BY Rachel Cagle
What’s your ad agency’s “thing”? You know; what makes you stand out from your competitors. Your agency probably offers a lot of services in order to stay competitive and meet the needs of current and potential clients. However, there must have been a niche you were created to fulfill. You need to capitalize on that niche to get the attention of more potential clients. Drew McClellan, writing for SMM, says that generalization, “prevents you from differentiating your business from the competition. Generalists aren’t top of mind or exciting… Doubling down on what you specialize in will open up growth opportunities for your agency. People seek out specialists because they trust their abilities and thought leadership.” Here are a few ways to promote your agency’s niche.
Promoting Your Agency's Niche
State What Your Specialization is
Your agency was obviously started because there was a gap in the market that you could fill. What is your agency’s niche? What service do you provide better than any of your competitors? Broadcasting your expertise requires pinpointing your specialization. Only then can you expand upon your capabilities to current and potential clients.
“In addition to pinpointing what you excel at, make sure to identify your one-of-a-kind point of view,” says McClellan. How do you view your target clients and their business/goals? Show some insight into their needs that you understand and can help fulfill.
Don’t Be Stingy with Your Knowledge
Identifying your agency’s niche is only the beginning. Next, McClellan says that you need to establish your agency as a “thought leader.” Simply put, this means sharing your knowledge openly. What lessons in advertising have you learned throughout your agency’s existence or one agent’s career? You don’t have to share your exact strategies for advertising (they’ll always be different depending on the client you’re working with anyway). Just showcase knowledge that proves that you’re experienced and know what you’re doing while teaching potential clients something new. If you can educate a potential client, it will help them see you as an authority on the subject.
What’s the best way to go about flaunting your agency’s niche knowledge? McClellan suggests, “Write a book. Speak at events. Become a podcaster. Update your blog. Submit articles to online publications. Get on social media.” Look into your data to see which kinds of content the visitors to your agency’s website or social media profiles interact with the most.
More potential clients than you may realize are fans of agencies sharing their expertise. For example, according to AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel, Small Business Owners are 35% more likely than other consumers to visit a local business’ website to research a service before making a purchase. They’re also 55% more likely to comment on blogs, message boards and news stories.
Do You Know Where to Start?
The best place to start when trying to figure out how to promote your agency’s niche is to tap into your data stores. As mentioned, you should research which assets on or parts of your website visitors interact with the most. Is it blogs? Case studies? White papers? Whatever it is, make more of this type of content for them to access.
If your data is limited right now, there are methods to getting it in the meantime while you collect your own data. Take AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel, for example. You can look up your target client’s audience profile to see what types of advertising media they respond to, their views on different forms of content marketing, and more about who they are and what their goals are. You may also be able to run a Digital Audit on your agency to see how your agency is faring digitally and what you’re doing well and what you can improve upon.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com