12 Marketing Agency Process For Efficient Business

Marketing agencies face constant pressure to improve processes and prove their value to clients. After all, the better an agency's processes are, the smoother client projects run and the happier clients will be. The marketing agency process refers to how a marketing agency tackles a project, from the sales and onboarding stages to execution and reporting. Naturally, each client will have unique needs, and processes may change slightly from project to project.

However, having a defined structure that outlines all the steps involved in completing a project and helps the team stay organized will improve client experience and business operations. This guide will discuss the significance of marketing agency processes and how the right agency management software can help you improve them.

12 Marketing Agency Process For Efficient Business

1. The Marketing Agency Process: Laying the Groundwork for Efficient Business

An agency process refers to a marketing agency's pre-set framework and procedures to complete its goals. These processes include different aspects of running an agency business, such as:

• Roles and responsibilities across teams

• Stakeholders involved in meeting goals

• Technology that is used

• Documenting project progress

• Measuring and tracking goals

• Client communication and updates

Unlike agency workflows, which focus on steps that bring a project from idea to completion, processes provide a structure that allows your agency to reach larger business goals.

2. Client Onboarding: How to Get New Customers Set Up for Success 

An effective client onboarding process is vital for marketing agencies to build strong relationships with new clients, set clear expectations, and ensure smooth cooperation.

On the one hand, it keeps clients valued and informed, and on the other, it allows the agency to collect essential information about the client's business and align with the goals.

How to Set Up an Effective Client Onboarding Process?

• Pre-onboarding Preparation: Prepare a welcome packet introducing your agency, key team members, contact information, and an overview of the services. Run an internal briefing with your team to review the client’s background, industry, and initial project scope.

• Initial Client Meeting: Schedule a kickoff call to introduce the team, discuss the project scope, and set expectations. Ensure all key stakeholders from both sides are present. Also, a detailed questionnaire should be sent before the call to gather important information about the client’s business, goals, target audience, and competitors.

• Prepare Documentation and Contracts: Ensure the client has reviewed and signed the service agreement or contract outlining the terms of engagement, deliverables, timelines, and pricing. Include a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to protect sensitive information if necessary. Project Planning and Timelines: The client onboarding stage requires developing a detailed project plan that includes key milestones, timelines, and responsibilities. Once finished, share this plan with the client for feedback and approval.

• Next, you should establish a communication plan outlining the frequency of updates, preferred communication channels, and contact points.

• Set Access to Shared: Resources Set up access to necessary tools and platforms for you and the client. This includes the project management software, shared drives, and communication stools. Collect any resources the client can provide, such as brand guidelines, previous marketing materials, and access to analytics platforms.

• Onboarding Deliverables: Create a discovery report summarizing the information you gathered about the client’s business and industry. This would be an excellent point to present an initial marketing strategy or plan that outlines the proposed approach, tactics and outcomes.

• Maintain Regular Check-Ins: Schedule regular check-ins to provide updates on progress, address any concerns, and gather feedback from the client. Provide monthly reports with detailed performance metrics, campaign status, and adjustments or recommendations for the strategy. Invest time in understanding their unique needs, setting clear expectations, and providing tailored solutions prioritizing long-term growth. Consistently communicate, educate, and demonstrate - your value is in what you do, not what you say.

3. Project Management: The Secret to a Smooth Operation 

Managing multiple projects and teams effectively is vital for delivering quality work, meeting deadlines, and keeping clients happy. Project Management involves defining project scopes, setting goals, assigning tasks, and establishing timelines in digital marketing agency operations.

To ensure success, choosing the right project management tool is essential. Numerous options are available, such as Orchestra. The key is finding the best tool for your agency and team. Implementing a project management system can increase efficiency, reduce errors, and streamline communication. With a centralized system, everyone can access project details, collaborate on tasks, and track real-time progress.

This helps to ensure that projects are completed on time and budget and that everyone is on the same page throughout the project lifecycle.

4. Campaign Planning and Strategy: The Roadmap to Success 

An agency needs to tackle the following process: a plan for delivering measurable client results. A well-structured planning process ensures that client goals are defined and achievable and that all team members are aligned.

