Agency digital marketing services – the top 10 mistakes to avoid

The 10 most common mistakes made by marketing agency owners when offering new digital services

How will this briefing help me?

If you are venturing into offering digital services to your clients for the first time, or looking to expand the digital services of your agency, this briefing is for you. Written by agency expert Mark Kelly, who has 16 years of experience in working with digital agencies, the guide explains the 10 most common (and costly) mistakes that agencies can make. Plus, there are insider tips and insights from some of the UK’s most experienced digital marketing practitioners and agency owners.

Who is this briefing for?

This briefing is for owners of marketing agencies and their colleagues involved in new business development. It may also be useful for managers in marketing agencies transitioning to offer digital services, as it can be used as a checklist to make sure they are preventing the agency to falling foul of the mistakes that are typically made.

How is this briefing structured?

This briefing is a checklist to give some detail about the common mistakes marketing agencies tend to make when offering new digital services. It also details ways to avoid making these mistakes and provides insights from marketing agency leaders so your agency can learn from the best in the industry. The mistakes included are:

1. Offering digital services without a plan
2. Taking on everything with a ‘we can always outsource it’ model in mind
3. Not knowing how to price up the different types of digital marketing services
4. Thinking you can offer social media as an ‘easy win’
5. Chasing the money
6. Not having client services and project management functions
7. Believing that being a platform/product specialist will bring you success
8. Pitching your new services without a plan
9. Only selling yourself on over-performing projects
10. Spending too much time on reporting

Latest updates:

• This guide has been edited to include more information per section, and two new sections regarding selling yourself on over-performing campaigns and spending too much time on reporting.

Resource Details

• Author: Mark Kelly
• Format: Online briefing

About the author

Mark Kelly

Mark Kelly is a freelance digital marketing consultant working with agencies and direct clients of Mark Kelly digital consultancy. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.