Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
If you are already an experienced marketer or you simply want to work in a creative and diverse industry, starting a marketing business can be a wonderful option. Not only is the global advertising market continuously growing and incredibly profitable, but the modern digital era has truly made it easier than ever to venture into the world of marketing. However, starting a marketing agency can also come with a number of unique challenges, like any other business, so here are some simple steps you need to follow if you want to achieve marketing success.
Develop the needed skills first
Although being intelligent and creative is quite helpful, you simply can’t succeed in the world of marketing without some additional skills. To begin, it might be wise to develop your soft skills such as communication, leadership, mediation, and politics, as directly working with clients will be an important part of your job.
Of course, having excellent marketing skills is also essential for establishing yourself as an expert in the field. Whether you invest in professional courses and formal education or even decide to improve your capabilities on your own, try to focus on the most important aspects of marketing like constructing messaging and positioning, designing ads, and familiarizing yourself with learning systems, for example. If you want to make a name for yourself in the industry and gain additional experience, working a 9-5 job in a marketing company before starting your own could also be a good idea.
Create a good business model
The specific services you provide and how you charge for your work directly impact the operational efficiency and overall success of your business. Fortunately, there are a number of good ways to set up a marketing agency and bill clients, such as charging hourly rates, basing prices per commission, choosing the percentage of spend model, or simply establishing a flat retainer.
No matter which option you choose, remember to keep it simple and maintainable for your small business. As liability and taxes will be another crucial aspect of running a company, hiring professionals like lawyers and accountants to efficiently take care of this work is also incredibly important for avoiding any legal issues and saving money in the long run.
Hire the most suitable teams
When we think of starting a business, renting office space and hiring employees are often the first things that come to mind. However, that can often be the wrong decision. Initial investments can be incredibly high, particularly if you don’t already have an established client base or another way of making a return on investments quickly, and you likely can’t afford to suffer financially in order to start a marketing agency.
Instead, a much smarter financial decision would be to start an agency yourself, either from your home or a small office, until you can truly afford to grow your business. If you need help, you can always decide to hire remote teams through an experienced professional employment organization. Such experts will help to connect you with top global talent most suitable for your business, while taking care of employment complexities such as benefits and legal compliance as well.
Attempt to define your niche
If your company is still in its early stages, it can be easy to get seduced by the notion of working with anyone. The thought of turning a potential client down can be quite daunting, especially if your livelihood is at stake. But with thousands of marketing agencies around the world, most of them without a certain specialization, getting noticed in the industry can often be hard if you’re not different enough.
For that reason, you will need to create a unique selling proposition to stand out. Whether that means offering only digital marketing services or focusing specifically on young and conscious consumers, defining your marketing niche can have a number of benefits for your business, mainly allowing you to establish yourself as an experienced professional and giving you a certain advantage over your direct competition.
Try to find your first clients
Once you gave a good business plan, strong remote teams, and a clearly defined niche, the last step would be to find your first clients in order to start working your marketing magic. While this step might seem difficult to achieve for beginners, and is an area where many new marketers get stuck, it’s not quite so challenging. There’s no reason for us to cold call individuals in an effort to attract clients as entrepreneurs did in the past. Now, clients can come to us, as long as we invest enough time and effort in attracting them.
For instance, you could start a website or a blog, post relevant content that clearly demonstrates your expertise, and invest in SEO tactics to attract an audience. Similarly, social media platforms can also be a great solution for expanding your outreach and engaging with potential clients, while presenting an opportunity for paid advertisements as well.
Starting your own marketing company will undoubtedly be a challenging and time-consuming process with many ups and downs. But you can still make some of the basic aspects much simpler and more manageable, as long as you follow the helpful advice mentioned above.
Written by Carolin Petterson
About the Author
Carolin Petterson is a Business Lady and contributor for number of high-class websites. She loves to share her experiences and talk about practical solutions, but her specialties are sustainability, sustainable business and green living.
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