How to Plan Efficient Campaigns and Strategies

• Send Clients a Questionnaire: You can do this during the initial client consultation. A detailed questionnaire can tell you a lot about the clients’ marketing history, specific objectives, and current efforts.

• Analyze the Market and Competitors: Run deep market research to understand industry trends, customer behavior, and market opportunities. You should also analyze the strategies of the client’s top competitors. What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they position themselves? Are there any gaps that your client can fill?

• Define Goals and Objectives: Work with clients to define Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals. At this point, the key performance indicators you establish for measuring the marketing strategy should align with the client’s business objectives.

• Segment the Client’s Audience: Segment the client’s target audience based on demographics, behavior, and needs. Develop detailed buyer personas that represent the critical segments of the target audience. This includes defining their pain points, motivations, and decision-making process.

• Formulate the Strategy: Define the client’s unique value proposition that stands out from the competitors and resonates with their target audience. Based on audience behavior and campaign objectives, what are the client’s most effective marketing channels—social media, email, PPC, SEO? Apart from selecting the most promising channels, you should develop a content creation strategy outlining the content types you need to reach the target audience.

• Plan Out Each Campaign: Define each campaign's objectives to ensure they align with the overall marketing goals. It’s also essential to determine the budget for each campaign and allocate resources accordingly. Next, you should develop a detailed timeline with key milestones and deadlines to execute each campaign on time.

• Plan Campaign Executions: You assign tasks to team members based on their expertise and availability. A project management tool can help you manage workflows, monitor progress, and ensure all the tasks are completed on time. Use collaboration tools to add an extra layer of coordination among team members.

• Monitor and Optimize: Use marketing analytics tools to monitor the performance of marketing campaigns in real time. Also, provide the client with regular reports highlighting key metrics and insights quickly. However, continuous data analysis is needed to identify opportunities for improvement and optimize strategies for better performance.

• Review and Adjust: You should conduct regular performance reviews with clients to discuss results, insights, and areas for improvement. To ensure that your strategies are effective in the long run, you should also periodically adjust them based on performance data, market changes, and client feedback.

5. Time Tracking and Invoicing: Keeping Your Finances in Check 

Time Tracking and Invoicing are two critical agency processes that go hand in hand. Effective time tracking helps agencies bill clients accurately while also providing valuable insights into the productivity and efficiency of team members. There are various time-tracking tools available that allow you to track time for individual tasks or projects. By tracking time, you can measure the time it takes to complete specific tasks, identify areas for improvement, and adjust project timelines as needed.

Accurate time tracking also enables you to generate invoices quickly and easily. Invoicing tools like QuickBooks, FreshBooks, or Xero allow you to create and send invoices to clients with just a few clicks. These tools also offer various billing options, such as hourly rates, fixed fees, and retainer billing, making it easy to bill clients according to your agreements. By implementing adequate time tracking and invoicing systems, you can improve accuracy, save time, and increase revenue for your agency.

6. Creative Development: Producing Quality Work That Meets Client Goals 

This marketing agency process is essential for producing high-quality creative work that meets client objectives.

How to Set Up an Effective Creative Process?

• Start with Client Briefing: There’s a good reason why many creative agency processes start with gathering detailed information from clients. In the case of creative work, you want to learn as much as possible about the target audience, key messages, brand guidelines, and specific requirements. Your agency’s creative team should meet with the client to clarify the brief, discuss expectations, and answer any questions.

• Conduct Your Research: This research aims to understand industry trends, competitor’s creative work, and the target audience's preferences. Mood boards can help you visualize creative direction and gather ideas that resonate with the client’s brand and objectives.

• Develop the Concept: Set up brainstorming sessions where your creative team can generate various ideas. Encourage open and collaborative discussion. These sessions aim to present the client with multiple options for feedback. Be open to client input and make revisions where needed. Once the approval process is through, you can move to the next stage.

• Creative Execution: Expand the approved concept into detailed designs, including all necessary components such as graphics, copy, layouts, and multimedia. Ensure designers, copywriters, and other creative roles collaborate to maintain consistency in the final design.

