Digital marketing can be overwhelming… to say the least.
That’s a double-edged sword for ambitious entrepreneurs. On one hand, there is a TON of information and ways to conduct your business; which can cause feelings of angst or burnout.
On the other hand, if you are a creative individual with drive and tenacity… ideas to grow your business are limitless!
I want to give you 29 quick and easy tips (or ideas) so you can stop feeling stuck or unsure of what’s right for you and instead start to grow your business one by one.
Start executing these over the next few weeks and possibilities that you never would have previously imagined will emerge.
1. Build an online business: Go Live
Nothing is more impactful for your customers than when you go live via FB communities, Youtube, Instagram, or any other social platform. It allows attendees to ask you questions in real-time and get to truly so your brand.
2. Increase website engagement: Calculators
Ask yourself: what does my audience to calculate t help their business? Whether it’s savings, the number of customers they need, or their ROI; giving them free tools to assess their current quantitative numbers will prove to be hugely beneficial.
3. Draw in more customers: Loss Leaders
A loss leader is your foot-in-the-door product that customers will buy for a low price before upselling your higher ticket package or offer. Focus on advertising the one thing everybody needs to win at loss leader strategies.
4. Use expertise to generate more business: Quora
If you want to key in on your target markets’ psychographics, demographics, and really understand their wants and needs Quora is the place to do so. On top of this, you can advertise your product on pages that discuss solutions similar to what you offer.
5. Generate free publicity for your agency: Haro
Haro (help a reporter out) is the place for journalists looking for hard-hitting info on certain topics that may pertain to your agency. This can be huge for your agency because it is completely free and allows you to position yourself as the expert.
6. Generate quality leads: Low-Cost Ad Networks
If you are a small agency trying to scale look at the major networks that allow you to advertise at a low cost. These might include quora, Pinterest, or even Reddit. Figure out where your audience is most likely to be hanging out and start getting people in the door!
7. Get more traffic to your website: Transcribed Content
Long gone are the days of writing brand new blog posts. Today, it is much more popular to take youtube videos, podcasts, and snippets of audio into written resources for your audience to view.
8. Discover more prospects: Data Scraping
Data scraping is taking sources (such as Yelp) to find the information of potential leads. Think LinkedIn, or any other reputable directory to find inside contact information so you can send 1-1 emails to leads that would be interested in working with you.
9. Create more opportunities by giving away valuable knowledge: Free Courses
Customers want more value before they ever make a purchase and in today’s content-driven world it’s easy to give them just that. Ask what kind, of course, can you put together that will get your customer one step closer to their end goal.
10. Increase your email list: Free Tools
So you want people to give you their email address so you can set up an automated email nurture sequence before they ultimately decide to buy from you right? Give them a reason to exchange it! Think of a tool your customer will use for themselves and is enticing enough for them to give their email for it.
11. Make your customers a part of your brand: Youtube
Having a YouTube channel with new content every week is just as important as updating content on your website. Figure out what you can do to grow and scale your presence on YouTube and you will be rewarded with the type of customers who are savvy and educated.
12. Generate buzz around your brand: Giveaways
Giveaways are powerful; who doesn’t love free swag?! In fact, you can’t buy advertising that will be even remotely as good as the giveaway. Find a way to distribute your swag, your coffee mugs, and whatever else you can to generate buzz and gather people’s contact information.
13. Become a thought leader in your industry: Self-Publishing
One of the most common paths to building thought leadership in every niche is to find popular publications and pitch your ideas and articles to them. Start by figuring out the way to self-publish on Kindle or Amazon and create a piece of content that will be valuable for years to come. This will help you become a thought leader in no time.
14. Generate buzz around your Agency: Challenges
Challenges are a way to give away real value and generate buzz around your product or service. Create your own challenge by finding a way to make a real difference in the lives of your ideal customers. It can be something simple like a 3-day challenge, or something more elaborate like a 30-day one. At the end of the challenge, you can present your offer to the participants, and it’s up to them whether they want to move forward.
15. Prompt qualified leads to engage with your content: Quizzes
Quizzes or interactive content allows your participants to engage with your content and does a great job of getting them to take your desired action. It will help you attract more qualified leads who are looking to solve their problem, and you can be that one business that can provide them with the solution. Create one for your agency, put it on your website, and then promote it so that it gets in front of the right audience.
