How To Start A Digital Marketing Agency in 2024 (Step by Step)

Summary

This video tutorial offers a comprehensive guide to starting and scaling a digital marketing agency in 2024. It covers six key steps, from setting goals to identifying target clients and building a team. The presenter emphasizes the importance of focusing on one marketing niche, gaining expertise, and utilizing free resources. Viewers are guided on how to offer services, price packages, and scale their agency to achieve a monthly revenue of $10,000, all without the need for expensive courses.

Takeaways

• 🚀 **Start-up Cost**: Starting a digital marketing agency is relatively inexpensive, making it an attractive business option.
• 📈 **Scalability**: The potential earnings from a marketing agency are largely dependent on the effort and time you invest, with no fixed ceiling.
• 🛠 **Expertise Development**: Becoming an expert in a specific marketing field is crucial, and can be achieved through free services, apprenticeships, or self-education.
• 💼 **Professional Image**: Presenting a professional image, including having an LLC and a polished website, is essential for credibility and attracting clients.
• 🛍️ **Service Offerings**: Specializing in one marketing service allows for deeper expertise and better client outcomes, rather than being a 'jack of all trades'.
• 🔍 **Target Client Identification**: Focus on clients with high profit margins who can afford and see the value in investing in marketing services.
• 🤝 **Referrals**: Word-of-mouth and referrals are powerful for acquiring new clients, underscoring the importance of excellent service delivery.
• 📊 **Growth Strategy**: Starting with a few small clients and gradually scaling up is a feasible strategy to reach a $10,000 monthly revenue.
• 🔑 **Free Resources**: Utilize free resources and tutorials available online to build expertise in digital marketing without incurring high course costs.
• 🔗 **Networking**: Engaging with the community, such as following the speaker on social media, can provide further insights and support in running a marketing agency.
• 📝 **Contract Importance**: Having formal contracts in place using platforms like PandaDoc is crucial to protect your agency from non-payment issues.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video?

The main purpose of the video is to provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to start, scale, and operate a digital marketing agency in 2024, covering various aspects such as setting goals, identifying market segments, and becoming an expert in the field.

Why does the speaker emphasize not having a course to sell?

The speaker emphasizes not having a course to sell to assure the viewers that the information provided is free and not a sales pitch, aiming to build trust and show that the content is genuinely educational.

What are some of the initial costs associated with starting a digital marketing agency?

The initial costs for starting a digital marketing agency are relatively low, with potential expenses including setting up an LLC, using certain software tools, and possibly creating a professional website.

How many different types of marketing services are discussed in the video?

The video discusses close to a dozen different types of marketing services, including social media marketing, paid ads, SEO, email marketing, web development, public relations, graphic design, and studying specific social platform algorithms.

Why is it recommended to focus on one specific marketing field initially?

Focusing on one specific marketing field initially is recommended to become an expert in that area, provide high-quality services, and avoid spreading oneself too thin, which can lead to mediocre results across multiple services.

What are some of the tools mentioned in the video for running a digital marketing agency?

Some of the tools mentioned include Northwest for LLC setup, Squarespace for website creation, High Level for all-in-one business operations, ClickUp for CRM and workflow management, and PandaDoc for document signing.

How does the speaker suggest becoming an expert in the field of marketing?

The speaker suggests becoming an expert by either working for a marketing agency to learn the ropes or offering services for free to gain experience and build a portfolio, while also leveraging free educational resources and potentially inexpensive online courses.

What is the importance of having a professional website for a digital marketing agency?

A professional website is important as it establishes credibility and authority, helps in branding, and serves as a platform to showcase services and expertise to potential clients.

How should one identify target clients for their digital marketing agency?

One should identify target clients by focusing on businesses with high profit margins and the budget for marketing services, considering industries such as healthcare professionals, large corporations, political campaigns, e-commerce businesses, and startups.

What strategies are suggested for growing the agency to $1,000 and then to $10,000 per month?

Strategies include offering package deals with different service levels, focusing on providing excellent service to gain referrals, utilizing cold emails for outreach, and potentially using paid advertising on platforms like Google and TikTok.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Starting a Digital Marketing Agency in 2024

The speaker introduces a comprehensive tutorial on establishing and operating a digital marketing agency, emphasizing the absence of a sales pitch and the intent to provide valuable free information. The tutorial is divided into six sections, covering goals, costs, marketing types, expertise development, tools, client identification, team building, and growth strategies. The aim is to empower viewers with actionable insights to potentially earn significant income from the agency.

05:02

💼 Setting Up Your Digital Marketing Business Structure

The paragraph discusses the initial steps for setting up a digital marketing agency, including the recommendation to set up an LLC for legitimacy and the use of Northwest for the process. It also touches on the importance of choosing the right business partner and the potential pitfalls of partnerships, advocating for starting alone or with a trusted individual with aligned business visions.

10:03

🚀 Selecting Your Marketing Specialization

The speaker lists various marketing fields such as social media, paid ads, SEO, email marketing, web development, public relations, graphic design, and algorithm-specific marketing, advising viewers to specialize in one area rather than being a 'jack of all trades.' The focus is on becoming an expert in a chosen field before expanding to others.

15:04

🛠 Becoming an Expert in Marketing

This section delves into strategies for becoming a marketing expert, suggesting starting as an apprentice or offering services for free to gain experience. It also highlights the importance of presenting a professional image through an LLC, a polished website, and a professional email address. The speaker recommends utilizing free online resources and affordable courses to build expertise.

