Running a digital marketing agency

[K1 Lambo]

It is a real business.

Pure CENTS based Fastlane business?

Not really, more like a specialized skill that can translate very well to your own business. As a side hustle, I see nothing wrong with it, especially because it is a great skill to know. But if it were me, I'd have my eye on other things...



Funny, there was a thread today from a 16 year old who wanted to do this...

Exactly, finally somebody who gets it. I don't know any agency owners, besides one who's making over 10m$ in revenue(but this guy started like 15 years ago, so he's one of the very early adopters. He's in hospitality and clients are paying him anywhere from 10-150,000$ per month). There's two as well(one that does mostly FB ads(3m$ in revenue), has a bunch of courses too) and the guy who I bought the course from(he told me he's in the 4-5m$ range now by expanding his interests; e-commerce, webinars, and high ticket courses etc.).

But the problem is, it's sort of like a fad. Whenever a new social media platform comes in or if FB dies(along with IG), the skill will be worthless. And besides, IG can terminate my reach at any point(happened to me this year. Had an account that was growing like crazy, got to like 10k followers in 2 months organically but then I violated one of their liberal rules and my reach got a roadkill. I was getting a reach between 500,000-1,000,000 users a week and boom, all of a sudden it faded, the account got shadow banned. Sucks but it is what it is.)

I agree with you, it is a great skill to have in your own business, as marketing is part of the distribution process. Thanks.

 

[K1 Lambo]

Was he making money on his agency or selling agency advice?




Are you using any of the inbound strategies in addition to your outbound?



Have you tried this approach yet?

Even better if you make friends with these people and give them value before asking for something like that.

How much networking are you actively doing in the community?

You'd be surprised that your "competition" really isn't competition. Even if they do the exact same thing as you. They might even give you leads they can't handle/don't want to deal with.



This sounds like regurgitated crap. Spamming groups and hoping to catch people is not a business model. It's a random strategy at best. Groups are not what they used to be. They have changed dramatically. You have to change with them.

Out of curiosity what does your product/service DO?

Does it get me sales? Leads? Or just more followers? Or better engagement? What's the outcome?






Just sticking right in there ey?

Hey, thanks for caring. The original video was uploaded in 2018, in the video he showed a bunch of high ticket PayPal payments he received from clients, and even his ClickFunnels 1m$ award for social proof(which are only given if you actually cross that mark). He said out of that 1m$, 90% of it came from his IG services and the rest from courses. I think he didn't tell the full truth about the ratios though as it seems a little suspicious.

The course was divided into two pieces; the growth and the monetization aspects of Instagram. The agency section was a small part of the course, as he said he has a different course that will go into the agency model for "serious" users. -_-

No, I haven't been using any inbound strategies as I'm struggling to get clients consistently. If I were making money consistently with this model, I would be doing the inbound strategies.

And no, I'm not networking with any people at the moment on Instagram. I've been doing it a lot when I was growing my own accounts for social proof at the end of 2020, doing things like shoutout for shoutout, promoting each other's posts for traction, and engagement groups too.

You mean I should try to network with existing agency owners? And do like a split? So if I give him a client, he'll refer a client to me and vice versa? That would be interesting. Have never thought about this strategy before. Isn't there a saying that goes: "Your network determines your net worth"?

The group strategy hasn't worked so far. Sure, people started to ask me questions on Quora, but it's mostly low level amateur stuff from kids/teenagers and not real business owners. I get requests daily for questions like; "Why doesn't my boyfriend like my pictures?", "Do hashtags work in 2021?" or "What do you think of Kim Kardashian's booty pics on IG". And yes, I agree with you. As well as the marketing groups that I'm in on LinkedIn too, these groups are full of marketing spammers who promote their services constantly, so it's incredibly difficult to stand out there. There's also a plastic surgeon group, there is no value there either!

