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More often than not, digital marketing agencies completely forget about taking care of their own social media presence.
This is quite paradoxical, considering they know better than anyone just how essential it is to use social media marketing to promote their unique marketing portfolio, team, and personality of their brand.
Your potential clients may dig into your social media channels before hiring you. So, instead of vying exclusively for your client's praise, why not put your heads together with your team members and create something even competing agencies and brands haven't thought to do?
Yes, we know you're tight on time, and you'd rather use your creativity to boost your clients' social media presence. But think of the gain in the long term and what your competitors are doing. The number of digital marketing agencies will only continue to grow, and you need to set yourself apart
So without further ado, let's cover some burning questions and take a look at some of the best examples of agencies smashing it on social media:
- Should you spend more time promoting your agency on social media
- What are the best social media promotion strategies for your agency
- What additional promotion channels can you use for your agency
- 11 digital marketing agencies acing social media
Should you spend more time promoting your agency on social media?
You're not alone if you're wondering why your agency's social media management is essential.
Digital marketing is a highly competitive industry. Thousands of agencies are available, so your potential clients have plenty of options for their marketing and advertising needs. But when it comes to social media management, there are even more consultants and freelancers to add to the list.
Regardless of that tight competition, you have much to gain from establishing a social media presence, especially if you're a social media marketing agency. It will help you promote your portfolio and showcase your expertise in this field.
How to Create a Memorable Online Marketing Portfolio for Your Agency (With Examples)
Here are some reasons to help you understand why you need to consider this sooner rather than later.
- Social media increases online exposure - this medium has 3.81 billion users (including your potential customers)
- Marketing your agency through your social channels is a great way to generate more awareness, leads, and sales, and it can help you scale your agency.
- It's an effective way to stand out in the crowd and better understand your clients' target audience.
The problem is that "going social" for a digital or strictly social media agency may not be as simple as it seems. A lot goes into managing a social media marketing presence - much more than just regularly posting on LinkedIn and Twitter.
So, let's get down to business and learn how to promote your agency the best way using the potential of social media. It's time to focus on increasing your social media visibility, making it easier for your potential clients to find your content.
What are the best social media promotion strategies for your agency?
1. Choose the right social media channels
Before we begin coming up with ideas on how to promote your marketing agency, you need to consider the best social media channels for promoting it. You probably already know that you don't need to maintain a presence on every single platform. However, it does help to consider which platforms are the most suitable for the type of content you are creating.
That's why narrowing down your choices to any of the following high-traffic channels could prove useful:
LinkedIn is a unique, specialised platform primarily utilised by audiences between the ages of 25-34. You'll find a lot of professionals here searching for jobs, recruiting employees, networking, and building their personal brands.
This platform lends itself to showcasing agency-specific content, building credibility in the digital marketing landscape, and sharing your client success stories. More importantly, a well-thought-out LinkedIn marketing strategy can be quite valuable for B2B lead generation.
For example, UPS shares customer testimonials case studies on LinkedIn, helping to convert more customers and build trust. This post includes a happy customer and the employee who helped create a pleasant experience.
Once you have created your personal profile, you can send personalised messages to prospects as well as your connections and keep growing your network by connecting with people you meet at events or online. Once you're ready, you can set up a LinkedIn Company Page for your agency and promote it to your network alongside your regular posts.
Though expensive, LinkedIn advertising can also help market your services and reach your ideal customers once you have a good idea of who they are.
Increase thought leadership on LinkedIn with Sendible.
Publish and schedule posts, respond to comments, and dive deep into your content performance. Utilise our built-in image editor and Canva integration for optimised visual content.
Instagram is the channel of choice for a younger demographic - 67% of US adults aged 18-29 use the app. So the platform is a great place to showcase your capabilities (especially if you offer visual content creation services).
Instagram keeps innovating in the space and has come a long way since being acquired by Facebook in 2012. With the recent addition of shopping tools and Reels and the increasing popularity of Instagram Carousel, it is leading the way in how audiences can interact with content on social media platforms, making it a great place to stretch your content creation muscles as an agency.
Elevate Your Instagram Strategy with Sendible.
Seamlessly publish content, schedule Instagram posts, monitor comments, and retrieve insightful analytics. Tap into the realm of enhanced content creation with our built-in image editor and Canva integration.
Currently, Instagram Reels allows users to record up to 60 seconds clips set to music that helps brands get discovered by new audiences on a bigger, global stage. And Instagram Carousel enables you to upload ten consecutive slides that you can use to tell a story.