7. Client Communication and Reporting: Building Trust with Clients

Regular and transparent communication and reporting help build trust with clients and enable you to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions. Effective communication ensures that clients are kept informed about project progress, updates, and any issues that may arise. One way to ensure effective communication is to establish regular check-ins and status updates. This can be achieved through regular meetings, phone calls, or video conferences.

Setting clear client expectations regarding communication frequency and methods is also essential. Another critical aspect of client communication is reporting. Reporting allows you to provide clients with clear, concise updates on project progress, goals achieved, and areas for improvement.

8. Performance Tracking and Reporting: Measuring Campaign Success 

An efficient performance tracking and reporting process is essential for marketing agencies to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns, demonstrate value to clients, and make data-driven decisions.

How to Set Up an Efficient Performance Tracking and Reporting Process?

• Define Objectives and Key Metrics: The KPIs that you will use to measure the success of your campaigns may include conversion rate, engagement rate, return on investment (ROI), and customer acquisition cost (CAC).

• Select Tracking Tools and Platforms: Choose the appropriate analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, Matomo, Adobe Analytics, or other tools, to track and measure performance. Marketing automation platforms like HubSpot or Salesforce can help you integrate data from your email and e-commerce tools for a unified campaign view.

• Create Custom Dashboards: Your clients may use a variety of marketing channels — from web analytics to social media to paid advertising. You may also work on improving their organic search performance for selected keywords. However, there’s a point when this abundance of data is difficult both to monitor and report.

9. Lead Generation: The Process of Getting New Clients

In today’s highly competitive digital marketing industry, effective lead generation processes and systems allow you to streamline your efforts, improve lead quality, and increase conversion rates.

One of the most critical processes in lead generation is having a well-defined target audience. By defining your ideal customer persona, you can tailor your marketing efforts to your target audience’s needs and pain points, resulting in more effective lead generation. Another necessary process is lead tracking and management. Lead management software like Orchestra allows you to track lead interactions, monitor lead activity, and efficiently move leads through the sales funnel.

Lead nurturing is also a critical process that helps convert leads into paying customers. By providing valuable content, relevant information, and personalized experiences, you can establish trust with leads and increase the chances of converting them into loyal customers.

10. Talent Acquisition: Finding the Right People to Help You Grow

An efficient talent acquisition process ensures the agency can quickly fill roles with qualified candidates who fit the company culture and meet the skill requirements.

How to Set Up a Structured Talent Acquisition Process in an Agency?

• Define Hiring Needs and Roles: Assess current and future hiring needs based on project demands and agency growth plans. This includes clearly defined job roles, responsibilities, and skills. To make it easier, define detailed job descriptions for each position.

• Keep Your Values Visible: Maintain an attractive and informative careers page on your agency’s website. Use social media to promote the agency as a great place to work. Potential candidates should be able to grasp all the benefits of joining you even before they hop on an interview.

• Set up a Recruitment Strategy: Think of the best sourcing channels: job boards, social media, recruitment agencies, or platforms specific to your industry. Implement an employee referral program to encourage current employees to refer qualified candidates from their pool of connections.

• Structure the Interview Process: Develop structured interview guidelines with standardized questions so each candidate gets a fair chance. To get a well-rounded view of the candidates, you should include multiple team members in the interview process. Don’t forget to include practical skills assessment by giving each candidate a task relevant to their role.

• Decision Making: Use consistent evaluation criteria to compare candidates and make decisions. Discuss with team members who they think is the best candidate for the role. At the end, forward a formal letter to the selected candidate outlining the role, salary, and benefits.

• New Hire Onboarding: Before their start date, provide new hires with the necessary information and resources. Introduce them to the agency’s culture, processes, and teams. You should have a structured onboarding plan with training and integration activities to help new hires quickly settle in and become productive.

11. Training and Development: Helping Your Team Grow

In addition to hiring and onboarding, training and development are also crucial aspects of agency growth. Implementing training processes and systems can help ensure your team members have the necessary skills to perform their roles efficiently and effectively.

One effective way to train your team members is through a standardized training program. This program can include training materials, assessments, and hands-on experience to ensure that everyone is on the same page. You can also consider providing opportunities for professional development, such as attending conferences or online courses.

Feedback and coaching are critical aspects of training and development. Regular feedback sessions help team members identify areas for improvement and set goals for themselves. Coaching sessions can provide guidance and support to help team members reach those goals and further develop their skills.

