Your unique selling point
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 8:13 am
founding a digital agency
The digital sector is a market that is constantly evolving. Especially in web marketing, it can be a worthwhile career goal to set up your own digital agency. There are already countless successful freelancers and internet agencies in this field - and there are numerous reasons to join them: the barriers to entry are quite low, as there are no high initial investments required and of course it is appealing to be your own boss. And yet a shocking number of companies in this sector do not stay on the market for more than three years. Where does this gaping gap between desire and reality come from? We want to explore this question in this article and show you the six steps you can take to set up your digital agency and ensure long-term success.
Step 1: A solid foundation for your project
Starting an agency is no child's play. There is a lot of competition in the industry and it is extremely important to stand out from the crowd. Legal and financial security can also be a challenge. It is important to think long-term and to create serious and stable foundations for legal and accounting issues. This point is often underestimated by entrepreneurs: your digital agency will also be your first web marketing customer (whether that is their focus or not) and they may require skills that you do not yet have before you start this project. Two aspects are particularly important:
Let your project mature
First of all: don't rush. Take time to think. The more you get to know yourself and understand your own strengths and weaknesses, the better you will know your needs and can create a good basis for your start-up project. You're not a business person at heart? Why don't you team up with someone who really enjoys selling? You don't know anything about accounting? Consider getting help from good accounting software .
Don't hesitate to ask others for help so that everything moves forward and is on a solid footing. You will always find someone around you who can advise you. Your family, acquaintances, confidants and first contacts can help you put your digital agency on a solid footing. At the same time, they are the most honest critics of your project and will hopefully not hesitate to point out any mistakes (both possible and actual).
Find the right help
You have to accept that you will never control the entire value chain. So you have to get support, and from the right people. For a viable project, you should take the time to write everything down - ideally in the form of a business plan. This will give your future partners security and in some cases it will even be essential. Would you prefer to do it yourself? Then go for it - but careful preparation is essential here too. The Chamber of Industry and Commerce and start-up advice centers, for example, offer sensible templates.
Step 2: Define the focus of your digital agency
The term "digital agency" is quite general and rarely reflects the reality of the job you will actually do. There are different types of agencies. Common examples include:
Communication/marketing agencies that focus on brand image and consistent communication.
Web development agencies specializing in building websites, intranets and mobile applications.
Advertising agencies that create media-effective advertising campaigns.
Email marketing agencies, i.e. professionals for advertising strategies based on emails.
In short: you have to know which area your special expertise falls into and position yourself accordingly so that your future (potential) customers can find you and classify you correctly. Trying to master a little bit of everything will hong kong telegram data lead to nothing and can even damage the image and credibility of your agency.
Positioning also means differentiation. When you set up a digital agency, you define the actual added value that you can offer your customers and that sets you apart from your competitors. Accordingly, you must be able to determine the differentiating criteria of your future internet agency - and then keep this promise. The following two web agencies are examples of what such unique selling points can look like:
The web marketing agency UpByWeb openly relies on a privileged customer relationship. It consists of just three people and focuses on tailor-made support from experienced and certified experts. In addition, the desired relationship with the customer is set out in an entire manifesto. For a digital agency that wants to present itself as accessible and personal, this is a crucial differentiator.
Our second example of successful differentiation - in this case through knowledge and experience - is the internet agency Eskimoz, which specializes in search engine optimization. Unlike most of its competitors, Eskimoz has chosen to focus entirely on SEO services, which they are perfectly proficient in. This has proven to be a winning strategy for the 50-person company: Eskimoz has achieved growth of 2,000% in 3 years, ranking 14th among the 500 fastest-growing French companies in the financial newspaper Les Échos .
Another good example of the success of strong differentiation is
Sarbacane Sarbacane is now one of the market leaders in the field of email software, but they started out as an email marketing agency. Sarbacane has never lost this focus and still serves a large number of clients in this field today.
In short: What is important is not what exactly you decide to do, but that you present it well and confidently, keep it in the foreground and implement it.
