How to Start a Digital Marketing Agency?

A Digital marketing agency is a service provider that gives online services to its clients. These services are bought because people want to be more visible on SERPs, they want to increase their conversion rate and they want to enlarge their audience reachability. In today’s business world, digital marketing business is a competitive and potential one. Day by day, the number of people who need digital consulting and services is increasing. Thus, it opens a new door for many entrepreneurs who are considering to start a digital marketing company.

If you are one of those successful business partners who is willing to start their own company, you are in good hands. In today’s article, we will delve into starting a digital marketing agency, its intricacies, and the tools you can benefit from. With our little help and comprehensive guide, you can be one of the leading digital marketing agencies in the digital realm! So, before waiting more, let’s get started on our journey!

What Is a Digital Marketing Agency?

First things first, let’s start from the beginning. What is a digital or online marketing agency? Based on the studies, many people spend 5 or 8 hours a day online. What does it mean?  It means that businesses have a great potential to reach their audiences through the Internet whether it is a phone, computer, and so on. Because of that, the need for digital marketing agencies has been born in today’s world. 

Most companies need strategies and techniques to reach their target audience, but they don’t know how to do that. Thankfully, digital marketing agencies know that. A digital/online marketing agency is responsible for reaching out to your audience via websites, social media platforms, blogs, emails, and so on. It aims to increase your sales, become more visible on the Internet, and build your customer base. Even though there are some different types of digital marketing agencies, many of them provide services like:

• Website design
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Web development
• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
• Content marketing
• Pay-per-click (PPC) management

If everything is clear about digital marketing strategies, there is one thing to do. Found it! Now, let’s move on to the strategies you can employ to start a digital marketing company.

The Steps to Starting a Digital Marketing Agency

Starting a digital marketing agency is a journey itself that needs a vision, discipline, aims, and consistency. If you are sure about what you want to do, you should be always focused on that, organizing the steps you should achieve and be patient about the results. One of the most repeated things that is said in the digital world is being patient. Even though it sounds cliché, it is correct. When you give your best, find resources, and implement the strategic actions one by one, all you need to do is wait and see you thrive. If you want to see the success of your digital marketing startup, here are steps you should employ and embrace, one by one! We recommend reading them carefully, analyzing their usage, and finding the best one that suits your needs. So, without further ado, let’s go!

Conduct market research

Before you start anything, you need to understand what you are diving into. That means, understanding the area you are going to become a part of. To achieve that, you need to conduct market research. A well-prepared and well-conducted market research can ease your job a lot in the future steps. 

Once you do market research, you will know your competitors. In other words, you will have an idea about digital marketing business companies in your niche. Do not let this intimidate you. Knowing your competitors is actually to your benefit because you can have a chance to analyze them. You can create your own unique selling points, your own services that make you different than others, and so on. Well, in the end, it is a must to know the industry you are working in so that you can become an inseparable part of that. 

Pick your services

Once you are done with your market research, the next step is picking or choosing your services. When you are starting a digital marketing agency, it is important to choose the right service for you. There are some options, but we can say that you should be careful when you are choosing one. We definitely recommend adopting one service at a time. In other words, it is important to provide one service, become the best one in that service, and then, grow into the other ones. If you are not sure about the service you want to choose, here are some options: 

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
• Affiliate marketing
• Content marketing 
• Display
• Email marketing
• Social media

Choose your niche

When you think about it, it might seem plausible to set your standards high. You can be an online marketing agency, which offers every service to every business in the digital world, targeting the broadest range of audiences. Well, does it work? We don’t think so.

In order to reach your audience quickly and effectively, you need to define your niche. If you choose a specific niche, you can be the expert in that industry when it comes to its challenges. Thus, you can become more popular among your audience and can be more successful in the long run.

For example, if you have a background in education, focusing on educational digital marketing business can be in your favor. Since you know the needs and the audience of this industry, you can reach them more quickly, answer their needs, and become a number one resort for people in this business. 

Branding and identity

When it comes to branding, most people immediately think about a good, attractive logo, a defining color scheme, and a great slogan. Of course, there are all important elements but they are not the core of the branding idea. Branding is about the essence of your business, sharing and implementing your values, your personality that reflects upon your brand, and the value you will bring to your customers. Defining those elements and sharing them with your customers are also considered branding and they constitute your brand identity. 

