Introduction
Online marketing or digital marketing has gotten a lot of attention in the last decade with the rise of the internet. According to Statista, the digital market spending in India has declined from 30% to 15% as of 2021, but is now expected to grow exponentially approaching 2023. Digital marketing is one of the promising and lucrative business ventures and is highly competitive. If you want to break into this exciting field, you should learn how. This article explains what digital marketing is and how to start a digital marketing agency.
What does a digital marketing agency do?
Digital marketing can be broadly defined as using digital channels such as websites, search, mobile, display, email, social media, etc. to promote products and services.
Digital marketing can be defined as a strategy that aims to reach out to, target, and build relationships with customers online through various channels such as websites, search, mobile, display, email, social media, etc., ultimately leading to a purchase. Today, the majority of the potential customers conduct online research before buying a product or a service. This makes it critical to building a solid online presence that engages and successfully converts consumers to customers. A digital marketing agency can be a valuable business partner for achieving this objective. A digital marketing agency uses a wide range of tactics, online tools, and strategies to assist a company in meeting its marketing and sales goals.
Digital marketing agencies are in demand because most clients like solopreneurs or small/medium enterprises lack the resources to carry out digital marketing on their own. Digital agencies’ potential remit is broad; clients without hiring in-house specialists can tap into the agencies’ specialised skills to target their customer base and grow their businesses.
Is a digital marketing agency a good business proposition?
Let’s understand why one should consider venturing into a digital marketing agency.
- As more and more companies join the online bandwagon, the demand for digital market services is also increasing.
- You don’t need to invest in infrastructure as you may not require the physical business presence. You and your teams can operate remotely and virtually.
- This business is scalable because you can start as a one-person team and provide services yourself. As your client base grows, you can hire more employees and expand your business.
- Any business has the advantage of you being your boss.
- It is a low capital-intensive venture to begin with. All you need is an Internet connection, a couple of tool subscriptions, and a website. Like office space, employees, etc., you can add everything else later as the business grows.
Road Map to start a Digital Marketing Agency
We have outlined below a step-by-step guide to starting your digital marketing agency.
- Education: Before you begin, it is critical to gain knowledge about digital marketing and the industry. If you do not have any prior experience in the field, top-tier institutions, online digital marketing courses, and resources can help you learn or improve your digital marketing skills. So, put time and money into learning.
You will need to learn concepts like PPC, email marketing, SEO, creating online funnels, content marketing, social media marketing, market research tools, and graphic designing.
- Decide on your Niche: Because competition is fierce, finding your digital marketing niche is critical if you want to stand out. Play to your strengths and focus on an area you specialise in to target a smaller audience or a specific industry. The digital marketing agencies categorise themselves as a Website/ App development agency, SEO agency, Branding agency, Social Media agency, CRO/Performance agency, Content Marketing agency, or Full-Service Agency.
- Market Research: Get an estimate of your potential customer base. Keep an eye on market trends and consider how they might affect your business. Profiling potential customers is important so that you target the right clients. Evaluate your competition to know how you will rank against them and figure out how to outperform them. Gather information about your competitors’ services, pricing, positioning, and branding to understand their strengths and pain points. Do a SWOT analysis to figure out all internal and external variables that can influence the performance of your marketing agency and assist you in meeting objectives.
- Register your agency: Make it official by registering your business legal entity with the concerned authorities. Decide on the name, logo, domain name for web presence, and contact details.
- Establish your online presence: Launch your website to build, to begin with. Your agency’s website is the face of your business and should accurately represent your brand. Your website should look professional and provide all the necessary information to your potential clients to help them decide whether to hire your company. Also, create an account on all the social media platforms to secure a web presence. This can help engage with customers, organic lead generation, and then expand your business to a global scale.
- Define a Business Model: The next is to decide on a business model which includes
- Lead generation: Starting You can use a YouTube channel or affiliate marketing to generate leads for your agency.
- Promotional strategy: Referrals, sponsor events, content marketing, social media & email marketing are some examples of promotional campaigns.
- Pricing strategy: Starting a YouTube channel, affiliate marketing are the ways to generate leads for your agency. The options include pay per hour, monthly fees, pay per project, flat retainer, or a percentage of heir spending.
- Position yourself in the market: Build your brand and showcase your expertise to find new clients. This will happen over time as your business grows. Start by offering free services or work for your known to get reviews and build a name in the market. Your portfolio should include case studies, client testimonials, certifications, previous work experience, success stories, and snippets/headlines to show your clients that you deliver quality results.
- Build your team: At the onset of the business, you can start providing services yourself, but as the client base grows, it is advisable to hire the right set of people. Make sure your processes are in place and gradually build the team. You can go with freelancers or full-time employees. Each team member should be knowledgeable about a specific aspect of digital marketing. You could, for example, hire an SEO expert, a social media manager, a Google Ads expert, and so on.
Conclusion
As more businesses shift their budgets and marketing activities to digital, one could argue that there has never been a better time to launch a digital agency. It will take long hours, a lot of hard work, and a few breaks at first. However, it will pay off in the end and will lead to more extensive opportunities down the road.
If you are new to digital marketing, you should first develop your skills and gain work experience before starting a business. Enrol in a degree or a diploma certification course to learn digital marketing. There are digital marketing institutes in Bangalore that may help you with the necessary skills.
It is good to start small and focus on a specific niche when launching your digital marketing agency. Once you have gained expertise in the industry, you can slowly expand and move into other sectors.