How to Start a Digital Marketing Agency

“Starting a digital marketing agency is super easy” – they say on the internet. But those who have done it know it’s not. And those gathering information to start their own will realize the same thing.

There are several decisions you’ll need to make when opening a digital marketing agency. What type of production will you have, where will you find clients, how will you do your marketing, among many others.

These are questions that, of course, are already crossing your mind. We have brought some answers. And also many other questions and considerations that you might not have thought of yet.

But let’s get straight to the point because we have a lot to discuss today. Are you ready?

What are the types of digital marketing agencies?

“Digital marketing agency” is actually already a type of advertising agency. It is a segmentation of a business type that has existed for decades.

The advertising agencies that exist today can be:

• Agencies specialized in commercials and activations: like Africa, BBDO, Ogilvy, among others;

• Exclusive agency: these agencies offer a bit of everything but only for one client;

• Influence agency: specialized in connecting influencers to companies;

Among others. A digital marketing agency is one that does not produce printed materials – everything it creates is directed towards digital channels.

Does a digital marketing agency make videos? Of course – but with the primary focus on YouTube. Do they take photos? Yes, but photoshoots aimed at Instagram or e-commerce.

This will be your future agency: one that works 100% in the digital space.

That said, there are some branches within this digital-first category – these are the types of digital marketing agencies. We can summarize them as follows:

1 – Full-service agency

It is a native digital agency but produces all kinds of materials and offers various types of services.

Typically, these full-service agencies deliver materials like:

• Articles for blogs;
• Website creation;
• Creation and articles of landing pages;
• Emails;
• Video production;
• Photo production;
• Podcast production;
• Scripts for reels.

And whatever else they can offer. This is the most popular model among agencies today, mainly due to the demand from clients who want a bit of everything.

Among the services they usually offer, we can highlight:

• Branding;
• UX guides;
• Marketing automations;
• Lead generation;
• Increase in organic traffic;
• SEO consultancy;
• Digital presence (management of Instagram, website, Google My Business, etc.);

And so on. Today, if you search Google for “digital marketing agency,” most of them offer all these services and even some more.

These agencies are popular but a bit harder to maintain. Having a large and specialized team is always challenging to assemble and manage.

If you want to start a full-service digital marketing agency, be prepared: the business plan needs to be perfect, and the initial investment can be high.

2 – Content agency

This type of digital marketing agency focuses on content marketing. Some even work solely with content production, without even worrying about the strategy part – that comes from the client.

But most content agencies take care of production and the strategy behind the content. What they offer in the strategic part is:

• Keyword research for Google and YouTube;
• SEO consultancy for blogs;
• Creation of editorial calendars;
• Competitive analysis of the content of the competition;
• Explained reports of the involved Analytics (Google, Instagram, YouTube, etc.);

And for the strategic part, some very expensive software are essential, such as SEMRush ($120 per month on the most basic plan).

Besides the strategy, it is common for these agencies to be responsible for the content production itself. Some pieces they produce are:

• Videos for YouTube;
• Pieces for social media;
• Articles for blogs;
• Podcast scripts;
• Scripts for institutional videos;
• The institutional videos themselves;

Among others. The most sought-after professionals for these agencies are art directors, copywriters, creative directors, SEO specialists, and videomakers.

3 – Paid media agency

These are agencies specialized in Google Ads, Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, etc.

Few people consider paid media when starting a digital marketing agency. It is more common to find individual consultants since the work doesn’t involve a large team, and even with a few clients, it is possible to make a high profit.

This profit comes from the contractual arrangements of paid media agencies. Usually, traffic managers (as these people are known) receive a percentage of the investment made by the client.

But there are indeed some agencies specialized in paid media, especially offering a premium service that individual consultants usually don’t deliver.

These extra services often include:

• Constant competitive analysis of the competition via SEMRush or another platform;
• Involvement of accounting for greater formalization of expenses;
• Creation of pieces with experienced designers (very important);
• Conceptualization and writing of campaigns by copywriters (extremely important).

