Why I Started My Own Agency
What started out as a vision for a boutique agency that specialized in influencer marketing, became something I believe in even more. An agency for agencies.
After spending 12 years growing agencies, I decided to harness this experience and start The Campfire Circle. After all, I kept hearing the same pain point from agency owners–they spend a ton of time doing awesome work for their clients and often don’t have time to spend growing their agency. That’s where The Campfire Circle comes in.
If you own an agency or are wanting to start one, I hope my experience can be morphed into insights to help agency owners thrive.
My Professional Journey
I graduated college with an English writing and journalism degree. Not the most viable of degrees so it took me a bit to find my footing after college.
But after running a very successful blog while I was living in India actually brought me to marketing. With marketing being so content-driven these days, it was an easy transition to utilize my writing skills and learn the digital marketing landscape.
Fast forward to over a decade later and I worked my way up from a blogger in India to a digital marketing thought leader with a lot of hard work and lessons learned.
Not purposefully, a lot of the work I’ve done in my career was helping agencies grow. I’ve been both client-facing and have owned internal marketing.
I Needed a Niche
The Campfire Circle was originally going to be a boutique agency that specialized in influencer marketing. It went okay but boutique agencies are a dime a dozen and I quickly realized that I needed a more solid niche.
After brainstorming for months, I decided my niche should be an agency for agencies as I helped so many of them grow.
Introducing: The Campfire Circle
Though my experience is extensive when it comes to growing agencies, my actual agency is quite new.
However, it seems to resonate with a lot of agency owners and I’m doing consultation calls and building strategies every day.
I’d say the strongest thing that my agency does is lead magnets. Specifically, in the form of industry reports. I survey an agency’s target audience or their target audience’s target audience to capture some fantastic data that appeals to an agency’s potential clients. I then publish the data in a report with a lead capture form and promote it heavily. People love data and these types of lead magnets generate leads while establishing thought leadership.
Other services that I offer include implementing new services, email marketing, lead gen, thought leadership, earning awards, content creation, white-labeled services, social media marketing, SEO, business development, and business insights.
What I’ve Learned From Starting My Own Agency
I’ve learned a lot of lessons that I hope will provide value
I learned that starting an agency can be a slow build but after you land even 1 client and publish a case study, it’s like the snowball effect
I learned that owning a business from the ground up causes people to be more emotionally attached to their business and thus can put in a lot of hours
I learned that you can build an agency without any funding–mine is bootstrapped
I learned that you do a lot of calls and send out a lot of proposals but not every agency has the budget to afford my services
I learned that the most effective way to promote my agency is through thought leadership in the form of guest posts in high-profile publications
I learned that I know most digital marketing strategies but not all and to be a full-service agency, I hire contractors
Final Thoughts: What Are Your Thoughts?
I’ve loved my journey so far and I recommend starting an agency for anyone who is willing to put in the dedication.
Whether you own an agency or are thinking of starting one, your niche is everything. Not to mention credibility and thought leadership. I’ll be honest, it can be a slow build, but again, I highly recommend it.
Something else to add is that I have a toddler so I’m not working insane hours to grow this agency and you won’t have to either. I’d say I probably work 45 hours per week.
If you already own an agency but need help growing it, you can reach out to me for a free consultation here.
Tell me about your agency journey in the comments below!