Implement these training and development processes and systems to create a learning culture within your agency. This will improve performance, job satisfaction, and retention rates.

12. Financial Management: Keeping Your Books Balanced

Financial management is essential for any business (not just digital marketing agencies) and covers crucial action items such as budgeting, invoicing, and accounting.

To optimize financial management, agencies should implement processes and systems that allow for efficient and effective management of economic resources. Here are a few key areas to consider:

Budgeting and forecasting 

Creating a budget and forecasting revenue and expenses helps agencies plan for the future and make informed decisions. By regularly reviewing and updating budgets and forecasts, agencies can ensure they are on track to meet their financial goals.

Invoicing and payment processing

An efficient invoicing system helps agencies get paid on time and reduces the risk of cash flow problems. Automated invoicing and payment processing systems can streamline this process and reduce administrative work.

Expense tracking and management

Accurately tracking and managing expenses is crucial for maintaining profitability. An expense tracking system can help agencies monitor expenses, reduce unnecessary costs, and identify areas for cost savings.

Financial reporting and analysis

Regular financial reporting and analysis give agencies insights into their economic performance, including revenue, expenses, and profits. Reviewing financial reports regularly allows agencies to make data-driven decisions and identify growth opportunities.

7 Tips To Run A Market Agency Smoothly

1. Use Orchestra: An All-in-One Growth Toolkit for Agencies  

Orchestra helps you launch your productized service effortlessly. This all-in-one growth toolkit is designed for creatives ready to scale. Orchestra provides a branded, white-labeled client portal, task management, and real-time analytics, with no coding needed—just your Stripe account.

Whether you’re a designer, developer, or copywriter, Orchestra streamlines your workflow. It lets you collaborate with clients seamlessly while maintaining a private workspace with your team. Add integrations like Slack and webhooks to customize your setup and deliver a branded experience. Elevate your service with a platform built to grow alongside you; try Orchestra for free to develop your productized service today.

2. The People: Surround Yourself with the Right Team  

You’re only ever as good as the people you surround yourself with. Your team needs to be on the same page as you in every respect: skill, culture, and attitude. Balancing these aspects is the challenge. A highly skilled employee may be valuable but potentially toxic if their attitude and culture don’t match your business’s. Because of this, skill sets should be regularly updated.

3. The Tech: Use the Right Technology to Succeed   

Although people are essential, more is needed to create a successful marketing agency and achieve your KPIs. The right technology is critical. You may have this tech in-house, or you could source it, but you will need the capability to track campaigns properly and understand which levers to pull. A good marketing agency can always tell you exactly why the numbers are up or down—not in fluffy, nondescript terms, but with complex data.

4. Precise Goal Alignment: Establish Goals from the Start   

From the first meeting with a prospective client, precise goal alignment must be the basis of your interactions. Both you and your client need to be crystal clear about what success looks like. By clearly mapping out goals, you’ll be able to determine up front whether your agency is suitable for the job. No matter how many times the goals shift, there should always be one clearly defined ultimate picture of success that overrides all others.

5. Transparency and Realism: Be Honest About Your Skills   

Your agency can only be the best at some things. Pushing your business into a jack-of-all-trades box increases the risk of failure. Understanding your strengths will help you to sketch out a well-defined plan for each campaign, which, where necessary, fills the gaps with other agencies. Clients appreciate honesty and will likely feel more confident in your skills because you can delineate where the skill gaps exist.

These skills gaps should be identified in the goal-setting stage of your agency’s engagement with the client. The nature of their ultimate goal must align with your business’s strengths, and the smaller factors that will accumulate to achieve that goal can then be outsourced where necessary. An example is an agency with a creative lean versus one with a more analytical skill set. Each agency will align better with different goals and need to outsource areas with less expertise.

6. Being Human: Make Your Clients Feel Comfortable   

This one should be the easiest of all, but, in my experience, it’s often the most overlooked. People buy from people. Using your skills or fancy products as your selling point may be tempting, but other agencies likely have the same or similar propositions. What differentiates you is how good you are at building relationships with your clients and what you are willing to sacrifice to maintain that relationship.

