Want more leads and clients for your agency but find traditional tactics less effective and more expensive? Know how to market your agency but are too busy with client work? Stumped when it comes to a long-term plan to increase agency profitability? Because agency owners are invested in their clients and spend a ton of time doing fantastic client work, they often don’t have time to grow their own agency even though they know how.
Enter a growth partner.
Kristen DeGroot is the CEO of The Campfire Circle, an agency that grows agencies. She says the scenario of agency owners not having time for growth is why her business is so successful. She often gets hired by agencies as a growth partner and has some fantastic insights to share.
What Exactly is An Agency Growth Partner?
A growth partner collaborates closely with an agency, immersing itself in its operations to drive growth. For agencies, this role involves a strategic approach and requires the growth partner to be a member of the team and invested in an agency for the long-haul.
Growth partnerships are typically long-term since substantial growth is a gradual process. These arrangements usually span from six months to a year, although they can be terminated at any time.
An ideal growth partner for your agency will have a deep understanding of your niche and the broader agency landscape, bringing a wealth of effective strategies and experience. You set the objectives, and the growth partner’s sole focus is to achieve growth. They offer their own systems, network, resources, and team, all supported by valuable experience and actionable data.
The outcome? Significant growth for your agency.
The New Way of Approaching Lead Gen For Agencies
Kristen has witnessed strategies like cold emailing and paid ads becoming less effective and more expensive to land new business. However, these strategies still work when leveraging an asset.
When Kristen is growing agencies, her first priority is qualified lead gen, which she does through lead magnets.
A lead magnet is essentially a landing page that offers valuable content in exchange for visitors’ email addresses.
Lead magnets can take various forms, such as:
- An eBook
- An industry report
- A webinar
- A white paper
- A worksheet
- A newsletter
- A video tutorial
- An email series or course
Your lead magnet should serve as the central focus of your lead generation strategy for a three-month period. This implies that your agency should aim to create and publish a new lead magnet every quarter.
Downloading or signing up for your lead magnet doesn’t automatically convert prospects into clients; they often need a bit more encouragement to convert into client.
Set up a lead nurturing sequence in your email marketing system for everyone who downloads your lead magnet.
For example, Kristen’s approach involves sending four emails that provide valuable insights or thought leadership content after they access the report. In the fourth email, she extends an invitation to schedule a meeting, as the previous communications have helped build trust and establish credibility.
The Ultimate Type of Lead Magnet For Agencies
An industry report is essentially a more advanced version of a lead magnet.
Creating an industry report involves several steps: surveying the appropriate audience, generating your own data, compiling the results into a downloadable report, promoting it, and then engaging with those who download it.
Depending on your agency’s focus, you can take two main approaches to your industry report. I’ll explain shortly with examples of industry reports I’ve developed for agencies that utilized both strategies.
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Create a Report on Your Target Audience
One approach for agencies is to collect insights directly from their target audience, which includes businesses similar to an agency’s clients. This type of report can be very appealing to potential clients who are always on the lookout for relevant industry insights.
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Develop a Report on the Audience of Your Target Audience
Alternatively, your report could focus on providing insights into the target audience of your clients. If you understand the audience of your clients’ target markets well, this can offer a significant competitive advantage. Producing such data not only enhances your thought leadership but also fulfills a significant need for publishers seeking original content.
Why Industry Reports Bring in Qualified Leads
Kristen’s theory about why industry reports perform so well is that businesses love new data. If you’re the agency publishing that data, you gain instant credibility, and the leads generated convert very well.
If you are like many of us, the concept is easier to wrap your head around with examples so Kristen shared two of her recent industry report lead magnets here and here.
Agencies Need to Embrace a Niche to Grow
Data indicates that most brands prefer to invest more in agencies with specialized industry or service knowledge rather than in general agencies that claim to serve a wide range of industries and are full-service.
Each industry has its own specific dynamics and connections, and once these are understood, marketing efforts become more efficient, leading to more client acquisitions.
While it may seem daunting to focus on a narrower target market, Kristen’s decade of experience has shown that specializing in 1-3 niches will attract more clients to your agency.
Starting with a single niche is a smart strategy. As your team and resources expand, you can gradually incorporate one or two additional industries, but it’s advisable to limit the total to three.
It’s understandable to want to target a broad audience and offer a wide range of services, even if you’re not fully familiar with all of them, hoping to adapt as client needs arise. Kristen’s agency initially started as a general B2B firm, but the intense competition pushed me to specialize. Now, she is recognized for running an agency specifically for other agencies, a decision that, while risky, has proven highly profitable. Specializing in a niche can significantly enhance your profitability.
Additionally, selecting a niche will deepen your expertise, as you’ll be immersed in it daily. This heightened specialization will attract more qualified leads, creating a positive feedback loop of growth and learning within your niche.
Services: If you want to cater to a variety of clients, consider focusing your niche on a specific service or set of services. For instance, if you excel at influencer marketing but haven’t yet developed expertise in other areas, you might position your agency as specializing in influencer marketing. Since social media marketing is closely related, you could also offer it and brand your agency as a social media marketing firm to highlight your comprehensive skill set.
Industries: If you aim to be a full-service agency, you might concentrate on 1-3 specific industries where you excel. This approach helps manage the substantial research required for each client, as focusing on certain industries reduces the learning curve.
Combination: Some agencies choose to specialize in both a service and an industry. For example, an agency that specializes in video production and has significant experience with the home services sector could position itself as a video production agency for home services. By narrowing down your focus, you may limit the size of your target market but enhance your credibility and attract more clients.
Getting In Front of the Right Brands at the Right Time
Lead magnets are great. But you can’t create them, publish them, and expect your target audience to find them on their own.
Here are Kristen’s top five strategies for promoting your lead magnets:
- Pitch to Major Publications: High-profile publications are often eager to feature data-driven reports. For instance, Kristen’s reports have been highlighted by prominent outlets like Forbes, despite her agency not being a regular contributor.
- Utilize Lists of Newly Funded Businesses: Monthly lists of newly funded startups can be extremely valuable. These new ventures often lack agency support but have the budget to invest in such services. Kristen recommends resources like US Data Corporation, though there are various other lists available for purchase.
- Contribute Guest Posts: Offer to write guest articles for relevant publications. Mention your report and propose writing a thought leadership piece that includes a link to it. Share intriguing data points to entice readers to download your full report for more detailed insights.
- Leverage Social Media: Both organic and paid social media efforts can significantly boost your report’s visibility. Consider encouraging your contacts to share the report on their social media platforms and even offer incentives for doing so.
- Collaborate with Influencers: Partner with thought leaders and influencers who can share your report through their social media channels and email newsletters. They might have newsletter slots or other promotional opportunities that can be highly effective for reaching a broader audience.
Want to explore a growth partnership with The Campfire Circle? Get in touch with them here!
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