Today I want to share with you how to start a digital marketing agency with no experience and spending money on expensive courses.
And in this free digital marketing agency course, I’ll show you:
- How to start a digital marketing agency with no experience
- Why a digital marketing agency is one of the best businesses in 2023
- How to get your first clients using free methods
- How to get results for your clients
- How to scale your agency
- And more
Also, I want to break some things down a little bit further in this guide of how to fulfill those clients that you bring on so you can keep them long-term. Let’s get started.
The Role of a Digital Marketing Agency
The role of a digital marketing agency is simply bringing businesses new clients leveraging various digital marketing services including:
- SEO
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Reputation management
- Paid advertising
- Website design
And it might seem a lot but I know for a fact that getting local business results is very easy.
Here’s the deal I’ve been working with marketing for a couple of years now long enough to know that these businesses could make you a lot of money and this business model is booming in 2023.
The digital marketing business is in huge demand. If you think about it no matter where you go you’re always going to find local businesses and the one thing that they need is more clients.
And this is where you come in to help them as a digital marketing expert.
Also, while most companies and businesses were losing clients and money our company was growing exponentially throughout the crisis because we work in an everlasting niche, which is digital marketing.
Starting a Digital Marketing Agency
So, let’s talk about the digital agency business model.
And for those of you guys who are brand new here, maybe just stumbling upon this blog, just a little background on myself, I run a digital marketing agency. I help small business owners generate leads.
And so I want to show you guys exactly how to make this happen. I don’t make my money from selling courses on how to make money. I make my money actually running this marketing agency business.
Now I want to show you guys the step-by-step of how I got started back in the day, how I fulfill for clients, how you can get guaranteed results in success for your own marketing agency, and hopefully scale up to $10,000 per month.
So let’s just start out with the biggest thing and this is going to sound super cliche. But the number one thing before starting a digital marketing agency you’ve got to do is you got to pick a service.
#1. Pick a Service
Step number one is deciding what exactly you’re going to sell. This is very, very obvious, but most people just get this wrong.
So what I suggest here is having a service that is as productized as possible and ideally, just one service.
There are a lot of different avenues you can go with this business So, I’m going to show you the 6 services that you can go out and start selling.
And some of them require literally no experience.
Let’s get started.
1. Web Design
#4. Deliver Results For Your Clients
Okay, now you have your first client. Now you might be wondering:
“What do I do?”
“How do I actually run get them results?”
Well, the whole point of getting the client results is to help them get more leads, help them make more money, and more sales.
It’s very, very important at the beginning stages here, you want to get really good results for your clients.
I want to show you how to successfully get the results for these clients and guarantee that when you bring on that new client, you actually get the results so you can keep them in the long term.
So, let’s talk about running a digital marketing agency.
1. Generate Leads For Your Clients
Now the first thing that you need to do in order to get sales is to help them generate leads.
The platform that I use in my agency to generate leads is GoHighLevel which is an all-in-one digital marketing platform designed specifically for marketing agencies.
They give you so-called Snapshots for nearly every niche you can think of. Snapshots give you the ability to deliver an account snapshot and everything that’s in that account to another account that you set up in HighLevel.
But what I like about GoHighLevel the most is they provide step-by-step training to sell digital marketing services which is very cool.
By the way, GoHighLevel offers our audience a 14-day free trial.
But you can also use ClickFunnels if you’re more familiar with this platform.
So now what you want to do is create a simple landing or capture page.
And you want to have some type of hook to actually get the person get their potential clients interested to put in their name, their email, and phone to actually become a lead.
So here’s an example for the dentist industry.
You can see it’s a very clean, professional landing page.
2. Set up Campaigns
If for example, you decided to run paid advertising now you set up a campaign for your client.
And I’m not gonna cover this in this article because it would be not an article but an entire book.
You have many options when it comes to learning all these different marketing skills.
You can find tons of online courses that teach you the concept of digital marketing
If you don’t want to waste your time and get no fluff online course, I highly recommend Fiverr’s Paid Advertising: Social And Search.
