How to Start a Digital Marketing Agency with No Experience in 2024

How to start a digital marketing agency with no experience in 2022 online marketer for about five years now, and I have some experience with the industry. 

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For me, I stumbled into starting a digital marketing agency. If you like extreme highs and extreme lows, then let's talk about how to create a profitable and fulfilling agency. Digital marketing agencies right now are booming, and most offer a wide range of services from SEO to PPC management. If you're looking to get into the field, you might be wondering where to begin.

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You don't need to have previous experience to start your di marketing agency. Starting your own company was easier before. The key is to choose the right niche you love and then build a strong brand and foundation. Once you have a solid foundation, you'll be able to attract clients who are ready to pay top dollar for your expertise.

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What are the steps to starting a digital marketing agency?

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First, how I started was generating leads for my tree service. With the excess leads and jobs, I started selling them to the tree service and lawn care around me. But my best advice is to start freelancing or become a contractor and build your skills. You can go on Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer and begin testing the waters. You need to figure out a skill that you can master and monetize. The goal is to get social proof and learn a high-income skill. 

Another widespread option that you can skip all of that is using white-label marketing services. You can use their done-for-you services, market them as your own and use their case studies for social proof because they will be doing the job. Here is an excellent place for that. All you do is sell the difference. For example, GHL wants $500 to make a dental sales funnel for your client. So you sell the sales funnels for $1500, and you keep $1000 and pay GHL $500 for that snapshot. Hopefully, that makes sense.

The third option is to reach out to many of your dream customers and ask to work for free for a testimonial and build out a case study to show you're an expert and drive results. It would be best to start going into groups, forums, and quora, wherever your person is and start answering questions and helping them solve their problems. Start delivering free advice every day and building your creditability in the community. 

Picking Your Niche for your Agency

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Have you ever heard Riches are in the Niches? I think riches are in the niches, like the sub-niche. For illustration, I help local tree services book an extra 30 jobs in 90 days with as little as $100 ad spend. My niche is mom and pop tree services. Once I've my TAM (total adjustable Market) Tapped out, I can move up to other blue caller service-based businesses. Choosing a niche is easier because you become an authoritative figure when you specialize only in one thing. Remember to Sell the benefits and the results. Nobody cares that you sell lead generation, sell the vacation, not the awful plane ride.

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4 Rules to live by when thinking about the market you are entering:

Does this market have purchasing power?

Are you easily able to find and target?

Are these prospects in Pain?

Is this a Growing Market?

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 If you answered any of those questions with a no, then in my eyes, it's not a suitable market to go after. And you should reevaluate your niche. 

Identify your Dream Customer

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I want you to make a list of logical and psychological problems your customers have right now. I want you to imagine what they look like, how old they are, where they live, and their day-to-day activities. Write it all down, as much information as you can produce about the person you want to help. Then I want you to jump on Google and find out more information on their likes, interest, and problems they face. People want to feel understood, and it's your job as a marketer to relay that back to your prospects in your marketing. 

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So what does that mean? It means picking a niche that has buying power and one that you can find and target. This is why we say identify your dream customer avatar. That's someone willing to spend money on your product or service. 

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If you can't find people willing to buy your product or service, you won't have any customers.

So when you identify your dream customer avatar, you should ask yourself questions like:

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• Who is your ideal customer?
• What problems are they having?
• Where do they hang out online?
• Who else is talking about that problem?
• Where do they hang out online? Who already owns my dream customer?

This is important because there are many places where people hang out online—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc.

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This is a big part of finding your niche. You want to know who is talking about the same thing you are trying to solve.

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Here are some tools you can use to help you find those people.

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1. Social listening tool - Buzzsumo

2. Google trends, Facebook Groups

3. Quora

4. Reddit

5. LinkedIn

6. YouTube search

7. Instagram search

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Find your competitors, see which sales channels they are on, and pick one to build your foundation on.

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When you first start out, choose one channel and go deep into it. But eventually, you want to be on every channel possible. Fair Warning, It's easier to repurpose long-form video into multiple mediums than anything else. So in the future, you can repurpose your content and be omnichannel.

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Now let's talk about attracting clients.

So we have identified where our clients hang out, and now we need to start producing content that solves our clients perceived problems. You need to figure out how to attract people to your business. There are two ways to do this. One way is by creating evergreen content, and the other is by building relationships.

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Evergreen content is content that will never die. It's not going anywhere. It's always relevant. It's timeless. It's something that people will always want to read and learn. Think about a book. A good book will still be popular years later. This is because it tells a story that resonates with people and makes them think about things differently.

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Evergreen content is content that is constantly being updated. It's not just static text. It's videos, infographics, podcasts, articles, etc.

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The second way to attract clients is through relationship building. Building relationships is much harder than attracting new clients. Relationships take time. For example, building like know and trust in Facebook groups. They require patience and persistence.

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Step 3.– Build an Evergreen Content Machine

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You should have a plan for what type of content you want to create and when you want to create it.