The digital sector is a market that is constantly evolving. Especially in web marketing, it can be a worthwhile career goal to set up your own digital agency. There are already countless successful freelancers and internet agencies in this field - and there are numerous reasons to join them: the barriers to entry are quite low, as there are no high initial investments required and of course it is appealing to be your own boss. And yet a shocking number of companies in this sector do not stay on the market for more than three years. Where does this gaping gap between desire and reality come from? We want to explore this question in this article and show you the six steps you can take to set up your digital agency and ensure long-term success.
Step 1: A solid foundation for your project
Starting an agency is no child's play. There is a lot of competition in the industry and it is extremely important to stand out from the crowd. Legal and financial security can also be a challenge. It is important to think long-term and to create serious and stable foundations for legal and accounting issues. This point is often underestimated by entrepreneurs: your digital agency will also be your first web marketing customer (whether that is their focus or not) and they may require skills that you do not yet have before you start this project. Two aspects are particularly important:
Let your project mature
First of all: don't rush. Take time to think. The more you get to know yourself and understand your own strengths and weaknesses, the better you will know your needs and can create a good basis for your start-up project. You're not a business person at heart? Why don't you team up with someone who really enjoys selling? You don't know anything about accounting? Consider getting help from good accounting software .
Don't hesitate to ask others for help so that everything moves forward and is on a solid footing. You will always find someone around you who can advise you. Your family, acquaintances, confidants and first contacts can help you put your digital agency on a solid footing. At the same time, they are the most honest critics of your project and will hopefully not hesitate to point out any mistakes (both possible and actual).
Find the right help
You have to accept that you will never control the entire value chain. So you have to get support, and from the right people. For a viable project, you should take the time to write everything down - ideally in the form of a business plan. This will give your future partners security and in some cases it will even be essential. Would you prefer to do it yourself? Then go for it - but careful preparation is essential here too. The Chamber of Industry and Commerce and start-up advice centers, for example, offer sensible templates.
Step 2: Define the focus of your digital agency
The term "digital agency" is quite general and rarely reflects the reality of the job you will actually do. There are different types of agencies. Common examples include:
Communication/marketing agencies that focus on brand image and consistent communication.
Web development agencies specializing in building websites, intranets and mobile applications.
Advertising agencies that create media-effective advertising campaigns.
Email marketing agencies, i.e. professionals for advertising strategies based on emails.
In short: you have to know which area your special expertise falls into and position yourself accordingly so that your future (potential) customers can find you and classify you correctly. Trying to master a little bit of everything will hong kong telegram data lead to nothing and can even damage the image and credibility of your agency.
Positioning also means differentiation. When you set up a digital agency, you define the actual added value that you can offer your customers and that sets you apart from your competitors. Accordingly, you must be able to determine the differentiating criteria of your future internet agency - and then keep this promise. The following two web agencies are examples of what such unique selling points can look like:
The web marketing agency UpByWeb openly relies on a privileged customer relationship. It consists of just three people and focuses on tailor-made support from experienced and certified experts. In addition, the desired relationship with the customer is set out in an entire manifesto. For a digital agency that wants to present itself as accessible and personal, this is a crucial differentiator.
Our second example of successful differentiation - in this case through knowledge and experience - is the internet agency Eskimoz, which specializes in search engine optimization. Unlike most of its competitors, Eskimoz has chosen to focus entirely on SEO services, which they are perfectly proficient in. This has proven to be a winning strategy for the 50-person company: Eskimoz has achieved growth of 2,000% in 3 years, ranking 14th among the 500 fastest-growing French companies in the financial newspaper Les Échos .
Another good example of the success of strong differentiation is
Sarbacane Sarbacane is now one of the market leaders in the field of email software, but they started out as an email marketing agency. Sarbacane has never lost this focus and still serves a large number of clients in this field today.
In short: What is important is not what exactly you decide to do, but that you present it well and confidently, keep it in the foreground and implement it.