As far as my agency, we mostly do IG growth, this includes everything from building engagement, followers, and overall growing a real fan base for your account. And the save the business owner time, with the headache of how to do it. It's particularly easy with theme accounts, not so easy with smaller business owner accounts as there's more into it. It's more of a long term strategy on your ROI. You can also run ads(short term), but my speciality is content and growth.

The script sucks doesn't it? I think everybody has that sort of script. Maybe I could adrress the objection beforehand? Like "Sup, I know you probably hear the same spiel over and over again, but do you do any marketing?", maybe that would work.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Abbas Aliyu]

Thank you. Yeah, I don't see this stuff going anywhere soon either. It's definitely a big piece in the marketplace. And like you said, I think the problem is most business owners have worked with some of these digital agencies before, who made outlandish promises to them, and then get disappointed because a lack of results, and decide to not invest any money into them. Or maybe it's just my belief system, I don't know. When you're not getting the fruits of your labor for almost a year, it can affect you mentally.

But on the flip side, that can also be a good thing. Because if most people who are doing it are plain amateurs, then that barrier might be an opportunity as well. If you can actually not just deliver, but over deliver on your services. I mean social media is everywhere nowadays. Businesses need it more than ever. Gary Vaynerchuk said it best: "Social media is like word of mouth times ten".

I think the word side hustle was misused by me. I've been doing this on the side for like 4-5 hours every single day(since the start of 2021 pretty much) and barely see any results. The guys in the course promised big results in no time.

I've actually tried almost every single outreach strategy that's out there; cold calling, e-mails, DMs(got me the best results so far), video pitches with tons of tips to business owners etc. but none seemed to give consistent results, besides DMs. Or maybe I'm just a bad sales person?

It's not about saying it didnt work, dont be fast to make a conclusion. How did you do the cold calling and emailing? Can you elaborate so that I can point to you what went wrong.

 

[K1 Lambo]

It's not about saying it didnt work, dont be fast to make a conclusion. How did you do the cold calling and emailing? Can you elaborate so that I can point to you what went wrong.

Sure.

Cold calling was pretty straightforward. Obviously I used the business owner's name, and was quick to the point, since they expect a customer to call them and not some random guy trying to pitch his services.

"Hello John, I've got a quick question for you. Would you be interested in getting more clients for your construction/roofing business?", that was the typical script. I'll admit, in my first very first call I was nervous because I hate talking on the phone, but I think I did like 50-60 cold calls in December last year but that was it it.

With emails, it started around January this year. The script was as follows:

"Hello 'so and so',

I've got a couple of ideas that can help you bring more customers into your business. Would you like to discuss them?

Best, Martin".

This got me 3 meetings in January. 2 of which didn't want to buy from me because I was too expensive, and the other guy kept rescheduling so I forgot about the dude cuz he wasn't serious at all, just a time waster.

I did sign my first one months later through DMs.

 

[Andy Black]

I also believe @Fox ’s group/courses is heavily sales focused. Maybe check that out too.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

You mentioned YouTube a couple of times. Here’s a list of progress threads. The first two are amazing.

• [Master List] YouTube Progress Threads

 

[K1 Lambo]

You mentioned YouTube a couple of times. Here’s a list of progress threads. The first two are amazing.

• [Master List] YouTube Progress Threads

Thank you for your initiative and the various links sir, I appreciate it. This whole marketing agency gig is good for making good money, but I doubt it can be a real life changing business. Because in 50-100 years, no one is really going to remember IG or FB(unless they survive). I mean I didn't even knew what MySpace was until I saw one of MJ's posts about the guy who created MySpace roasting a random dude in the comments section lol.

At the same time, I want to create something that will actually change lives of millions and create a legacy for my family and my future children who will get paid royalties long after I die. Something like what Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone did. Not just in terms of financial success or fame, but actually creating something that will exist for a very long time. Their families' lives will be set for many many years because of what these two did in the show business world, and outside of it too with their various businesses.

You got to start somewhere at least!