Work-life balance is essential, but when starting up a new business, there may be a period where you have to decide how much you’re willing to sacrifice for it to succeed. Part of that decision is committing to doing what others won’t get and keeping clients who value leaders who go the extra mile.

7. Continuous Innovation: Stay on Top of Industry Trends   

Innovation and the capability to disrupt are essential in marketing, especially in the digital realm. You, your team, and your agency must be flexible and ready to pivot at any point. Continuous learning and keeping your finger on the pulse of the industry are vital to success. Servicing the client’s current needs is one thing, but having the ability to serve their future needs is where the value truly lies.

Related Reading

• What Is A Productized Service
• Avoid Common Challenges That Agencies Face
• Productized Service Examples
• Agency Clients
• Agency Collaboration
• Agency Client Relationship
• Marketing Agency Client Management
• Agency Metrics
• Agency Operations
• How To Productize A Service
• What Is an Agency Management System
• Best Agency Management Software

Mistakes To Avoid While Running A Marketing Agency

Running a marketing agency is no easy feat. Mistakes can hurt your reputation and bottom line and even cost you clients. While there are many things you can do to improve your agency’s processes, it’s also critical to avoid the common pitfalls that can send your digital marketing agency to the grave. Here are nine mistakes you should avoid at all costs.

1. Focusing on Revenue and Not Profitability

Any growing agency will naturally see a rise in revenue as they takes on more clients. But amid this growth, it’s easy to forget about profitability. Sure, revenue is significant, but without a healthy profit margin, any growth your agency experiences is likely unsustainable. If you don’t improve profitability, your agency will eventually hit a wall and cannot pay its bills. Before long, you’ll have to start laying off employees and letting clients go. Turnover, whether it’s staff or clients, is detrimental to business. Instead, prioritize improving your agency’s profit margins. This will ensure you can sustain growth in your business experiences and keep your operations running smoothly.

2. Not Keeping Clients Updated on Their Accounts

One of the biggest reasons your clients may be requested to cancel your service is a need for more communication. You see, when your clients partner with your digital marketing agency, they’re trusting you. They’re relying on your expertise. But they’re also relying on your transparency when sharing wins and results. While it’s true that you shouldn’t be informing clients of every single problem their account faces (after all, you’re there to solve all of those problems), you should communicate with them regularly.

Because they don’t see the behind-the-scenes work that you and your team do for them. And if you don’t tell them, “Hey, here’s what we’ve accomplished so far with your account,” they’ll think no work has been done. So, what can prevent clients from wondering or worrying is updating them about the progress of their accounts. You can show them progress in video, reports, calls, or whatever keeps them updated.

3. Not Offering Client Support & Project Management Assistance

Every key team member is valuable, meaningful, and memorable blah blah. However, a project manager or a client support specialist is critical to making your marketing agency's relationship with clients successful. They’re vital roles in improving client retention. And not having them is one of the biggest mistakes your digital marketing agency is making. You see, a project manager is your marketing team’s accountability expert. And it’s one of the nine digital marketing experts you need in your agency or virtual team.

They’re (supposed to be) detail-oriented, organized, and able to spot bottlenecks and project snags before they become a severe problem in your client’s accounts. They’re also (supposed to be) effective communicators who can set client expectations so everyone’s on the same page. And also make that great first impression to new clients… Your project manager and client support specialist will Ensure your clients complete projects on time. Make sure projects are completed under budget.

Make sure clients are updated regularly. In fact, according to the Project Management Institute, organizations that invest in proven project management practices waste 28X less money than other organizations. That means having a project manager in your team can save you tons of money! Bottom line: The work your team does for your clients will likely not be completed on time and will run way over budget without a project manager to keep track of spending.

4. Not Offering 5-Star Customer Service

Part of the secret to a successful relationship between your digital marketing agency and your clients is offering 5-star customer service. You may be the most knowledgeable agency owner or have thrived as an expert digital marketer. But if you don’t provide excellent customer support to your clients, then not even the fanciest master's or degree will help you retain those clients.

Because while your “do-ers” are working (or dealing :D) directly with your clients, and while my client base increases, you need to attend to each client’s inquiries with impeccable customer service. In fact, according to HubSpot, 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies that offer excellent customer service. According to Glance, 78% of customers have backed out of a purchase because of a poor customer experience.

