Digital Marketing Strategies for Agency Owners

A lot of people say that starting an agency is difficult because it’s too late, it’s too competitive and the churn rate is super high in social.

But now is actually the best time to start a marketing agency because of what happened with COVID and all these people that are now starting to get online because of how quarterly businesses are doing digitally. It’s a completely blue ocean. 

The fact that there are a lot of agencies out there doesn’t mean there’s a lot of competition. It means there are a lot of people that aren’t doing it properly. 

We coach through Digital Marketers (a community of digital marketing experts) and the reality is thousands of agencies don’t even know how to do what they’re supposed to do. They haven’t niche down, maybe they know how to do one thing–build really good websites, but what about all the other components?

It is still wide open. It is still brand new.

So ultimately being an entrepreneur in the last 30 years, I’ve seen a shift from what it used to be when I was called a webmaster, just building webpages that are just text all the way to videos that are interactive and everything is just simulating what a live conversation would be if you and I were to sit down together.

And I think that everything with the social channels, everything with all the tools out there is getting us closer and closer to having real conversations, which is ironic because if you think about 30 years ago before there was the internet, you will talk to a shopkeeper and they would remember who you were and what you’re up to and engage with you.

Now we’re just trying to simulate something that we already had 30 years ago. Here’s how:

 Building Authentic and Real Relationships

People now want to have relationships and a lot of people talk about being authentic and being real. But what does that really mean? 

Does that mean that you have to be on TikTok and YouTube and you have to be Gary Vaynerchuk and talk about what’s going on and have a cell phone constantly in your face?

I don’t think so. 

The last thing people want to see is some salesperson who talks so well, that you can’t really trust them. People want to see who you are and the flaws that you have actually caused people to identify us more. 

Structuring your three-by-three videos

Structuring these little one-minute snippets about who you are–your why story, the expertise that you have– your how and the different things you have to offer which are your what.

Need help with your 3×3 Grid? Here is a Do it for you package Dennis designed just for busy people like you!

Niching Down

Niche down to exactly what area you serve because that is where your service or product will appear interesting.

A lot of people are saying that’s already been done. You go to YouTube and see a list of all these other videos on that same topic. But each of us addresses a different audience and we look at these common themes of a family of success– of working hard, of taking care of our clients. 

Who doesn’t want to echo those same themes? 

There’s nothing wrong with saying that the reason you’re in business is that you care for your family– because of your child, because of your significant other, because you care for employees. These are all common themes that the more you put out there, the more likely it’s gonna resonate with the people in your community.

So you actually want that kind of overlap. 

Creating your Video Content

You’ve got a hundred videos in, and that’s what it takes. 

Your first hundred videos or blog posts are gonna suck, just like people on New Year that decide they’re gonna lose weight and they sign up for a gym membership. How many of them on March 1st is still working out at the gym? 

Just like with anything, you’ve got to put in the time and you will suck at first, but I can tell you when you’re in that 1%, that makes it past a hundred days and made a habit, you’re gonna beat all the other people, all the other dentists, all the other real estate agents, all the other people in your category.

I’ve seen some people who were horrible but are still posting videos every day, and now he’s the top provider in that industry. 

I know it’s disheartening to work and work and not see results but just know that for every 10 attempts, you’re gonna have one win.

Think about Babe Ruth, one of the most popular baseball players ever. The Home run king. What percent of the time did he Home run? It’s only 7%.

So be okay with 93% failure, because one home run is all you need. 

Need help with how you can do your Video Contents? Here is an Office Hour Episode that talks about how to do Videos like a Pro. 

Because in 2030, marketing is going to be so automated because of all the tools, and all the different social networks that the only thing left that the robot can’t automate or fake are the actual relationships that we have, which circles back to the word of mouth that circles back to the relationships that we have with our customers. 

So if we know that there’s automation and deep faking and tools that create content and distribute content and all that, then the most valuable thing is the very seed that those tools and those robots cannot create, which is our identities.

So when we could record behind the scenes of what it’s like with our customers, of what we stand for, of why we’re doing what we’re doing– those lightweight behind-the-scenes kinds of moments, that’s the stuff that the AI can’t figure out.

So do not be afraid of the different tools

The tools are here to assist us because we live above the line. We live above the robots. So we’re dictating to the tools what the tools need to do, but that means we have to put the ingredients and the ingredients are those little lightweight moments that we collect on our cell phones.

So 10 years from now, everything’s going to be automatically created and funnels will be auto-generated. Ads will be automatically created. All the targeting will be done for us. Even the optimization and the ad spend. 

It’ll just be like putting something in the machine and pressing a button. So then whoever can put the best stuff in the machine is going to win because everyone has access to the same machine. 

I believe that anyone who can achieve a result, whether it’s hitting a golf club or it’s driving sales and a Facebook ad is based on some kind of recipe and that if you have the ingredients and you have the technique and the tools, you will be able to get that result. 

 You would think that extroverts and public speakers are the ones who are most likely to be able to get the most reach because certainly, the influencers are going to be seen a lot more but what I find is that the people who have the expertise, the people who care, the people who are more thoughtful, tend to be the Introverts. 

And so when I came to digital marketing 30 years ago, I thought, how do I teach other people how to build websites, how to build landing pages, how to write, copy, how to do video, how to build a WordPress site and naturally, I’ve just accumulated a library of all these recipes from all these other experts. 

And I just put it out there via the Academy and align with the digital market on how we can help these 10,000 businesses double in the next few years. 

Did you take advantage of all the resources we have in store for you in the Academy?

Listen to the full episode here:

Need help with Agency Management? Here is a course that will help!