20:04

🔧 Essential Tools for Running a Marketing Agency

The speaker introduces various tools beneficial for running a marketing agency, such as Northwest for LLC setup, Squarespace for website creation, High Level as an all-in-one software, ClickUp for CRM and workflow management, and PandaDoc for document signing. These tools are presented as aids for organization, efficiency, and professional credibility.

25:05

🎯 Identifying High-Value Target Clients

The focus shifts to identifying lucrative target clients, suggesting to 'follow the money' by targeting businesses with high profit margins. The speaker recommends considering professionals like doctors, lawyers, and dentists, but also encourages thinking outside the box to include larger corporations, political candidates, e-commerce businesses, and recently funded startups. The importance of specializing in a specific type of client to streamline marketing efforts is emphasized.

30:07

🤝 Building Your Marketing Team and Scaling Your Agency

The final section discusses the challenges of building a team, advocating for handling work independently before outsourcing. The speaker suggests using platforms like Upwork, Workable, and Paired to find freelancers or employees, highlighting the benefits of hiring internationally for cost-effectiveness. The paragraph concludes with advice on creating package deals for services and leveraging referrals, cold emails, and ads to attract clients and scale the agency's revenue to $1,000 and then to $10,000 per month.

35:09

🌟 Conclusion and Call to Action

The speaker concludes by reiterating the value of the video, encouraging viewers to utilize the provided resources and avoid expensive courses. They express hope for the success of the viewers in building their agencies and invite them to connect on social media for further discussion and assistance.

Keywords

💡Digital Marketing Agency

A digital marketing agency is a business that provides marketing services to clients through digital channels such as social media, search engines, and email. In the video, the main theme revolves around starting and operating such an agency in 2024, highlighting the steps and considerations involved in the process.

💡Scale

Scaling in the context of the video refers to the process of growing a business, in this case, a digital marketing agency. The script discusses how to scale an agency from the initial stages to achieving higher revenue milestones such as $1,000 and $10,000 per month.

💡Free Information

The video emphasizes the abundance of free information available for starting and running a digital marketing agency. The speaker positions the tutorial as an all-inclusive, free resource, contrasting it with paid courses, and encourages viewers to extract valuable insights from the content.

💡Marketing Services

Marketing services encompass a range of activities that a digital marketing agency might offer, such as social media management, paid ads, SEO, and email marketing. The script outlines different types of marketing services that an agency could specialize in to identify their niche.

💡Expertise

Becoming an expert in the field of marketing is a significant hurdle discussed in the video. It suggests ways to gain expertise, such as working for another agency or offering services for free to gain experience. Expertise is crucial for credibility and delivering value to clients.

💡Tools

Various tools are essential for running a digital marketing agency efficiently. The script mentions tools for tasks like CRM, workflow automation, email marketing, and document signing. These tools help streamline operations and improve the agency's effectiveness.

💡Target Clients

Identifying the right target clients is critical for an agency's success. The video discusses strategies for selecting clients based on their ability to afford marketing services and the potential for high-value contracts, such as doctors, lawyers, and startups.

💡Team Building

Building a team is a critical aspect of growing a digital marketing agency. The script addresses the challenges of hiring and managing staff, suggesting starting solo and then outsourcing or hiring freelancers from platforms like Upwork or Workable.

💡Growth Strategy

A growth strategy outlines how an agency will increase its revenue and client base. The video discusses strategies for scaling from the initial stages to earning $10,000 per month, emphasizing the importance of referrals, cold emails, and providing excellent service to retain and attract clients.

💡Referrals

Referrals are a primary method for acquiring new clients in the agency business model described in the video. Providing exceptional service can lead to word-of-mouth recommendations, which are cost-effective and often highly trusted by potential clients.

💡Freelancers

Freelancers are independent contractors who can be hired on an as-needed basis for specific projects. The video suggests building a roster of freelancers to tap into various skillsets, such as web development or ad management, allowing the agency to be flexible and responsive to client needs.

Highlights

This video provides a comprehensive tutorial on starting and operating a digital marketing agency in 2024.

The tutorial is all-inclusive, covering six different steps to grow an agency from the ground up.

The presenter assures that the information is free and not a sales pitch for a course or program.

The importance of setting goals and expectations for revenue in the marketing agency business is discussed.

The cost to set up a digital marketing agency is minimal, encouraging entrepreneurship.

Identifying a niche in marketing is crucial to avoid being a 'jack of all trades' and ensure expertise in one area.

Becoming an expert in marketing can be achieved by working for an agency or offering initial services for free to gain experience.

The presenter emphasizes the importance of having a professional image, including an LLC and a professional website.

Various tools for running an agency are introduced, including CRM and workflow management software.

Identifying target clients involves focusing on businesses with high profit margins that can afford marketing services.

The video suggests targeting specific types of clients such as doctors, lawyers, and e-commerce businesses for marketing services.

Building a team involves starting solo and gradually outsourcing tasks to freelancers as the agency scales.

Hiring freelancers can be more cost-effective when looking outside the United States for talent.

Strategies for getting to $1,000 and then $10,000 per month in revenue are outlined, emphasizing customer experience and referrals.

The video concludes with encouragement to utilize free resources for learning how to run a marketing agency.

