Digital marketing is a fairly young industry compared to others things in tech including engineering.
And if you have wanted to create a digital marketing agency 15 years ago it would have been fairly hard and the barrier of entry was comparatively high.
But now with so many services that are cheaper and available, it is possible to do a lot of things on your own.
First things first, creating a business is no joke let that be any type of business you need a plan, goal, etc, so let’s see how you can start your own online marketing business.
Figure out your “why” & “what”?
As mentioned in the intro the barrier of creating a digital marketing agency 15 years ago was fairly high, but it has one other side.
Because now it is easy that means everyone else like you are preparing to launch their business too.
So as the competition is high, it is important to understand that it would take perseverance.
Don’t get into this business because it has the hype, as like any other business this requires hard work and commitment so figure out your reason.
With that being said let’s start with good news!
One report from Statista states that:
“The digital advertising spending worldwide amounted to 378.16 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, increasing and not contracting versus the 2019 figure in spite of the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic”
As you can see that even though the world was hit by a pandemic it only had little to no effect on digital marketing.
So you know the demand is high and if you have what it takes to make people stop and read your stuff you are in one of the best positions to cash your talents ever.
Now to figure out “what” you will you provide?
When we say digital marketing it has a lot of things associated with it.
It can be a Pinterest ad specialist, Facebook account manager, Website builder or even having an agency where you can outsource all these types of work to other peoples.
So figure out what service you would provide or if you are going to create a digital marketing agency.
Our suggestion is to start with freelancing and provide services to clients in order to understand the industry a little and how it operates.
Here are few services you can start with:
Website builder
Social media handle manage:
Ads campaign creator
Social media marketing
Email marketing
Community manager
Content creator
Content Writer
Graphic Designer
To start pick one and follow the next section but if you are already educated and skilled then skip to the “create a realistic plan” section.
Educate yourself:
If you don’t have any prior experience with the skills you have chosen to provide then it is better to take a step back and learn it instead of providing bad services that can only destroy your personal brand.
Now digital marketing skills are not yet available to be taught in universities at scale and that is a benefit as online courses and experience could be your new teacher with almost no fees.
You can choose from courses and get certified for Free from known organizations like:
Google – Fundamentals of digital marketing
HubSpot – Digital Marketing Certification
SEMrush – Digital Marketing
A lot of skills of digital marketing can be understood in a short amount of time and with certificates like these, you can increase your knowledge as well as credibility.
But if you want to get into the business fast then here are your go-to blogs to learn from:
After learning, apply these skills and sharpen them by freelancing on sites like Fiverr, Freelancer, Guru.com, etc
This will give you experience and insights into the industry and you will understand what to expect from your clients.
Doing some work in the field will also make you understand whether you want to do this for the long term or not.
Create a realistic plan:
Now that you have the skills and experience it is time to create a realistic plan for your business.
What do I mean by realistic?
A lot of times when starting out people underestimate the amount of time it can take to take the business off the ground or close the first sale.
So if you have a job create a plan to do operate this part-time and when you can see the results that are showing you that this can work quit your job and go all in.
Steps to create a good plan:
Before mapping out the plan think long-term instead of quick sales.
Have one big monthly target to achieve to continue the growth of your business.
Research your market and prioritize the services.
Find companies from Crunchbase etc that are willing to spend big bucks.
Find out their problems how you can help to solve them.
Find the channels in which they communicate the best.
Try to get one long-term client or for a couple of months.
Show how you can bring value to them by addressing their problems in step 5.
Rinse and repeat
Now that you have a plan, as a beginner aim to get your first client within a week, I did not say 2-3 days because decision-makers need time to respond so be patient.
Find ways to promote your services:
Promoting your service is not that hard especially with the tools of today.
Find places where your potential customers or leads use, like if you are providing Facebook ad consultancy service then posting 2-3 times a day on the platform about how ads work, or their tips and tricks can establish some awareness.
Other ways to promote using social media:
Create 2-3 posts across major platforms (Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) if you don’t know where your clients are or want to target a wide group of individuals.
Follow the 3 post rule, aka promote your service after 2 posts on social media, for example, the first two posts can be about tips or quotes and the 3rd could be about “hey if you are dealing with social media I can help”.
Establish personal branding across professional networks like Linkedin as currently Linkedin still has organic growth.
Create an email list and use email marketing to target your ideal customers, as a bonus this will also improve your skills.
Occasionally work for free in exchange for exposure like if you are a content writer then pitch 10 blogs to write their blog post for free but mention your name, this is guest posting and it is a tried and tested method.
Promotion of your business should not be halted or done occasionally so make a plan to implement these tactics while doing business.
Rinse and repeat:
Think about the business in the long term and don’t chase quick sales as you already know most businesses fail within 2-3 years.
So it is important to stay up to date with new techniques and constantly learning to offer better services to stay long term.
You don’t need to buy big offices or even rent a co-working space when starting, all you need is the internet, a laptop, and a good work ethic.
With the internet the gatekeepers are almost irrelevant now, you don’t have to take permissions to start something of your own.
So if you ever wanted to start a digital marketing business now is the time.
Thank you for reading!
Good luck on your journey.
