Starting a marketing agency from scratch

Many startups and small businesses struggle to build and manage marketing, creating opportunities for new agencies. We outline the key steps and practical considerations for starting from scratch.

Step 1: research market, competitors and audience.

Start an agency by researching the market: customer needs, competitors and industry trends. Define your distinct advantage and specialisation. You might focus on digital marketing, social media, content or research, or build a full-service agency.

Step 2: prepare a business plan.

Your agency's business plan should cover goals, audience, competition, marketing, sales, investment and expected profit. It helps maintain focus and guide decisions.

Step 3: recruit and organise the team.

Build a team with marketing, writing, design and analytical skills. Define each person's responsibilities and shared working expectations.

Agency growth often stalls because the owner spends most of their time recruiting, supervising and training people, and managing turnover. Building a reliable team is difficult: an agency needs marketers, paid social and contextual advertising specialists, developers, chatbot specialists, designers and many other professionals who can be hard to find.

An established agency partner can provide an existing specialist team.

Step 4: build your portfolio

New agencies may lack cases. The source suggests limited free or low-cost projects to build a portfolio demonstrating capability to clients and partners.

Step 5: agency pricing

Set prices according to services, expertise and market alternatives; review as experience grows.

Step 6: promote your agency

Promote your own agency first, using a professional site, social media and content to demonstrate your capabilities.

An established partner can supply marketing, design, development, social media and SEO expertise without building every department yourself.

Partners receive cases and portfolio material rather than needing unpaid projects to create their own evidence base.

We create partners' websites and configure advertising without a setup fee. Partners fund ad credit and manage sales.

Starting an agency requires persistence, professionalism and improvement. Explore our website for practical support with launching your business.