Transcripts

so in this video I'm going to show you

step by step how to start scale and

operate a digital marketing agency in

2024 this is going to be an

all-inclusive tutorial showing you six

different steps of this process of

growing an agency getting off the ground

getting your first client and everything

else that you need to know about digital

marketing agencies all right so there's

a lot we can discuss in this video a

couple of things that we need to get out

of the way immediately is first of all I

don't have a course to sell you so you

don't have to worry about this being

like some massive sales pitch to get you

into some program this is all free

information and you can use this

information to scale your own agency I'm

a True Believer in free info there's so

much of it out there and I really hope

that in this video you can get just a

couple of gold nuggets maybe just

something I might say at minute 32 that

I'm going to say that you're going to

say wow this is incredible I'm going to

take this info it's going to make me

thousands of dollars that's my goal here

with this video here today okay so let's

talk about the six different sections

that we're getting into in this video

and feel free to take out a pen take out

a piece of paper jot down some notes as

we go through here cuz it is going to be

a lot of info I don't want to overwhelm

you but let's go over the review of what

we're talking about here today first of

all we're talking about goals and

expectations how much can you reasonably

expect to make with a marketing agency

this year what about 12 months from now

what about 2 years from now uh what are

some obstacles in there as well and then

we're talking about you know how much is

it going to cost you to set up hint it's

it's pretty much free to start an agency

that's why I love starting agencies and

then in section number two we're looking

at the different types of marketing that

you could potentially excel in and

create services for there's about uh

close to a dozen different types of

marketing that we discuss and it's going

to help you to identify which field you

would like to create an agency in then

in section number three this is one

that's really important because a lot of

people uh this is what stops them is how

do you actually become an expert in the

field of marketing this is a big hurdle

for many people they say well I want to

start an agency but I don't know how to

do marketing so how am I going to do

this we'll cover that in section number

three then we're going to talk about

some really important tools for running

an agency there's four or five different

tools that are super super helpful for

uh running an agency streamlining the

process and I'm going to leave links to

all those tools Down Below in the

description if you want to just kind of

skim through them and check some of them

out they will be down there then in

section number four we're talking about

how to identify Target clients should

you be selling your services to doctors

or to lawyers or to Big corporations or

the ice cream shop down the streets I'm

going to help you to identify Target

clients based on the types of services

that you are offering then in section

number five we're talking about building

your team so who should you hire who

should you partner with this is a really

big hurdle especially for Mike and I

when we launched our agency years ago

was who do we hire and how do we hire

them and how do we manage them it's very

very difficult to kind of get into that

it's it's just a big headache that we've

had especially in the first couple of

years of doing that properly so

hopefully I'm going to save you a lot of

headache in that section and then

section number six we're talking about

getting clients and growth strategy how

do you get to $11,000 a month and then

how do you get to $10,000 a month or

scale it even further than that and

we're talking about that in that section

specifically on getting clients and

setting things up and making sure that

your contracts are set up properly and

everything else in section number six

okay so without any further Ado let's

get into this let's start off with

setting goals and expectations for your

marketing agency now first of all why

marketing why running an agency what's

the point of this there's probably a

thousand different business ideas that

you could potentially run with this year

in 2024 or maybe you're watching this in

2025 so why an agenc the reason why I

think this is the best or one of the top

three businesses that you could

potentially start uh this year is

because there's really no cost upfront

to get this started so service-based

businesses are wonderful for this you

know if you're starting an e-commerce

brand uh which you know we have equity

and a bunch of Brands um but that's a

very Capital intensive like you need a

lot of money up front to go and start

like selling physical products it's

expensive but with a marketing agency

there's really no cost besides just

using your brain going out finding

customers and selling those services and

another beauty of an an agency is that

it's really up to you on how much you

can make in this field and I say that

because I know a lot of people who do

this very much part-time and this is how

kind of we started out way back in in

the day many many years ago is pretty

much part-time I was in college and so

you could do this 10 hours a week and

you can make a couple thousand doar a

month or you could take this very

seriously scale it up do it fulltime and

make tens of thousands of dollars per

month so it's really up to you on how

much you make for agencies and how much

time you have on your hands now of

course I can't promise you that you're

going to make millions of dollars from

this cuz truth is most people are going

to watch this and not act on it and

probably not going to make money because

they're just you know going to do other

things and that's understandable but my

hope is that some people can watch this

and take it and run with it so in terms

of goals and expectations it really is

up to you on how much you can make and

in terms of how much it's going to cost

you pretty much free there is some

software that is very very useful um and

for example if you want to set up an LLC

for your company then you're going to

want to use something like Northwest uh

this is how we set up our llc's

basically just legitimizes your company

so instead of you just running around

having people paying you personally you

can create a formal company a limited

liability company using Northwest it's

like $39 plus some State fees so I'll

show you just how easy it is to do this

but I would recommend everyone go and

set up an LLC now it's like the first

step of creating an agency so you just

go to Northwest I'll leave a link to

them down below in the description and

then the state in which I'm based is

Pennsylvania and so I'll just click on

that and then I will start my LLC

they'll help through this process of

creating it I'll enter a business name

and everything else and they'll just

walk through the process there so I'll

leave a link to them down below it's an

affiliate link it helps uh support the

channel and now there's one other

question that you're going to have to

answer for yourself here when you are

starting this agency is who are you

creating this with are you doing this on

your own are you building this company

with a friend of yours a business

partner you need to really think heavily

about this because my first business

that I ever started the person that I

decided to work with was my friend we

