Business Idea: Marketing Agency

[CedricDrenth]

So I have been thinking over the last couple of weeks about what kind of business I would find interesting to start. Since I've been interested in web design and website development, I thought starting a marketing agency could be a good idea.

I would initially start with web development to build a customer base, and eventually expand to other revenue section once I would have enough profit and could start hiring employees. I could grow by adding social media marketing, advertising, and content creation, once I have built a strong foundation. I know this is not very detailed yet and I might be thinking a little far ahead but I believe setting long term goals helps to increase motivation, determination, and productivity.

Let me know if you guys have any sort of tips or recommendations. Just trying to expand my knowledge as I'm new to this and would love to have some feedback from people on this forum.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Maxkaz]

I am no marketing agency opening consultant, but I would advise just one thing - skew value.

As a small business owner I`ve entertained the idea of hiring such an agency and after several attempts of contacting people claiming to be such agents I dropped the idea. Why? Because none of them succeeded in answering one simple question: What will you give me for my money? Their answers were: web page, posts, visibility, clicks. But I do not need those. I need sales. And none was able to estimate my gains over expenditures.

In the "Invent with me" podcast hosts mentioned a type of agent I would happily pay to when it is relevant. They call him "an Amazon guy/gal". Such person takes charge of your Amazon sales pages, directs you to produce quality pages, thumbnails, descriptions etc and gets PERCENT of all Amazon sales which he/she is responsible to grow. That is a fair deal for a business owner, I like it.

 

[EliaR]

So I have been thinking over the last couple of weeks about what kind of business I would find interesting to start. Since I've been interested in web design and website development, I thought starting a marketing agency could be a good idea.

I would initially start with web development to build a customer base, and eventually expand to other revenue section once I would have enough profit and could start hiring employees. I could grow by adding social media marketing, advertising, and content creation, once I have built a strong foundation. I know this is not very detailed yet and I might be thinking a little far ahead but I believe setting long term goals helps to increase motivation, determination, and productivity.

Let me know if you guys have any sort of tips or recommendations. Just trying to expand my knowledge as I'm new to this and would love to have some feedback from people on this forum.

I'm starting a marketing agency and I'll tell you exactly what I'm doing. I'm being mentored by a guy teaching me exactly this.

I signed my first client 2 days ago and have a bunch of leads in the pipeline who I acquired really cheap.

Step 1
Find a niche.
The niche should receive AT LEAST $500 per job they get.
Do not choose saturated niches like law, dentists, med spas, think a little outside the box.
I'm working security camera integrators, you're welcome to use this niche as well.
Other niches:
Installing security alarms, installing car charging stations, leak detection, floor polishing, auto parts shop, and there are plenty more.

Why would you niche? It immediately makes you an expert for marketing in that field, and when you achieve success for one client you simply copy & paste the campaign for another client.

Step 2
Contact businesses in that niche.
Either cold outreach (preferably cold calling)
or
Paid ads.

Cold outreach is way better, but I'm a pussy so I do paid ads.

How to do paid ads:

Because you're so niched it's very easy to get leads.
I got on a zoom with a lead (that is a security camera integrator) yesterday and he told me he sees a lot of ads, but because the ad is so specific he had to contact to see what I have to offer.

This is the ad I am running.



Step 3
Get them on zoom and close them.

Step 4
How to get the clients results if you use Facebook ads (which I would recommend):
1) Google "Meta Ads Library"
2) Look for ads in that niche
3) Ads that are active for more than 2 weeks are winners
4) Copy the ads


Obviously I just closed my first client so I'm a beginner so you don't have to listen.
I wrote this really quickly cause I'm not sure if someone gives a shit about this, if you have any more questions let me know.

 

[EliaR]

I am no marketing agency opening consultant, but I would advise just one thing - skew value.

As a small business owner I`ve entertained the idea of hiring such an agency and after several attempts of contacting people claiming to be such agents I dropped the idea. Why? Because none of them succeeded in answering one simple question: What will you give me for my money? Their answers were: web page, posts, visibility, clicks. But I do not need those. I need sales. And none was able to estimate my gains over expenditures.

In the "Invent with me" podcast hosts mentioned a type of agent I would happily pay to when it is relevant. They call him "an Amazon guy/gal". Such person takes charge of your Amazon sales pages, directs you to produce quality pages, thumbnails, descriptions etc and gets PERCENT of all Amazon sales which he/she is responsible to grow. That is a fair deal for a business owner, I like it.

If you remember we talked in DMs and I'm also from the same country as you.

If you want to get on zoom I'll show you how to find winning ads from your competitors and "copy" them.
No need to waste money on new ideas or offers when you can just see what your competitors are doing.

I won't try to sell you my services cause I know you're a smart guy and you would be able to do it yourself pretty easily.
Most business owners can't.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Black_Dragon43]

I'm starting a marketing agency and I'll tell you exactly what I'm doing. I'm being mentored by a guy teaching me exactly this.

I signed my first client 2 days ago and have a bunch of leads in the pipeline who I acquired really cheap.

Step 1
Find a niche.
The niche should receive AT LEAST $500 per job they get.
Do not choose saturated niches like law, dentists, med spas, think a little outside the box.
I'm working security camera integrators, you're welcome to use this niche as well.
Other niches:
Installing security alarms, installing car charging stations, leak detection, floor polishing, auto parts shop, and there are plenty more.