It’s probably one of the best online video courses in the market taught by the top digital marketing experts.
What you’ll learn in this course?
- SEO
- Facebook ads
- Instagram ads
- Google Analytics
- Creating high-converting landing pages
- Content marketing
- Lead generation with Facebook
This is the course that I’ve finished and recommend to all my students. And especially useful for a digital marketing agency is module 8 – “Lead Generation with Facebook Ads”
3. Communicate With Your Clients
That is the most important part of digital marketing agencies is making sure that you’re communicating with your client effectively.
I’ve had so many types of people telling me that they’ve been fired.
And I asked them the first question that I always ask is how much more are you talking to the client?
The answer is I didn’t talk to them for the whole month.
Look, that is an unprofessional salesperson. That is an unprofessional business owner. People want to hear from you.
You guys need to understand that when people pay for marketing when they invest in your marketing is what they’re doing is, is they’re throwing their money into a black bag and throwing it in the galaxy.
They don’t know what you’re doing. You need to tell them what you’re doing.
So my way to combat this is I use TeamWork, which is software where you can literally manage and all your project management.
So you can put your clients, you can update what you’re doing for them. Some companies do every single post on Facebook, this is just an option for you.
You don’t have to go about it like this, but this is the best way to communicate with your clients besides email.
Nobody wants to do that. If you can stay communicated with your clients through TeamWork each and every day, they’re never going to fire you.
I promise you clients would rather hear from you more than see results as crazy as that sounds.
4. Show Your Clients The End Result
Your client has to see the end result of your work whatever you’re offering.
You can show everything that you actually are going to do because the truth is at the end of the day, the dentist, the real estate agent, the mortgage broker, the chiropractor, they don’t want to do what you’re going to be doing.
They are so busy running their businesses.
They don’t want to run Facebook ads so you can show everything that you’re going to be doing.
They don’t want to go set up landing pages.
They don’t want to set up their websites because that is not where their expertise and their time are best used.
And so they just want to know what you’re doing and from there after they see that you can help them get results they’re like,
“Okay, this guy knows what he’s doing. I’m going to carry on.”
And this is how you can get lifetime clients for your agency.
Why Getting Good Results For Your Clients is Essential For Your Agency?
Don’t stop prospecting, don’t stop outreach, don’t stop trying to land clients, but make sure you get really good results for them because if you get really good results for them it does two things:
1. More Referrals
Number one increases the chances that you’re going to get referrals. And referrals become really a big part of this business over time. Again, it is a people business.
2. Confidence Boost
And number two it’s going to give you a massive confidence boost which is really going to help you with landing your next clients.
It’s really difficult than getting that first client. A lot of it comes down to yourself; your lack of skills, your lack of experience, and your lack of confidence.
By having a client you got really good results for, it’s going to massively help with landing the next one.
So get them really good results as you should anyway.
Because, there are a lot of people in this whole make money online thing and they’re hyping up that starting a marketing agency is easy, but it’s not.
And they’re not really emphasizing the need to actually get the clients really good results, which is essential for building a long-term sustainable business.
#5. Price Your Service
A lot of people ask me about how much to charge in the beginning.
According to webfx.com, the average cost for digital marketing services in 2022 ranges from $2500 to $12,000 per month, $50 to $500+ per hour, and $1000 to $7500 per project.
I would probably start out charging between $500 to $1,000 per month and then whatever they charge or whatever they want to spend on advertising.
That is in addition to whatever they’re paying you.
So if they’re paying you $500 per month, plus they want to spend $10 a day on ads.
Well, that is $500 going directly to you, and then $10 per day on ads is going directly to Facebook.
And a great way to take payment is a merchant processor called Stripe makes it super easy.
There’s another one called PayPal, and I’m sure you guys have heard of it.
Those are great ways to get started to actually take that payment.
So hopefully, you’ve got several ideas of how to get started
How Much To Charge For Digital Marketing Services?
Now I’m going to give you some very important things to think about while pricing your services.