went 50/50 on the business and it didn't

work out because we were very much not

aligned we we we were friends and it

ruined our friendship we're not friends

anymore because my vision for taking the

company in a certain direction was much

different than his he didn't really want

to work and so I ended up working a lot

and he was kind of just like weighing

things down and wasn't working but still

getting 50% of the profits and so be

very careful of who you decide to

partner with I always recommend starting

this company on your own and then you

can always bring in someone else later

on you know further down the road if

you're scaling up and you really think

it's a great opportunity you can bring

someone else on as like a minority

Equity partner in the company but I

really do recommend starting this on

your own or starting this company with

someone that you absolutely trust and

very much are aligned with on business

so for myself that's my brother Mike we

do everything together because we think

very similarly we don't even I I don't

think we've ever argued ever in our

lives and so because of that we're great

business partners but just be very

careful who you pick as a business

partner when and doubt do it on your own

you can people into the mix later you

don't want to have a headache of having

like four different co-founders on the

company trust me that's for setting

goals and expectations let's get into

the next section here where we're

talking about uh the different types of

marketing that you could excel in and

which field should you look at so let me

just list off a couple of different

options for marketing because what I

don't want you to do is go out and try

to be what we call a jack of all trades

where in your first marketing agency you

try to sell a dozen different services

and you basically end up half-assing all

of them and not being an expert in any

one of those those fields so what you

want to do is obsess over one specific

field and become the best at that sell

that as a service and then later on down

the road you can add other services and

I'll show you how to do that later in

this video but here are some different

fields that are very very profitable in

the marketing industry okay so the first

one that a lot of people think of is

social media so social media marketing

running uh accounts for businesses this

could be running their Tik Tok accounts

their Instagram accounts their Facebook

page anything along those lines this is

a pretty straightforward business it's

also pretty competitive because there's

a lot of people who offer to do that for

businesses in your local area or any

other type of companies but it's one

that's pretty straightforward and most

people can do this without a lot of

training and so that's beneficial to you

that you don't have to spend a lot of

time learning how to create content but

also like I said there's going to be a

lot more competition with that as well

so social media marketing basically

getting clients this could be you know

the local ice cream shop in your area

you have them on retainer for $500 a

month and you do a certain amount of

posts for them per month and you have

packages and you run their accounts for

them I just made up that number there

500 it's it's there's a lot of factors

that go into the equation there the

other thing you could potentially do is

paid ads So Paid ads is one that Mike

and I really started with and it's one

that we found to be the most successful

for us now running paid ads for

companies is something that not everyone

can do and that's why we liked it

basically you can charge retainer you

can also charge fees on top of you know

the amount of AD spend that you're

running for the company so if you're

running a million a year in ads for the

company you can take a chunk of that ad

spend for your services learning how to

run paid ads can be a little bit of a

learning curve luckily we have videos on

this channel showing you how to run ads

on Facebook on Instagram on Google on

LinkedIn like we have all these

different ads videos that you can watch

and kind of get some of the basics of of

how to run ads but that's a feeli that

is really really interesting another one

is search engine optimization so you

could start an entire company helping

other companies with something called

SEO and this is basically helping

companies to rank at the top of Google

or other platforms rank number one for

certain terms so like when someone goes

on to Google and they type in plumber in

Philadelphia if you can help a company

rank on Google number one for plumber in

Philadelphia literally that Google term

is worth thousands of dollars per month

and so you could charge them hundreds of

dollars per month at a minimum just for

that service alone for helping them rank

on Google so you can make a whole

company out of that uh another one is

something like email marketing there are

email Mark marketing agencies that will

help companies to run their email lists

you could do this once again for local

businesses in your area in one of the

sections coming up will talk about like

potential clients and how to Target them

but running email marketing is super

profitable as an agency so you can do

this for influencers as well you could

run their newsletter there's a lot of

different routes you could take with

this on email marketing but basically

becoming an expert in that field of

email running drip campaigns lead

magnets there's there's a lot you could

go into there with with that another

type of agency is something focused on

web development so if you understand how

to build websites or design websites uh

everyone needs a website uh including

you for your own agency and so if that's

a skill that you have this can be very

profitable other things public relations

right a lot of influencers a lot of

famous people they have PR teams they

pay them quite a bit of money for PR we

have Graphic Design This is a field that

I'm not very well skilled in is graphic

design but there are design agencies

think about any product that you've ever

purchased it was

drafted up by a design agency so think

about like Logan Paul with prime right

this drink that he launched a few years

ago I'm sure a design agency made a lot

of money designing the bottle designing

the logo everything else and all the art

around it and that was an agency that

I'm sure they hired for many many

thousands of dollars at least tens of

thousands I would assume for that

service and then the other area of

marketing that you can go into which is

probably my favorite um is going to be

specifically studying an algorithm a

specific algorithm uh for social

platforms so for example I know a guy

who obsessed over the YouTube algorithm

he understood everything there is to

know about what makes a YouTube video go

viral and then because he was the guy

and he just like lived and breathed

YouTube Every Day 12 hours a day studied

the YouTube algorithm and figured out

what makes a great video now massive

companies pay him tons of money like

tens of thousands of dollars per month

for his advice on YouTube and how to

make thumbnails and how to create viral

videos even people like Mr Beast go to

this guy for advice I shouldn't name his

name but they go to him for advice on

how to create really great videos and

that's because he just focused on one

specific thing so what I want you to

take away from this section here is that

pick one of these and there are other

avenues as well you can even do like

physical mail marketing like there's a

lot of different types of marketing but

pick one from this list or from some