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Thank you for your initiative and the various links sir, I appreciate it. This whole marketing agency gig is good for making good money, but I doubt it can be a real life changing business. Because in 50-100 years, no one is really going to remember IG or FB(unless they survive). I mean I didn't even knew what MySpace was until I saw one of MJ's posts about the guy who created MySpace roasting a random dude in the comments section lol.

At the same time, I want to create something that will actually change lives of millions and create a legacy for my family and my future children who will get paid royalties long after I die. Something like what Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone did. Not just in terms of financial success or fame, but actually creating something that will exist for a very long time. Their families' lives will be set for many many years because of what these two did in the show business world, and outside of it too with their various businesses.

You got to start somewhere at least!

Funnily enough, Arnold made his first millions as a brick layer by reinvesting in real estate

You're discounting regular businesses too much. Regular businesses can make you life-changing wealth. You can be an agency owner who makes $100M/year. Sure, FB and Instagram may be gone, so what? Marketing is still marketing, whether you do it on FB, Google, or some other place.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[K1 Lambo]

Funnily enough, Arnold made his first millions as a brick layer by reinvesting in real estate

You're discounting regular businesses too much. Regular businesses can make you life-changing wealth. You can be an agency owner who makes $100M/year. Sure, FB and Instagram may be gone, so what? Marketing is still marketing, whether you do it on FB, Google, or some other place.

Yeah man, he was about the same age as me when he moved to America and started his thing. That was like in the early 70's. People didn't have the opportunities that we have now that go with the internet. You had to do some physical labor as work for the most part during those times.

It's amazing how we can communicate with each other from different parts of the world.

 

[K1 Lambo]

Huh? Be careful what you feed the super computer between your ears.

Gary V has an agency and uses that agency to “blow up” other brands.

Booking(.)com has the marketing skills to help hotels get more bookings. Instead of building an agency they built a consumer facing brand - like MJ’s limos(.)com

“Overthinking is the art of solving problems you don’t have.”

What’s your current problem? Not enough clients? Solve that first and then solve the immediate next problem.

Business is simple: help people, get paid, help more people (start, sell, scale). It’s only complicated because we don’t keep it simple.

I actually meant a social media agency/digital agency as a whole, not marketing as an industry.

As you said in your last message, you got successful businesses in that space such as Groupon, Yelp, Booking com, Air bnb etc. The point is, they're in control of their business. They're not under control of a big a$$ corporation, who have low wage employees from Asia that can destroy their business with a simple click, like what happened to me and many others before. Heck, MJ talks about this in his books. It's just like what it was with Amazon FBA a couple years ago or eBay in the early 2000's. The early adopters were the ones who got a big piece of the cake.

Sure, you got Gary V who started in mid 2000's I think, he's one of the very early adopters, and that's the scenario with most very successful agencies for the most part. The most successful digital agency in the world was started in 1995(forgot its name but it's from the United States) and they're making about 100 million $ each year.

Or even on Instagram(if you're on Instagram you'll relate to this). The big motivational accounts on IG are killing it now, they're the very very few who can make millions out on the platform, like the millionaire mentor e.g.

Now you got tens(if not hundreds or millions) of motivational accounts on Instagram who are regurgitating the same old quotes from the bigger accounts. It's like a red sea, it's probably the most saturated space on IG. And again the more competition, the more exceptional you have to be in a world full of me too accounts. Like why would you bother following a new account, when you're following 30-40 different motivational accounts that say the same shit over and over again?

Btw, have you read the blue ocean strategy before?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[K1 Lambo]

@zebroinvestor@gm ahem....



As a business owner, my biggest pet peeve is wasted time.

Don't beat around the bush. Just tell me what you've got and what it's going to do for me. I don't have time for the "let's get to know each other" phase.

I've given plenty of people the time of day who just messaged me "hey I can do this for you" -- and I've literally just said "great, show me."

If anyone nickels and dimes you -- move on.

$500/month is not out of the ordinary for Social Media Management. You just need more sales conversations dude. Let's go!!!!

