10 Ingenious Ways How To Start An Advertising Agency

So you’ve had this dream of starting your own advertising agency for a while and you’ve finally decided that it’s time to bring your dreams to reality. You want to know how to start an advertising agency and you’ve googled “how to start an advertising agency” more times than you can count. You’re might also be wondering how best to take this giant leap.

Whatever the case, I’ve written this blog post to help you identify ingenious ways you can start off your advertising agency without having to break the bank. Start off your own advertising agency can be very demanding however, using these ingenious ways, you’re sure to start up an agency that packs a punch!

1. Join Associations in Your Industry

An association in an industry usually represents the voice of that industry. If you’re interested in starting your advertising agency on the right foot, then I suggest you join reputable associations in your industry. Joining an association connects you with other professionals resulting in a network that has huge opportunities for referrals. You’d be surprised to see the number of people who need services your within these associations. Before I officially launched my digital advertising agency, I was part of a small organisation. I remember telling professionals in that association what I do and the number of contracts that resulted afterwards. There are many other benefits joining associations your industry will bring that will help you launch your business fast.

2. Use Social Avenue

If you haven’t heard, it’s been proven that if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest country in the world! Imagine the combined number of people on all the social media platforms available today! That’s virtually the whole world. One of the most ingenious ways of starting your own advertising agency is tapping into the power of social networks. Go and ahead and set up your social media pages and get talking about how you can help brands increase their ROIs. The power of social media in helping you start your advertising agency can never be overestimated. I know how hard it might be for you to manage several social media accounts and handle a new business all at once. However, due to the great importance of social media to new businesses, I advice that you find an affordable professional to ensure that you reap all the benefits going social has to offer.

3. Get Podcasting

Podcasting involves creating episodic series of audio, video and other types of files to be streamed or downloaded to a computer or mobile device. Many advertising agencies and business marketing companies are tapping into the power of podcasting to build an audience in their niche. With world renowned passive income expert Pat Flynn, the results of Podcasting for growing his business has been nothing short of mind blowing. As of May of 2013, he had over 3.5 million downloads of his podcasts, 18,845 YouTube subscribers, 34,464 Facebook likes and over 65,000 followers on Twitter. All these benefits resulted in him reaping over $40,000 per month in business earnings. Starting a podcast will expose to you to an audience you can convert to paying clients. With this method, you don’t have to wonder about how to start an advertising agency.

4. Cold Calling

Cold calling is an age-long marketing strategy but one that is very effective nonetheless. Cold calling often involves soliciting for business relationships from potential customers with whom you have no previous relationships using methods like phone calls, emails and even face to face interactions. In the case of starting your advertising agency, I recommend smart cold calling. You have to do your home work on potential clients that actually need your services, you have to show them why they need your services and you have to show them what benefits your advertising services will have on their bottom line.

5. The Affiliate Strategy

Yeah sure, if you check out the world affiliate marketing list today, you’d notice that most of the companies involved in affiliate marketing seem to be big players. However, have been in the business of advertising and online money making for so long, I can authoritatively tell you that you don’t need to be a big player to start offering affiliate programs. You can start off your advertising business by offering affiliate commissions to people around you.

6. The White Label Strategy

White labeling is a trend that has taken the world of advertising by storm. You’d be surprised that the best advertising and business marketing companies today are white labels. White labeling in advertising basically entails starting a business that offers the services of an already existing business. With white labeling, you don’t have to start your advertising agency from the scratch, all you have to do is to identify an existing business and approach them about selling their services. White labeling will save you lots of time, energy and resources. It would also prove highly beneficial due to the presence of an existing market.

7. The Selective Offline Approach

You can’t talk of how to start an advertising agency without referencing the offline avenues. A lot of top advertising agencies start with identifying businesses in their localities and offering them great advertising deals. With the offline strategy, you just have to identify businesses you’re very much interested in and offering them an irresistible advertising deal. I recommend that you start with small to medium scale businesses to help you build your portfolio before approaching large businesses.

8. The Broadcast Approach

Like I always say, an advertising business also needs to advertise its business! You might have the best advertising strategies and creative tendencies but no one will come to buy your services if they don’t know of your amazing talents. You have to let people know about what you do. Advertising for small businesses has been made very easy and affordable by digital technology. You can start showcasing your offers on the internet by running pay-per-click ads. You can consult a social media professional to help you craft and execute an ad that would definitely bring clients to you.

9. Network With Professionals In Your Niche

No more do you have to just imagine what it would be like to interact with professionals in your niche. The internet as made it so easy to connect with professionals in various industries. Professional platforms like LinkedIn have made it very easy to chat up professionals in your industry. Apart from the fountain of wisdom many professional offer, they also bring one important business launching aid to the table; recommendations. Getting recommendations from a professional is sure to help you get your first few clients when starting your advertising agency.

10. The Proof Strategy

The proof strategy is a daring strategy and will involve some financial commitment. Many businesses want to see proof before they can make financial commitments and if you’re like me, I’m sure you’ve asked “where the heck am I supposed to get proof if no one wants to patronize startups!” My frustration with businesses always wanting proof (not that I blame them) made me come up with the proof strategy. The proof strategy is simple: create and execute an advertising campaign that showcases your prowess and use that campaign and its results as bait for new clients. If you’re going to use this strategy, be sure to create a mind-blowing campaign that converts.

On a final note, I advice that before you dive right into starting your own advertising agency, that you take your time to define what type of advertising agency you want to set up. There are many articles on the internet about how to start an advertising agency but very few of them will tell you that starting an advertising agency is a combination of smart and hard work and that it might take a few years to see the massive profit you’re hoping for.