other list you can search on Google and

find one that you really think you have

some potential to understand and to be

pretty decent at and then spend all of

your time obsessing over that one field

okay and I I can't tell you which one

that you should do because it's going to

be different for everyone but you should

know yourself personally like like I

said design is not really my thing so

that's why we didn't really spend a lot

of time trying to sell Design Services

but instead I focused more on running

paid ads for people because that's just

the way my brain works I like numbers I

like stats and so it it's easier for me

to do something like ads than it was to

do something like graphic design or PR

for other companies that's a pretty

important section there just please

don't try to be a jack of all trades

focus on one and then you can always

Outsource and AD Services later if let's

say that you focus on becoming a website

agency where you build websites for

clients and then one of your clients

while you're building the site says hey

also can you run paid ads for me well if

that's not really your field then I

would suggest either selling that as a

lead to another marketing agency or

Outsourcing hiring someone and having

them do it underneath the umbrella of

your agency but I don't want to confuse

you there too much we'll talk about that

later on in the video okay now let's get

into to the next section here which is

something that's very important and this

stops a lot of people for or from

running an agency which is how do you

actually become an expert in the field

of marketing and I've seen so many

people who want to start an agency but

they're just not sure how because

they're worried about their lack of

expertise in this field so let me show

you how I would become an expert in

marketing this is actually what we did

there's a certain level of well you

would say fake it till you make it but

you want to be careful with that because

if you go out and you start an agency

and you promise the world to a customer

and you say I can do this for you I can

make this beautiful website I can you

know do all this things all these things

on social media for you if you

overpromise and underd deliver that's

going to be a disaster so be careful

faking it till you make it you can a

little bit but don't overdo it so the

way that we do this first of all on how

to become an expert there's really two

different ways the one and the best one

actually is to work for a marketing

agency for a while learn the ropes and

then go out and do it on your own that's

basically like The Apprentice Model A

lot of people aren't going to want to do

that because it takes time and you have

to spend six months or a year at another

agency learning the ropes I understand

if you don't want to do that the other

option for becoming an expert marketer

is to offer your services for free and I

know this sucks but offer your services

for free be very transparent and open to

the businesses that you bring on as

clients initially and say look I'm

becoming an expert I'm learning how to

run ads or I'm learning how to make

websites can I do this for you for free

and what you're going to find is is that

a lot of businesses are going to be

willing to take this up because you know

you want to learn how to do this it's

free to them there's not really anything

for them to lose and then once you do

that for a couple of customers then you

can go out and start selling that as a

service once you have those under your

belt you've built up some experience you

feel more confident and you can use them

as referrals for future clients that you

can actually start charging money for so

that's how I would become an expert but

there's one other thing here that's

going to be really important if you want

to Brand yourself as an expert and you

need to make sure that you have a

professional looking image before you

even begin to reach out to anyone you

know as a potential client okay as I

mentioned earlier make sure that you

have an LLC setup this is going to be

important for billing for sending emails

that is coming from a formal company and

not just like you know some random

person and that they don't have to like

write you a personal check that's just

kind of weird so once you have your LLC

set up you also are going to want to

make sure that you have a clean

professional website up and running uh

you can use something like Squarespace I

think most people know Squarespace but

the reason why this is important is

because when you reach out to someone

whether this is cold email or you give

some your business card when you reach

out to them they're going to look you up

they're going to look at your website

and if you don't have a website or if

it's a pretty bad website it's going to

be hard to lock down even your first

customer so what I recommend doing is

you can go down below into the

description of this video you can go to

sandal media.com Squarespace and you can

set up a website I would do this today

spend 30 minutes spend an hour just

create the basics on your website and

you can see how easy it is to launch a

site on Squarespace like they already

have templat what's made it's super easy

you can fill this out add your services

on here and get it up and running today

so I'll leave that link Down Below in

the description it is an affiliate link

so it helps support this channel when

you go through that link and create an

account there but I really do recommend

Squarespace there are some other options

like Wix and stuff but I think

Squarespace is really going to be the

best option just in terms of ease of use

and it's not going to be too expensive

about 20 some dollars per month for up

uh getting that up and running so when

you create this Squarespace site you'll

also have the option to get a Google

admin account this used to be called

Gite and what this is is it's going to

give you a professional email so that

instead of reaching out at like Nate Bob

poophead 447 gmail.com or yahoo.com uh

instead of reaching out like that to

potential customers it's going to be

from a very clean email from your domain

so it' be like Nate santral media.com

reaching out and it looks much more

professional I know from a personal

experience that when I get emails from

people with Gmail accounts I don't take

them as seriously I know that's bad to

say but it's true people judge and

that's one of the first things you look

at is what email account it's coming

from so just spend a little bit of money

get the Squarespace site up and running

so that you have some level of authority

you can build this out in an hour I

would just do this today and then you

can get that Google admin account so you

can set up that clean domain I think it

might be a bit of an upsell I'm not sure

what the cost is on that for Google

admin when you do it through Squarespace

but it's going to be pretty cheap and

it's going to be worth it it's kind of

like an investment for your agency is to

get that up and running and having that

professionalism and that's one of the

biggest most important parts of just

creating agency is making sure that you

have that website up and running now

other things you can do to build some

expertise look we have so many videos on

this channel alone I mean we have

hundreds of videos showing you how to do

all these various different things

whether you're trying to run Facebook

ads or you're trying to set up email

marketing campaigns you're trying to

figure out MailChimp software we have

videos on so many of these different

topics so make sure you are subscribed

