They say doctors make the worse patients. The same could be said for digital marketing agencies marketing themselves, but that doesn’t have to be the case. It’s easy to forget how your agency’s own talent can be put to work for itself.
Photo by Philipp Mandler on Unsplash
There is this tendency within digital agencies to let their work “do the talking,” which sounds reasonable. We’re as guilty as any. But, imagine one of your clients wanted to let their, for example, latest enterprise software offering “do the talking.” One might suspect no sales records are going to be broken any time soon.
It’s time to let your agency “walk the walk,” not just “talk the talk.” Here are just a few ideas to get those creative juices we know you have flowing.
Events
I hate these things as much as you do. They too often become beggers begging from beggers. But, you can take control by leading your own event. It doesn’t have to be anything huge. It could just be a happy hour.
Publish Content on Medium
You probably are already creating great content for yourself on your company blog or whatever. You’re not? Well, do that. You should also consider publishing ORIGINAL content on a platform like Medium.
Your company blog is great, I’m sure, but chances are you’re publishing into the void. Publish a few articles, never before seen, on a site like Medium and let that drive traffic back to your agency website.
Syndicate till it Hurts
Creating great content is expensive–both in time and in treasure. Don’t leave it hidden in your company blog. Syndicated that stuff out there. Consider RSS feed consumers, publishing to Apple News, and sharing on social media platforms like Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Get that content out there as much as you can.
Redesign Your Agency Website
Of course you do your very best work for your clients. They are the ones paying for the party, after all. But your prospective clients pay close attention to your agency website as a way of measuring your internal talents. Do you?
They’re probably thinking: “If that’s the best they can do for themselves, I can only assume they’ll do worse for me.”
I’m sure the opposite is true, but you should pay closer attention to your website. Maybe it’s time to break up with your existing site and rebuild it using the latest and greatest web technology.
Maintain a Company Newsletter
The average customer is going to spend 90 days researching new agencies. Stay top-of-mind with a newsletter. It could even be mostly automated using something like an RSS-to-Email thing.
However you get it done, get it done. Lead nurturing takes time.
Award Submissions
“Award-winning” always sounds pretty cool, particularly when it validates a piece of work you’re proud of. It’s also great publicity for the client for whom you produced that work. The client may even be willing to pay for the award submissions. Win-win!
Oh, don’t forget to brag about your awards.
Testimonials & Reviews
According to a report from AMI, recommendations are gold (not that you needed me to tell you that).
“Recommendations by business contacts is the most frequently cited source of prospective agency names when organizations are developing their initial list of agencies to consider. Industry experts are second, and recommendations by other vendors or service providers are mentioned by 45% of respondents.”
After every successful project, ask your clients for a recommendation (online or just a written one).
Blend Your Portfolio with Case Studies
All those pretty pictures in your portfolio are great, but give them some backstory. What were the challenges? How did you arrive at the solution(s) you chose? How does this project illustrate your competitive advantages?
Check out our portfolio, purely as an example.
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Well, it’s a start.