Why you need a very specific foundation, an offer, to grow your agency
Running an agency is tough. As an owner, you have to worry about hiring people, selling, accounting, marketing, account management, etc. Oh yeah, and you need to get results for your clients or they'll move on and may not say the nicest things.
From analyzing more than 35 agencies in communications, marketing and branding, I have some takeaways that owners might want to know.
So in this post, I am going to share some key take-aways to make their life a little easier.
You need to niche up- yesterday
In his amazing book Built to Sell (a must-read for every agency owner by the way), John Warrillow says:
"If you focus on doing one thing well and hire specialists in that area, the quality of your work will improve and you will stand out among your competitors."
Out of the companies I analyzed 74% had no clear "who they were serving". This basically means that you serve everyone and everybody.
This is not at all a good way to get clients (and as communication professionals you probably know this very well!).
Also, 67% offered the following "we are a full-service company offering everything from strategy to a plan and execution" (or a slight variation of these words like "we offer a sound strategy, a strong concept and do the creation of campaigns", this comes down to the same thing).
This industry does not have double-digit growth figures, which means you have to beat the market.
(In the Netherlands ABN-AMRO estimated a 15% decline for ad agencies in 2020, in the US advertising agencies were still expected to grow.)
The morale of this story: most agencies are offering the same, generic services. And it is not helping your business grow. You need to choose and niche up!
Be clear on who you help, create an offer that is crystal clear and please lose the generic container words that could mean anything.
Claim your expert status
The single most mentioned remark: "Floor, I get it, we do this for our clients every day. But it is very hard to apply this to ourselves for some reason."
Everything I am writing here, will not be new to you. It is not revolutionary. Most of you will work with personas, customer journey, and pains/gains. But here is the question to ask yourself: "am I really doing this and can you show me?"
And I have to confess, I am often guilty of this myself. Sometimes it just helps to have an extra set of eyes.
Getting back to my point: picking a niche allows you to brand yourself the expert in that area. It helps you separate from the pack. People acknowledge you know what you are talking about because you are crystal clear on what your expertise is. No vagueness. Just clarity.
Added bonus: it also opens up many other opportunities like speaking at industry-specific conferences and claiming your thought leadership with a solid content strategy (like blogging, training videos etc.).
By focusing you will quickly build core competencies in this area. And that will be a relief.
Because it makes your entire business run smoother: from hiring new experts to getting client recommendations. You'll boost your agency's efficiency. A clear focus pays off.
A good offer comes down to the nitty-gritty details
In my experience, a good offer (attracting the right clients, clear and sellable) is not so much about making massive changes in your business. More often, it is actually the opposite. We mostly end up focusing on what the agency is doing well already and really zooming in on that.
And honestly? After that it is mostly about copywriting. My way of copywriting is all about clarity.
I point out every word that is not clear. And I can make a list right now of words you shouldn't use: strategic plan, process, creation, campaign, management, end-to-end. You get the idea.
Here is why. All these words are not specific on what you really do and even worse the result you offer your clients.
For example, if you say "I manage your campaign". What does that mean? What do I get?
Do you oversee a team of professionals who run a campaign?
Do you have an opinion on the campaign content? Or on the process? Do you help with this or do you "just manage"?
Is the design of the campaign included in this? Do you analyze the target audience for me? Or do I need to give you this input?
I could go on, but I am sure you understand the message.
What is my offer?
I am going to end by walking the talk. If this resonated with you, you might be interested in my offer.
I specialize in scaling and growth strategies. But that requires a strong foundation: your offer. Are you an agency owner working with a maximum of 10 employees who is lacking clarity on your offer and you are willing to do the work to fix this?
In a maximum of 8 weeks, I can help you get crystal clear on your offer that will attract leads easily and eventually grow your revenues. If you are willing to put in the hours, we can finish in 4 weeks.
Together, in 1-on-1 coaching (I will NOT be shipping you off to someone else or send you a video course), we will review your business.
Clarifying your offer: you will decide which clients you want more of. You will get a questionnaire from me that will help you get clear and write down everything that is in your head. Who is it for? What is the result you are getting your clients? Together we create an offer that suits your business and your brand. If you are looking for a formula, this is not it. I look at what you are good at and what you can realistically deliver to your clients.
Delivering your offer: to get the best results, you need clear steps on how to deliver your offer. This will most likely not be hard for you, because you have a lot of experience with delivering on customer requests. Standardization, however, will probably not be your zone of genius. Together, we review where we can improve on your delivery and how you can make clear to your customer what you do.
Write copy to sell your offer: I will help you get rid of all the confusing statements and unclear words. This involved a lot of tweaking and probably some going back-and-forth. The result: you will have an offer that will be the foundation for your sales.
Coaching you on FOMO: most agency owners will have to face their fears of choosing somewhere in this process. Most of you are creative people and creative people do not like to be tied down. I will help you look differently at this and get confident in the choice you make.
Now you have a foundation to grow your business.
To support this process, you will be getting a couple of training videos and I offer consultation hours. You will get these as a bonus. It is up to you if you want to use them.
We will be working 1-on-1 on all the items mentioned above.
I get the best results for agency owners
who WANT to grow and professionalize choosing a particular niche and ideal client (I don't really do well with entrepreneurs who want me to prove to them why this is necessary or are not willing to change. That is perfectly ok, but we won't get the best results from working together).
who are willing to put in work themselves, this is not a done-for-you service. We are in this together. I won't decide on the future of your business for you.
who are open to wordsmithing, brainstorming about the best description, and willing to build on each other's ideas. I do not provide one-size-fits-all formulas. We need to tailor the offer to your business.
Does this sound like you? Shoot me a DM.
We will chat to see if you're a good candidate to get results. If you are, we can begin working together in a few weeks (current waiting list, this might change of course, if a spot opens up I can move forward).