Because at this stage you’re thinking to yourself, “Well, I don’t even know how much to charge.”
This is a question I get all of the time.
How much should I charge?
And ultimately, it’s a confusing question because there’s no clear answer. There’s no one price that works.
It’s not as if one service just has a set number but you have to look at a few factors.
1. Don’t Undersell Yourself
The moment you bring up a short price to your clients for services you offer, they’re going to notice you’re unprofessional and they’re not going to do business with you.
And you are not going to understand what just happened.
2. Don’t Overprice
Here’s the other thing don’t overprice because a lot of people feel that marketing is just something that everybody wants to spend a million dollars on, and it might be the truth.
But your first contract, meaning the first client you signed for 3-6 months, whatever it may be. Look, they’re still building trust in you.
What I’ll do is I’ll do a 3-6 month campaign. And then after six months, we’ll reevaluate and I’ll up the price and do more ad spend or whatever it may be.
This is a very, very safe way to approach.
The only reason being is because if you can do good work in three months to six months, they’re going to sign a year or two years with you at a much higher price because they’ve already tested the waters.
So when you go into pricing, make sure you’re pricing your services based on market value, which leads us to the next point.
3. Price Your Services Based on Market Value
Don’t base your prices and services based on what you feel you need to make.
That is an emotional decision, and that is not a smart business decision.
And the moment you make it, an emotional decision in business, it starts having this ripple effect where it starts actually impacting everything else around you.
So make sure you do business with all logical intentions.
To find out the market value, just go to any of your competitors, check out what prices and services that they have, and literally re-implement that into your business and start getting clients.
4. Focus on Lifetime Value, Not Short-Term Profits
You don’t really want someone to just pay you for one month. You want someone to pay you for potentially even 6 or 12 months.
So pick a price with that in mind. A price that they should be comfortable paying and a price that ultimately will give them enough value.
So, if it’s $500 a month and you signed them up for 12 months, that’s way more valuable than signing someone up for 3 months and they pay you $1000 every single month.
Because you’re looking for longevity with this. You don’t want to just sign a client and then they never talk to you again. You want them to pay you every single month.
So, look at those factors, what am I comfortable with? And, what’s a good number for them? You don’t want to absolutely extend their budget. You want to make it just enough that is within their budget and they can afford to do that.
Now let me show you several proven funnels, websites, templates, and everything that will help start your own digital marketing agency business.
#6. Choose a Digital Marketing Agency Software
I truly believe that to sign your first three, even five clients you don’t need a logo or even a website.
But if you’re serious about this business getting professional software is a must.
If you’re trying to bring high-quality clients, you want to make sure you present yourself as an expert.
I just want to make sure you understand that if you’re looking for premium clients, you want to make sure you have a premium look.
So, let’s take a look at the best software for your digital marketing agency.
1. GoHighLevel
GoHighLevel is a software specifically created for digital marketing agencies. This is an all-in-one digital marketing platform that:Create full websites, landing pages, and sales funnels
- Build surveys and forms
- Schedule appointments with clients
- Customize your follow-up sequences
- Create membership areas
- And more
The cool thing about GoHighLevel is you can actually white-label this software.
This tool can manage all of your clients and any new clients that you bring on. If you got two, three, four, five, or fifty clients, you can manage them all under one account, and white-label it so it looks like your own platform.
And what I like about the HighLevel the most is that they have templates for nearly every industry including:
- Agency
- Auto dealers
- Chiropractors
- Dentists
- Construction
- Gym
And these are templates that are proven to work for over 5354+ agencies.
You can check out my GoHighLevel review or if you want to access this software they actually offer a free 14-day trial.
2. Builderall
The next great digital marketing software is Builderall.
With over 50+ digital marketing tools, Builderall is one of the most feature-rich all-in-one platforms in the world.
They also provide a great solution for digital marketing agencies where you can sell web design services.
Another great thing about this platform is that Builderall offers a Funnel Club which is a collection of over 400+ websites and sales funnel templates.