If you start a digital marketing company from zero, you need to set your brand identity. What is your mission? Which values do you believe in? Why did you come up with this idea? Who is your team? What makes you different from others in the industry? Why should your customers choose you? These are the questions you can answer to create a defining brand identity. 

Once you clear out those, it will become easier for you to find the right name, the attractive logo, and the correct color scheme for your business.

Develop the Right Business Model

We did our market research, chose our service and niche, and formed our brand identity, now what? We need to define our prices. One of the hardest things to start a digital marketing company from nothing is setting out the correct pricing model. There should be a balance between the price you recommend to your customers which will persuade them and the money you earn so that you can actually “earn” money. 

If you are not sure about how to charge your customers, there are some alternatives the digital marketing agencies make use of. Let’s check them one by one.

• Retainer: Most agencies use the retainer model because it allows them to plan, Especially when retainers turn into long-time customers, payments can be made monthly. This allows agencies to plan ahead, employ the necessary staff, and so on.
• Hourly: This is the second most preferred pricing model, which is based on the hours. You can set up an hourly price and get paid for every hour you spend on the project. 
• Commission/Performance-Based: This model is often used by agencies that guarantee success and tie their money to that. Even though it is risky, if both parties are well-known companies, the business can be lucrative. 
• Flat Fee/Fixed Fee: As seen in the name, it is a fixed price given by the agency itself. The agency calculates the hours they will spend on the project, multiplies them with the hourly rate, and gives the total price to the customer. 

Talk to local businesses to find clients

When we asked the many digital marketing agencies, the common answer was talking to the local businesses. Since you are a digital marketing startup that is taking its first steps, finding local customers can ease your job. 

There are some advantages to finding local customers and the most important one of them is not having great competition. When you focus locally in the beginning, you won’t have many rivalries compared to the whole industry. Thus, you can take your growing steps there, earn some experience and then, go out for bigger fish! 

Build a digital marketing team

In a digital marketing business, your team is your everything. When you start at the beginning, you can go solo. You can focus on your own skills and services and become expert. However, when you become more and more popular, you will need more people to do the same job and add new services to your company. Thus, your team becomes your everything if you want to keep up the good work.

You can employ full-time or freelancer employees on your company. Moreover, you can employ them as remote workers. That can enable you to decrease office expenses and focus on quality. If you need extra information about building a team, here’s what you should know: 

• You should employ people who share your values. People can learn new skills and strategies, but you cannot change their ideas.
• You should search for people who are successful in what you cannot do. Thus, you can fill in your weak spots in the company. 
• Do not hire more people than you can manage. It is better to grow slowly than to risk everything. 

Try cold emails or cold calling

Cold calling might have a bad reputation in the digital world. However, if you are a new digital marketing startup, cold e-mails can help you to grow and reach your first customers. What will make you different from others is adding your personal touch. You can research for a keyword and look for pages to find your customers. If they contact you, you can add a personalized video to create a more sincere environment with your customers.

Tools You Need to Run a Digital Marketing Agency 

We mentioned some of the important strategies when you start a digital marketing company. However, strategies are not the only thing you will need when you become an online marketing agency. There are some tools you can benefit from when you are conducting services. These tools can fasten your process, increase the quality of your service, and create new service opportunities for you. Are you curious about them? Let’s learn, so!

Project Management and Collaboration

Starting a digital agency might seem easy to found, but there are some intricacies about it. One of the areas you can use tools is project management. For example, if you want to improve your services you need to be competent in project management and open to make collaborations with other parties. There are some third-party tools that you can use to manage your projects and fasten your services. Here, we collected a list of tools you can benefit from. So, let’s get into it!

Trello

Trello is a web-based project management software that most digital marketing agencies use. On that software, users can create task boards in which they can divide into different columns. Digital marketing agencies can use this tool to create to-do lists and manage their progressing projects. Thus, the company can work in coherence and keep up with the ongoing improvements in a project.

Slack

Slack is a cloud-based team communication software that helps employees and employers communicate with one another. In the software, there are features of direct-messaging capabilities, notifications, and alerts, document sharing, group chat, and search. Slack can enable your team to communicate effectively from one place by replacing e-mails, text messages, and so on. Thus, all the related information can be in one place and available, and employers can contact one another comfortably. 

