If you are passionate about the online world and already have experience as a freelancer or working for others, surely more than once, you have considered taking the leap, riding it big and creating your own Digital Marketing agency.
And this, which in principle sounds great and is something we have all dreamed of at some time, its a path that is not without doubts, problems, a lot of effort and work and, above all, enormous doses of perseverance and dedication.
It is precisely something that I was able to experience when I founded my own Digital Marketing agency, whose website you are visiting right now. However, in exchange for all that delivery, you will receive great rewards, and not only in the economic sense.
The result will be many personal satisfaction and the certainty of being the owner of your time and your destiny.
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone: it requires great sacrifices, a lot of effort, and the uncertainty of not knowing the final result. But, when done with passion and perseverance, they come, and you end up being the owner of your own life.
Because in the end, entrepreneurship is just that: working for yourself, creating jobs and helping others, deciding what to do and what not to do.
Having the opportunity to create a digital marketing agency is choosing how you spend your time each day and how far you want to go, since, when working for yourself, the limits are set by you .
But doing it yourself, starting from scratch and without the help of others, is a long and tedious road that is fraught with countless phases of trial and error.
Do you want to create a Digital Marketing agency?
This is the reason for this post: to try to shed some light on that path and help you to avoid taking false steps and wasting time looking for solutions to problems that I have already gone through.
9 Tips to start and create a successful Digital Marketing agency
Sharing knowledge with others is something that, sooner or later, always brings positive things back to you, even if it is only the satisfaction of having done something good for others.
And in the digital environment, this is a maxim that is fulfilled 100% of the time; never forget it.
These tips are some of those that make up our method
1. Life habits for the entrepreneur
Before starting to work on the keys and external resources that can help you have your Digital Marketing agency or any other type of business, the first thing you should do is start modifying your lifestyle habits.
Because for the entrepreneur, there are no fixed hours or a defined border between workdays and leisure days.
You will have to give a large part of your potentially productive time to building your company and fighting to make a dent in the market.
And, if at the end of this post you decide to be your own boss, you will see that the days are too short for everything you have to do.
Therefore, the first step is to get the maximum possible hours out of the day.
And how can I get more hours to invest in my project?
Well, starting the day before anyone else. Getting up at dawn, between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning, will give you the necessary discipline to undertake and that essential overtime.
In addition, and as a general rule, those 2 or 3 hours before “normal” life begins, they tend to be very productive.
You will not have distractions because your phone rings, email, children (if you have them), street noises, etc.
Therefore, you wake up to the Sun and not the other way around.
Also, do some sports on a routine basis; if you propose, it is always possible.
Keep in mind that sport will not only help you eliminate toxins and stress.
That time away from your workplace can be an excellent time to reflect on yourself and the way you work.
Evaluate yourself and discover what you do well and what you can improve every day; Make the most of that time, reflecting and trying to hone your virtues.
Likewise, set aside time regularly to read and workout
Today business in general and Digital Marketing, in particular, evolve very quickly and it is essential to be up to date so as not to be left behind.
Dedicate time and resources to expand your knowledge and be at the forefront of the sector.
Finally, remember that when everything is going very well, it is time to pinch yourself and get out of sleep.
You may have heard this about ” the comfort zone ” many times, but getting out of it regularly is the only way to constantly evolve, learn, and look for new opportunities.
2. Costs of undertaking
There is the false idea that starting on the Internet is free or has little cost. When creating a Digital Marketing agency, it is also true.
And this is because the network provides us vast amounts of content for free, such as movies, games, books, “promotion” free of charge by the major social networks, and so on.
In the same way, it is often thought that creating a more or less beautiful blog or website and writing a few articles is enough.
Nothing is further from reality.
Although having an Internet-based business significantly reduces costs in relation to a” physical “one, the reality is that we will need to invest capital, even in a staggered and progressive way, to bring your business to success.
And do not forget that you must also take into account and quantify the investment in time, since, as we all know, time is money.
Therefore, when creating a Digital Marketing agency, you must create a business plan that reflects all the basic expenses for.
From there, calculate the amounts you need to enter to survive the first months and end up giving a benefit that allows you to live from your agency or company.
Because there is something very important to take into account: unless you are very lucky or have a wide network of contacts to buy from you from day one, you will hardly generate income in the first few months.
However, expenses have a terrible habit of not waiting.
A good business plan that reflects all these costs and possible situations is the first step to estimate what you need, what accounts and how far you have to go minimally to survive those first months of “crossing the desert.”
3. Bases for customer acquisition
This is an important point and on which all businesses revolve: get customers, retain them and gradually increase your portfolio since customers in many cases have a limited life cycle, and it is essential to replace them.
In this sense, although we move in a digital environment, working on the Personal Brand, networking and personal relationships continue to be a very effective method of attracting customers.
However, this networking must be reinforced by other strategies that do develop in the digital environment.