Source: @sendible
To connect with your audience on Instagram, ensure that your content is entertaining and valuable. Boring, technical, or otherwise ordinary content doesn't seem to do too well on this channel. So make sure to include various post formats in your content calendar that will allow you to present different sides of your social media agency.
If you have a budget, you can launch effective social media ads and attract more interest for your agency. Remember - your own social efforts can show potential clients how well you can do the job, and they may be more inclined to consider and let you run theirs.
Twitter is well-known for its short text content. Mentioning links here can help share the content you've created. Moreover, regularly tweeting about marketing trends tells others that you're active and up-to-date with what's going on in the industry.
Deutsch provides an inside look at their agency on social. This post is great because it showcases the company's latest creative talent, thinking, and marketing strategy around bite-sized content.
If you've won some awards or gained recognition from other agencies, mention it in your bio and about sections. Perhaps most importantly, don't underestimate the power of Twitter for networking - almost anyone with a public profile is just one message away, and you can use this to your advantage when collaborating with brands or working with exciting people in your space.
Be in the know on Twitter with Sendible.
Schedule tweets, respond to engagements, access Twitter Lists, and retrieve detailed analytics, all within a single dashboard.
Facebook is a versatile platform that allows agencies to post text and video content. With 2.60 billion monthly active users and 1.73 billion daily visitors, there's a lot of traffic here.
Everyone knows Facebook is still the biggest social media platform. But with everything happening on other networks, many wonder if it's losing relevance. However, Facebook remains a powerful place because:
- It's an effective tool for building brand awareness
- It helps businesses establish trust with search engines
- Businesses can target their best customers with paid Facebook Ads
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Generate more reach on Facebook with Sendible.
Publish content seamlessly, schedule posts, reply to comments, and extract insightful analytics to elevate your social media game. Immerse yourself in the world of optimised content design with our built-in image editor and Canva integration.
However, it's all about positioning yourself in such a way that you show up on potential clients' radars and build awareness with attention-grabbing photos and videos. ROLI started crafting meaningful messages for hobby musicians and professionals to match suitable products from their product catalogue with customer profiles:
You can join social media communities or groups to help connect with people who share your interests and improve your agency's online visibility. By creating a group and connecting it to your Facebook Page, you can build awareness and grow a community of fans and supporters.
Check out our Facebook group: Social Media Storytellers
This feature is available for LinkedIn and Facebook, but Facebook groups tend to be much more active. Some of the best Facebook groups for inbound marketers include: The Daily Carnage, Word Workers, and Social Media Managers Group.
YouTube
YouTube is the de-facto platform for video content. It's ideal for longer videos, and if you have the skills and resources, you can create in-depth content showcasing your expertise in various segments of digital marketing.
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These videos, often educational in nature, offer digital marketing insights, strategies to grow a business, tips to boost online presence, content creation guides, and much more. Popular digital marketing YouTube channels include Ahrefs, Backlinko, and Neil Patel.
Schedule more videos on Youtube with Sendible.
From scheduling videos to viewing in-depth analytics and responding to comments, manage your YouTube channel seamlessly from one dashboard.
If you're smart, you can not only reuse your content on other channels, but quickly repurpose it to other formats, like Instagram's IGTV, Reels, or Stories. That is what many people and social media influencers commonly do.
Check out our video with agency owner Desiree Martinez to learn more about how to grow your agency with personal branding on YouTube:
TikTok
TikTok may have started as an app for teenagers, but it has come a long way since. And if you're a social media agency, it is imperative to look into the possibilities this platform offers.
While other social media platforms allow you to connect with somewhat "older" audiences, TikTok presents you with the opportunity to reach your potential customer (and employees, like social media managers), as well as keep in touch with the newest social media trends and videos you can repurpose for Instagram Reels.
Free social media guide for all campaigns.
Map out your ideal audience, create a content style and decide on your plan of action for every social media profile you manage.
If you decide to start experimenting with this platform, make sure to use niched hashtags. You won't be able to reach your target audience otherwise.
2. Marketing your marketing agency on social media
Now that you have an idea of the best social media channels for your agency, we can dive into ideas on how you can promote yourselves on social media.
As you already know, digital marketing is an expansive arena that deals with a vast range of marketing channels and techniques, including but not limited to:
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Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
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Search engine optimisation (SEO)
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Content marketing
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Email marketing
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Video marketing
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Social media marketing
But it's worth remembering that an agency's social media strategy will vary depending on their ideal customers, industry, and services.