On top of that, 67% of repeat customers or clients are more likely to invest more money in your agency, according to Bain & Company. Customer experience matters. Scaling your agency matters a lot. Bottom line: If you’re wondering how to scale your digital marketing agency, invest in top-notch customer service. Period.

5. Not Having a Highly-Talented Team of Pros

Your team of pros comprises the people who will make all your ideas real—that’s Growbo’s goal. Our clients (primarily agencies, by the way!) submit a request (or idea) for any digital marketing task through our web app. Email sequence copy, landing page(s) design, logo creation, retargeting ads strategy—literally anything. Then, our team of pros (designers, copywriters, quality assurance specialists, ads managers—all) brings those ideas to reality. You see, your team of experts are the people who do all the heavy lifting for your clients (and you). And not having the right team in place can result in severe damage to your agency.

But when you hire the right team of experts, ensure they are talented and skilled. Because without skills, high-quality standards, and plenty of mediocrity, your work for clients will simply translate into unhappy clients. Without a highly talented and reliable team, you won’t be able to deliver the work to clients or meet deadlines. You need talented and highly skilled people to make your clients’ work and ideas a reality.

6. Surpassing Your Team’s Capacity & Taking on Too Many Clients Because You “Can Outsource All the Work”

Quick question—the more clients you get the better, right? Because the more clients you take, the more money you make, right? After all, you can outsource all the work if your agency starts overloading, right? By taking more clients you’re not necessarily making more money. You’re making more revenue, yes. But that revenue won’t mean a thing if you’re not even profitable. And you can outsource the work, of course. That’s what many digital marketing agencies do. They delegate all the work to Growbo.

But when delegating or outsourcing your client’s work, you need to know the outsourcer.

You must ensure they comply with all the work guidelines and deadlines. And you must ensure they won’t make you look bad in front of my clients. That’s why we have an apparent Reviews landing page and Our Work landing page where prospects can look at our clients’ social proof and the work we’ve done for them. If you take 100 clients and your team’s capacity is 80, 20 clients won’t receive the promised deliverables. And if they do accept them, they’ll probably not be on time and without quality standards.

And what do you think will happen with those 20 clients who don’t receive the work on time or who won’t receive it at all? They’ll probably complain (at the very least), cancel, and post a bad review about your service. And, of course, you can always turn a bad review into a marketing win. But it’s better to prevent that from happening in the first place. So, a huge mistake that digital marketing agencies make is taking as many clients as possible and surpassing their team’s capacity.

7. Going Niche

You don’t necessarily need to go super niche if you're a digital marketing agency owner. For example, you don’t only have to offer clients website design. You could provide website design along with copywriting services and web development. Or you don’t only have to provide copywriting services. You could offer copy plus sales funnel strategies. Get it? Going super niche can limit your agency. You could stay in a niche in one industry, but offering various services is okay.

Let’s say, for example, you start as a web design agency. Then, you can add related site traffic analytics management and conversion optimization services. More clients will likely sign up for your service because your services (web design, traffic, conversion optimization) work together. Bottom line: You can offer your clients a broad range of services. Primarily if they work like a “combo.” Because clients will more likely need a burger, french fries, and soda than just a burger.

8. Not Having a Clear Value Proposition

One big mistake marketing agencies always make is needing a clear value proposition. And if clients skim through your website to find out about your services, and your copy and value proposition aren’t clear, guess what? They won’t sign up. Your copy and unique selling proposition must clearly state what your agency offers. See ours? That’s why you must always follow copywriting techniques to capture leads. If your copy isn’t clear or persuasive enough and isn’t aligned with your offering (Law of Alignment from the Laws of Sales Funnel Physics), you’ll miss the opportunity to convert those leads.

So why should a client choose you if you offer SEO, web design, or social media marketing services, as many other agencies do? Stand out from the crowd. Clear and transparent about what sets you apart from the rest with a clear value proposition. Don’t let potential clients wonder what your agency’s value proposition is. Make it clear and give them a good reason for choosing your services.