to this Channel and go check out those

libraries of videos helping you with

those topics the internet is incredible

like the amount of free info that you

can have on there is really really

useful now I'm not a really big advocate

of online courses but I would say

another route for becoming an expert is

just go and spend like 10 or 20 bucks on

something like udem me they're not

sponsoring this video at all but there

are courses on udemy that are super

cheap that that will teach you how to do

specific things like running ads or

other things like that okay so uh you

can check them out as well I just

wouldn't spend tons of money on courses

like you can do a lot of this for free

but UD to me is pretty cheap so you know

it's probably not too bad all right so

to sum up this section the process that

I would go through to become an expert

in your field is to first of all make

sure that you look professional create

that professional site have that

professional email address then find a

way to become an expert that's either

going to be through becoming an

apprentice somewhere else which is going

to take some time or it's going to be by

offering your services for free being

very transparent with the business

saying look I'm I'm learning how to do

this can I do it for you for free no

cost to the company at all just let me

run it and see what happens and then use

that experience that you built from

doing it for free to then go and get

customers that are going to pay you

money that is the process that I would

go through to become an expert in this

field and then also utilizing all the

free info all the free videos that we

have on this channel is going to help

you quite a bit as well now in the next

section I want to just share some tools

that are very helpful for running your

agency so of course we have uh Northwest

for setting up that LLC we have square

space for just creating your website but

then we also have something like High

level and so a lot of agencies use high

level uh for running their company now

the reason this is kind of like an

all-in-one software it is a little bit

expensive but regardless I will leave a

link to it below in the description that

you can check out but basically with

high level I'll show you I'll scroll

down to this one section to show you the

different features and products that

they have but it's sort of like this

all-in-one you're going to have a CRM

you're going have workflow automations

email marketing surveys call tracking

all kinds of different things inside of

high level so it can be worth the cost I

would say that this software is going to

be useful for people who are going to

take this very seriously and are willing

to make a bit of an investment into this

software I will try to create a tutorial

around high level to walk you through

the entire software it can be a little

bit confusing but I would recommend

signing up you get a 14-day free trial

so it's probably worthwhile at least

getting started with and like I said I

will leave a link to that down below now

if you're not looking to spend some

money you know cuz it's $97 a month or

297 per month for all these different

features if you're looking to kind of go

for more of a free option you can also

use something like clickup so clickup is

a really great CRM basically like

workflow management so uh you can manage

all of your customers inside of here

your campaigns you know it could be

something as simple as doing social

media for companies or you could be

doing something more complex like

running ads uh you can run a lot of

different processes through clickup and

big companies use clickup uh it's kind

of similar to like notion or a SAA or

Monday but it's one that we like to use

we just started using it recently but I

know a lot of big that use them so you

can just see what you can do on here you

know time tracking tons of different

solutions here for your company con Bon

boards everything else and the beauty of

clickup is that it is free they do have

a paid version as well but I'll leave

some links to that down below as well if

you want to check them out and just sign

up for a free account basically I use

this as like my second brain an

extension of my brain because there's

only so much you can remember during a

day or during a week like what type of

content are you making for specific

client you need to organize it somewhere

and if you're not using like Google Docs

or pen and paper you're going to want to

use something like clickup or high level

for all of those different operations

okay so I wanted to just include those

here in this video the other tool that

is super useful is going to be some type

of platform for sending and signing

documents with your customers okay don't

look over this because I've seen people

get burned so use something like Panda

do so with panda do uh it's going to

it's basically like a DocuSign type of

setup um but it's going to be very

helpful for creating and sending

documents you can also use something

like legal templates. net I'll leave a

link to them down below in the

description as well and these are both

great platforms for creating your

contracts so they have ones that you can

use that are pretty much templates and

you just have to fill in a couple of the

blanks there and then send them out to

your customers and then have them sign

those documents you counter sign those

documents uh so that you have a formal

contract I've seen people get burned

where you know they will do some

Services they'll do some marketing

services for someone and then the

customer at the end of the you know you

spent 30 hours working on this they'll

say you know what I'm not going to pay

you either they don't have money or they

don't like the O overall service and

they just say I'm not paying you and if

you don't have a contract you can get

screwed you can get burned on that I've

seen people get burned so make sure you

have those contracts use something like

Panda do to have official contracts it's

definitely going to be something that

you don't want to skip over so that's a

little tool section I'll leave all of

those resources Down Below in the

description and I do recommend all of

them okay all right so there's three

more sections that we're going to

discuss in this video we're going to

talk about identifying Target clients

then we're talking about building your

team and then how to grow the company

growth strategy how to get to $1,000 and

then how to get to $10,000 per month on

your marketing agency talking about

identifying Target clients who do we

want to bring on as customers so I think

a lot of people view this the wrong way

and they don't follow the money as much

as they should so what I mean by this is

you need to think about companies that

already have really great profit margins

and these are going to be great places

to start for building a company for

example if you look at you know the

restaurant down the street from where

you live so the problem with food

businesses for example is that they have

really low profit margins now this is

generally speaking of course there's

restaurants that make a lot of money but

a lot of food businesses they have tight

profit margins they might only be making

you know five or 10% margins from their

food business and so if you go and Pitch

them $2,000 a month for marketing

they're going to say well you know in a

lot of cases they might not not even be

making $2,000 a month in in profit so

it's going to be difficult for them to

pay you a very high amounts of money for

those Services that's why we never

really targeted restaurants or food