For example, if your goal is to work exclusively with clients in the healthcare industry, you'd do well to showcase work from that industry. If you, instead, share news about the latest in the fast-food industry, it won't help you create a meaningful connection with your potential buyers. The same goes if you're looking to work with SaaS or e-commerce brands - they won't care as much about the work you've done for a brick-and-mortar shop, but they'll love to hear about the latest technology or trends that work for companies like theirs.
To generate interest in your agency and your services, you'll need to create fresh, up-to-date content. But before you jump to creating that content, it's worth identifying the type of services your customers need the most (or the ones you'd like to offer in the future).
Choosing how to package your social media marketing services can take some time. But suppose you're a social media marketing agency, and you'd like to offer complete social media management packages for clients with some form of community management or content creation. In that case, it will already be enough to get lots of ideas on what kind of content you could create to promote your agency on your channels.
By the way, if you're just starting and don't have any work examples to share yet - focus on the industries or spaces you'd like to work in and share great work done by others.
You need to use the right tools to ensure your agency's marketing strategy stays on track. Some essential tools for agencies include:
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Social Media Scheduling Tools - These tools allow you to create and schedule your content in advance to set a schedule you're happy with and focus on responding to incoming engagements and/or spending more time on client work.
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Social Media Listening Tools - These tools show data about social media followers as well as those who are actively discussing your brand and who your most engaged users are. You can also gather additional information such as impression volume, hashtags used around your brand, and general sentiment about your agency.
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Social Media Analytics - These tools help measure the success of social media campaigns with data such as audience growth, message volume, response rates, etc.
To keep matters simple, you can opt to use an all-in-one social media management tool (for example, Sendible, among others) that has all of the three solutions in one - scheduling, monitoring, and reporting.
3. Collaborate with other agencies
Your agency simply can't be the perfect option for every client, no matter how good you are at attracting clients.
Sometimes you may not have enough resources or industry insights to fulfil the client's needs. Sometimes, the best route is to team up and collaborate with other agency marketers. By referring a lead to another agency, you help build relationships within the competitive landscape.
Search out other freelancers, consultants, and agencies that can be your partners. Start by looking at online directories to find an agency you may be able to collaborate with. Access co-marketing opportunities that can be mutually beneficial to both.
For example, you can co-create content with your partner and then share it with your audiences on social media. This helps promote both organisations at the same time, thereby reaching a broader target audience. You could also co-host a knowledge-sharing session with a live video or even a webinar and then use the recording to create snackable content that's great for both parties.
Or you can celebrate the efforts of others in the industry. For instance, Mike Ramsey, president of Nifty Marketing, appreciates the efforts of several digital marketers in his blog on Moz, including David Mihm and Avalaunch Media.
4. Position yourself as a leader in the industry
Potentially more than working on purely promotional efforts, you need to focus on reinforcing your stance in the digital marketing world.
You can do a lot to boost your overall image - from creating useful templates and whitepapers, informative how-to videos, sharing statistical industry insights, and even hosting online meet-ups (until physical ones are allowed). Notice how Social Media Examiner promotes its workshop and positions itself in the industry:
And it's a great way to improve your personal brand through social media, helping with customer acquisition as well as retention. Moreover, it instils confidence in your clients by keeping them in the loop of what's new in the industry - sometimes, it's as simple as reposting content from various industry experts! It instantaneously signals that you are aware of the key happenings in the digital marketing world.
What additional promotion channels can you use for your agency?
There are several ways you can promote your digital marketing agency besides social media. Here are a few ideas:
1. Enlist your agency in online directories
As a digital agency, you need to attract clients to your business. Creating a listing in trustworthy directories can place you alongside some of the best digital agencies out there and help your agency get the attention it deserves. For example, Digital Agency Network is an all-in-one platform to discover the best digital marketing agencies in the world.
If you're not 100% convinced, here are three good reasons to create an agency directory listing:
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A boost in your online presence
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Improvement in local visibility
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Enhancing reputation
To make your agency more visible in search, make sure to use keywords that are relevant to your digital marketing services and add them to your listing. Some directories will also allow you to showcase your recent work - definitely do add something here as it would be a missed opportunity not to.
You can take your approach to increasing credibility to the next level by signing up to agency partner programs available to your business.
