During the COVID-19 pandemic, many local businesses were hit hard and now they need the means to bounce back. This is where you will come into play. Businesses are now booming and it’s a great time to start a local marketing agency!
But you might still be wondering if this is for you? Here are some reasons on why you should start a local marketing agency.
They are a very profitable business model with very low startup costs and one that can be run remotely. Though this might create a low barrier to entry, you can always beat your competition by picking a niche that you’re comfortable working in.
It’s a great opportunity for you to create a positive impact to small local businesses while also doing the work that you enjoy.
Finally, not only will you be able to create jobs in your locality, but you can also build authority over them by positioning as THE marketing agency in the area.
What is a local marketing agency?
Simply put, a local marketing agency is a business that provides marketing services to local businesses. So, what is a local business?
A local business is defined as any company that provides goods or services to a local population.
They’re often interchanged with the term “brick and mortar,” as a local business can be a locally owned business or a corporate business with multiple locations operating in a specific area.
Some examples of local businesses include dentists, restaurants, medical offices, gyms, spas etc.
A local marketing agency will therefore provide marketing services that targets business’ prospects based on where they live.
It’s geared toward people who are within a certain radius of your physical location – generally based on a reasonable driving distance – who might realistically purchase your product or service at any time.
It’s important for locally-based businesses whose primary business happens in-person.
Is there a market opportunity?
The opportunities for a local marketing agency are huge! Your potential customers are almost every business that wants to generate local leads.
If you’re able to generate more customers through your core program than they do with their traditional marketing methods, then your services will be in demand. If you can convince a business owner to give your program a try, they will see results for themselves!
The key is to look for niches that require local lead generation. These are generally businesses with deep advertising budgets and are struggling to leverage it to generate more qualifying leads.
Once it works for them, your conversation with the client will be about increasing the spend for more quality leads. With multiple clients in the same niche, this can have a multiplying effect thus leading to a very strong business case for your marketing agency.
Why start a local marketing agency?
Do you need more reasons to convince you why starting a local marketing agency is now a great idea?
1. Very profitable business model
The target customers for a local marketing agency are local businesses – and local businesses have an indefinite need for leads/customers to run their business.
Therefore, as an agency, offering marketing services with the promise of generating leads can be a great offer which businesses will be willing to pay for.
If set up correctly, you can devise a business model for a local marketing agency that can be very profitable in the long run.
2. Low startup costs
To start a local marketing agency, all you need are digital marketing skills that you can offer to local businesses in your area.
It’s not as capital intensive as it used to be.
The business model can be designed in such a way that helps effectively run the operations with the lowest capital requirement.
3. Create a positive impact to local businesses/livelihoods
Without a doubt, local businesses are in need of shifting their marketing online. In this digital age, we are seeing more companies taking advantage of various local marketing tools.
However, not all local businesses have the technical know-how to generate leads and thereby increase their profitability. By offering your skills, you can directly help improve their business through increased sales and thereby positively impacting their livelihoods as well.
4. Work remotely from anywhere
The great thing about this local marketing agency model is that you can operate it remotely from any part of the world. Even if you need a team to work with you, it’s a model that can easily accommodate remote teams and contractors.
There are many benefits to working remotely with one of them being an increase in productivity by up to 47%.
5. Doing work that you actually can enjoy
By starting up a local marketing agency, you will have the freedom to take up any role that you enjoy doing be it sales, website design, copywriting, SEO or PPC campaigns or even account management.
Depending on your interests, you can take on the work that you want to do and hire talent for the rest of the roles. This way, you will run the agency doing only the things that you enjoy.
6. Pick an industry that you like working with
You may have experience working or have a good network of people and organizations from a particular industry, eg: construction, fitness etc.
You are likely to have greater insights in this sector which you can then package in your core offering and provide it to local businesses in the same vertical.
7. Create jobs for people
As you continue to grow and serve more local businesses, it’s likely that you will need a team to help you with various tasks related to local marketing.
Whether it’s full-time or part-time roles, you will be creating jobs that people can enjoy. The opportunities are endless as you could offer a greater freedom of roles at least at the beginning.
Most importantly though, as a local marketing agency owner, it gives you the freedom to acquire talent across different fields such as SEO, PPC, Content Marketing which you will bring together to form a successful and productive team.
8. Create standard procedures that works
When you start a local marketing agency, it’s important that you work in a vertical that you are most comfortable with. This way, you will likely understand the intricacies of that industry and know what works and what doesn’t.
This will allow you to easily create a list of tasks that need to be done in order to fulfill a client’s requirement. This makes the execution much easier and helps you become more productive.
9. Build authority in the area you’re working in
By starting a local marketing agency, you are likely to work in a geographical area that you’re most familiar with.
This can place you in a very distinct advantage over the others especially if you are providing great results for your local clients. Not only will this portray yourself as a subject matter expert, but it will also bring you in more referrals from the local network which is a great sign of building a successful marketing agency.
Are you ready to get started?
Let’s be honest, the hardest part about running a local marketing agency is getting it off the ground. It’s not just money – it’s time, resources, and experience. It’s one thing to launch but another thing entirely to grow it into a successful business.
But hopefully, this article will convince you to start one up and take the next steps to start a local marketing agency.
