An agency is ready to focus on driving interest from potential clients (and employees) through marketing when it has:

1. Positioned itself properly, 

2. Established a culture that nurtures business development, and 

3. Set up the proper infrastructure (processes, people, and tools needed to execute business development well).

There is a lot of talk amongst agencies about being a “thought leader.” However, thought leadership requires time, resources, and intentionality in order to impact agency goals. Ironically, while agencies are the de facto “experts in marketing,” few devote the energy to “eating their own dog food” and wind up poorly positioning themselves. 

Agencies - positioning experts who fail to position themselves

When an agency is hired by a client, they often undergo a discovery process to truly understand the client. This thorough process includes inputs from stakeholder interviews, qualitative and quantitative research, focus groups, and other tactics. Agencies do this because they recognize that it is a necessity in building a solid foundation for strategy. 

This begs the question: If this process is effective for clients of agencies, then why don’t agencies put themselves through that same process? The most common answer we encounter: We use all of our resources to serve our clients. 

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: The cobbler’s kids have no shoes is no longer a valid excuse for agencies.

It’s true that agency leaders are facing numerous challenges: tight timelines, building a sustainable pipeline, turnover, the list goes on. That said, “The cobbler’s kids have no shoes” is no longer an excuse for marketing agencies with bad websites, social media presences, or poor email execution. If an agency doesn’t have a solid positioning strategy for themselves, why should a client trust that agency with their brand?

Here are some key recommendations for marketing agencies that want to drive inbound interest from potential clients:

Use Social Media Channels Strategically - 

“Social selling” is all about playing the long-game by forming and then nurturing relationships that build a following. When putting together a social media strategy, agencies should: 

• be consistent, 

• be purpose driven, 

• be relevant, 

• be useful, and 

• be interactive. 

It is better for an agency to focus on leveraging a few social media channels well rather than many haphazardly managed social presences. It is wise to select a specific purpose for each channel. For example, some agencies choose to focus use channels like Instagram to show off company culture while others show off client work. 

Read Related - Cracking the Code to Social Media

Get Your Website Right

An agency website serves two primary purposes - to attract potential clients and prospective employees. Every agency’s website should be built with the following priorities (in no particular order):

• Appealing Aesthetic - It has to be designed with the agency’s target audience in mind. 

• Clarity around agency capabilities and experience - It should showcase core capabilities, examples of clients, case studies, and thought leadership pieces.

• Thorough case studies -  Case studies should have a formulaic structure including the client ask, the agency approach to solving the problem, and the measurable results. Each page of the website should have a clear call to action to make it easy for prospects to visualize their own marketing challenges in the work displayed by the agency.

• User Experience - There has to be multiple paths to help potential clients or employees to find the information they are looking for. For example, case studies or examples of work should be organized by capability, by client, and by industry. 

Focus on Content Marketing

This is not about agency self-promotion or touting recent awards the agency received. While celebrating agency accomplishments is important, what other value can agencies add to the larger industry discussion? Regularly having key members of the agency’s team post thought leadership on a blog, podcast, video series, or other medium is an essential tactic in positioning the agency as an expert in its industry. 

Note: The idea is not to expect immediate traffic or leads, but to build a library of thought leadership that will build an engaged audience over time. Eventually, this content will resonate with potential clients looking for support that the agency can provide. 

PR/Speaking Engagements

Getting agency leaders onto stages can be a great tactic to establish thought leadership with potential clients. Speaking allows the leader to stand out, proving value on their expertise. Speakers should be:

• Present - When topics related to the agency’s core capabilities are being discussed, the agency should make it a priority to be present.

• Polished - Every presentation should be timed properly, intentional about the flow, and have no typos or errors.

• Targeted - Leaders speaking should know the audience in attendance, tailoring the presentation to that specific audience. 

• Actionable - When the presentation is over, the leader should give the audience a clear and easy call-to-action (CTA) that empowers prospective clients to engage further. 

Agencies that treat themselves like they are an important client have the best chance of attracting high-quality potential clients. That said, it takes a sustained effort over a significant period of time to reap the rewards of the effort. The best time to start building an inbound marketing machine is now! 

Setup offers a Marketing Diagnostic that analyzes all aspects of an agency’s positioning strategy: messaging, target client, social presence, website, pitch decks, outreach, and competitor positioning. Contact us to learn more.

This blog was written by Joe Koufman, CEO and Founder of Setup.

Armed with 20+ years of marketing, business development, and management experience, Joe Koufman founded Setup to ignite relationships between marketing agencies and client-side marketers. His unique agency perspective – having worked at a small digital firm, an independent full-service marketing agency, and a massive holding company – is what inspired Joe to help marketers find agencies that are the perfect fit.