What is “Agency Marketing”?

I didn’t realise until recently but I do agency marketing and we all talk about it but no one seemed to be talking about it explicitly or defining it.

I believe Agency Marketing boils down to communication and consequently telling stories, but it can take many forms and be delivered in many ways.  Naturally there are brilliant ways to do it, expensive ways, wrong ways, confused ways and time-poor ways. Like anything.

If you’re a small, medium or large agency too – it’s a different ball game. If you make beautiful things vs build technical things, there are different spins on it, and as a founder, you need to be knowledgable about all avenues to know what to dial up, and dial down. 

So where do you start; it’s my belief and a very normal method of marketing to start with an audit and research. If you’re a medium or large agency – outsource this to a positioning expert, someone with in-depth brand experience who knows your sector and discipline but someone who perhaps doesn’t know you too well might be best. Fresh eyes! A smaller agency; you can do this for yourself or perhaps look at strategists or freelance designers who have experience in building brands. It’s important to separate the Founder and CEO from the brand of the business. This is somewhere Founders or part owners get muddled. Your business brand has an audience. And you have yours. It’s linked but apart. Exploring business goals, looking at the justification for why your business exists and why your business is different is crucial. There are books that speak to purpose, books that ask ‘Is your business for lifestyle or to build up and sell’ – these are useful topics to have insights into. But look at the service you provide and the capabilities around you – what’s your market share and what could it be? If you feel this may be flat- pivot, hire, re-position, acquire. 

Have a board meeting; strategy meetings and do some deep work into your Unique Service Proposition. 

Next; look at your brand and it’s worth. Hire a coach. Hire a mentor. Get a Non-Exec. They will tell you very explicitly what you’re missing. Do you need an outsourced sales agency? Marketing agency? To dial up SEO? Website re-build? Maybe you’re not charging enough? Are your staff delivering profitable work? How are the Ops and Finance running in support of the business? This all has an affect on your agency’s marketing. 

In terms of your brand; you need to have a consistent identity, consistent message and consistent way of speaking. It’s how you show up and where. What makes sense to your unique business with a unique set of clients requires a marketing strategy describing how you want to be seen, and the plan is the tasks that make sure it happens. The channels are vast, but in my opinion, spend the time and energy where it gets you clients. 

I’m going to tackle topics within Agency Marketing as I go but I hope that this succinct introduction has been a helpful start. 

Stay tuned….