Starting a digital marketing agency from the very beginning without any experience is difficult but not impossible. Having an established digital marketing business with customers and employees going for nothing is a lengthy process to follow.

 

It is not easy but as a service provider, nothing can stop you from making it a reality and entering the exciting world of digital marketing.

 

It is not easy but as a service provider, nothing can stop you from making it a reality and entering the exciting world of digital marketing.

Is digital marketing a good business to start?

Before we get into the specifics, let me briefly explain why a digital marketing agency is a good business to start.

Digital marketing services are in high demand – the number of businesses doing their operations online is increasing day by day and so is the competition. More competition means more demand for digital marketing services.

You can operate a digital marketing agency from home using remote teams – One of the benefits of starting a digital marketing agency is that you don’t need a physical business presence.

All operations can be done remotely using email and Skype. As a business owner, you can also reduce your costs by working from home and hiring remote teams to assist you.

 

You don’t need prior experience – While having prior experience with SEO and digital marketing is certainly an advantage, you can gradually build your digital marketing skills by using an online course and providing services to clients. You can practice on your website first.

 

Be Your Own Boss – If you want to survive from 9:00 to 17:00 and want to start your own business then becoming a Digital Marketing Manager is a great option.

 

It is a scalable business – you can start your business by providing services yourself and then as you get more clients you can hire more people and grow your business.

 

This is a low-cost business to start – you don’t need to make a big investment right from the start. All you need is an internet connection, a subscription to a few tools, and a website. Something else (office space, employees, etc.) may come later as the business grows.

How to start a digital marketing agency

These are the key steps to follow when starting your own digital marketing agency.

  1. Build your digital marketing skills and self-confidence
  2. Decide what kind of services to offer
  3. Decide how you plan to operate your business
  4. Register your business
  5. Establish your web presence
  6. Showcase your experience and expertise
  7. Choose the right tools
  8. Define your business model
  9. Get your first client
  1. Build Your Digital Marketing Skills and Confidence

The first step is to build the skills and confidence required to run a digital marketing agency. It can be divided into three areas:

 

  • Digital marketing technical skills
  • Business management skills
  • Confidence skills
  • Digital marketing skills

Obviously, if you want to start a digital marketing agency then you have to build your digital marketing skills.

This means you need to know what digital marketing is, how it works, and how to run campaigns using one or more digital marketing channels to increase your client’s traffic and sales.

Digital marketing has a lot of components and while you don’t need to know everything from day one, you should have a sound knowledge of the following:

 

  • SEO
  • Google ads
  • Facebook Marketing
  • Social media Marketing
  • Content marketing
  • Email marketing

As your agency grows, you can build your own digital marketing team and hire experts, but if you’re just starting out with no experience and no money, it’s important to know how to perform these tasks. How to execute self.

 

This is actually an important success factor. In the early stages of your business, you need to reduce your costs and dependence on other people.

You need practical experience with various digital marketing processes so that you can ultimately figure out what works well (in terms of money and customers) and where you will need help.

The best way to master a skill is to learn theory and best practices from established experts and practice a lot.

Digital marketing is a highly practical discipline and it is not enough to know the basics but you need to gain the necessary experience by practicing digital marketing.

 

Business Management skills

Since your goal is to start an online business and not work as a freelancer, you need to learn the basics of running a business.

You don’t necessarily have to have a degree in business management, but you should gradually develop certain skills related to:

  • Project Management
  • Time management
  • Invoicing and Billing
  • Contracts
  • HR management

As a business owner, you will have to do these things from the start and probably over a long period of time until you reach the point where you can hire dedicated people.

 

Self-confidence skills

You cannot run a business if you are not willing to take some risk. You need confidence to take risks and to gain confidence in the digital marketing industry, you need to believe in your skills.

If you start this business without knowing what steps you should take to improve website ranking or how to use advertising to get more customers for your customers, you will fail.

Therefore, before you start serving clients (as a digital marketing freelancer or agency), you should have experience working in an established agency or by working on their own websites.

Once you reach a point where you can use digital marketing techniques to achieve real measurable results, you will know you are ready to become a service provider.

Don’t forget that there are thousands of digital marketing professionals and agencies in the market and clients will probably get many offers and do many interviews before making a hiring decision.

Confidence will help you stand out from the crowd so make sure you equip yourself with the required knowledge, skills, and experience before taking the big step.

 

  1. Decide What Kinds of Services to Provide

The next step is to decide what kind of digital marketing services to offer to your potential customers. A full-service digital marketing agency typically provides the following services:

  • Web design and development
  • SEO Services
  • PPC Services (Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.)
  • Content Marketing Services (Includes Content Writing)
  • Social media marketing services
  • Email marketing services
  • Conversion optimization services

As a startup, it will be very difficult to offer all these services right from the beginning, so it is better to choose the services that match your skills.

Remember that your goal at this stage is to keep your costs low and rely on your skills. If you try to go full-service from day one, there’s a big chance you’ll get lost in the process.

  1. Decide How You Plan to Operate Your Business

The next decision is how you plan to operate your business.

You have three options:

  • As a virtual company from home and hiring remote teams
  • As a ‘traditional business’ with an office and local staff
  • Combination of both

All three options have their advantages and disadvantages and your decision should take into account the cost and location of your potential customers.

