A marketing agency nowadays does not only refer to newspaper ads and large billboard posters. In today’s digital climate, a marketing agency is expected to tilt its focus to cyberspace – where all the thumbs up, sharers, supporters, and even haters reside – to make their services gain publicity.
Marketing agencies are now challenged to jump into the unknown age of information technology as they try to balance customer retention and acquisition. But how does a marketing agency take that giant leap? In this troubling time full of risks and closed doors, how does one choose the right time to do so?
Scaling a marketing agency and making your way into the digital environment is often seen as a make-or-break decision that will either help you tap into potential clients or give you more headaches. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be that way.
At ScaleTime, we are committed to helping you achieve your sales and marketing goals by giving you all the best how-tos and tips. This guide will show you how to grow your business into becoming a successful digital marketing agency. Keep reading to find out more!
The Boom of Digital Marketing Agencies
Digital marketing agencies are agencies born from gaining customers through virtual channel platforms. Many agencies are shifting to become digital agencies in order to gain positive financial results, striving to gain more clients and new leads by embracing the call of the virtual world. A consistent and sought-after online presence gives you access to leads, pitch your service offerings, and opens the opportunity to scale your digital marketing agency.
There has been an exponential increase in online businesses and virtual markets that need help promoting their products and converting audiences to clients. Is your company the next digital agency to take the plunge?
The Right Time to Grow your Digital Marketing Agency
Now is not everybody’s time. Not everyone who climbs that mountain sees the peak. In order to successfully reach the top, you must know when is the right time to do it. Your business may be ready to go, but you’re not sure if scaling up is the right answer. We’re telling you now: look for the signals! Here are some of the signs you are ready to go:
You’re already gaining profit
When you are earning more than you are spending, it’s a sign that your business is not on the verge of shutting down anytime soon. Profit margins usually tell you how your company is doing financially. Net profit margins (the total sales minus the expenses, divided by total revenue) are the basis of the business’ total profitability, and having numbers between 10-20% is already a good figure in the digital marketing industry to indicate healthy cash flow.
Bear in mind that the profit margin for your industry cannot be compared to any other field. Other sectors have their own ideal profit margin and other businesses have higher or lower percentage requirements to show they are ranking ahead in the game.
Although it is tempting to expand once you’ve reached your goal the first year you’re in the business, be cautious and go slowly and surely. Steady earnings don’t happen overnight. Most businesses say they are ready for scaling up if these numbers are maintained or increased in two to three years’ time. With successive yields under your belt, you can then make a move and consider your business ready to scale up.
You have too many clients
Having to turn down people and companies seeking your services? Overflowing leads that you have no time to answer? Too many clients may seem ideal in the perfect setting, but it is no fun once you have to juggle around their requests altogether. This is one of the obvious signs that your marketing agency is ready to level up.
Many businesses see expansion as a hindrance to providing excellent services due to the administration’s divided attention. Correct management is the key here, and this will be discussed later in this article. We at ScaleTime help you implement a wider system to take in multiple clients and automate looking after your leads – all while remaining profitable and scaling up smoothly!
Your market is expanding
As a marketing agency, you already have a target audience and a target market. But when you are slowly experiencing a spillover of enthusiasts from another market group or segment, this shows that the demand for your marketing services has grown. If your marketing agency can no longer provide for additional projects with the given conditions, then this is a sure sign that your client base is expanding and you may need to broaden your target market.
Take into account clients coming from outside your specific niche and try to expand from that. If you’re currently offering services to a certain location, you may want to look at other options when you are considering elevating your marketing agency.
You are comfortable with your team
When your team provides high-quality work for clients seamlessly, you may want to consider training new employees, as this is one of the ways to effectively scale up. Be on the lookout for team members who are not comfortable with this idea, however. There may be some who find teaching to be more of a challenge than their usual role.
Ask for your team’s opinion on your scaling up before making any drastic moves. If everything goes well, you will have put together a remarkable group of people who can work and grow as a team.
7 Tips on How to Scale a Marketing Agency
1. Review existing business model
Having a proven process will help you gauge if you’re really ready to scale or not. Leveling up your marketing agency does not mean a total overhaul of what you already have. You likely already have an existing marketing flow in place, so if you think your business model does not help you in managing your business, make some tweaks, see what works, and implement it strongly within your system. This lets everyone know what they are done with, what they are doing, and what are they going to do next.
By creating an effective digital marketing workflow, tasks will roll out more seamlessly than ever before, giving you freedom from daily 9-5 work. Here’s an ultimate guide to help you out. This includes creating and running marketing campaigns at your level, condensing the marketing process for your team, and having a successful business model becomes the basis of each workflow you execute within your digital marketing agency.
