What Makes A Good Digital Marketing OFFER?

[GetShitDone]

They say in business that your offer is everything.

The typical Digital Marketing Agency offers the same old $2,000/mo management fee + Ad Spend to manage a company's ads.

How can the average Digital Marketing Agency Owner provide a strong offer?

More importantly, how can one structure a powerful offer VS being another me-too offer?

 

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[fboulle]

They say in business that your offer is everything.

The typical Digital Marketing Agency offers the same old $2,000/mo management fee + Ad Spend to manage a company's ads.

How can the average Digital Marketing Agency Owner provide a strong offer?

More importantly, how can one structure a powerful offer VS being another me-too offer?

This is 5cent.

So what you need to focus is on providing an offer that has high focused value with your product. So you don't want to sell to everyone but one specific niche (which we can probably say this is basic marketing). However, if you pitch the service/product to the right audience, you have a lot more chances on getting those clients vs competing with Big Agencies.

A basic structure is :
1st) Price & Terms
2nd) Bonuses
3rd) Guarantee

So Price & Terms + Bonus+ Guarantee.

Obviously there all kinds of Bonuses and Guarantees so you need to see what you structure in a way that it fits your business. Generally, Bonuses & Guarantees does not mean it will cost you extra money to give to clients.

Let me know if that helps!

 

[Andy Black]

They say in business that your offer is everything.

The typical Digital Marketing Agency offers the same old $2,000/mo management fee + Ad Spend to manage a company's ads.

How can the average Digital Marketing Agency Owner provide a strong offer?

More importantly, how can one structure a powerful offer VS being another me-too offer?

Sell them the leads or sales/bookings?

 

[The-J]

I've never seen an offer without issues.

% of ad spend/revenue is basically punishing the company for succeeding. When you spend $20k/day and charge 3-5% of ad spend, that shit's expensive.

A flat monthly fee for everything under the sun (creative, management, offer consulting, strategy, content, all that jazz) ends up underwhelming unless the agency can legitimately promise specialized teams for each activity, and that shit ends up being expensive.

A standard flat monthly fee is surprisingly difficult to sell. Smart clients take their digital marketing efforts seriously and want their campaigns tailored specifically to their audience and brand. Even if the client maintains control over the creative, they'd rather know that the agency is doing everything in their power to help them succeed, rather than follow a cookie cutter approach. The standardization needs to be somewhat invisible.

Selling leads sounds great in theory, but you're basically one step above being an affiliate. You might as well be an affiliate. There are media companies that exist only as superaffiliates and they run their own ad spend. You could do that.

You could be cheaper than everyone else, but that's not exactly the signal you want. It's also not good for your bottom line.

A guy I know does probably one of the most interesting things I've seen an agency do: charge equity. They promise to do the marketing AND hook them up with VCs/PEs to immediate grow the company's value. It's a very interesting model, although very high risk.

Every offer has potential downsides and what you offer will depend entirely on the kind of client you want. There are so many agencies out there and I don't think any of them can attribute their success to their offer, but instead their RESULTS.

I worked with an agency that promised a no-contract 30-day intro period, and if the client didn't get results, there would be no contract. No harm done, right? Except there was SO MUCH WORK being sunk into every client that it was often unprofitable to lose a client after 30 days. It didn't make sense. I just checked their website: they no longer promote the 30 day promise in their marketing.

 

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[Andy Black]

I do flat monthly fee to clients while I build up other systems/models.

I’d like to own the domain, the landing page, the Google Ads account, and pay the ad spend.

I’d like to build a brand that the consumers know rather than just the businesses I serve.

Think of a business with the skills to generate bookings for hotels. They could build an agency that specialises in hotels. Or they could build booking dot com (or limos dot com if we think of what MJ did).

Booking dot com sells the leads/bookings, but they’ve built a brand that consumers know about as well as hotels. I don’t see them as an affiliate, although maybe they are technically.


Check out Dan Wardrope on YouTube. Here’s one of his videos (I don’t know if I’ve watched this particular one):

View: https://youtu.be/jMSmHSq2O5Q

 

[BizyDad]

A guy I know does probably one of the most interesting things I've seen an agency do: charge equity. They promise to do the marketing AND hook them up with VCs/PEs to immediate grow the company's value. It's a very interesting model, although very high risk.

I don't know why more people don't do this. I'm taking my company in this direction.

 

[MHP368]

A powerful only factor , but even then its tough to sell an intangible and a tech product (tech buzz words make people feel "not ok" , you never want the prospect feeling "not ok")

So you need something that legitimately sets you apart and a way to communicate it.

Maybe i'm jaded from reading so much copy but it seems like the actual benefit or working with "hohum" over "why bother" is negligible as far as the client can tell.

 

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[GetShitDone]

A guy I know does probably one of the most interesting things I've seen an agency do: charge equity. They promise to do the marketing AND hook them up with VCs/PEs to immediate grow the company's value. It's a very interesting model, although very high risk.

I worked with an agency that promised a no-contract 30-day intro period, and if the client didn't get results, there would be no contract. No harm done, right? Except there was SO MUCH WORK being sunk into every client that it was often unprofitable to lose a client after 30 days. It didn't make sense. I just checked their website: they no longer promote the 30 day promise in their marketing.

Could you elaborate on that? So he grows their business via marketing first and then raises capital for them via a VC at a higher valuation? Correct me if I'm wrong.

As for the no contract 30 day intro period, that's what I'm currently offering for my monthly fee'd B2B Marketing Agency. I don't lock them in at all. I suppose a lot of work DOES go into the onboarding aspect of things especially.

Also, maybe a "free set of bonuses" thrown into the offer would help? (eg. free social media management)

 

[Andy Black]

As for the no contract 30 day intro period, that's what I'm currently offering for my monthly fee'd B2B Marketing Agency. I don't lock them in at all. I suppose a lot of work DOES go into the onboarding aspect of things especially.