16. Make sure you never hear “no” from your prospects: Offer Creation
Without an offer for your agency, you will keep trying to sell your prospects, yet the VALUE has to come first. Make the decision to create a killer offer for your prospects by ensuring your offer is so good they feel stupid saying ‘no’.
17. Grow a loyal audience online: Podcasts
Figure out who your ideal customer is, what their pain is, how you can solve it – and then create a podcast based on what you find. Not only will it do wonders for your business, but it will also be easy to distribute it across all the major platforms through Anchor.FM and the biggest expense you’re going to have is a microphone.
18. Land your dream business opportunity: Cold Emails
You can do all the advertising you want, but it doesn’t mean a client is going to see your ad. If you really want a particular company to do business with you, reach out to them directly and make it personal!
19. Increase your agency ROI with overhead: Outsource
In the agency world, the fastest way to scale (without having to hire internally) is through a partnership with a white label provider. Find out what you can outsource in your agency to start growing week over week. When you work with a white label provider, you can not only boost your revenue but also reduce your overhead.
20. Scale your agency by growing your network: Speaking Engagements
As people get to know you and what you do, they will turn to you for help or advice in the future. They will also connect you with other people that need to hear what you say. Every single speaking engagement in front of 5, 10, or 50 people will enable you to advance in your business. Make it a priority to find opportunities for you to speak to others and share your experience.
21. Use communities as lead nurturing platforms: Facebook Groups
Facebook is like a modern-day radio where you hear different things and keep up with what’s happening in the world. By starting your own Facebook Group for your agency you can give valuable content and invite your ideal customers to join. Let them ask questions, go live with answers, create training, and engage in discussions.
22. Scale your business: Virtual Events
So many businesses have started doing virtual events because they are more scalable and cost-effective. The goal of these events? Getting thousands of people to know your brand and virtual events are the perfect opportunities to get their contact info as well. Over the course of a couple of days, you can give them FREE, valuable content. And you can even invite other speakers to come in and share content.
23. Create engaging long-form blogs: SEO
Long-form blogs include 2,000-10,000 word blogs! These blogs are so useful because it informs those who are in need of your offer that you exist but it also goes into depth about how their problem can be solved. These blogs are built for SEO to get the right customers coming to your website and actually rank.
24. Go live to scale your business: Webinars
Webinars are a powerful tool you can utilize to grow your agency because you can use them to dive into your product and offer and discuss how your solution can solve many people’s problems. Include an entire step-by-step process in your webinar. Talk about their pain, their solution, the price, and how to get started.
25. Build an organic network: Facebook
By using your personal Facebook to connect and add friends that can be potential customers or existing customers to build your network inside Facebook for your business. Build your online presence by creating content about you, your business, and the people you help.
26. Take advantage of lead generation tools: Linkedin
LinkedIn is a massive platform that allows you to connect with your customers and your prospects in a professional setting. If you leverage all that LinkedIn has to offer including job recruiting, newsletters, groups & events, LIVE sessions, you will be rewarded.
27. Take advantage of business opportunities: Partnerships
The key to successful partnerships is to find a partner that is willing to grow alongside you. Consider a company like Shopify which sends you leads and helps their customers in return. In the long run, a partnership should be beneficial to the growth of both of your companies.
28. Grow your customer base: Niche Selection
99% of agencies are generalists, not specialists. When you are everything to everybody, you’re nothing to nobody. One of the fastest ways to grow your agency is to niche down and productize your services. The first you need to take is to determine who your ideal customer is and how you will serve them best.
29. Build great relationships with other entrepreneurs: Lunch and Learn
Lunch and learn meetings can help you build amazing relationships with CEOs in the local community and even generate more business through referrals you’ll receive if you put on a great presentation. If you can get 10 or 20 business owners to show up to a meeting with you and teach them something they don’t know about digital marketing… take the time to plan your next event! While it can generate new business, it’s also a great opportunity to help your fellow business owners map out their next steps and grow their business.
Start at the Micro-level than Expand
Before you go out like a kid on Christmas ready to hack your way to agency success, sort out the top ten tips that will have the biggest impact on your agency first. From there pick just 2 or 3 and execute them this week.
While results in a free value, building relationships, and networking don’t always happen overnight, if you have the right team and knowledge, eventually the return of your efforts will pay tenfold!