Content
You must generate content related to your specialty or sector, and that adds value to users in such a way that you show them that you know what you are talking about and that it provokes the confidence necessary for them to see you as a professional trained to solve their needs.
Blog
Creating a blog is a good basis for sharing content, but it should not be the only one.
Lean on other ways of transmitting that knowledge and diversify communication channels to reach as many potential customers as possible.
And don’t forget to try to get them to subscribe to your Newsletters to use them for other communication and commercial purposes.
Guest blogging
It is basically about inviting others to publish on your blog, and it is also a very interesting formula to achieve relevance and visibility on the web.
Along these lines, you can also provoke interviews and meetings or Online webinars with experts in the sector.
Clearly you must already have some consolidation of your brand for them to accept. Still, it is something to take into account in the medium / long term.
eBooks and guides
Another good formula to achieve visibility and relevance to create a solvent Digital Marketing agency is through the creation of eBooks or guides, to use them as lead magnets.
This is another of the most influential and interesting strategies to get all your knowledge to your potential clients, although it requires more additional work.
The good news is that it lasts over time and in which you can expand to transmit knowledge and authority in the sector.
Email Marketing
Suppose you’ve got a list of subscribers to your blog. In that case, email marketing is another way to share that content and get it to your potential customers directly.
Create email marketing strategies with different objectives depending on the type of communication, recipient, the status of the sales process, etc.
You can use tools like MailChimp to create automated sales funnels and strategies.
Web chat
Another tool to attract customers is to install a “web chat” or video chat system on your website, to answer questions directly and instantly.
Perhaps you can “catch” the user when they visit your page if you immediately answer their questions or queries.
Paid advertising
Last but not least, you should bear in mind that it is essential to invest a fixed amount every month in digital advertising. The most effective platforms are:
This will make you reach your potential customers quickly and efficiently.
We cannot leave the possibility of delivering your content to potential clients exclusively in the hands of users.
Therefore, invest in paid advertising since one strategy must complement the other (SEO + SEM).
If you already have marketing knowledge, you will know that it always ends up paying off when you do it right, and you have patience.
4. Use advanced tools for customer acquisition
The digital environment provides us with handy tools to attract customers.
And as we have seen previously, when trying to create a Digital Marketing agency, to move forward and make your company increasingly productive, it is essential to invest in getting clients .
At this point, we are going to talk about two tools that can be very useful for this purpose and that are less known:
- Sales Navigator
- Leadfeeder
They are paid tools with a not excessively high cost. Still, they can bring you very interesting results because they are straightforward and will save you many hours of prospecting for new contacts.
Sales Navigator
This tool belongs to LinkedIn and allows you to define a specific target audience and find lots of quality information about them, filtering it based on your needs.
It has very advanced customer search functions and allows you to contact them very directly.
Leadfeeder
Another very interesting tool to detect who visits your website . Yes, you read that correctly, it will tell you who has been browsing your page.
In a very simple way and without the need to install code on your site, this application will show you which companies have visited your Landing Pages , in addition to giving you information on how they found you, which pages on your site they found the most interesting.
An ideal complement, without a doubt, for your Google Analytics.
This will give you the possibility to use that information to send you content focused on your possible needs.
Likewise, you will be able to create offers and collaboration proposals, previously analyzing their shortcomings and focusing on how you could help them.
Finally, you will have a lot of general information to do a market analysis and effectiveness of your site, type of clients who visit you, usability of your website, etc.
5. Optimize customer management
In our desire to create our own Digital Marketing agency, getting our proposals and services to potential clients is just one phase of the work to win them over.
However, after that first contact, there is still a long way to go to get an order or sign a contract to keep score.
Because the sale begins when your client has contacted you and has decided that you can be a good option for their needs.
In addition, when you start to receive a high workflow, you will need to have tools that help you optimize your time and be more effective with the management of new contacts, proposals, follow-ups and sales closings.
For this entire phase to be productive and effective, I recommend 3 tools that will help you in the commercial management of your Digital Marketing agency.
1. LiveBeep
This is a multipurpose tool that will facilitate communication with your contacts.
Among the LiveBeep utilities, it will incorporate a live chat to talk with your website visitors.
Likewise, it will help you with invoice management, sending pre-designed email communications based on contact inquiries, a very simple CRM Online management and configuration system, and many other functions.
2. PandaDoc
If you have reached the point of sending a proposal to your client, congratulations, you have done a great part of the way.
However, one of the main mistakes in attracting and managing clients is that once we have contacted you and are convinced that we are a good option, we have practically everything done—big mistake.
You are probably not the only option on their table, and you cannot limit yourself to sending a proposal that, in many cases, looks more like a delivery note than a serious document with claims to close a sale or get a customer account.
The proposal must go through software such as PandaDoc and have several of the following elements:
- Proper design.
- A detailed explanation of the work to be done.
- A reinforcement of the reasons why they should hire you and not someone else.