And inside Builderall Funnel Club you’ll find ready-made templates tailored specifically for digital marketing agencies including industries like:
- Beauty salon
- Pet shop
- SPA owner
- Car wash
- Yoga
- Cleaning services
And of course, more popular industries like dentists, restaurants, gyms and so on.
And what’s cool about these funnels is that all you need to do is simply download and install them on your computer.
You can of course edit them however you like.
And with Builderall you’ll not only get sales funnel templates for your agency but also over 40 digital marketing tools including:
- Website builder to create websites for your clients or your agency as well.
- Builderall autoresponder to set up email campaigns and advanced automation
- Sales funnel builder to build high-converting sales funnels and generate more leads
- Booking tool to schedule appointments for your clients
- Builderall SEO tool to help your customers rank higher on the search engines
- Builderall CRM to automate the contact with your leads
And more great digital marketing tools to play with.
And what sets apart Builderall from the competitors is their ridiculously low pricing plans.
With Builderall you can start at $16.90/month, and their most expensive plan is actually $87.90/month which is a bargain compared to other platforms like ClickFunnels or Kartra.
Choosing The Best Marketing Agency Software
So these are the best CRM software for marketing agencies.
To be honest with you, the best option is GoHighLevel.
And the reason is that this platform is specifically created for digital marketing agencies. And also you have the ability to white-label this software and start a SaaS business.
However, if you are just getting started you probably don’t need as much sophisticated type of software so I highly suggest you get started with Builderall to build your online presence as a digital marketer.
In fact, they both offer a free trial so you can test them out and check what platform would be better for you.
#7. Hire Your Team
The next step is not essential, but if you want to build a scalable digital marketing company, then you need to outsource so you need to delegate.
And what I suggest at this stage is basically to hire contractors, or outsource pretty much from day one.
Also, you do that with drop servicing business model comes in. This is the most effective way to scale your agency fast.
It’s better to get into that position and that mindset of an actual business owner from day one, rather than having to do everything yourself.
Even just one client can be a lot of work and can really limit your potential growth and scale.
So by, immediately on day one I highly recommend outsourcing the most time-consuming tasks.
If you’re just getting started with outsourcing, Fiverr is a great website for that. You can pay people a few bucks per gig and hire people to do some of this work.
That makes it really easy to scale quicker, even in the early days and gets you in the right state of mind as a business owner when you work on your business more so than in your business.
There’s still going to be a mixture of both in those early days.
#8. Scale Your Marketing Agency
Now, I want to share with you 8 ways to scale your digital marketing agency. And these aren’t the typical other services that you could be offering that you hear about all the time.
My goal is to really show you that money doesn’t have to be hard, it doesn’t have to take a lot of effort or a lot of time on your part in order to be able to start really generating the revenue in your business that you want.
I want to show you some of the offers that are on the table right in front of you that you probably haven’t even noticed yet.
So let’s jump in with the very first one, which is to put more offers in front of more people.
1. Offer More to Your Existing Client
The first opportunity here for you is to offer more to your existing clients. These are people who have already said I will pay you and they’ve paid you. And then what comes next?
So this is a way for you to look at what offers could you put in front of your existing clients. This is the probably easiest, least effort way to make more money in your business to put those offers in front of people who’ve already paid you
2. Become an Affiliate
Affiliate marketing is a great way to scale your digital marketing agency. And you hear about this for common things like hosting, for instance, which if not an affiliate for your favorite hosting company, why not? But this is also an opportunity for you to look at other ways like other software, other tools, and other websites that a client can really use to help grow their business.
This could be something that they sign up for, and then you manage it for them, or something that you just allow them to take and run with on their own.
But this is a really good way for you to continue to add value, to provide specific recommendations, and to be paid on the back end for that as well.
I personally leverage the Builderall affiliate program to grow my agency. They offer 100% commission for the first payment and then 30% recurring commissions each month.
I simply recommend this software to all of the clients that I work with.
