How do you build a digital marketing agency when… you have no services to sell?
By the end of this blog, you’ll have your next steps for choosing a digital marketing agency service to sell and start to make money for your agency.
Getting your digital marketing agency started is one of the hardest parts. And it’s especially challenging if you feel like you don’t know how to do anything you can charge for.
Guess what? You’re gonna learn!
But you’re going to want to go for something that’s feasible to pick up a little more quickly. For example, web design? No. Too much.
Let’s jump right in with three skills that you can pick up and start to charge for sooner rather than later.
Psst! If you prefer video over text, check this out.
3 Digital Marketing Agency Services You Can Start to Charge For (as a Beginner)
Social Media Management
The first digital marketing agency service to consider is organic social media posting.
When we say organic, we mean the posting that you do for free. NOT paid advertising. Very complicated.
You can charge companies to maintain their channels — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and so on — with daily organic posting.
Here’s why this is a good option.
For starters, companies need it. Their pages need activity. So, somebody needs to do it.
But here’s the thing: Compared to something like paid advertising, the pressure is relatively low, because organic posting, for most companies, doesn’t really turn a profit. And that’s not because they’re doing it wrong. It’s because if you want to make money off of your social media, you almost always have to run paid ads.
But you still need organic posting. And there isn’t as steep of a learning curve.
This is one of the first services I offered as a digital marketing agency, and right off the bat, my rates for this service started at $500 a month.
I would make sure my clients had high-quality content going out every day — pictures, videos, text — I’d respond to comments, and I’d keep their pages active.
I’m not a social media expert. I never was.
But I kept their pages active with content that they enjoyed, and I did pretty well with it.
Graphic Design
The second service you can consider: graphic design.
Before I tick anyone off, yes, people go to school to learn to do this, they work very hard, and they spend their entire careers to become incredible graphic designers.
But again, we’re talking about skills that you can start to pick up quickly. Not master. Just pick up, enough so that you can profit off of them.
The reason I put graphic design on this list is that these days, there are so many simpler alternatives to something like Photoshop that still allow you to create beautiful graphics.
This helps to lessen the learning curve.
We’ll make some of our graphics in Photoshop, but you know what we use even more?
Canva!
Also, they have a massive online design school that is free. And it’s awesome.
You can start learning basic graphic design online for free right now.
You can make logos, social media graphics, PDFs, pamphlets, brochures, everything. Make all the things.
You have lots of options and flexibility. You’re not limited to Photoshop. So don’t stress. I know that thing is a behemoth. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried over Photoshop.
Creating Online Listings
Alright. Third skill. I’m not entirely sure how to label this one because I’m lumping a few different things in here. But I’m going to call it creating online listings. I’ll explain.
Businesses need a Yelp page. They need a LinkedIn page. They need a Google My Business page. They should be listed in online directories.
Many businesses are forgetting this. Or they’ll have a Yelp page, for instance, but they haven’t claimed it. You have to claim your page.
These factors are important because they’re like little hints for Google about how good (or bad) a business’s online presence is.
Also, very importantly, these pages and listings make it easier for potential customers to find a business. So, by you claiming and setting up their Yelp page, you can absolutely help drive traffic to their business.
So yes, you can offer this as a service. You can track down businesses that either haven’t claimed a page or haven’t listed themselves in a directory, contact them, and offer to do it for them.
Learning how to claim pages and make listings is relatively simple. And you can find businesses that are lacking in this area using a tool like Moz Local . Write that down. I’ll wait.
I know getting your digital marketing agency off the ground can feel really scary and overwhelming and impossible when you’re not sure what you can even sell. But here are two things you need to remember.
One: We all start at the beginning. It’s okay.
And two: When it comes to charging for your services, you don’t need to know everything. You just need to know more than your clients.
Now to be very clear, I’m not telling you that in the long-run, you should accept just being okay at the services you offer. You should strive to be the absolute best you can be. I think this every single day. I want to provide the best experience for my clients and my students that I possibly can.
It takes time to learn. My point is that you don’t need to wait until you’re at that point, to get started. Don’t wait until you’re an expert to start, because you’ll be waiting forever. Start now.
If you want to charge for freelance writing services but you’re a total beginner, I’ve got a course for that! Check out How to Blog Like a Pro, and use the code 33off to get 33% off at checkout. See you on the inside. 😉
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