9. Not Qualifying Leads Properly & Saying YES to Every Prospect

This is another big common mistake I see marketing agencies make. They say yes to every single prospect. And I get them. They do that out of desperation. They just want so badly to get any clients to sign up. But here’s the thing. You have to be selective. You have to learn how to say no to people who won’t be a fit for your service, which will end up being canceled. And if you need help to qualify leads and sell to the right clients, think of a merry-go-round.

Put every prospect who gets on a consultation call with you in there. Then, start spinning the merry-go-round. And after it turns, see the riders who “survive” or hold on tighter. The merry-go-round is your lead qualification process. And those people who held on tighter and didn’t fly away are the prospects who are a fit for your business. Bottom line: You cannot say yes to all clients. Some won’t be a fit. And some will be. However, lead qualification is critical before you ask for the sale.

Try Orchestra for Free to Grow Your Productized Service Today

Launch your productized service effortlessly with Orchestra's all-in-one growth toolkit. Designed for creatives ready to scale, Orchestra provides a branded, white-labeled client portal, task management, and real-time analytics, with no coding needed—just your Stripe account.

Whether you’re a designer, developer, or copywriter, Orchestra streamlines your workflow. It lets you collaborate with clients seamlessly while maintaining a private workspace with your team. Add integrations like Slack and webhooks to customize your setup and deliver a branded experience. Enhance your service with a platform built to grow alongside you. Try Orchestra for free and develop your productized service today.

Related Reading

• Digital Marketing Agency Management Software
• Creative Agency Project Management Software
• Agency Client Management Software
• SEO Agency Management Software
• Advertising Agency Project Management Software
• Marketing Tools For Agencies
• Ad Agency Project Management Software
• Productization Framework
• Marketing Agency Process
• Agency Resource Management
• Productized Services

How To Market A Marketing Agency

Use Orchestra to Market Your Agency

Orchestra simplifies launching productized services for marketing agencies. The platform's growth toolkit lets you launch your productized service with a branded client portal, task management features, and analytics. Use Orchestra to collaborate with your team while keeping a private workspace. You can customize your setup with integrations like Slack. The sooner you start using Orchestra to help deliver your productized service, the better. Try it for free today.

Write Guest Blogs

Don’t underestimate the power of guest blogging. Make it a priority to write thought leadership posts for another company’s blog that target the exact audience you want to reach. This will help establish your marketing agency as knowledgeable in its field while opening your agency up to a whole new segment of potential clients. Best of all, this strategy costs you nothing. Start by emailing editors or content marketers to pitch a story idea. Most are looking for quality blog content, so chances are, your email will get a response.

Another fantastic strategy is to land a content placement on a top-tier marketing media site like Social Media Today, ProBlogger, or Moz. These sites have a high traffic volume, so your post will likely get shared a lot, driving a good amount of traffic back to your business through a placed link. And don’t forget that every time you guest blog, it’s a quality backlink to your site that improves SEO.

Word of Mouth Marketing

According to a Nielsen study on consumer trust in advertising, people trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other source. The study found that 84% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust product recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends.

There are two key areas where you can excel that will leave your customers raving—results and service. Ensure you’re producing results that will leave customers telling all their colleagues that they need to hire your agency, too. And make your service shine with surprise and delight moments. Send thank you cards, never miss a deadline, be warm, and communicate often with your customers.

Business Cards

Despite being a time-honored tactic, business cards still work in the digital world. You never know when you’ll meet someone who starts talking to you about their business and how they need good marketing advice. Whether at dinner or on vacation in the Caribbean, the ability to hand out a business card and give someone a reason to contact you later is never a bad idea. However, if you prefer having everything saved digitally, you can also provide digital business cards a shot.

Networking

An entrepreneurial friend who owns his own video marketing business once gave me great advice on how to grow a business. “Make a point to schedule two networking events weekly,” he said. Whether it’s attending a networking event or reaching out to someone you haven’t seen in a while or have never met, these are all great opportunities to talk about your business and how you might be able to collaborate. Chances are, the next time that person hears about someone needing marketing advice, they’ll think of you and the connection you made over a cup of double-brewed Sumatra.

