Brands Are Becoming More Self-Sufficient When Choosing Their Agency
Before the initial discovery call your agency has with a brand, it’s likely they already know more about your agency than you realize.
With digital assets and reputation analysis being so easy to find and at the fingertips of every decision-maker at a brand, your target clients are doing a ton of research before reaching out to your agency or agreeing to hop on a call.
In fact, more brands than not want to learn more about your agency on their own through research, visiting your website, vetting your social channels, and more.
Understanding The Modern-Day Brand
With third-party information combined with the thought leadership assets that you’ve published, the modern-day brand will be researching both types of information on their own before they want to do a call with your agency.
They will look for third-party endorsements, read the assets you have on your website, peruse your social media channels, and check out review websites.
Once a brand has thoroughly researched your agency, and if they like what they see, they’ll reach out on their own to set up a call.
Another thing to note is that brands will set up calls with 2-3 agencies on average so that they are evaluating your competitors as well.
So not only does the modern-day brand thoroughly evaluate your online presence, but they’re evaluating your competitors as well.
The last thing to understand about the modern-day brand is that they are willing to pay more for an agency that showcases expertise in their industry as opposed to a brand full-service agency, so if you haven’t already, you should embrace 1-3 niche industries and here is a guide I wrote for agencies that need to embrace an niche.
The Discovery Process
Ensuring that your agency gets discovered by your target brands is crucial. With brands wanting to be self-sufficient, there are a few things you can do to engage these brands to help them along the discovery process. Some of those things include:
Make sure your website ranks well for the terms your target audience is searching for, so hiring someone to do an SEO audit of your website is super important
Have an active social media presence and regularly post articles and industry data while using strategic hashtags
Ensure there is an active blog full of thought leadership on your website
Publish an industry report and gate it with a lead capture form so you can drip brands' content after they download the report
Place content on behalf of your agency on high-profile publications like Entrepreneur
Have an active email marketing strategy and drip brands thought leadership content. You can even buy a list of marketers at brands. Just be sure to drip authoritative content within a series of 4 emails, and in the 5th email, provide your CTA to book a call with your agency
Identify the pain points that your target brand experiences and how your agency solves these challenges and actively leverage this knowledge instead of a traditional sales pitch
If you do everything on this list, you’ll be amazed at how you're able to move a brand from casually vetting your agency to booking a consultation with you.
Social Proof is Like Gold
Brands want social proof. They want to see how your agency has helped brands like them. So case studies, testimonials, social shoutouts, etc., are all crucial.
Make your social proof easy for brands to find. This can include showcasing it on the homepage of your website, leveraging it for social media posts, utilizing it in your email marketing, and inserting it into all of your marketing assets, such as sales decks.
What Brands Want to See On Your Website
More than anything else, brands want to thoroughly evaluate your agency via your website.
In order to entice these brands to book a call with your agency, your website is your virtual storefront and the first impression brands have about your agency. So obviously, your website needs to be fantastic.
To make sure your website is resonating with your target brands, implement these things:
A professional-looking website that is easy to navigate
Case studies that showcase how you’ve helped brands like them
Social proof on the homepage
Emphasize the niche industries or niche services that you serve and offer
Thought leadership content in your blog
The different ways you work with brands
And, of course, a few forms throughout the website so they can book a call
Contact information in case they want to email you a question before getting on a call
The Power of Reviews
We talked about social proof, and reviews of your agency by brands are an important component of social proof.
The strongest way to earn reviews is to join agency directories. I have the complete list here. Once you’ve joined and filled out the information about your agency, your directory listing won’t gain much traction if you don’t have reviews in that directory.
In order to get reviews in all of the directories that you join, make a list of your happy past and current clients and incentivize them with gift cards to leave reviews about your agency.
A Referal Program
Word of mouth has always worked better than any other marketing strategy. By setting up a referral program at your agency, brands will discover and gain interest in your agency via one of your current clients.
Referrals are gold and convert high. Be sure to incentivize your clients to provide your agency with referrals. I recommend a $50 gift card for a referral who books a call and another $100 gift card if the referral becomes a client.
Setting up and getting your referral program going is as easy as making a list of your happy clients and sending them an email that they’re invited to your program, listing what it entails, and putting the program on autopilot.
Final Thoughts: How to Help Brands Choose Your Agency
With brands being so self-sufficient, your online presence is everything. Be sure to have a great website, leverage social proof, ensure that your target audience has access to the information they need about your agency, and utilize happy clients for reviews.
One of the services I offer here at The Campfire Circle is agency optimization. Knowing what brands want to see from your agency while in the vetting process, I can ensure your online presence is as strong as it needs to be, and you can get in touch with me here.
What are some of the avenues in which brands discover your agency through? I’d love to read your insights in the comments below!
