Growing an internet marketing agency is hard, very hard, especially in the saturated market it has become in the past decade. We at Xanda have faced this ourselves in our formative years and with the help of hard work, smart decision-making and an excellent team were fortunate to get to the point we are today.

Here are a few things that we feel can help our fellow marketing agencies in growing and sustaining their business.

1. Start building a far-reaching network

A clear step to growing your internet marketing agency is to put yourself out there and start making long-lasting connections. These connections don’t have to be uber-specific, just relevant enough that potential leads and referrals may come from them. To begin, start locally with local businesses and business owners to make in-roads to a wider audience. Get in contact with past clients, attend networking events, and build relationships with industry peers. Often time, these connections will be more-than-willing to refer you to friends and business connections.

2. Hire and train the right employees

Employees are one of the most important assets your marketing agency has. Hiring and effectively training the best applicants is a sure-fire way to grow. However, hiring doesn’t have to happen solely for in-house operations, for the smaller, more mundane tasks, how about outsourcing? Common uses of outsourcing are for tasks such as; copywriting and SEO.

When hiring new employees, look beyond their resume and look for soft-skills, such as; Willingness to learn or passion for digital marketing. Interviews are key to seeing whether an applicant would fit with the current team, as harmony in the workplace is crucial to maintained success.

3. Price your services accurately

Pricing is a major factor in the growth of your agency, as the price has to be acceptable to your prospective clients – the ones who fund the growth. A simple tip to follow is to use the pricing model used by competitors.

Pricing should accurately reflect the quality of the service you’ll be offering. Does the price not match? Maybe it’s time to adjust those prices, according to the quality you currently or plan to offer. Your pricing model must factor in the resources needed to complete the project you’ve been tasked with, and also plan this pricing model to allow for scalability.

4. Develop clear marketing strategies

Inbound Marketing – Activities that allow you to gain leads passively through clients reaching out to you.

SEO, PPC, Social Media, and Content Marketing are the four inbound tactics we recommend for increasing your business’ visibility.

Outbound Marketing -Activities that allow you to get leads aggressively through reaching our to prospective clients.

Outbound marketing tactics may be considered outdated, however are still as effective. Cold emails and calls are good tactics to getting in touch with prospective clients outlining what you can do for them.

5. Market yourself, as well as clients

A common misconception is that an internet marketing agency should solely focus on marketing their clients’ business and hoping that their portfolio of work alone will attract new clients. Begin using marketing strategies you are implementing for clients, for your own brand, to further showcase your ability to market correctly. We recommend social media and content marketing above all, as it’s tangible evidence of what you can provide for prospective clients.