Do You Need to Market Your Agency?

Today? Maybe not.. 

Eventually? Absolutely. 

Admittedly, I wasn’t always sure marketing needed a seat at the table. Early in my agency career I worked at a firm with an incredible head of business development, a sales-oriented executive leader, and a senior-level delivery team. New business seemed to roll in constantly from warm connections and our current clients not only renewed regularly but referred quality leads directly to us. 

It felt too easy. 

And it was. 

Over time, our head of business development shifted into an executive leadership role with fewer daily sales responsibilities, our executive leader moved on to other opportunities, and that senior-level delivery team started getting a little more junior. 

All of a sudden, generating new business for the firm felt very hard. 

When it comes down to it, agencies get new business for three reasons - relationships, referrals, and reputations. 

A typical year of new business is an amalgam of all three. An old contact from one company moves to the next and wants to bring your agency in, that quarterly networking event finally yields a small deal, a top client tells industry friends to take a look at your firm, and a few inbound inquiries trickle in via your website. 

But to succeed over the long-term, agencies don’t just need all three reasons to contribute, they need to cultivate them. 

In reality, however, we’re short-term thinkers.

We focus on what’s working right now and we see it as the infinite silver bullet for growth. 

At my former firm, relationships and referrals were driving sales. We got lazy and didn’t invest in building up differentiated thought leadership, an acquisition-focused digital presence, and general marketing assets - our reputation. 

The inverse is true when agency websites and thought leadership are driving inbound leads. We focus less on building rapport with too-early-to-buy clients and eschew asking our current clients for referrals. 

It’s an imperfect “what have you done for me lately” attitude with a glaring problem. Nothing lasts forever. 

All those word of mouth leads and the steady clients who keep coming back for more will eventually go away. The fancy new podcast you just launched, the awards you won, and the blog you steadfastly update, those will dry up as lead sources too. 

The agencies who want to build for the long-term focus on creating a system and a culture of doing all three - building relationships, attracting referrals, and establishing a reputation. 

You may not need to do marketing today to make it to tomorrow, but eventually you will need it.

Starting when the relationships and referrals side is humming is a great way to do it. 

I think Warren Buffett had it right when he said “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful.” 

He was talking about investing in the stock market, but the same applies when it comes to investing in your agency’s growth strategy. 

Simply put - when times are good, build the capabilities that will get you through the bad times.