Building out processes in key areas of your marketing agency is an effective way to scale your business. We’ve compiled a list of 5 areas within your business that you can focus on building out processes, shared by a panel of industry experts in the field.
- Training new employees
Kevin Cook of On The Map Marketing says “In the past few years we have been scaling like crazy and we certainly did not have simple processes for doing so, but after a while it becomes clear that the key to scaling is to teach systems over information. So we created a system for training new employees on the basics of what their job would entail. For more tech focused roles we did the same. You have a SOP to follow for all the major issues you could face, and it’s clearly documented what you need to do and who to process. With proper SOPs in place we can hire 10 new employees tomorrow and our only concern would need to be that they actually follow them.”
- Outsourcing
Laura of laurarike.com advises “Outsource what you can, time block and prioritize what needs to be done by you. I think too often, small business owners and entrepreneurs spend a lot of time doing things that could be delegated to a virtual assistant, who could complete the tasks at a much lower rate than you’d charge clients for things only you can do. When I was able to make that distinction and grow my team to include others taking those tasks, I was able to free up time for me to focus on needle-moving activities that grew and scaled my business, whether that’s creating content, growing my network, or investing in myself (working with a coach, personal and professional development courses, etc) to compound my impact. Having systems in place to support the team so that many things run automatically or with minimal management or intervention can make a huge difference as well!”
- Client acquisition
Madhav Goenka of Frazile Media shares “One important process we use to scale our agency is leveraging the power of Facebook Groups for client acquisition. The process looks something like this:
Facebook Groups are a great place to find a targeted audience looking for specific solutions. Our team members have joined several Facebook Groups consisting of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and personal brands. We answer all their questions related to online marketing and regularly post tips, tricks, and strategies that will help them get better results.
This positions us as an expert and the go-to person in case they face any difficulties or roadblocks in their marketing. And when they reach out to us, we usually connect on a call to assist them and pitch our services (only if they really need them). Being transparent and helpful enables us to build stronger relationships which in the long term proves very beneficial in getting us sales and referrals.
Jabez Reuben, Owner at The Blueprints says “Right from the very beginning of our operations, we are using a lead magnet to simply finding suitable clients. It is very crucial for marketing agencies, more so for the new ones who are just setting the foot in the industry.”
- Backlinks and SEO
Chloe Sisson of Zen Media, a PR firm, says “By using target keywords and links, we are able to get our agency out there as one of the top digital PR agencies and acquire more clients. We use these techniques for our clients’ websites too. By creating organic traffic, your site gains a better reputation and a higher level of trust. Paying attention to Google’s algorithm makes it easy to scale your agency. Pick a few keywords that represent your agency and have a high search volume. They can be very basic and to the point. Writing content and blog posts can help you attain backlinks. All of these processes create more awareness and exposure for your agency.”
- Serve a niche
Bill Balderaz of Futurety states “Our secret to scaling is to get very good at serving specific types of clients. If you serve all industries, you are constantly losing ramp-up time. We chose to focus on highly regulated industries like healthcare, financial services, and government agencies. This allows us to not only get very good and efficient in our deliverables, but it also makes our sales cycles shorter with higher win rates. Because we know these industries, we know how to market to them. We know their buying cycles. We know their decision-making process. We get great referrals.”
In conclusion, building out processes in key areas of your business such as hiring new employees and client acquisition is an effective way to boost productivity, save time and ultimately scale your agency.