Agency runnings could be a tough step to take in one’s professional life because you have to, amidst striving to satisfy your clients with good results, worry about hiring, selling, accounting, payroll, marketing, account management, etc. These worries often overwhelm agency owners not because they are lazy but because they are not putting some things in place or integrating major things.
In order not to wander in a mirage of thoughts, we have put together essential nuggets that could aid success for your agency and push you up the ladder in your career. These nuggets have been scaled down into five categories of and we will be treating them one after the other: *Internal Marketing & Sales Improvement *Reduction in Client Churn *Systems & Processes Scaling *Growing Your Team Shrewdly *Service Offerings Enhancement.
Internal marketing & sales improvement
#1 – Identify a niche for your agency
In one of Glen Allsopp’s (author of Viperchill blog) post on picking a niche, he said “some of the most successful marketing agencies in the world specialized in serving just a specific audience. This indirectly means, having a cluster of interest to focus on as a digital agency could lead to repeated failures and unsatisfied clients. Looking from examples of a successful agency out there that have unique niche of operation, it is evident that this works.
- Net Profit Explosion handles marketing services to gym owners and personal trainers
- Attorney Rankings offers SEO services for Attorneys
- Wonderist focuses on Dental Practitioners
Identifying and picking a niche save you the stress of confusion and brand yourself as an expert in the industry of interest. This doesn’t end with you handling most of the works in this niche, but also gives you the opportunity to speak at industry-specific conferences or getting booths as well.
We have identified few industries you could carve a niche for yourself in because of their potentials:
- Massage Therapists
- Personal Trainers
- Tattoo Parlors
- HVAC
- Water Damage
- Rehab Centers
- Auto Shops
- Insurance Agencies
- Optometrists
- Restaurants
These highlights do not limit you from thinking outside the box as well. It is not necessarily mandatory you find your niche in industry-specific fields, you could be the savior they are waiting for on Shopify stores as their marketers. You can even target a specific vertical and niche. You may consider ecommerce shops; which seems to be an undeserved market. The essence of this is to engage in what would separate you from the throng.
#2 – Build a Lead Facilitator for your Agency Website (Alternatives)
The essence of having lead facilitator or alternatives on your agency website is not far-fetched. It is to be able to retain a couple of visitors who are yet to know what they want from you or be able to trust in your services. Most times, a larger sum of visitors to your website do not stay because there is nothing luring and attractive that would convince them.
This is where the use of alternative is very important. With the use of lead generation software, you will be doing something outstandingly different from other agencies in the place of doing the usual calls to win them over to your side.
Check out agencies that have adopted Alternatives in enhancing their lead generation:
- With free PPC analysis reports for any AdWords account, “Wordstream” delivers an alternative to build a lead facilitator on their website.
- With a luring “10x growth” with a website grader, “Powered by Search” attracts visitors with such lead initiator.
Being creative enough to offer something valuable to your visitors would not cost you extra breaking of sweat. Adoption of a simple SEO audit that identifies bloopers in their website can do the magic.
#3 – Give your best when it comes to web design
It is not until your agency offers web design as part of your services that you would give the best when designing your website. It is your first marketer; it sells you first. The design must be as recent as it can be, no one wants to work with an old cargo. The perception given to your company starts from there.
There are more than enough ready-to-adopt WordPress themes on online markets that have been specially made for Digital agencies. To take for example, a company like Domani uses a soul-trapping theme in designing their website and it makes people want to work with them.
#4 – Hasten your lead response time
Delaying responses to leads generated from your website is very harmful to your growth as an agency. Respond as fast as possible. You should have it in mind that these customers are busy scouting for who to work with and you are not the only one available so, act fast.
Harvard Business Review revealed in a study that many companies take ample time to respond to leads and let them lose their urgency and essence.
The research found that the average response time among companies that responded within 30 days amounted to 42 hours. This becomes a worry for those companies since a separate study (done by HBR) revealed that firms that tried to contact prospective customers within an hour were seven times more likely to close the deal than those that tried even an hour later.
#5 – Make leads out of visitors who are yet to be converted
With the adoption of lead generation software like SE Ranking, you are guaranteed to have a suitable match of visitor IP addresses to database of your website. It essentially tells you who has visited your website even when they have not been converted to a lead. Due to dynamic IP addresses, you may not get every single visitor matched but you will be able to recover a large percentage of lost leads.
You are then free to use this generated information to track down decision makers through LinkedIn. Provided someone has visited your website in such company, it typically means they are looking for a marketing solution.
It is a world of surprises. You may give them a call to inquire what their needs are and you may go ahead to impress them by letting them know they visited your website.