I don’t lock people into contracts at all. I take the view that if we can make it work then great. If not then the client shouldn’t keep paying.

Have you checked out my inbound/sales thread in my signature? Somewhere in there I’ve listed a load of lines I’ve ended up using over the years when I’m chatting to people interested in hiring me.

 

[Andy Black]

I don't know why more people don't do this. I'm taking my company in this direction.

Gary V mentioned his goal is not to have an agency. His path to owning the New York Jets is to build the team and capabilities (I think he called it his Death Star) and then buy an out of favour brand and blow it up. Smart.

 

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[Nicoknowsbest]

Pay-Per-Lead.

No retainer, but a % of the additional profit you generate.

Zero risk, no brainer offers for clients.

You need experience and really know your skill though.

 

[Xeon]

Money back guarantee (excluding ad spend) if the service doesn't provide a $x ROI.

The problem with digital marketing agencies is everyone promises the skies, the poor owner of the company forks out $xx,xxx for the ads + $x,xxx for the agency fee, only to have things fall flat.

 

[The-J]

Could you elaborate on that? So he grows their business via marketing first and then raises capital for them via a VC at a higher valuation? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Pretty much. I don't think he actually assists with raising capital, he just points them in the right direction. There ARE agencies that do, though.

So his whole business model is based on growing brand value & taking a slice of that pie. It's kind of a way of building a strong portfolio of companies that were purchased at a much lower price than a PE could get it for, while also having direct influence over the outcomes. It's a win-win-win scenario. He just needs to make sure that he doesn't tank the brand.

 

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[The-J]

Also, maybe a "free set of bonuses" thrown into the offer would help? (eg. free social media management)

That agency I mentioned did that and it was always a flop. Why? Because the things that were offered were outside the main sphere of competence. Chatbots and things like that, and the results always pissed the clients off.

You have to manage your costs, churn rate, and retention when offering things like these otherwise you'll find yourself losing money.

I wrote an article on how great agencies get clients and it's almost never because of the offer: it's always how they meet the person & what kind of track record they have. This stuff is a game of trust: if the client trusts you, you can justify any sort of business model. That's the main issue with starting an agency: how is your offer believable, and how can you be trusted? It's believable when people have taken it and seen results from it, and you can be trusted when you can honestly be said to understand their business and what they need.

Let's be real: there are so many marketing agencies and they all offer the world and smart clients are sick of it. They care more about someone who understands their business, has a team that can make shit happen, and has the track record to prove it. Your offer is your expertise, NOT your payment structure.

 

[Sophie_Leonard]

One of the best offers you can provide is a “Commission-based scheme”. This is one of the offers to gain a competitive advantage over other digital marketing agencies. In this scheme, digital marketing agencies only get paid when the client makes money off of a sale. This sounds attractive because you want to build trust with a client that you are doing everything in your power to help them be successful. Clients who have failed experiences with agencies often bring up the fact that they were paying all kind of money only to have no results or ROI. A gun-for-hire approach like this can appear truly tantalizing for a client who’s been burned before.

 

[zcm06]

I do flat monthly fee to clients while I build up other systems/models.

I’d like to own the domain, the landing page, the Google Ads account, and pay the ad spend.

I’d like to build a brand that the consumers know rather than just the businesses I serve.

Think of a business with the skills to generate bookings for hotels. They could build an agency that specialises in hotels. Or they could build booking dot com (or limos dot com if we think of what MJ did).

Booking dot com sells the leads/bookings, but they’ve built a brand that consumers know about as well as hotels. I don’t see them as an affiliate, although maybe they are technically.


Check out Dan Wardrope on YouTube. Here’s one of his videos (I don’t know if I’ve watched this particular one):

View: https://youtu.be/jMSmHSq2O5Q

Andy, so when you say “pay the ad spend”, do you just include that in with the monthly fee? So initial fee is used to pay for landing page, domain and ad spend? And ad spend is just wrapped into the monthly fee every month?

 

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[Andy Black]

Andy, so when you say “pay the ad spend”, do you just include that in with the monthly fee? So initial fee is used to pay for landing page, domain and ad spend? And ad spend is just wrapped into the monthly fee every month?

Maybe. Or they pay per lead, per sale, etc.

 

[sonny_1080]

I do flat monthly fee to clients while I build up other systems/models.

I’d like to own the domain, the landing page, the Google Ads account, and pay the ad spend.

I’d like to build a brand that the consumers know rather than just the businesses I serve.

Think of a business with the skills to generate bookings for hotels. They could build an agency that specialises in hotels. Or they could build booking dot com (or limos dot com if we think of what MJ did).

Booking dot com sells the leads/bookings, but they’ve built a brand that consumers know about as well as hotels. I don’t see them as an affiliate, although maybe they are technically.


Check out Dan Wardrope on YouTube. Here’s one of his videos (I don’t know if I’ve watched this particular one):

View: https://youtu.be/jMSmHSq2O5Q

I just watched a video by this guy. I spent the time taking notes on it to see if I can apply a similar strategy for my clients so they can prosper.

 

[sparechange]

I can't really comment on this as it's not my thing, although since I'd be a prospect from having a store online..

I'd expect referrals, X company mentioned how you are the best of the best or some type of free trial, prove you are worth the money.

If you worked with heavy weights like Coca Cola/Pepsi/Redbull etc your credibility of course sky rockets, proving your worth like ''I worked with X company and generated them 5 trillion dollars and got them 300 billion followers on social media {here's the proof}

That's where I see the value of a free trial of some sort. If you get someone results for free they would have 0 objection to conduct business with you. But let's be real here, the best strategy is always to..








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