, they are partially doing so because of your reputation.
Client referrals is how most experienced marketing agency owners get most of their new clients. Newbie agency owners tend to spend a lot of money on advertising, but find that it takes a while to bring in the revenue. The ones that grow quickly are the ones that get more client referrals.
Once you have a few clients, it’s time to start marketing yourself. You can do this in a few different ways, the most obvious being advertising.
Advertising can take many forms, from social media ads to print marketing. The best advertising is strategic and targeted, using your strengths to appeal to new clients.
Strategic advertising uses your past clients’ testimonials and results to promote yourself. Print marketing can be flyers, brochures, or even doorhangers that get your information out there.
Both of these can be cost-effective ways to market yourself as a small business owner. Strategic advertising will get you more hits than expensive ad campaigns that are not targeted.
In this age of technology, it is easy to get stuck in a loop of checking social media accounts, reading the latest headlines, and reading blogs for inspiration.
However, doing so can make you feel like you are always behind. There are always new things to learn and new ways to apply them. The trick is knowing how to do so!
By keeping up with the trends, you will become more aware of what clients may want or need. You will also become more aware of what is working for your competitors or other agencies. This will help you better serve your clients by giving them what they want and need.
By staying up to date on the latest trends, your marketing will look more modern and up-to-date. This will attract new clients that are looking for agencies that are on the cutting edge. Clients want someone that can provide quality work at a high level. Giving them that by offering modern services shows your agency’s competence.
As you work on your pricing model, keep track of your efforts and the results you get. How many new clients did you get per month? How much in sales did you make off of those clients?
These are the numbers that matter when determining your pricing. You can’t calculate what you’re worth if you don’t know how much money you make!
In addition to client revenue, how many new clients did you recruit? How many repeat clients did you get? How much money did you save your clients in other costs? These are all valuable information to have when deciding your pricing.
It can be hard to track this information without the right tools, however. Try using a business management app like Hello-Inc to keep track of all of these details so that you can evaluate your success later.
As an entrepreneur yourself, you should be able to understand the value of business services. By talking to other business owners, you can learn how much they pay for marketing services and how much they appreciate what they pay for.
This allows you to gauge the market value of marketing services as well as know what other businesses appreciate. This makes it easy for you to formulate a price for your agency since you know what others value.
Talking to other small business owners is a way to share your knowledge as well. You can offer some of the services your agency offers at a reduced price or no cost at all in exchange for mentioning your service or linking to it. This helps spread the word about your agency and brings in new clients.
Obviously, there are different levels of service that need different levels of attention and expertise. Talking to business owners of similar size and scope as yours is important.
As a small business owner, you should always ask for advice from experts. You can do this in a few ways.
You can ask other business owners how they do things and how you can save money by doing them yourself. You can also ask them how they would price their services- this is a friendly way to ask how to price yours.
You can attend business seminars where experts lecture on various topics related to business. You can also watch business-related TV shows and listen to podcasts where experts give advice.
There are even paid services like Ask an Expert where you can request an expert consultation via phone or email. These people are professionals that have expertise in your area and charge for their time so you are getting quality advice.
Getting advice from experts is a good way to find out what your market pays for services and what tips they use to be successful. This will help you determine the right price for your agency.