businesses not saying that you can't

make money on that like I have friends

who have agencies that focus on

restaurants and they make good money but

just the way that I think of it I would

focus more on people who are already

making good money or can at least afford

higher ticket Services where you can

charge them $5,000 a month or $10,000 a

month or more for your services and they

have the budget for it okay so let's

talk about some potential different

clients for your agency so uh one of the

ones that I think everyone is going to

think of right away it's going to be

doctors lawyers dentists now these can

be very profitable I would say the issue

with these is that um you know a lot of

people have already run services for

them uh and so they probably already

have someone who does marketing for them

so you going have to basically compete

with someone who's already doing

marketing but they do tend to have much

higher budgets a lawyer who might be

making $100,000 a month from their

practice isn't really going to you know

shy away from spending $2,000 a month on

marketing if it's going to bring them a

lot of new customers because those

customers are high value okay so doctors

lawyers dentist those are some really

great ones but I want you to start

thinking outside the box a bit for

potential customers so one that uh we

actually got into recently actually now

more like 2021 was larger corporations

because they just have much larger

budgets and so I shouldn't name names on

the exact corporations but we've done

marketing for very large corporations

where the contract size can be 20 or

$30,000 a month and to them if it's like

you know A10 billion company them

spending $30,000 a month to hire us to

run marketing for them or help in

specific fields on their marketing team

it's not really much of a big issue for

them because that's like a drop in the

bucket $30,000 a month you know they're

making a billion dollars a year what's

that to them and so corporations this

one is a bit harder to get into I would

not recommend this right off the bat

it's just something that we kind of have

graduated to you know years and years

after you know running marketing

campaigns but start thinking more

outside the box as well things like

political candidates so every election

season right which is basically

elections every single year there's a

lot of money that's being spent on

Advertising so you can find ways to get

into this and run ads for political

campaigns or for even things like super

packs they're out there hiring people to

run ads and you can be an expert in that

field specifically on political

campaigns maybe someone's running for

congress in your local District you know

reach out to them and see if you can

help them on social media or help them

to run their campaign and this is a like

one that not enough people reach out to

on and they're always looking for

marketing experts in this field on top

of that look A lot of people are running

e-commerce businesses you know there are

millions of people who have Shopify

stores who are selling products online

helping them to run ads or helping them

with any other area of their business is

going to be very useful because there's

a lot of those potential customers out

there people who are already running

e-commerce businesses and then probably

my favorite one that I really think you

should consider doing is look at a list

of startups that recently announced that

they raised money for their startup you

can use something like crunch BAS or

pitchbook to look at all the different

companies and there are companies every

day that it's hitting the news that you

know some company just raised a ton of

money for their St they just raised $40

million for their series a or their

series B funding round and what this

means to you what this should mean is

that this company's now flush with cash

they raised a bunch of money and they're

ready to spend it and they might need

some marketing people to help spend that

money to grow the company so that is one

of the best ways like one of the best

hacks for getting new customers is to

just look at the list of recent

fundraising rounds and reach out to them

with cold email and you can do that all

day and you know you're going to get

some really great customers from that

now this all of course does depend like

your Target customer is going to depend

on the category of marketing that you

chose that we talked about earlier in

this video but those are just some

different potential Target clients that

you can uh go for another thing to

remember here is that it is helpful as

well to focus on one type of client that

you can really Niche down and become an

expert in that field like for example if

you focus specifically on marketing for

lawyers and then you try to go out and

run marketing for an ice cream shop it's

going to be a little bit of a different

game and so I think it's always better

to stick with one specific type of

client and then just find a bunch of

those so that you can basically rinse

and repeat and copy what has worked for

those previous lawyers that you have

done marketing for and then use that to

pitch it to the new lawyers that you

might be trying to sign on as clients so

that's going to be the section for

identifying your target clients now

let's talk about building your team this

is something that really was difficult

for Mike and I when we started our

company years ago and it's hiring people

hiring people can be very difficult and

you know managing people it's usually

not very fun and so how do you find the

right employees who do you hire how do

you hire them let's talk about that here

today what I would recommend doing first

of all is try to do this on your own for

as long as possible until you get to a

point where you physically cannot manage

it anymore and I say that because this

is important for understanding how the

business operates don't Outsource it too

quickly because then if you try to

manage someone on a project and you

haven't done it yourself in the past

then it's going to be a little bit more

disconnected so try to do this on your

own for as long as possible but once you

get to a point where you can't work

anymore then you want to start

Outsourcing now what we do in our

company is we have a list a running list

with different categories of potential

freelance workers so we can tap someone

anytime we need someone whether it's you

know we don't have the bandwidth and we

need someone to build a website or we

need someone to to run ads for someone

we we can just go and tap someone in

that you know specific category and we

have probably close to 100 different

Freelancers on this list that we can go

to uh whenever we need something done so

this is useful build up Your Arsenal

basically of of freelance workers who

can help you on any specific projects

now how do you go out and find them

there's a couple of options here you can

use something like upwork honestly I

love upwork we've hired so many people

from upwork you can also use something

like workable which I will leave a link

to Below in the description and workable

is great for hiring people and they have

a lot of other services as well and they

have HR as well which is going to be

helpful or you can use something like

paired so I've used paired as well this

a little bit more expensive but this is

like a head hunter where they will help

find an employee for you and they'll

like vet them they'll Source them

they'll they'll handle all of it and

then give you a really great high

quality employee so this is something

that I do think can be pretty great as