Google Workspace 

Google Workspace is a collection of tools owned by Google. These tools are Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Docs Editor, Currents, and Google Meet. These tools are used for communication, cloud storage, employment management, and content creation. If you are starting a digital marketing agency, Google Workspace can help you organize your projects and employee management. Finding all of the tools you need to manage your projects under Google can help you to work in coherence, instead of dealing with lots of tools at the same time. 

SEO

One of the most important services when it comes to digital marketing business is search engine optimization. Many website owners reach out to digital marketing business companies to optimize their websites, so that they can rank higher in SERPs. Search Engine Optimization helps companies optimize their websites so that they can reach out to more people and increase their sales. This action needs to be performed by professionals, so many people resort to digital marketing agencies. There are a lot of tools for SEO you can use but there are a few qualified ones. Here, we collected the qualified SEO tools for you!

Dopinger Website Analyzer Tool

Dopinger’s Website Analyzer Tool is one of the best SEO tools in the digital realm. This tool helps you to see how your website is doing based on your SEO endeavors. The tool can give you a score, and show which areas need improvements. In the tool, there are some sub-headings, which are SEO, Performance, Indexing, Structured Data, Mobile Adaptability, and so on. Since these topics are important in Search Engine Optimization, this tool can help you to see which areas need improvement or not. For example,

There, we can see what is working with our website and what needs improvement. Moreover, it can analyze your page. As we know, on-site SEO strategies are important to rank higher on SERPs. For example, page load time and server response time are important for user experience, directly affecting your rankings. For example,

With this tool, you can analyze what you need to improve and see what is going well with the website. We keep saying “your” website, but you can use this tool for your customers as well. When a customer reaches out to you, you can analyze their website and start improving it one by one. So, that means, Dopinger’s SEO Analyzer does not only help you but also helps your business as well if you are a new digital marketing startup.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an SEO tool that helps people see what they are lacking to rank higher on search engine result pages. This tool includes tools for link building, keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, and site audits. Similar to Dopinger’s SEO Analyzer, this tool can show you what you are lacking and what you are doing well. You can use this tool for your own website and for your customers as well.

Semrush

Similar to the ones we mentioned above, Semrush is an SEO tool that includes many strategies and services to improve online visibility on SERPs. If you are starting a digital marketing company, this tool can help you with SEO, Keyword Analysis, Competitive Research, and so on. If you need help with your SEO endeavors, you can make use of this tool to fasten your services. 

Social Media Management

If you are starting a digital agency, you should be ready for this type of service: Social Media Management. Many customers need help with their social media management because many people reach out to companies through social media. Today, people spend 5 to 8 hours online on their phones or desktops. That means, it is a great opportunity for companies to reach their target audience through social media. In this section, we collected some effective social media management tools you can make use of if you focus on this service. So, here we go!

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that can help you to ease the process of managing.  It can handle content creation, scheduling the content, publishing posts, and measuring ROI. Hootsuite can integrate with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and more. Thus, it can ease your job when you are managing a customer’s social media accounts together.

Buffer

Similar to Hootsuite, Buffer is a social media management tool that helps you to arrange your content sharing, engage with your clients, and analyze their social media performance. It can integrate with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest. You can customize your posts according to these platforms.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is one of the most used social media management tools in the digital marketing business. This tool allows you to manage all of your accounts from one place. This way, you can ease your job, gain time, and analyze your strategies better.

Email Marketing

E-mail Marketing is a way of digital marketing in which you can make the customers on your e-mail list aware of your new products, and new services. Moreover, you can use this marketing as a way of introducing yourself since you are trying to form a new digital marketing business. If you need some tools for e-mail marketing, here is the list!

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an e-mail marketing tool that can help you create, send, and track engaging email campaigns to your customers and subscribers. It is one of the most used email marketing tools. If you are a new digital marketing startup, you can benefit from that tool to promote yourself and your services. If not, you can use this tool for your clients and for their services.

ActiveCampaign

In a nutshell, ActiveCampaign is an email marketing tool that combines email marketing, automation, and customer relationship management. It aims to ease your job on marketing and sales, improve your customer relationship, and increase your sales via e-mail marketing.