Why would you niche? It immediately makes you an expert for marketing in that field, and when you achieve success for one client you simply copy & paste the campaign for another client.

Step 2
Contact businesses in that niche.
Either cold outreach (preferably cold calling)
or
Paid ads.

Cold outreach is way better, but I'm a pussy so I do paid ads.

How to do paid ads:

Because you're so niched it's very easy to get leads.
I got on a zoom with a lead (that is a security camera integrator) yesterday and he told me he sees a lot of ads, but because the ad is so specific he had to contact to see what I have to offer.

This is the ad I am running.

View attachment 55219

Step 3
Get them on zoom and close them.

Step 4
How to get the clients results if you use Facebook ads (which I would recommend):
1) Google "Meta Ads Library"
2) Look for ads in that niche
3) Ads that are active for more than 2 weeks are winners
4) Copy the ads


Obviously I just closed my first client so I'm a beginner so you don't have to listen.
I wrote this really quickly cause I'm not sure if someone gives a shit about this, if you have any more questions let me know.

So you’re literarily just running that ad with a link to your calendar, not even a landing page?

 

[EliaR]

So you’re literarily just running that ad with a link to your calendar, not even a landing page?

An ad to get them to send me a message in Messenger.
I ask them for a phone number, call them up and set up a zoom call.

I know how to build really good looking landing pages as I have been freelancing as a website builder, but it's just unnecessary at the start.

Validating the idea before planning too much. Credit to @Andy Black

About $3.5 per lead at the moment. 11 Leads. Been running for like 5 days

 

[Black_Dragon43]

That’s F*cking insane @EliaR . If I tried that for my niche (digital agency owners — can even niche down to a specific type of agency, say animation agencies) it would never work

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Black_Dragon43]

About $3.5 per lead at the moment. 11 Leads. Been running for like 5 days

I would be happy to pay even $100 for a meeting, but I can’t get that in my niche.

 

[EliaR]

That’s F*cking insane @EliaR . If I tried that for my niche (digital agency owners — can even niche down to a specific type of agency, say animation agencies) it would never work

I probably should have mentioned I'm not from the USA so the market might be different.
We are not as advanced as US marketing agencies in regarding offers, niching down and etc.
It's also 2.5% the population of the US so it might be because of that.

I would be happy to pay even $100 for a meeting, but I can’t get that in my niche.

Yep, choosing a niche is pretty important.
Your niche is very saturated.
Have you tried looking at already successful meta ads that have been running for months and doing something similar?

 

[Black_Dragon43]

I probably should have mentioned I'm not from the USA so the market might be different.
We are not as advanced as US marketing agencies in regarding offers, niching down and etc.
It's also 2.5% the population of the US so it might be because of that.



Yep, choosing a niche is pretty important.
Your niche is very saturated.
Have you tried looking at already successful meta ads that have been running for months and doing something similar?

So we’re very successful at getting new business via outreach, we secured 100+ clients last year. But not via ads. I guess the first goal would be to just self-liquidate via ads — pay for the ad spend by selling a lead magnet.

It would be INSANELY beneficial to spend money instead of time to acquire leads for us. Because our pricepoint is around $1K/mo, so it’s not like our clients whom we do outreach for, where a new client means $10K+ of business for them. It would make what we do a lot more scaleable.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[EliaR]

So we’re very successful at getting new business via outreach, we secured 100+ clients last year. But not via ads. I guess the first goal would be to just self-liquidate via ads — pay for the ad spend by selling a lead magnet.

It would be INSANELY beneficial to spend money instead of time to acquire leads for us. Because our pricepoint is around $1K/mo, so it’s not like our clients whom we do outreach for, where a new client means $10K+ of business for them. It would make what we do a lot more scaleable.

Take a look at this ad.

Log in or sign up to view

See posts, photos and more on Facebook.

www.facebook.com

It's very simple yet has been running since December 2022.

Could you send me an ad that you ran unsuccessfully?

keep in mind I'm a beginner but maybe I could still give some insight.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Take a look at this ad.

Log in or sign up to view

See posts, photos and more on Facebook.

www.facebook.com

It's very simple yet has been running since December 2022.

Could you send me an ad that you ran unsuccessfully?

keep in mind I'm a beginner but maybe I could still give some insight.

DM-ed you.

 

[constant]

if you have any more questions let me know.

I have a question.
What does your pricing model look like?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

An ad to get them to send me a message in Messenger.
I ask them for a phone number, call them up and set up a zoom call.

I know how to build really good looking landing pages as I have been freelancing as a website builder, but it's just unnecessary at the start.

Validating the idea before planning too much. Credit to @Andy Black

About $3.5 per lead at the moment. 11 Leads. Been running for like 5 days

View attachment 55220

Well done. Start simple, and as close to the end as possible.

 

[EliaR]

I have a question.
What does your pricing model look like?

As I said I only signed my first client for Facebook ads 2 days ago hahaha so it's not something I've experimented with a lot.
This guy is paying me a retainer.

I'm considering a pay per job pricing model because it's way easier to sell and also might earn me more, but it's outside of my control whether my client is honest or is good at sales.

My mentor's pricing model is taking a payment that includes minimum marketing budget (minimum $500). He uses 20-30% of that payment for the marketing budget and profits the rest. Only a good idea when you have a lot of experience though.