Top tips for marketing agencies to increase growth in 2022

With more than 25,000 marketing companies and agencies in the UK, there is no shortage of competition in the market. With so much choice for potential clients, it can be hard for marketing agencies to find their cut and establish themselves within the industry. There are a number of elements posing a threat to marketing agencies’ ability to grow. The plethora of options as well as the large amounts of churn from clients, in addition to struggling to turn one-off projects into long-term clients, are some of the main pain points.

 

However, there is no better time than now for marketing agencies to expand their business offering and grow their bottom line. Covid rapidly accelerated the demand for digital transformation across industries worldwide. Even those who once rejected technological advances have had to learn to move many of their day-to-day activities online.

 

Diversifying their offerings

 

Diversification to a complete business offering means a one-time client becomes a loyal and lasting one. The more services the marketing agency can offer, the more revenue streams it can generate. Not only that, offering additional services will keep marketing agencies at the top of their clients’ minds by closing the loop and becoming a comprehensive solution to their clients’ needs. This will allow the marketing agency’s solution to become an integral part of their clients’ day-to-day operations, increasing stickiness and reducing churn.

 

In addition, diversifying offerings helps marketing agencies elevate their services and stand out among their competitors. Many clients want the full package when it comes to marketing services, and having the ability to answer their needs means further growth.

 

Focusing on clients

 

By knowing their target audience, marketing agencies can better understand which services to expand into. However, it can be tempting for an agency to start adding services that may not be relevant to their audience, causing them to lose out on money and time wasted marketing those services to deaf ears. Instead, focusing on their clients’ needs will help agencies hone in on their services and better personalise their offerings to their crowd.

 

This goes hand in hand with diversification. While diversifying their offerings, it is imperative that marketing agencies focus on the tools and resources their clients are asking for and which will support them in their daily business operations. By offering complementary solutions that easily integrate with their core services, agencies can go beyond lead generation to help their clients convert more leads into paying customers and increase stickiness and customer loyalty.

 

Expanding through partnerships

 

For many marketing agencies, expanding offerings and growing business overall will seem like a steep challenge, even a cumbersome process that adds work without the promise of a bigger bottom line – training sales teams, learning to market their new services, nurturing their clients while seeking new ones, all on their own. Instead, marketing agencies should explore partnerships such as the one vcita offers, where marketing agencies can gain access to a wide array of new services, such as online booking, CRM, invoicing, email marketing and more, all on their own platform.

 

Marketing agencies would do well to use the help of a company that has the experience and the knowhow, as well as a dedicated success team. This will help them to sell and upsell services while also offering out-of-the-box capabilities, ultimately streamlining their time to market and allowing them to better serve their clients without the hassle of having to develop their own products.

 

Devising an upsell strategy

 

Upselling allows marketing agencies to focus on the clients they already have and grow their bottom line with them, instead of constantly trying to find more clients, which is five times more expensive than nurturing existing ones. To upsell successfully, marketing agencies need to know their clients’ pain points well and be able to explain their products and services in a way that assures the client that they cannot go without them.

 

It is in marketing agencies’ best interest to consider their service offerings and see how they can upsell to clients. Upselling helps increase stickiness and loyalty with clients by following them throughout their journey and supplying them with what they need when they need it.

 

Marketing agencies should seize the day

 

With the pandemic having propelled digital adoption and digital marketing, now is the best time for marketing agencies to diversify their offerings, focus on their clients’ needs, become a partner with a strong, complementary solution such as vcita, and devise a successful upselling strategy. Running a marketing agency is exciting, but it doesn’t have to be exhausting in the search for new clients. Using what they have and expanding proportionately will help marketing agencies grow in 2022.

 

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By Itzik Levy, CEO, vcita