The evolution of technology and the internet has allowed people to do big things and drastically change their entire lifestyles by starting online businesses. So, how much does it cost to start a digital marketing agency online? This is what you’re going to learn today!
Unlike brick-and-mortar agencies, the cost of starting an online digital marketing agency can be from as low as $100 to a couple of hundred dollars, depending on the platform and plan you end up picking. Generally speaking, you need a homepage and domain name, and you are good to go!
Starting a marketing company used to be a hectic and risky investment. But, with all that the internet is offering us today, do you still need to start a business offline?
In this article, you will learn exactly how to start your very own digital marketing agency from scratch, with little to no money, no risk, and no experience!
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How Much Does It Cost To Start A Marketing Company Online?
Generally speaking, this is a side business that you can start from home with less than $100 in your pocket! You only need to act as a bridge between those old-school brick-and-mortar businesses that don’t know how to do digital marketing and help them get more business!
Kevin David, an American entrepreneur, has created a program called MAP which stands for Marketer Agency Program that breaks down the entire process for you into little chunks and gives you all the tools, resources, and closing tactics you may need to get monthly paying clients.
You would be helping old-school business owners that don’t know how to do digital marketing and set up very basic Facebook ads for them that literally take 5 minutes to do, but people are not willing to learn how to actually set it up even though it’s so profitable for their businesses!
Is Starting A Digital Marketing Agency A Good Idea?
The short answer is, yes it is, and here are some reasons why it’s a good business idea:
- Huge potential financial gain and high profitability.
- Monthly recurring revenue, as clients will hire you for months or even years.
- You will be able to build loyal clients, if and only if you meet their expectations.
- It’s a flexible business model that can be run from anywhere in the world.
- No need for a high volume of orders to get profitable.
- Lower acquisition cost, higher customer lifetime value, and average order value in the long run.
- You can get started with little to no risk and expenses.
- No shipping is involved in the process, which makes order fulfillment way faster and more efficient.
Starting a digital marketing agency is a good idea and it’s definitely worth it if you’re considering starting a home-based business and working from anywhere in the world, setting your own rates, and schedules, and simply reaping the rewards of being your own boss!
Besides profitability, flexibility, and the huge potential for financial gain, building a team of individuals that are familiar with you and your work is more efficient than hiring independent contractors and having freelance individuals work for you.
So, is a digital Marketing agency a good business? Yes, it is, especially with all that the world is facing today, as more entrepreneurs are flocking to the internet, and more businesses are being created on a daily basis.
Related: How To Find Clients That Need Facebook Ads? Secret Revealed!
How Do Digital Marketing Agencies Make Money?
Marketing companies make money by having long-term contacts with business owners to get them more business. So, how do digital marketing agencies get paid? The most common pricing models for digital marketing agencies are charging an hourly rate, commission-based pricing, and fixed-based pricing!
Each pricing model has its own pros and cons for both companies and clients, and I will make sure to create a dedicated blog post around this topic soon if I see a good amount of shares on this post.
Overall, if you were able to meet your client’s expectations and deliver outstanding results for them, they are more likely to become loyal and hire you for months, or even years to go!
How Much Do Digital Marketing Agency Owners Make?
A digital marketing agency owner has the potential of earning a 6-figure income by having some loyal high-ticket clients. Having 10 clients at $1,000 a month each is a very fair assumption. At that point, you would be making $120K a year, and the up and cross-sells are still not mentioned!
As a digital marketing agency owner, it’s obvious that you would need to PAY in order to acquire new customers.
But if you’re able to build loyalty with your clients, your customer acquisition cost will become zero for your current clients and you would need to pay again only to acquire NEW clients!
High customer average value, low acquisition cost… Could it just get any better?
How Do I Start My Own Digital Marketing Agency?
The good thing about the internet is that it has solved huge issues for entrepreneurs who are looking forward to starting a new business.