- How your Digital Marketing agency works.
- Delivery times.
- The price for hours or cost.
- The form of payment.
- What it does and does not include.
- This tool allows you to create very advanced budget templates, with lots of data to reinforce the sale and with a very professional design that can be the key for you to get more clients.
6. Efficient team management
Efficient team management
It is possible that, if you follow these tips, added to your passion and knowledge, your workflow will increase in a short space of time, and you will need to incorporate more personnel to your team.
And, then, you will need a little extra help so that the work comes out in a timely manner. Having created a Digital Marketing agency does not turn into chaos.
Coordinating your team so that the work goes ahead is essential to meet the agreed deadlines and that the projects have the necessary supervision and control so that they are of quality.
Although there are several tools to manage teams and organize the workflow, Kanban Flow is one of the most complete.
Suppose you need to organize and plan your work. In that case, this tool provides you with an agenda-calendar where you can classify pending tasks by days and with the use of different cards, colors, alarms, etc.
In addition, it gives you the possibility to share it with your team and / or collaborators of your own Digital Marketing agency, to be able to update or modify pending, rejected or completed tasks.
Very useful for planning your day-to-day life and coordinating with the people included in each project without the need to make calls or call meetings.
This tool is paid and its cost is quantified based on the digital marketing agency members that you integrate into your plan.
However, this is the one I use because it adapts more to what I need. Still, you can start with a free one, such as “Google Calendar” or similar, and progress to more complete ones, as you increase billing and the members of your structure. of business.
7. Cost control and management
If your thing is creativity, design and communication, without a doubt this is going to be the most boring section of your business, unless you have your “little heart” as an economist and you like numbers.
But let’s not kid ourselves: in the business world, numbers are everything
The numbers will decide if you can continue creating next month or if you will be able to pay for all the tools that we have been looking at so far.
And of course, it will determine if it is viable to have created your digital marketing agency and continue with it in the medium term.
Still, do not panic: if the numbers do not come out, it may not be a problem of capacity and quality of your work.
It is possible that you are not doing correct management of the costs, so you must pay attention and have them controlled.
Therefore, try to be disciplined and assign one day a month to dedicate yourself “exclusively” to analyzing expenses, income, money that you have pending collection and the forecasts for the next few months.
And keep in mind that you must be very strict when separating taxes from the money you enter since if you do not do so, you can have problems in the future.
Finally, understand that delays and defaults may occur within your collection forecasts. It’s better to be conservative initially with expenses and investments in tools or improvements so as not to put yourself in a tough financial situation.
Remember that a healthy economy and in which you do not have to depend on credit will make you move forward with a firm step, laying a solid economic foundation for the future.
8. Develop a personal brand
Suppose you want to establish your Digital Marketing agency and have a powerful image that generates attraction and trust. In that case, it is exciting that you work in parallel with your brand.
And of course, it is in line with your corporate brand branding and business philosophy.
Because in the end, your personal brand is like another “product” that you are going to put on the market, and that must be worked on consistently and professionally.
Therefore, he constantly invests in personal training. In this way, you will be up to date with the latest trends and will be able to generate current content.
And again, share all that knowledge from your brand by writing articles, eBooks, courses, lectures, etc.
In addition to being reliable proof that you are a trained professional in your sector, it will expand your network of contacts and, therefore, your chances of capturing jobs.
9. Attitudes and methods for success
When you start your project of creating a Digital Marketing agency, you may ask yourself questions such as:
Where do I begin? How can I find clients? Why is nobody calling me?
Do not worry; it is the most normal.
But all this can be overcome by maintaining a proactive attitude, taking advantage of that time when you have little work to go out and look for clients.
At first, it is best to identify a primary goal and focus all your efforts on achieving it.
Trying to reach everyone if your resources are limited is a bad strategy.
And take time to boost your personal brand, because, even if you don’t have immediate results at first, you will reap the fruits of that effort in the long run.
Remember that nowadays, being your own boss and directing a personal project will require a lot of effort, time, and passion and, above all a lot of confidence in yourself.
Go to events and establish personal relationships with other professionals.
Be bold and constantly look for opportunities to make yourself visible and gain recognition in the industry. It’s something that may take years, but today is the best day to start.
Conclusions
Finally, keep in mind that everything can be more accessible if you find a partner who will compensate for your deficiencies and support you in difficult times when creating your own Digital Marketing agency.
If you find the right person, you may build a very efficient team.
However, this is very personal, and that goes in the philosophy of each one for business since not everyone is prepared to share responsibilities, problems, and benefits.
If you decide to find a partner to start with, try to find someone who shares the same values and work ethic as you.
That he be a person with enough motivation and ambition to give all the effort required to set up a business is not based solely on economic objectives.
Teamwork is very rewarding and multiplies the chances of success exponentially.
To start a digital marketing agency please do a free consultation with us anytime by sending us a message and we will help you in setting up a Marketing agency.