Building a great agency plan from scratch is tricky, but with the right items securing your business, you’ll be completely covered! A successful sales strategy allows changes in prospecting and qualifying leads, building rapport, assessing their needs, committing to deliver, and actually carrying out the projects. We help you understand different sales and marketing terms that will assist you in maximizing your revenues and optimizing your team.
For the best marketing flow for your business and other tips and tricks to get you ready to scale, click HERE. Watch as you grow and unfold into a beautiful digital marketing agency butterfly!
2. Implement an effective project management methodology
The project methodology is the way your team approaches projects in order to meet the endpoint or the project goal. It is used by project managers to effectively use their team and other resources like budget, time, and supplies to produce the expected deliverables. Having a project management method in place means minimizing your risks, discovering new skills, and developing current ones while meeting deadlines and staying within the project time frame.
After carefully planning your project management approach, integrating with project management software could help you to save half the time spent in front of your desk and focus on more important duties and responsibilities. ScaleTime helps you to find the perfect project management methodology for your business and shows you some of the popular project management methodologies today. Find out how to embark on the journey from marketing agency business owner to project manager HERE.
3. Take care of new and existing clients
You may have improved your business model and refurbished your project management plans, but if you have difficulty in holding on to your existing clients, you should check the quality of service you are offering your existing clients. A client churn may not be a result of your business and the service you provide, but it’s worth checking for the sake of your business’s reputation and income.
Build a structure that will help you analyze the satisfaction of your current client base, minimize client churn rate, and increase client retention. This will help you touch base with potential clients and help you gain new ones in the process. Easier client onboarding also helps to create excellent first impressions and smooth client experiences throughout the duration of the project, whether from direct or indirect interactions. Positive client experiences differentiate your marketing agency from the rest of the agencies in the market. It helps promote the good name of your brand, and in turn, grants access to more clients.
4. Empower your team
If you already have a group of outstanding individuals who are working well together and creating outstanding output, you can probably skip this one! This tip is for teams that have one or several rebels, black sheep, and floundering employees that you need to push harder than the others. Ask feedback from these underperforming employees; connect with them and make sure that communication is preserved and honored. You can’t say yes to something during a pep talk half-heartedly or leave them hanging confused, annoyed, and ready to hand in their resignation.
Another thing to consider when scaling up is the vacant positions to be filled by talented individuals who will become new team members. As early as the onboarding process, give new employees the information and the purpose to become motivated, creative, dedicated so that they can be on the right track from the get-go. Troubleshoot the hiring process of new employees for entry-level positions to develop young talents and harness new ideas that can help scale your marketing agency.
5. Boost your digital marketing tools
One of the most popular trends today is influencer marketing, where favored and well-liked people in the multimedia platforms like celebrities, organizations, and bloggers endorse products and services to attract new clients. Some business owners offer promos and discounts, while other agencies gift their loyal customers when they invite new clients. These are just some of the ways to boost your online and social media presence.
Digital marketing tools are used and maximized in order to gain attention from potential clients and target audiences. Driving website traffic with the right tools to improve web design is also essential to communicating properly with viewers and visitors. Delayed chatbots, faulty auto-replies, and underdeveloped newsletters are big no-nos in creating a great customer experience.
In the past, trial and error were used to test the effectiveness of current marketing campaigns. Now, there are software and programs like Google Analytics and Facebook ads that can help create and analyze the current techniques you are using. Social media marketing strategies are well within reach – it’s up to you to decide what course of action to take and put into effect in your agency.
Learn how to stretch the coverage of your digital marketing services! ScaleTime offers practical tools and solutions HERE to help you get your kick-ass marketing agency optimized.
6. Take advice from industry experts
As a business owner, you recognize your limitations and understand that every day is a learning curve. Let the experts do the talking! From creating marketing funnels to remaining profitable during agency growth, these specialists are knowledgeable on all important processes and will let you in on trade secrets for how to scale and adapt.
Build your core processes through industry geniuses and apply outside expertise to running and scaling up your business. Look for masters of the trade who will help you steer clear of vanity metrics and pay attention to actionable metrics which will aid you in weighing marketing strategies that work best for you.
7. Elevate business relationships
A quality agency doesn’t just offer services – it also builds strong relationships with everyone involved, whether that be clients, employees, or others. As professionals, choose to create mutually beneficial partnerships that will establish the name of your agency in the world of digital marketing.
Projects may be fast-paced in the virtual environment, but relationships do not stop once the project has ended. Encourage feedback and check in on clients from time to time, as this will help them remember you when the need arises, either their own or referrals to other clients.
Successfully scaling your agency not only focuses on creating more money. Making clients happy, striving to help clients’ businesses grow, enabling new employees, and creating an awesome business model is exactly what it’s about. Ready to scale your digital marketing agency? Click here for a FREE Discovery Session.
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