For instance, a traditional brick-and-mortar store has been replaced with a digital storefront and a domain name, which has eliminated the overhead of starting a business to over 80%!
You don’t need to buy land or rent a space. Instead, you secure your own space on the world wide web by purchasing a domain name that will represent your brand and create an online store that literally takes minutes to build with the hidden power of a website builder like Shopify or Clickfunnels.
Although a website adds much to your creditability, authority, and trust, the fact of the matter, you can even start your very own marketing company from scratch without even having a website.
A great starting point is to find businesses’ websites that do not have a Facebook Pixel installed, reach out and explain how important it is for advertising, offer to do it for free, and pitch them your offer! By delivering huge perceived value in advance, you are more likely to close a deal and sell them a service!
How To Start A Digital Marketing Agency With No Experience?
Digital marketing does require some sort of knowledge, skills, and experience, for sure. But, what if I told you there’s a way to sell digital marketing solutions without even providing any services by yourself?
Yup, I know it’s too good to be true, but it’s happening and this is a relatively brand new business model called drop servicing.
Wait, what… What is drop servicing?
Chances are, you’ve heard about dropshipping before. Drop servicing is a business model that’s similar to dropshipping but for selling digital services instead of physical goods.
Related: Why Is Drop Servicing Better Than Dropshipping? (9 Pros)
Starting a drop servicing agency is really centered around being the middle-man between business owners who need services for their businesses and actual service providers.
After determining your niche, you go to freelance marketplaces like Fiverr to find trustworthy sellers and quality services, create a digital storefront and list the services on it as if you’re providing them yourself.
You set your own terms, description, and prices, and if someone ends up purchasing your service, you capture their payment and transfer their order to the desired freelancer to start with the order on your behalf.
Once the freelancer finishes the work, they submit it for your approval so you can deliver it to the buyer as if you’ve done it.
The business model is really smooth if you know exactly how things work together and picked the right candidates to outsource the work to.
In this way, you don’t need any experience to start a whole virtual digital marketing agency and have clients that pay you monthly. However, you would at least need basic knowledge and understanding of how the service that you sell actually works.
You don’t need to be an expert in the service you sell, but you should understand how it works so you’d be able to answer any question you may be asked by potential clients and look authoritative.
Is Digital Marketing Easy?
Digital marketing is somehow straightforward and easy but the problem is that old-school owners don’t know how to do digital marketing and are not willing to learn how to set up basic Facebook ads that literally take 5 minutes to do. Here’s where you can come into play and offer your services to them!
Is Digital Marketing Profitable?
A digital marketing agency owner has the potential of earning a 6-figure income by having some loyal high-ticket clients. Having 10 clients at $1,000 a month each is a very fair assumption, which is a 6-figure annual income!
The 4-Step Process Of Starting A Drop Servicing Agency
Want to start a drop servicing agency but not sure where to start? Follow these 4 steps and you’ll be good to go:
Phase #1. Picking Your Niche
In my latest article, I’ve talked about the 6 things you need to consider when picking a drop servicing niche. It’s definitely worth checking out! (Open in a new tab)
It’s recommended to start with picking the niche so that when you create your online storefront, you choose a relevant brand name and integrate a suitable domain name too.
Phase #2. Finding Trustworthy Freelancers
In drop servicing, you’re basically selling other people’s services and skills, therefore, you better pick experienced individuals who can provide serious value to your clients so you can have them as lifetime customers.
The biggest mistake that most amateurs make when starting a service-based business is that they only work with one freelancer…
The tip that I always give to my readers is to build a virtual team of quality freelancers, and that’s for the following reasons:
- More orders capacity – which means having a more profitable business.
- Less default and error rates – which will make clients hire you again.
- Faster delivery periods – which makes working with you a fun journey.
- Each freelancer has their own skills – experience, and capabilities.
Relying on a single individual/freelancer is a recipe for failure as you won’t have enough control over anything and your whole business journey and success are determined by a single individual, it just doesn’t make sense!