3. Create a Consulting Opportunity
Sometimes there are businesses that come to me and they aren’t necessarily looking for services, they’re just trying to figure out what to do next. They are in a place where they feel stuck and they’re not sure which path is really going to make the most sense for them.
And so there are two ways that this can work. One is that we can get into a consulting arrangement where really we are working very closely together, and I’m guiding them through the process to help get them unstuck and figure out what their very next best step could be.
Now a lot of times, this is a way to link what you are talking about in your consulting over to your services, by providing the consulting and talking to them about what is really going to move the needle, what’s really going to grow their business.
And then they have the opportunity to take what you’ve given them, go implement it themselves, go hire someone else to do it, or then hire you.
So a lot of people will take this consulting, and they will be paid for that consulting time. And then they can say that consulting payment will be applied towards the service payment if they choose to go with them.
Now, you don’t have to do that. There are many times when I will offer this consulting service, and I don’t follow up with actually providing the service for one reason or another.
4. Make Money with Resseling Web Hosting
If you’re selling web design services you can increase your revenue by reselling web hosting. It’s a simple way to make an additional passive income stream for your agency. There’s huge income potential in hosting websites for small business owners.
5. Offer a Paid Masterclass or Training
This is where you have an audience and you are working to pull them in around a topic that really addresses a specific pain point that they have.
And they are paying to be there but they’re paying a low cost. But it is covering your expenses, it is covering your time and putting that together and being there for them that allows them to be able to answer questions sometimes and engage with you to build up some trust, they can build up some knowledge.
And also typically it’s good to give them one or two things that they can take away and actually apply themselves to see results. But, it’s good when you can also offer a back-end offer on that. So they’ve paid to be there for this training. And then you make an offer for anyone who is interested in continuing to work with you there.
So you have two opportunities to grow your agency.
6. Establish Partners
This can be real with no work at all. But this could be for partners to send work to you. And when they do you send them a commission for that, or vice versa. If you have clients that come in, and they’re there for one particular reason, or for one particular service, and you are able to build up your Rolodex of connections and say,
“I really think the next step for you would be to grow in this way, I don’t provide that service. But here is a great service provider that I recommend”
Send them over and then that company can give you a commission so long as your client becomes their client and pays them.
So this is a really easy way to make some extra money in your business with not a whole lot of extra effort.
7. Put More Offers in Front of More People
I want you to look at any audience that you have, any leads that you’ve had, even if you have closed them as leads, reopen them, for the time being, and work to put in more offers. Put different offers in front of these people. Not every client or potential client who comes to you is going to need the same offer or want the same offer. And if they decline one offer does not mean that they will decline a different offer. So don’t hesitate to put more offers in front of more people.
8. Raise Your Prices
If you’ve listened to me before, you’ve heard me say this one definitely before, and that is to raise your prices. I mean, if you want to attract high-paying clients this is the most obvious of all.
But, if you have not raised your prices, you just think about it, or you think that you can’t do it or you don’t deserve more, well, it’s time for you to do it anyway. And you really got to raise your prices in order to start generating more revenue in your business.
And you’ll stop being so resentful of clients who are coming in when you just don’t feel that you’re getting paid what you’re worth. So you want to put in less effort and this just whole cycle is hard to break out of. So you gotta raise those prices.
9. Implement AI Technology
With the right AI marketing software, you can automate and improve marketing tasks, freeing up time for human marketers to focus on strategy and creative work.
There are many ways to incorporate AI into a digital marketing agency business. Here are a few ideas:
- AI can help optimize ad campaigns by analyzing data and making recommendations for targeting, budget, and ad content.
- AI can help identify patterns in customer data to segment audiences and personalize marketing campaigns.
- AI writers can be used to generate unique and personalized content for social media, email marketing, and other channels.
- AI-powered customer service tools can be used to handle customer inquiries, provide support, and even handle sales conversations.
- AI can help gather and analyze data to better understand market trends and customer preferences.