Yeah, that's right. It's like the market's got a buyer for every segment of the industry.

Just think about cars.

You want a cheap, reliable, and economic car? Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Volvo etc. are your go to manufacturers.

You want something luxurious, faster and a little ego boost? BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Tesla are there for you.

You want the best of the best? In terms of performance and overall prestige? You buy a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Bentley etc.

 

[K1 Lambo]

If the sales process or delivery of the service/product cannot be automated (scaled) in a good way, and you are not seeing consistent growth, I'd do something else.

Danke.

 

[K1 Lambo]

In my opinion running a digital marketing agency is not an easy task. It takes lots of hardwork and efforts. The most important thing that a person need is good understand about the product and its market. Like if you are marketing about a Spinning can then you need to have a full understanding about what is spinning can and where this product is most needed. Also you need knowledge about their competitors and try to analyse their strategy aswell.

Yeah. Obviously the digital marketing space is huge. And I'm pretty sure it's only going to get bigger as businesses need it more than ever. There are FB Ads agencies, SEO agencies, Website design agencies(not really social media marketing directly but it is somewhat indirectly). I feel like the first two are the most crowded ones, as the barriers to entry are almost nonexistent. You can watch 3-4 youtube videos and suddenly become an "expert" on how to run FB ads or SEO. It's like almost every digital agency is only focusing on these two aspects of internet marketing. By the way, advertising and marketing are not the same. When I talk to business owners, they immediately assume marketing with advertising. It's a direct part of marketing.

What we do for instance is save business owners' time, by creating content and growing their accounts on Instagram, especially in uncapitalized niches like construction, landscapers, pool builders, or most contractor niches in general.

I believe there is still a lot of opportunity on Instagram as a lot of business owners aren't aware of the opportunities that exist on this platform.

Yes, ads are directly all about ROI. Meaning if you don't make a business more money when hiring you, they are probably going to dismiss you the next month.

 

[K1 Lambo]

Absolutely spot on from Steve. The amount of time I get a cold DM that says hey how's it going? or how's business. I'd rather they just came straight out with what they're offering me. I can then quickly decide whether it's of interest or not.

For getting more clients I'd recommend you read the book from Alex Hormozi - $100m offers - How to make offers so good people feel stupid saying no. I think it's just $1 on amazon or you can download it free from Google somewhere.

None of the pitches I seen you write make me feel stupid saying no to. Work on that and you'll find it won't be so hard to get new clients.

Yeah, I can't imagine how many cold DMs these bigger businesses get everyday from strangers who are like: "Hey, how's it going" or "Hi, are you doing any marketing"? I've used the last one as Gary V recommended it, but it hasn't got me that much results.

I've been implementing other tactics such as "Hey there, what's your most popular service?" or "Hey, what's the largest pool that you've built"? And that opens them up, and then I go to my pitch. However, it might be a little bit of a deceptive strategy as they might assume that I'm a potential customer when I'm not.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[K1 Lambo]

It's a real business and a great skill to have. I've also found it beneficial as a skill to understand the works of any industry I'm interested in, if I want to go into real estate, I just consult for real estate biz and agents and that way I get tremendous information on the industry and how to navigate, same can be applied for e-commerce, or any other industry you might be interested in.

Also, I think it was Dean Jackson that said, - what would you do if you were only being paid for results? That question might help you craft a better offer than what 99% of marketers out there are pitching.

There's social media marketers who are getting 90% of the clients because they are excellent and the best at what they do, it will also take reasonable time to get to their level of execution and brand awareness, so I think you should pace yourself and help one person at a time and get better everyday

Yeah for sure, you're basically selling shovels while everybody else is digging for gold. There are so many business owners who don't even have a FB page or a IG page. It's crazy.

 

[shakshak]

Yeah for sure, you're basically selling shovels while everybody else is digging for gold. There are so many business owners who don't even have a FB page or a IG page. It's crazy.

any updates?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.