Bonus: Want more priceless drop servicing tips? Here are 13 of them to help you succeed in this innovative business model!
Phase #3. Building Your Online Storefront
Although some people think that starting an online store is a complex task, it’s one of the easiest and most straightforward steps involved in the process. Thanks to all of the available resources and tools today!
A website is the cornerstone of your business, and it’s obvious that each new website needs web hosting (Bluehost is what I recommend!)
In another blog post, I’ve talked about the 3 best drop servicing platforms and compared all of them.
In short, if you have a coding background and some technical skills, and just looking for the cheapest option, starting a self-hosted website on WordPress is your way to go.
Bluehost is the most reliable, fast, and affordable web hosting provider you can find for such a price, and they give you a free SSL certificate and a free domain name on purchased plans of a year or more.
>>> A quick illustrated guide for starting a self-hosted drop servicing website via Bluehost…
On the other hand, if you’re not a tech person and want an ultimate eCommerce solution to give you valuable insights about how your business is going, Shopify could just be a great alternative, and you can get started with it from as low as $29/month!
Shopify offers a 14-day free trial, which is enough for testing out the platform, getting familiar with it, customizing your store (with no technical or coding skills), and adding your services, terms, and policies.
However, in order to receive real orders and capture payments from your clients, you would need to pick and purchase a paid monthly subscription plan. You can learn more about Shopify’s plans in this Shopify pricing guide!
Ultimately, what I recommend from a marketer’s point of view and experience is to leverage sales funnels instead of websites as they’re meant for selling online and have proven records over static websites.
Companies like Clickfunnels and Kartra have everything you may need to start selling your products or services more effectively and efficiently!
It’s a bit higher monthly investment, but totally worth it, and veteran marketers agree upon that.
Besides the fact that sales funnels are optimized for search engines and for selling, those companies give you pre-built templates that you can import, edit and publish without a hassle…
A static website is more like a digital business card or portfolio while a sales funnel is a series of steps that are meant to turn a cold visitor into a lifetime loyal customer by engaging, educating, and warming them up to get familiar with you and what you sell!
Related: 3 Best Drop Servicing Platforms: (Cheap, Easy & Convenient)
Phase #4. Generating Traffic & Finding Clients
This is the step that most people are stuck at, getting real eyeballs to your website.
No matter what you’re doing or selling online, your business is worth nothing without real humans landing on your web pages and purchasing your services.
There’s a huge correlation between the traffic on a website and the amount of revenue made. The more traffic you get, the more likely to get orders and get profitable.
For this step, I would highly recommend you check out my other dedicated blog post “7 Proven Ways To Find Drop Servicing Clients (Free & Paid)” and grab a FREE copy of the Traffic Secrets Book to learn how you can find where your dream customers are aggregating online.
Click the image below to claim your copy...
If you can’t get a consistent stream of traffic, or new people coming into your business… Do you even have a real business? Reserve your free copy now!
Conclusion – Should I Start A Digital Marketing Agency?
As more businesses are being established on a daily basis, the demand for professional digital marketers will stay on the rise so those business owners can achieve their financial goals!
Starting a digital marketing agency is a lucrative business model that can allow you to make a 6-figure living from the comfort of your home…
But, how much does it cost to start a digital marketing agency? This article has covered exactly that and aimed to show you how to get started even without any prior experience!
With all that the internet is offering today, do you still need to start a business offline?
Starting a physical type of business is risky and requires a huge investment, unlike a home-based business that you can start and run from your bedroom!
Don’t have experience, so what… You can leverage other people’s skills and capabilities and resell their services online without the need to provide them yourself!
It’s called drop servicing, and it’s the new-age business model that’s becoming the next big thing after dropshipping!
If you found this post inspiring and useful, share it with your friends, please! (Virtual high fives and awkward hugs to all my sharers out there!)
Cheers,
Odeh Ahwal
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Cheers,
Odeh Ahwal