Professional Website

When someone hears about your marketing agency, they’ll likely search for you online and visit your website to research more about you. Because you’re in the marketing world, the face of your brand is everything. Take the time to assemble a thoughtful brand and a cohesive, professional website. You can find top-notch templates for Squarespace and WordPress that make your site appear like you spent thousands on developers. If your agency’s homepage shines online and features your best client work in a portfolio, it’ll be an easy choice for new potential clients to sign on the dotted line.

Testimonials & Case Studies

In line with how vital word-of-mouth marketing is, testimonials and case studies highlight what your customers think about you. This helps potential clients build trust with your brand and decide to hire you. Don’t be afraid to ask clients after you’ve finished a project to provide a sentence or two for your website. Even better—ask them to recommend you or your company on LinkedIn, and then you can take out pieces of each recommendation and use them later as a testimonial quote on your site.

Client Logos

Featuring the logos of brands you’ve worked with on your website helps build credibility for your agency. When potential clients see other big brands who have said “Yes” to you, they’ll feel comfortable saying yes, too. Take the top six brands you’ve worked with who are the most well-known, and feature their logos in a client list on your home page.

Awards & Accreditation

When your marketing agency wins an award, it is a stamp of approval from the credible sources who hand out these awards. This goes a long way in selling your marketing agency as the best in the business since you’d likely beat out other agencies for the award. Enter campaigns you’ve created for your clients in the Shorty Awards or Content Marketing Institute’s yearly content awards.

Also, look around online for accreditations highlighting that your agency is knowledgeable. An outstanding accreditation is the Google Analytics certification that tells others you’re a whiz at tracking and understanding how online marketing works for your customers. Becoming a Hatchbuck Partner is another excellent accreditation, primarily if you serve smaller clients.

Guest Speaking Opportunities

Like the thought leadership guest blogs, speaking at conferences makes you stand out as a thought leader in marketing. Thousands of people attend marketing conferences each year to gain knowledge. Suppose you or your agency’s employees lead a talk at a major marketing conference. In that case, people will Tweet about it – expanding the audience that looks to your agency for advice when needed.

Social Media – Twitter Lists

Social media is a powerful tool, and far too vast to go into all of its capabilities in a paragraph in this blog post. Still, you should start building social media communities for your marketing agency. Regularly share what you’re working on and awards I’ve won, and connect with your clients online, too.

The best way to build your marketing agency through social media is by being very active on Twitter. You can create public or private Twitter lists to follow potential clients, competitors, brands, etc. Regularly converse with these brands, share their content, and build relationships so they’ll share your content in return and help spread the word about your agency.

Niche Online Communities

Social media is really about the power of communities; niche communities are the most powerful. Block out time each week to participate in conversations happening around marketing in subreddits, Inbound.org, or LinkedIn Groups. Not only will you likely learn something new and stay on top of trends, but you’ll also start to build online relationships that will pay back two-fold when you have news to share or when they start recommending you or your brand.

Content Marketing & SEO

Content marketing is the most powerful marketing tool you can use to market your agency. It is the number one marketing tool I tell everyone to invest in. Consistently writing quality content for your marketing agency’s website does several things. It showcases thought leadership to website visitors, increases organic search results, and targets relevant keywords, exponentially building your website's traffic from qualified buyers.

Drives website visits back to your site from social media and gives you own content to share on your social media profiles; Provides you with the opportunity to build premium content pieces that can be gated, if you choose, to collect a lead list; Builds a newsletter list of customers and potential customers, which you can then utilize to spread news about your agency.

Try Orchestra for Free to Grow Your Productized Service Today

Setting up a productized service can feel overwhelming. There are countless moving parts to consider before you can even think about launching. Thankfully, you don’t have to go at it alone. Orchestra is an all-in-one toolkit to help you quickly launch your productized service. This platform benefits creative professionals like designers, writers, and developers looking to streamline their processes before going to market. With Orchestra, you can create a fully functional service portal to hand off to clients so they know exactly what to expect when they purchase your productized service.

Related Reading

• Service Provider Pro Alternatives
• Digital Marketing Agency Workflow
• Agency Resource Management Software
• Marketing Agency Management Software
• SuiteDash Alternatives
• ManyRequests Alternative
• Productized Service Software