For example, if you plan to serve customers in a specific city, having a physical presence in the area will help you establish your brand and gain more local customers.

Having a physical office will increase your monthly cost if you plan to serve customers anywhere in the world.

As a matter of fact, one of the benefits of starting your own digital marketing agency is that you can operate your business from home with remote employees. A lot of online and SaaS companies follow this model and it is the future of business. 

As you grow your digital marketing portfolio, you can consider hiring local employees, but they can also work from their home offices, so there is no need to pay rent and other office expenses at this stage. is not needed.

However, you need to find space in your home and set up your home office. This can be a separate room or area in your home that you will use for work. Also, since you will be working online, you need to make sure that you have the best internet connection possible.

 

  1. Register Your Business

 

Before proceeding with the next steps, it’s time to make it official. And by this I mean:

  • Choose your business name
  • Register your own Domain Name
  • Design your logo
  • Register your business legal entity with the relevant authorities
  • Get a Tool-Free Number
  • Find an Accountant and Auditor
  • Find a lawyer
  • Create business card

It’s essential to do it now and put all the pieces together, even if you didn’t use them all from the beginning.

 

  1. Establish Your Web Presence

The first actionable step on the list is to establish your online presence, starting with building a website for your business.

The website is the ‘front door’ of your agency business, so you need to make sure it accurately represents your brand.

Your website should look professional and give potential customers all the information they need to decide whether they should hire your company.

In addition to explaining who you are and what you do, make sure you explain the benefits clients will receive from hiring you. Make your website about them, not about you.

Create dedicated landing pages for all your services and make sure it’s easy for potential customers to contact you without asking too many questions or completing complicated signup forms.

Your goal is to get as many leads as possible, filter them, and focus on those most likely to become clients.

Apart from building a website, you need to secure your brand name and create business pages on all the major platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).

Don’t skip this step because clients will check out your Facebook page and do more research about your company before getting hired, so you need to make sure everything looks nice and professional.

Additionally, register your business with websites like Crunchbase and other organizations (local, government) that can help prove your legal existence.

 

  1. Showcase Your Experience and Expertise

One of the most difficult aspects of running a digital marketing agency is finding new clients. But, an equally important aspect is being in a position to persuade potential customers to work with you.

The best way to do this is to showcase your experience and expertise.

Practically this means:

 

  • An About us page that tells your story and achievements
  • Success stories
  • Study the matter
  • Academic records
  • Known companies you have worked for
  • Previous work experience
  • Customer inquiry
  • Partnership agreement
  • Certificate
  • Mentions from other websites

If you’re just starting out with no experience, it’s normal that some of the above items may not apply to you, but put them on your to-do list and try to get to them gradually.

For example, do some work on a friend’s business website and ask them to send you a review or get some digital marketing certifications from reputable companies.

Use the results you get from working on your own websites and display them as case studies on your business website.

Do some guest posting on reputed websites and mention it on your homepage.

Be honest about your work experience and only publish genuine reviews and case studies. Starting a business relationship with a customer based on fake reviews is not the way to set up a successful business.

 

  1. Choose the Right Equipment

To run your digital agency efficiently, you’ll eventually need a lot of tools. In fact, paying for a tool license will be your second biggest expense after paying salaries.

You’ll need tools to help you optimize your digital marketing campaigns, generate reports for customers, invoicing, accounting, and more.

There are many devices in the market to choose from, but what you need to keep in mind is to choose devices that offer features you will actually use, not features that are good for you.

It is very common for businesses to pay for software features that they will never use so choose wisely.

Don’t forget that you should sign up for tools that you can use on your own website, but also on your client’s websites, so keep that in mind when comparing the licensing cost of each tool.

The first tool you will need is digital marketing platforms like SEMRUSH, Ahrefs, Hubspot, Moz.

These platforms have tools that can help you with SEO, content marketing, social media marketing and PPC campaign management.

Other free tools you’ll need are:

  • Google Analytics
  • Google tag manager
  • Google search console
  • Google data studio
  • Google keyword planner
  • Google docs
  • Google slides
  • Google forms
  • Skype  

 

  1. Define Your Business Model

The next step in this process is to define your business model i.e. to decide how you will charge for your services.

The most popular business models for digital marketing agencies are:

 

  1. Per hour
  2. Per project
  3. Monthly fee

 

Per Hour – You charge an hourly fee for your services. The rate varies from $30 per hour to $120 per hour, depending on your experience, the location of the client, the type of business, the type of services you provide, and the complexity of the work.

Per Project – You make an agreement with the client on a fixed amount to complete the project. If your guess is correct then you make a profit but if you guess wrong you may lose.

Monthly Fee – The customer pays the monthly retainer for the agreed services. This is usually applied for monthly SEO services, PPC management, and social media management.

  1. Get Your First Customer

So far we have discussed how to lay the ground for your startup agency but to really become a real business, you need clients. A business with no clients is just an idea and not a business.

Friends and Family – There is a high chance that your friends and family members have a business or work for a business that can use digital marketing services.

Reach out to them and offer to help them with their digital marketing efforts. Take a first look at their website and their marketing strategy and create a plan about how you can help them get more customers, improve their search presence, and drive more sales in general Huh.