Notice the emphasis on the last two items: it is common for traffic and paid media consultants not to create the pieces for the ads, only managing the investment.

In some cases, individual traffic consultants place the responsibility for producing the pieces on the clients themselves.

This is a business model, so there’s no right or wrong, just opportunities. In this case, the opportunity to offer a complete service and retain your clients is quite attractive.

Starting a digital marketing agency specializing in paid media is a great idea, but to offer a complete service, you will need experienced copywriters, mid to senior traffic managers, and art directors.

4 – Inbound marketing agency

Inbound marketing is a mix of content with strategy, but using a different and unique methodology.

The inbound method dictates that the right way is for clients to seek out your business, not for your business to advertise to them. That’s why they are completely different from paid media agencies.

Inbound marketing agencies are very similar to content agencies, but larger. Content marketing is, in itself, a strategy of inbound marketing.

So it is expected that an inbound marketing agency offers everything that a content agency offers, and more:

• Lead conversion planning;
• Landing page production;
• Lead nurturing workflows;
• Newsletters;
• Defining the buyer’s journey;

Among other points. It is also important to understand that the inbound marketing agency works with results, and the result is always the sale and the recurrence of the sale.

There is no other metric within an agency focused on inbound except sales. All projects are focused on this. It’s not brand awareness, it’s not just organic traffic: it’s selling.

Can anyone start a digital marketing agency?

Certainly: there is nothing stopping you from starting a digital marketing agency. Besides the investment, the know-how, a team, a nice infrastructure, and organized management.

All businesses need these points to function well. But the agency comes with an extra: loving the work.

It’s not easy to start an agency. The portion of readers of this article who are wanting to leave one to start their own will agree. The work is tiring, the clients are very demanding, and the work being done is creative and therefore subjective.

The secret ingredient to starting a digital marketing agency is love. The desire to do more just because.

And the common ingredients are these below:

How much to invest to start a digital marketing agency?

Ah, the answer we love: “it depends.” But it’s true: it depends on the scope of your agency, what you offer, and what needs to be produced.

So it’s impossible for someone to tell you exactly how much you will spend. But I will try to make a budget with you here. Are you ready?

First, computers. The most basic Thinkpads today are going for US$ 700. They are the most used in agencies for strategy, writing, and customer service personnel.

For the design team, the most common laptops in high-level agencies are Macbooks Pro. They cost around US$ 2.000 each.

But if you’re going to build your own PC, you can save quite a bit there. Remember that your designers will need at least a good graphics card and an SSD storage.

You will also need a good cellphone, especially for social media. Scheduling on Instagram through the computer, for example, is quite unstable. You can find good iPhones for less than US$ 500.

Additionally, you will need desks, chairs, and good air conditioning if you’re working in-person. Rent for the space should also be included in the budget.

From there, you can start visualizing how much to invest. A small agency, starting now, won’t need more than that.

What do I need to know to start a digital marketing agency?

You’ll need to be an expert in the chosen area or be great at recognizing the talent of others.

Ideally, both. You don’t need to be an excellent writer, an SEO guru, or an influencer to start a digital marketing agency. But having knowledge will help you a lot.

So, if you know enough, have experience with agencies, and have resources to invest, you can go ahead without fear. You’ll be able to hire good professionals, delegate tasks, and then review.

If you only have the investment but very basic knowledge, it’s worth studying first to have a benchmark, and then delegate tasks to your team.

There’s no problem if your team knows more than you. In fact, the goal when starting a digital marketing agency is just that. But you need to know enough to be able to judge the work being done.

Do I need a team before starting a digital marketing agency?

Yes, to open a digital marketing agency, you need to start with a ready team.

Even if you don’t have clients yet, your main client is always the agency. Especially in digital marketing, where your Instagram is a big showcase.