Best Digital Marketing Agency Courses
To help you get started here is a list of the best digital marketing courses in 2023:
- 6 Figure Marketing Consultant by Trey Cockrum
- Agency Incubator by Iman Ghadzi
- 6 Figure Agency by Billy Willson
- Marketing Agency Program by Kevin David
- 7 Figure Agency by Joel Kaplan
The prices range from $497 up to $4,000 so it’s a really good thing to do your research before you buy any of these courses because there are a lot of less-than-ethical course sellers out there on the internet.
I personally highly recommend the free digital marketing course provided by GoHighLevel.
They not only provide you with all the tools to run a successful digital marketing business but also give you access to step-by-step training on how to capture, nurture, and turn more leads into customers including modules like:
- Immediate, Automated Wins For Any Client
- Calendars – Scheduled Success
- Pipelines – Visualize The Funnel
- The Ultimate Appointment Automation
- Reactivation Campaigns – Leads With Zero Ad Spend
And my favorite; “Start And Scale Your SaaS Business” which, as the name suggests, they teach how to start a SaaS business
Importance of Digital Marketing Agency For Businesses
After major shutdowns, people losing their jobs, companies going broke, businesses and people have finally realized that you need an online presence.
You see, schools are doing online classes, restaurants are doing online orders, my sister’s karate class is doing Zoom calls and Zoom classes.
So what does that all mean, and what does that have to do with you?
Well, most businesses are now looking for new ways to attain more clients.
They’re looking for new ways to attain more clients.
You don’t have to be a genius to see that the world has changed, and even after the virus is gone and quarantine is over the world will still be changed and you won’t come back to what it was before.
But what I like about this business model the most is you can literally make money helping local businesses and it’s a win-win situation.
And you also don’t have to be a genius to see that this is a huge opportunity for you because where there is demand there is money this is where I come to help you with this free course.
Digital Marketing Agency FAQ
In this section, I want to answer the most common questions regarding starting a digital marketing agency.
How Much Can a Digital Marketing Agency Make?
As a digital marketer, you can charge them thousands of dollars each month as long as you’re getting the results.
I’ve had clients pay me $1,000, $3,000, $5,000 and have a client who’s willing to pay me $10,000 for me to do a campaign for him.
I know people who charge even $10,000 to build a couple of photos and do a couple of campaigns the better results you get the more you can make.
So with just a few clients, you’re making thousands of dollars.
And if you’re starting out, I’d probably charge no more than the $500 per month just because you’re still trying to get that skill set.
Do I Need a Contract?
Yes. The reason being is that if a client really wants to cancel, there’s probably a reason.
So what you need to do is you need to set the expectations with them that they’re going to be in a contract for 6-12 months.
For me, I’m not going to legally pursue somebody. If they cancel the contract or, if they don’t pay, that’s just not what I do.
I would rather spend my time finding other clients because they’re much easier to work with.
Is Digital Marketing Agency a Good Business?
The good thing is that in 2023 all these small local businesses are looking for new ones to attract more clients.
They’re looking to build an online presence and that is where you come in. And the best part is that it’s super easy getting them results.
And the reason that it is easier to get local business results is people feel safe knowing that there is a physical place that they can go to. So they don’t feel like they’re getting scammed.
The second reason is that it’s actually something that people need.
For example, if you have pain in your teeth where’s the first place that you think about going? The dentist.
If you have a pet and you need to give them a bath where are you gonna take them to? The petshop.
If you’re looking to buy or sell a house, where are you gonna look? A real estate agent.
You see these are things that people need these are things that people are used to so it is easier to get the results.
Starting a Digital Marketing Agency in 2023 Final Words
So I hope this free course will help you to start a digital marketing agency with no experience.
Digital marketing is one of the best-paying high-income skills that will allow you to make good money without a college degree.
And as you can see starting a digital marketing agency doesn’t require buying any expensive course to be successful in this business.
It is not as difficult as it might seem. Just go through using these exact strategies, get the clients, get results for your clients, rinse, and repeat.
How To Start Digital Marketing Agency in 2023 (No Experience)