2. Develop case studies about your clients
You can present client wins as case studies to promote your agency's capabilities. Make sure to use data where you can but tell the story in a way that's easy to understand, preferably with the use of visual content.
Social media marketing agency Onlinedrea created a series of "Client Showcases" as a powerful way of showing prospects how strong their social media marketing strategies are:
Remember to include the pain points your client had, the strategies you used to resolve them, and data backing the results of your efforts. In fact, pulling data from social media tools can offer supporting evidence of how your strategies improved their social presence month over month.
3. Take on an omnichannel marketing approach
Use all kinds of techniques other than social media management to create brand awareness and attract customers.
This includes emails, business cards, print ads, blogs, webinars, seminars, videos, and much more. You can also generate a dynamic QR code to track, analyze, and retarget your customers. All you need is a dynamic QR code generator.
As I mentioned earlier, it's all about positioning your digital agency in front of potential clients and with time, you'll know which channels work better.
Just make sure all of the channels you choose support one another in achieving the ultimate business goal - generating the best clients in the shortest amount of time.
4. Specialise in a particular field
Are you a specialist or a generalist, or have you chosen a niche for your marketing agency?
Successful agencies are often those that focus on a single vertical, like social media marketing agencies or video marketing agencies. Instead of trying to do everything and offering half-baked strategies, they settle on providing one service and making sure they do the best job.
This also simplifies the whole process of promoting their business on social media because they no longer need to consider all the potential clients or their pain points - there are one or two clear results they can bring to clients, and they can get creative at showing what's possible.
11 digital marketing agencies acing social media
1. AKQA
akqa.com
One of UK's best, serving clients like Audi, BBC, Nike and Starbucks, this digital agency means business with their campaigns while keeping their social media channels rather minimalist. But this hasn't stood in the way of them gathering a large following on their channels - 100,000 followers on LinkedIn and over 90,000 on Facebook and Instagram.
Each feed is filled with high-quality images and videos of their most recent work in an engaging way. Their profile bio is particularly gripping and instantly makes an effect:
The imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products, and services.
2. Critical Mass
criticalmass.com
This full-service agency takes pride in their work, especially their heritage spanning over two decades. With twelve offices around the globe and 950 employees, the agency creates content for brands like Nissan, Adidas and Converse and keeps things fun.
Critical Mass created a Facebook Live stream of puppies at the same time as the inauguration of Donald Trump as the President of the United States.
Its social media channels, especially Instagram, provide a constant flow of bold images of their most recent work, including photos that give a glimpse into their company culture. Critical Mass isn't afraid to share designs by others they find inspiring and that's something we could all learn from.
3. Deloitte Digital
deloittedigital.com
Yes, you read right! Deloitte Digital is a full-service digital consultancy and is part of Deloitte. The agency's most recent work is quite heavily connected to e-commerce sites and apps for big clients like John Lewis, TFL (Transport for London) and Adobe.
Deloitte Digital consultancy focuses on sharing useful, thought-provoking content on social media and cater for different audiences on Twitter by having multiple Twitter accounts.
It comes as no surprise that thought leadership and content curation are the primary focus on its social media channels. Take note that a coherent brand image and voice are crucial for brand building on social media and Deloitte Digital does it well on all of their accounts.
4. Fantasy Interactive
fantasy.co
Fantasy has a long list of impressive clients and projects, and even though most are for product UI and UX, it knows a thing about social too. Have you been to Facebook's Brand Resource Center? Well, Fantasy Interactive created it.
On social media, this agency has opted for keeping appearances only on two channels - Twitter and LinkedIn, both sporting over 20,000 followers. Posts include anything from updates from the office, to checking in at events and of course, their work. In short, Fantasy Interactive keep it casual and it works.
Fantasy Interactive is still independently owned, showing that world-class work can be done without external funding.
Growth and recognition are achievable without external funding. Simply find your niche and go after it - full speed ahead.
5. Blue Fountain Media
bluefountainmedia.com
Blue Fountain Media loves data and it shows throughout their work and social media channels. From useful blog posts about web conversion rates to articles on content mastery, this agency makes an effort to teach about their craft.
With three physical locations in the US and a reputable client base, this agency sports an impressive portfolio including NASA, AT&T, P&G, CANON and NFL.
Creating unique images and videos for social media posts is a good habit to create, especially if you have data to visualize. Stock images can get a bit boring and if you plan to create a lot of content, it's well worth the investment. If resources are low and you can’t afford to create unique graphics, make sure that all social media images are optimized for each channel.