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Start by building the habit of making content, and set out a time and day where you can complete this task. Making content is like a muscle. The more you do it, the bigger it gets. Plus, it has a compounding effect. When you start, your going to suck. The goal is to keep producing until it's inevitable to not logically get noticed. This takes time, but once you start building relationships and answering questions in your target market groups. Referrals and recommendations will come naturally. 

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Step 4.– Repurpose Your Content to different mediums.

You've built a solid foundation for your business. You need to make sure you're getting as much mileage out of it as possible.

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Repurposing your existing content requires a bit of work. First, you need to identify all the types of content you currently produce. Then you need to determine if each piece is appropriate for another platform.

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Here's a list of some common content types:

• Article (blog)
• Video
• Infographic
• Podcast
• Case Study
• Whitepaper
• Ebook

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For example, you can take a long-form video and rip the audio and make a podcast recording. Or take a case study and make a skillshare presentation. Possibly make the video into a blog post. A tool I like to use is repurpose.io to turn one piece of long-form video into 20 plus pieces of content. 

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Step 5.- Document, Rinse and Repeat

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It may seem like there are a lot of steps involved in starting a company from scratch. But it isn't that bad. If you follow these five simple steps, you'll be on your way to success.

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Document any repetitive task so you can delegate it in the future so instead of working in your business, you can work on it.

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Start small. Don't try to build a 10 million dollar business right away. Start slow and build up.

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Continue this cycle, and give more than you get, and over time people will be drawn to you and you can help them fix their problems and profit from them. 

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Essential Things:

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Build a simple website or landing page that collects emails and tells people your offer and what to expect from your service. Give them a run down. Check out GHL snapshots to get you up and running quickly. 

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Build your portfolio and case studies to use and attract more clients and boost your perceived value and the likely hood of your client's dream outcome coming true. 

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Step 6. Acquire, Increase frequency of Buying, Retain and Ascend Customers 

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The only ways to grow your business from
Jay Abraham... I added the retain

Acquire more customers through referrals, word of mouth, social media, email marketing, Search, etc.

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Referrals are an effective way to acquire new customers. Word of mouth is also very powerful when done correctly. Social media is another excellent way to get people talking about you or your business. Email marketing is also an excellent way to keep in touch with current clients and prospects.

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Increase the frequency of buying. Make it easy for your customer to buy again.

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Make sure you’re offering a product that is in demand and one that people will want to purchase over and over again.

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Retain customers by keeping communication open and responding quickly to customer service requests. Retain your customers. You must provide more perceived value than the cost to your customers. Otherwise, they won't stick around.

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Ascent Customers by increasing the value of your product/service and providing additional products/services. A certain percentage of people will pay you for more exclusive access and have hire means to financiers, and the bigger the problem, the more you can charge. 

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Typical Agency Business Models

• Hourly
• Flat Retainer
• Percentage of Spend
• Commission based or Pay Per Performance

I've personally only ever done the retainer $1500 to $2500 a Month retainer and the Pay per Performance Model. The audience I've targeted in the past has usually been burned with other Lead gen companies and I found it easier to acquire clients and keep them longer doing pay per appointments or pay per jobs closed.

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IF you don't have an all-in-one solution to onboard and track every interaction this would be a nightmare. I use High level to onboard and track everything from ads to payments and take a percentage of closed sales.

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My niche is a high ticket service with high margins as well. I know the market very well and can deliver 20 jobs a month with my system with just organic, GMB, and some Facebook Group reach-outs. 

Best ways to educate yourself to learn digital marketing

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• Hubspot Academy  -Ahrefs/Semrush Academy
• Google skill shop
• Facebook blueprint
• Linkedin Learning
• Skillshare
• Alex Hormozi
• Neil Patel
• Udemy
• Coursera
• edx.org
• Podcast

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Reminder: your daily actions for growth should be the goal not 7 figures in 6 months or whatever your crazy unrealistic goal might be.  Yes, you should dream big and set ambitious goals but also have a realistic plan in place to reach them.

Your goal should be the 100 reach outs a day or the 100 minutes of content produced a day and I guarantee you that once you have put in the volume and time to acquire these skills and have worked a ridiculous amount of time that theirs no reason why you shouldn't be successful then. You’ll be much more likely to succeed if your daily goal is tangible and achievable. Don't forget that success takes time, hard work, and dedication.

LEARN COPYWRITING- 

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Reminder: All of the information is already online for free, but what is your opportunity cost of not paying for done for you or done with your solutions of information that is already curated. The choice is yours, but I value speed and time and would rather spend it acquiring more skills than looking for free or low-cost ways to learn skills with half answered questions.

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P.S. one course, one mentorship, or one whatever might not work, most likely you are going to have to accumulate skills from multiple courses and people. It's like building a bridge you need to acquire and lay one brick at a time. Don't give up and don't stop learning. 

