Marketing agencies spend their days thinking about the brand positioning and messaging of their clients. So much so that their own marketing needs often fall all the way to the bottom of the list. This isn’t a smart strategy, because when the hustle and bustle of a product launch or a big event for a client dies down and the agency needs some fresh business coming through the door, it’s going to become clear that no one’s been working on generating leads.
To avoid this unpleasant situation, here are some tips for fine tuning your marketing agency’s offerings this year.
Consider Offering Industry-Specific Marketing Solutions
Businesses want to feel like their marketing agency understands their needs and their target audience. They’re not interested in generic solutions that are offered to every client that walks through your door. What are the top industries that you typically market for? Have you noticed a pattern? Consider positioning yourself as a marketing expert in specific industries and highlight your connections and network within those industries. Additionally, write case studies from previous clients and request references so you can demonstrate your expertise to offer specialized marketing solutions.
Expand Your Marketing Solutions
Are you limited to content writing, social media management, or event planning? Remember that technology is transforming every industry, marketing included. Expand your agency’s talent pool strategically by keeping an eye on emerging marketing technology trends like AI, voice search, mobile searching and more. As brands increasingly turn to tools like branded apps and chatbots to promote themselves, your marketing agency will need to be able to facilitate such activities.
Educate Your Audience on Your Marketing Solutions
Clients may be overwhelmed by one of your offerings not because it’s unimpressive but because they genuinely don’t get it. For instance, let’s say you present a bespoke content management system as something your agency offers. This offering has the potential to make the back-end of a client’s content so organized that the front end is produced seamlessly and efficiently. If the client doesn’t understand the first thing about metadata or content taxonomy, this all sounds like something unrelated to the task of promoting their business. Create infographics, hold webinars, and produce videos that explain the benefits of some of your services and value adds in a way that doesn’t rely on marketing jargon and is simple for a non-marketing professional to understand.
Consider Axing Your Less Effective Agency Offerings
Get a little ruthless. If there’s an element of your business that isn’t winning much business, it’s a sign that you’re either not well invested in it or you’re not that good at it (which in some cases amounts to the same thing). In any case, if you don’t plan on investing significant resources into making it a worthwhile area of your business, then it’s best to just axe it and focus on improving the areas where your agency excels.
Create an Internal Governance Policy To Share With Clients
A large part of being a marketing agency is handling requests, pivots, and uncertainties from a client. The level of service you provide, in addition to your results, determines whether these clients will return with more business. Formalize your governance process and make it available to prospects so they understand how issues will be identified and rapidly resolved, how to escalate issues, and how a project will be kept on track.
Dedicate some time this year to analyzing, ideating, and refining your existing offerings to position your agency for success in 2018.