Digital Marketing for Agencies
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- Hayoth
Have you done any marketing for own company or agencies you work? Curious if anyone has found success.
Some agencies that it attracted low quality clients through insta and Facebook.
What do you guys think?
- Hayoth-4
Bump
- Fax_Benson0
Years ago I got postcards printed and put them through letterboxes of local businesses that I thought might be OK to work with, or who clearly needed some design help.
Complete waste of time.
- Continuity3
It's been my experience — generally speaking — that agencies marketing themselves like they would one of their clients is counter-productive. I suppose, there's a perception that if an agency needs to advertise themselves, that they're not very good (which may or may not be the case).
Sad as it is to say, the most effective marketing channels for agencies are:
• Networking. If your agency's owners aren't doing this, there's a serious problem;
• PR through the trade papers (AdAge, Campaign, etc, etc) showcasing new work, client wins, or new staff, and;
• The awards shows. Winning at the Lions, the Clios, Epica, ADC, and so on, which — in turn — gives the agency visilibity, and something to stick in a press release to the trade papers in Point 2.
From what I've been seeing, social media for agencies creates an echo chamber of sorts, where the only people who give a shit are either existing clients, or people who want a job at said agency. I've never heard of a client saying to an agency, 'Hey, I was on your FB page, and I think I want to hire you!'
Ultimately: success and growth for agencies lies in reputation, not self-marketing through advertising (online or off).
- Hayoth-1
Thanks Con. I agree. Digital marketing is great for widgets but not agencies. I've had success through directmail but it's expensive.
Was wondering if LinkedIn or other channels can fill up leads faster. Especially for a startup.
- Continuity1
LinkedIn is kind of interesting. A couple of freelancers I know use it to broadcast/show off work they’ve just finished for a client or agency, and their upcoming availability in the same post. It seems to work for them, and they’re very well-connected on that platform to the German agency scene.
The thing is, though, it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario: did they do offline networking first and build up their LinkedIn network accordingly, or did they start their networking efforts on LinkedIn first?
Either way, I think reputation here plays the same important role as it would for an agency marketing itself, rather than using the platform just for lead generation.
- formed2
As far as I can tell, everything works a little but there is no silver bullet. This is true for many businesses.
We tried postcards last year, too, and while it didn't generate business it did leave a few impressions. So we'll [probably] do that a few times a year in addition to all the other things. It gets expensive fast, though, esp compared to digital stuff.
Social media is worthless beyond just being out there a little more. LI has possibilities, but totally hit/miss as you never know who pays attention to it or not (we've monitored emails sent, etc., some show up daily, some don't ever show up to read).
- Mattjanz3n2
I've been thinking about this lately and trying a few things. What I've come full circle to is.... I think this depends who you're targeting (corps or small businesses etc) but for us it's been all about referrals + a basic level of visibility. Put that 10% or whatever from your marketing budget into going above and beyond for your existing customers. They will wave your flag if your doing it right and bring in new clients. Rinse repeat.
- not 10% of your marketing budget.. that came out weird. .. meant to say put your marketing budget. period.Mattjanz3n
- Curious if you mean 10% higher quality deliverable or 10% more marketing (like gifts, etc.)?formed
- I meant that old rule of thumb being 10% of total revenue for marketing.Mattjanz3n
- trooperbill-7
S.E.O. works great and has since 1998 - now my full time job