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P.S.S. Trying and failing are part of the process. Take action and fail forward. Learn and implement and test everything as much as you can. 

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Is it hard to start a digital marketing agency?

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It’s not easy to start any business from scratch. But if you have some expertise and willingness to learn I think growing an agency is extremely fruitful and rewarding. Pro Tip- Its easier to partner or work for someone doing what you already want to do and earn and learn. 

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How do digital marketing agencies make money?

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Digital marketing agencies charge clients for services ranging from website design and development to social media management and search engine optimization (SEO). The most common revenue model involves charging hourly rates based on the number of hours worked. Other models include fixed monthly fees, retainer agreements, and contingency fee arrangements or pay-per-performance.

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Are digital marketing agencies profitable?

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Digital marketing agencies are not necessarily profitable. The average agency earns $50k per year. That means if you want to earn $100k per year, you need to charge at least $150k. Most agencies are not profitable because people don't know what they don't know and give up too quickly.  

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Is digital marketing a good career?

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Digital marketing is one of the most exciting careers out there today. It offers great flexibility, independence, and growth potential. If you love working with people, digital marketing could be just what you’ve been looking for.

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How to start a career in digital marketing

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The industry is growing at a rapid pace, and it’s accessible to many opportunities are unities available, from content creation to social media management and beyond. The best way to start is to learn SEO or copywriting and start freelancing or offering your services to businesses. 

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How can I start my digital marketing agency without previous work?

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Easiest route sell white label marketing services. You find the clients, sell the service, outsource to proven marketers with track records, and use their social proof and track record. Start freelancing and building your skillset. When you feel confident enough, build up your own team and scale.

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How can I learn digital marketing for free? 

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Hubspot Academy, Google Skillshop, Facebook Blueprint, Coursera, Ahrefs/Semrush. Skillshare, Udemy, Backlinko, Neil Patel. Google. Gohighlevel will teach you how to sell and retain customers on their youtube channel. 

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How do I start my digital marketing agency with less than 1k capital?

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Learn as much as you can. Start reaching out to people pitching your services, sign up for the freelance, build skills, and make some revenue. I would invest in an all-in-one solution for agencies that provide websites, funnel builders, email/SMS, and CRM. Think Gohighlevel or Kartra.

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Get active in Groups, Forums, or wherever my dream clients hang out and start posting content, answering questions, and providing solutions to members. I would start doing 100 outreaches a day in Groups, Linkedin, and Cold calling businesses in my niche. Offer a Lead Magnet or provide a quick, personalized solution for that business to get a quick win and get on the phone with a decision-maker. 

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Is it a good idea to start a digital marketing agency in 2022?

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It is always the right time to start a business. I genuinely believe business owners are the only people that change the world through innovations.

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If you put in the time and effort, you can't acquire ten clients and run their ads or guarantee ten new dental implant clients every 30 days and make an extra $1k to $2k a month. 

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Business is about perseverance and solving problems. You will be faced with a lot of decisions in your life. Not starting a business shouldn't be regretted on your deathbed. 

What digital marketing agency business model is the most profitable?

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I started in 2018 as a retainer-based model and was losing money on my advertisement. IT CHANGED EVERYTHING once I switched my offer to a results-based and pay-per-performance. Hands down pay per performance. They pay an onboarding fee, and after that, they only pay me for deals I close and deliver.

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And on the backend, I've everything set up from done for you ads, landing pages, email/SMS followup, CRM for my white-label software, which is self-service.  Then we cross-sell them with Whitelabel marketing services that I do not personally do. 

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My best advice is to take action, find a group of people with a problem, provide a solution for that problem, and charge more than you think you are worth. Continue to build skills, beliefs, and character traits.

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Stay in the NOW of Digital Marketing

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Digital marketing agencies are one of the most in-demand businesses today. That’s because more and more companies are realizing the importance of online presence and the role that digital marketing plays in building brand awareness and driving sales.

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If you’re thinking of starting your own agency, now is a perfect time. With the right planning and execution, you can easily achieve success.

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Here are the steps you need to take to start a digital marketing agency with no experience:

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1. Do your research

2. Find your niche

3. Create a strong brand

4. Build a great team

5. Invest in the right tools

6. Stay up to date with industry trends

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Final Thoughts

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Starting a digital marketing agency from scratch can be daunting, but it’s not impossible. In this article, we’ve outlined the steps you need to take to get your business off the ground. We also provided some helpful tips and advice on things like branding, pricing, and hiring employees. So what are you waiting for? Get started today and build the marketing agency of your dreams!

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Now that you know how to start a digital marketing agency with no experience, it’s time to get out there and make it happen! With hard work and dedication, you can achieve anything you set your mind to. So go forth and conquer the world of digital marketing!

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Want to learn how to get a leg up on your competition? Check out our article on GHL and how we can help you learn from our mistakes and provide you with the tools and resources so you can avoid the blind spots that can cost agencies dearly.