We break down the state of play for agencies to win new digital marketing clients in this current climate

 

A fast-growing industry

It’s no surprise that it’s now more difficult than ever to win new digital marketing clients in one of the most competitive landscapes. Due to Covid and a low barrier to entry, the digital marketing industry has grown massively in the last few years.

Companies have scrambled to hire agencies as their online presence is now the only face of the business that still stands, thus the supply and demand have both increased in proportionate response to this. E-commerce has grown in particular and agencies who were ahead of the curve in working with this niche have seen massive growth by default; they’ve got inbound leads popping up due to the sheer demand!

Get the facts on the state of e-commerce here.

True competition

 

The best type of competition is none! Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do to easily gain a competitive advantage to really stand out within the marketing world. Have a read about all of the ways you can really stand out as a marketing agency here.

 

The most sought after marketing services

 

SEO and content marketing have also seen significant growth as they’re the top trends in 2022; good organic rankings are prime real estate over paid advertising and companies are starting to understand the power of words in converting leads to clients.

Although growth is good, it easily becomes a winner takes all scenario with the Pareto principle (80/20 rule); the top 20% of agencies with long-established names eating all the cake.

Agencies are inherently hungry for new business and search in all spaces for prospects – the most ironic part of this being that they forget the KYC principle that they apply to their client’s marketing strategy (Know Your Customer).

We won’t go into detail about what your agency needs to do to narrow down your target audience, you already know what needs to be done here!

We will tell you this though – for every prospect you’re struggling to land, there are 10 MORE looking for small & agile agencies like yours.

Picking a niche is debated quite often within the marketing world and rightly so. A more important aspect is not whether you SHOULD pick a niche but being decisive enough about what you do pick. The whole ‘pivot’ movement, stolen from Silicon Valley tech startups, has found a place on every marketer’s tongue with the assumption that you have to make changes often and ‘build quick, fail fast’.

Why are marketers pivoting?

 

Due to the over-simplification of a concept that isn’t really understood, marketing agencies are constantly trying to win new clients by trying to serve a new industry or sub-sector without showing any real understanding of it or case studies to back up their case.

Let’s say you win a client this way. Do you think it’s fair to blow 3 months of their marketing budget on your theories & ideas before showing even the slightest traction?

Telling your client, “It takes a few months to split test the ads and the messaging”.

You know that’s not entirely true, so why do it?

Being a thought leader in an industry you genuinely know is much more powerful and likely to bring you new clients than trying to break into different sectors.

We’ve worked on both sides of the market, we know it’s difficult right now; that doesn’t mean resorting to unethical tactics to elicit short-term gain. Focusing on a few services/industries and consistently increasing the quality of your work is the best solution to win new marketing clients.

You can read more about our top tips on how to win new business here.