If you don’t have a team creating your digital presence, your clients start the conversation with a bad impression of what you do. It’s the famous “if they don’t do well for themselves, imagine for us.”

So, ideally, you should start agency work with at least a month’s worth of content already prepared. And for that, you will indeed need a team.

Do I need clients before opening my agency?

Not necessarily. But note this down: if you don’t have any clients, you’ll need a cash reserve to cover salaries and campaign investments.

Getting clients is your biggest job. And because of that, you’ll need to invest, and it’s very difficult to specify how much.

For example: if you have a reserve to pay three months’ worth of salary and nothing more, it’s important to already have at least some prepared clients. Because in the early stages, your agency will heavily rely on paid media to attract new contracts.

This is because organic traffic will only come after 6 months to 1 year of intense content work. And to have more clients, paid media presents the best options.

With clients already in the agency before opening – either through prior consulting or good contacts – you use the value they bring to make the investment that the agency needs to sell more.

How to start a digital marketing agency in 5 steps

Before, this title was written like this: “how to start a digital marketing agency in 5 simple steps.”

But simple steps, honestly, don’t exist when starting a business. Each one of them here will require dozens of hours of work, and some even hundreds.

But that’s what will differentiate you from all the other people who had the idea to start a digital marketing agency: you did the hard work before.

Buckle up because your journey will be long, but it will also be great. Follow these steps, and I’m sure you’ll invent others along the way.

1 – Business plan

This is the stage that will give you the most work when starting a digital marketing agency. And it’s also the most inspiring.

You will be full of energy for starting a new business. Use it well, be honest and assertive that everything will work out.

A business plan for a digital marketing agency is not much different from a business plan for any other venture. Typically, it consists of:

• Executive summary: an overall summary of what you intend to bring differently to the market;

• Mission, vision, and values: the three pillars that will guide not only the work you do but everything – from hiring to material delivery. This is where you start formalizing your agency’s culture;

• Objectives and goals: what you want to bring to the world, and what indicators will show you if you’re on the right track;

• Agency description: how it operates, what roles are there, and the organization chart of the company;

• Products and services offered: what you will sell, and what you need for delivery;

• Market analysis: market definition, unexplored opportunities, ideal client profile, competition study, distribution channels, advertising, and public relations;

• Financial plan: what you have to invest, where you plan to spend, what your break-even point is, definition of pro-labor.

2 – Competitor study

This part will be included in your business plan, but we need an extra topic here for more depth.

The competitor study you need to do is on a national level. It cannot be done locally because no matter how many agencies there are in your city, you will be competing with the entire country.

There are some great tools for competitor analysis. SEMRush can analyze very specific points on an agency’s website, which will show you some very interesting opportunities.

You can even find out what these keywords are through SEMRush as well. Keywords are search terms on Google.

See how valuable this information is: through SEMRush, you can identify these keywords to invest in them via paid media and compete directly with the biggest agency in your country, if you want.

Your competitor study needs to be impartial. Just because you want to start a digital marketing agency doesn’t mean you have to offer the same services as the market leaders.

First, identify market opportunities. Where you can fit in. And then, research competitors who are in that same area.

3 – Service definition

Another point that is included in your business plan but that is worth delving into a little more. What kind of services will you offer?

This is a strategic decision and, although related to competitor analysis, it doesn’t depend entirely on that study. It also depends on what you can offer and what your goals are.

Services related to organic content, for example, take months and even years to show results. You’ll need to work with clients who understand this and have a strong, creative, and specialized sales team.

Services related to image production (photography and filming) require specialized equipment. And creative direction.

The definition of services that you will offer in your agency depends on what you are most specialized in, as well as what the market is demanding. There are agencies, for example, specialized in producing pieces for a company’s internal marketing.

4 – Set up a website

Just a moment to congratulate you in advance. Remember them when you’ve completed these first three steps: you’ve worked hard and deserve all the congratulations in the world.