well and I'll leave a link to pair below

in the description they're a little bit

more expensive but if you want to take

it seriously and you are scaling then I

would check out paired now where should

you hire from I just want to talk on

this briefly because we used to hire

people in the United States and the

problem here is that it's really

expensive so like if you want to hire

someone for your agency in the United

States you're looking at you know

$60,000 a year minimum but probably

closer to $80,000 a year or more for

your marketing agency and if it's

something really specific too like if

you want someone to run ads those people

are very expensive they can be well into

the six figure range if they are

American and so we actually end up

hiring people in different countries

where the cost of Labor is a lot cheaper

and it's kind of a win-win for both us

and for the person who were hiring

because they're making a lot more money

than they would in their country that

they live in so for example we love

hiring people in Argentina or Brazil

because the time zone is very similar

and the languages is pretty similar as

well Spanish or Portuguese and English

there's not much of a language

difference there really the cost is

going to be at a much better price I

mean we're talking like a quarter of the

price so if you're paying someone

$80,000 a year in America you could get

someone with honestly the same amount of

uh skills and credentials for $20,000 a

year that's going to be a much higher

price than they could get if they were

you know working at a company in their

own country so it's basically a win-win

I'm a huge advocate of hiring people

outside of the United States you can go

to the Philippines you can go to

Malaysia there's like most countries

around the world are going to be lower

cost of Labor and just as good of

quality of Labor if you Source them

properly so you can do that on upwork

you can do that with workable or with

paired that's what I recommend doing is

sourcing International okay now let's

get into the final section here which is

how do you get to $1,000 a month and

then how do you get to $10,000 a month

and scale this agency as I said earlier

the thing you're going to want to do is

offer your services for free once you

have those locked down you can go out

and start pitching other companies and

other businesses with your services now

the way that I would do this is create

three different package deals that

someone can choose from for example if

you go to a local business in your area

and you say I can do marketing for you

it's going to be $1,000 a month and you

only give them one option that's not

really a great way to get customers what

you want to do is offer packages so

package one and I'm just making up these

numbers and these examples here but

package one could be maybe $500 a month

and this is for say like running their

Instagram account or their Tik Tok and

doing some basic things for them package

number two option number two could be

something a little bit more intricate

you're doing a lot more for them and

maybe that's at $1,500 a month and then

package three could be like an

all-in-one you know $5,000 a month for

all these different services but

basically my point here and you can mess

with the price points I recommend

starting lower especially for like your

first few clients it could be like a

couple hundred bucks a month package two

could be like you know $600 a month

package three could be like $1,000 a

month right uh it really depends on on

where you're at and the people that

you're pitching but creating these

packages really does give the business

more of an option of what they want to

choose from and I can go more into that

and you can feel free to ask me

questions too I'll leave my Instagram

somewhere here you can DM me if you have

questions on setting up and running a

marketing agency and I'll try to respond

to you but that's what I would do for

pricing and getting those initial

customers what you're going to find is

that in marketing most of your customers

are going to come from referrals if you

do a good job people are going to ask

that company hey who made this website

for you or hey who's running your ads

for you they're going to want to know if

you're doing a great job the other

businesses in your area are going to

take notice especially if you are

getting them results okay so referrals

is going to be the best way for your

business for getting new customers and

the beauty of referrals is that it's not

going to cost you any money to get those

new referrals and to get those new

customers cuz they're coming in for free

cuz you just did a really great job

that's going to be the number one option

another option for getting customers is

going to just do cold emails this is

also a great one because it's going to

be free I mean you can go out and you

can email a dozen companies per day and

offer your services if you're coming

from a professional email you kind of

modify and work on your email pitch and

you know the rate on that's going to be

really low but if you send out 100

emails and you get one new customer per

100 emails that you send out it's really

just a numbers game you know you send

out 100 emails every day and suddenly

you got seven new customers this week

for your agency so cold email is a

really incredible tool for getting

customers out a very very low cost you

can also do things like run Tik Tok ads

to get new clients or even run Google

ads for example like when someone

searches up marketing agency in Phoenix

you pop up at the top of Google you paid

for that but you can get customers that

way as well but getting to your first

,000 per month really will be one or two

customers in a lot of cases for your

agency really focus on making sure that

they have the best experience you're

providing the best results and then from

there you can scale up and you're going

to find that getting to $10,000 a month

is probably not as difficult as what you

might think initially once you get this

off the ground you get to a couple

thousand you're going to realize all you

have to do is just replicate what you've

just done to get to that 10K Mark and so

I think with most people if you're

taking this seriously and you're

spending you know at least 20 to 30

hours per week on running an agency that

getting to $10,000 a month within the

next 12 months is definitely feasible

it's something that we did I made this

very similar video a couple of years ago

on showing people how to run an agency

and I can't tell you how many people

have reached out to me and told me that

they use the principles that I've shared

in that video and they applied it to an

agency that they just started and within

a few months they were almost at or over

that $10,000 per month mark from just

using these principles that I've shared

in this video if you found this video to

be valuable make sure you subscribe to

the channel I really do appreciate you

watching this I hope it was of some help

to you and you know we have lots of

resources Down Below in the description

that you can get started with for

building your website for creating your

LLC for doing all those different things

signing up for high level I hope this

video was valuable if it was make sure

you follow me on Instagram follow me on

Twitter and let's chat let's talk

there's a lot of people who are trying

to sell like expensive five or $10,000

courses on how to run an agency you

don't have to spend money to learn how

to do that we have so many free

resources on this channel so thank you

for watching and I wish everyone the

best of luck