6. 360i
360i.com
Curiosity and creativity are at the core of this agency's philosophy and it aims to be disruptive in the industry. 360i takes the time to develop different types of posts for each social media platform out there.
Social media posts should always be a healthy mix of informational and promotional content. Look to the 80/20 rule and post four non-promotional messages for every promotional one. This agency posts about:
- Upcoming events to engage the audience and invite them to stay current and relevant.
- Employees and giving back to the community to create a more personal approach.
- Interesting articles related to the marketing industry - to educate and share their expertise.
- Its most recent work and award nominations.
7. Forsman & Bodenfors (F&B)
fb.se
This award-winning advertising agency powers marketing campaigns for global audiences and keeps close to its Swedish roots. Their most striking and recent work is for Volvo Cars, H&M and Coop. On social media, the agency shares short videos of their creations, news about their nominations and photos from award ceremonies.
Much of F&B's client base is Swedish and it’s proud to appeal to a local audience by adding hashtags in Swedish or in some cases, whole posts. The engagement rate is high and the local approach to content is definitely a contributing factor.
8. 22Squared
22squared.com
Another independently-owned digital agency reaching for the skies! With two offices and 350 employees, this award-winning agency has partnered with the likes of Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin’ Donuts, The Home Depot and Southeast Toyota. For the latter, they made a series of ads, including influencer video content.
The company culture of this agency shines through every post they publish on social media. From employee success in their spare time to their campaigns and support for charities.
On social media, 22Squared highlights achievements of employees, helps with charity work and shows their support for their local Atlanta Falcons NFL franchise. All these posts keep things fun and light while keeping in line with their company culture, and that’s a good way to create engagement. Getting crafty with your logo is another lesson learned from this agency, maybe it’s worth a try?
9. DigitasLBi
digitaslbi.com
Part of Publicis.Sapient, DigitasLBi is a marketing and technology agency with over 40 offices worldwide. It has worked with Nissan, Sony, eBay and American Express just to name a few. Remember the Taco Bell Blackout campaign to promote its new app? DigitasLBi created it.
Just 24 hours after launch, 75% of all [Taco Bell] stores had processed a mobile order. And after three days, Taco Bell had two billion earned impressions.
An agency of this size is almost obliged to keep up appearances on social media. DigitasLBi has to done well, especially on Twitter. @Digitas (US) account posts unique content to appeal to different audiences. As many other agencies, they highlight the success of their teams and collaborations, and we can all learn a thing or two about the way they cover events.
10. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (GS&P)
goodbysilverstein.com
Since 1983, GS&P has received 57 Effie awards for 38 different clients for their distinctive and effective work. Some of its recent clients include Adobe, Cisco, Sonic and Princess Cruises.
Engaging with clients and the industry is key to creating a good social media presence.
On social media, GS&P keeps its fingers on the pulse of what's happening in the advertising and marketing industry. It also puts an emphasis on how their work is changing the way people interact with products. Goodby does a good job at monitoring brand mentions and sharing those messages on Facebook and Twitter. Great self-promotion that’s not pushy at all.
11. Leo Burnett Worldwide
leoburnett.com
Founded in 1935, Leo Burnett Worldwide is one of the world's largest and influential agency networks in the world. To date, it has worked with some of the biggest brands and has 85 offices and more than 8,000 employees.
Leo Burnett works with high-profile brands like McDonald's, Fiat, KraftHeinz, Coca-Cola, Samsung among others.
Sporting thousands of followers on Twitter and Facebook, and over a quarter of a million on LinkedIn, Leo Burnett certainly has a big following on all key social media networks. On its channels, the agency celebrates the launch of client campaigns but also shows its support for matters outside the marketing world to express solidarity.
Summing up
Promoting your digital marketing agency is hard work. But using various promotional channels (including social media) can help you get the word out about your business.
A well-executed social media marketing campaign requires a balance between listening, networking, and selling. However, the best approach is to remain flexible so that you can adjust strategies and harness the best results.
All digital agencies on this list have outstanding portfolios and each one has decided on a specific approach to social media marketing. Lean on them for inspiration but find your own style to create an engaged following that will help you show your work and services to the world.
If all of this fantastic creative work has inspired to start your own social media marketing agency, you can take a look at our step-by-step guide to doing so. It includes tips on everything, from how to choose a niche, to advice on maintaining a good work-life balance.
*This article was created in collaboration with blogger Evie Harrison.