Now you need to set up your website. Many agencies leave this for later or don’t even care. But your website will be your main conversion channel. It’s through it that new clients will emerge.

Some important points:

• Before setting up the website, define a visual identity for your brand;

• Gather all the success cases you have and dedicate a section of the website to talk about them;

• Hire a copywriter and provide them with all the information you have about your ideal client. They will write the content of your website and make it competitive;

• Don’t overdo the amount of information on the website;

• If you offer fixed prices for services, show your plans on the website. If not, leave a contact form.

5 – Marketing strategy

This part is also fun to do, and even though it’s work, I don’t even consider it as work. You’ll need to refine this strategy throughout the existence of your agency.

I’ll show you some techniques and points you need to follow below. But the most important thing is this: your marketing is who you are. It will reflect your agency’s personality and reaffirm your commitment to the world.

But first, a disclaimer: every marketing strategy starts with a target audience study!

Everything I’m talking about below takes into account that you are producing the right content for your ideal client.

Content

Everything is content. But each content has a place and rules to be followed – as well as broken and subverted.

The main thing you need to start now is to create an organic traffic strategy. This can be done in several ways: a blog, a YouTube channel, a strong presence on social media, anyway: whatever you can produce.

Content starts now. As soon as your website is up, content needs to start.

Organic traffic takes time, and even if your investment per piece isn’t very high, the time spent producing also counts.

SEO

Search engine optimization. The fundamental for any agency that offers SEO is to have good SEO.

The first step you need to take is through Google Keyword Planner. I have a video where I explain better how to use it – it’s a free tool from Google.

Through the Keyword Planner, you choose the keywords that make the most sense for your business. And check the search volume they have as well as the competition.

This is the first point and is related to the content of your website. It’s what we call on-page SEO.

Technical SEO is related to the construction of your site. It needs to have clean code and follow a very well-defined hierarchy. Neil Patel’s blog has a very technical guide to help you with that.

Lead generation

If you have a website and produce content, eventually you will have an audience – people who consume your content, read your blog, watch your videos, listen to your podcast.

Alright, and then? How to turn these people into clients? Through lead generation.

Leadster is a platform specialized in this. Through a chatbot on your website, you maintain a dialogue with those who are consuming your content without being too invasive and without cluttering your screen with banners and pop-ups everywhere.

Another strategy that also works very well is the production of rich content. An e-book, a study related to your niche, anything valuable to your client.

With good material in hand, you create landing pages and make it available, requesting the visitor’s email… There you go: now they are a lead.

Paid media

At the beginning, you will need to work with paid media, such as Google Ads and ads via Meta’s Business Manager (formerly Facebook).

This, of course, if you don’t have good contracts with a longer duration. Paid media work very well in the short term when you need to put your name out there to quickly close new contracts.

These two main platforms require a bit of knowledge to operate. Google Ads allows you to work with the location of your users, their age range, and their interests based on the sites they access.

Facebook Ads, now Meta, allows you to make ads within the social network through a creative, a piece. Through it, you can boost posts from your profile to reach more people or create independent campaigns.

This is the initial path of most agencies that can’t afford to live off contracts that came before the opening.

Opening the doors

If you’ve done all this, it’s time to finally open the doors of your digital marketing agency.

But wait just a little longer because we still have one last point to address: your opening event.

It’s very interesting to have a creative event with local businesses’ presence. It will work as a people aggregator and as initial content for your networks, which will surely bring you more leads.

It’s important, at this event, that your agency is prepared to show what it does best. A creative action needs to happen.

Let’s say you’re an SEO agency. You can schedule the opening event on the same day you invite a certified company to take photos of the inside of your agency to put on Google Street View.

It’s simple but impressive. And your starting agency needs that: to impress other businesses.

I hope this article has helped you plan or has fueled your dreams.

How about we continue this conversation in the next article? Let’s talk about sales prospecting, something that it’s good for you to understand how it works right now.

See you there!