How to Start a Marketing Agency (a Practical, No-Bull Guide)

So you want to learn how to start a marketing agency? You dream of a new challenge. You’re ready to build a business and a team you look forward to working with each day. I get it. I was in your shoes not too long ago. In 2015, I started my consulting business because I was fed up with bad marketing and all of the noise online. My goal was to build a no-BS approach to marketing. Did it go perfectly? Not exactly. But I gained a lot from my experience, and I wanted to share some of the lessons I learned along the way to my podcast listeners. For starters, most marketing agencies are BAD. Can this be true? Unfortunately, there are too many sleazy marketers out there. So I brought David Baker on the show to share his thoughts on why this is and provide a strategy for how to start a remarkable marketing agency from scratch. David Baker works with entrepreneurs to teach them how to make better business decisions and create firms that are scalable and sustainable. We discussed: What exact steps to take before launching your agency How good agencies can stand out from their competitors Why you shouldn’t focus on serving local businesses Where to search when you’re looking for your first client How to get good clients to come to you And more What follows is the step-by-step approach David Baker would use to start a marketing agency from scratch. Ready to learn how to start a marketing agency? Step 1: Identify a Viable Target Market So why are most marketing agencies so bad? The truth is because they’re afraid to position themselves. Agencies fear that positioning will limit their opportunity. They become trapped in thinking that if they specialize in the services they provide, they’re stuck in a box. They risk the chance to work on different projects. Let me explain why this isn’t true. “If you’re really good at what you do, it’s hard to imagine limiting opportunities so much that you starve in this world.”—David Baker When I started my consulting business, we focused on everything. We took on all kinds of companies and projects—from conversion optimization to lead generation and registration. After a while, we noticed that we worked better with specific business niches. We decided to take a risk and sta