Latest / Agency Uncovered / How Do You Get Your Agency to Stand Out from Competitors?
Transcript
- Sasha Damon (00:00) How do you get your agency to stand out from your competitors? We’re here with Mads Singers, so let’s dive into it. Mads, how do you get your agency to stand out from competitors? Mads Singers (00:10) Standing out can be a little difficult, but there are a few hints and tips you can use. Number one, I always recommend trying not to compete on price. Too many people are focused on what the cheapest people in the market are charging. Try to look at the value you’re providing instead. If you can tell a customer, “You pay me two grand a month, I’ll make you five” — if you can make a solid argument like that… Mads Singers (00:34) …it makes it way easier for customers to sign up. There are many services you can always get cheaper, but cheaper is not always better. So make sure you emphasise your value, and make sure you have good branding in terms of who you help. Mads Singers (00:49) Again, too many agencies in my opinion go way too broad. They say, “We help anyone with everything.” But if you say, “We help dentists build a website,” or “We help dentists run Facebook ads” — if you have something very specific, a very specific niche, it makes you way more appealing to that audience. The problem is that everyone is doing everything. Mads Singers (01:12) If you’re looking for people who can do outreach for you, there are a million companies. If you’re looking for people to run Facebook ads, there are a million companies. So the way to stand out is to be right on target — do exactly what your ideal client is looking for. So many people build websites. But if you can say, “We build websites for dentists”… Mads Singers (01:31) …a dentist thinks, “Wait a minute, I’m a dentist and I need a website.” That’s way more appealing than a random person building websites who’s never worked with dentists before. If they specifically build websites for dentists, they must know exactly what I need. Mads Singers (01:46) So that’s the branding side of it: being really clear on who you serve and how. For me that’s one of the best ways to stand out. And then you have the good old saying as well… Mads Singers (01:59) …always under-promise and over-deliver. For me that one never dies. If you make a promise to a customer, keep it. Whenever you make any promises, stick with them — deliver, and over-deliver. Sasha Damon (02:11) You touched on having something you specialise in. Is having a niche enough to stand out? Mads Singers (02:19) What I always say — and we actually have a different video on this, around niching down the right way — is that fundamentally, finding a niche isn’t so much about picking an industry as it is about picking a deliverable. What is the one thing you do repeatedly, over and over again? That’s often the most important aspect. Learning to communicate that with your brand in an effective manner does take a bit of time. Mads Singers (02:42) But the more consistently you communicate who you are, what you do, and who you do it for, the more successful you’ll be. There’s a good guy in the US, Mike Molino [verify spelling], who consistently says the biggest issue he sees is people not telling their clients: this is who I am, this is what I do, this is who I do it for. And it’s not hard. Mads Singers (03:07) Very often when you land on a website, it’s not obvious what they do. It’s not obvious who they’re serving. And if you land on a website and you don’t really know whether this company can help you, you’re not very bought into the idea that they can. It sounds simple, but many companies just don’t do it. Sasha Damon (03:26) That’s very true. And how important is positioning to your agency’s growth? Mads Singers (03:37) Positioning, as we just talked about, is about getting into the right area and making sure it’s very clear what you offer. Very often people go wide. They have a client who says, “We only do LinkedIn marketing” — and then the client says, “We want to do Facebook too, can you do it?” The number of times agencies say yes and start doing things that aren’t part of their process — it hurts them so much. Mads Singers (04:02) The growth of any company comes from doing something repeatable and scalable over and over again. Do not get tempted by the money. Just because they pay you a bit of money doesn’t mean you have to do whatever they want. Whenever you start doing that, your attention gets divided in many different directions. It’s way harder for you to deliver high value, and over time you just see your agency’s growth stagnate. So positioning and really focusing on your niche is so important… Mads Singers (04:31) …to making sure you can grow and scale your agency at a quick pace. Sasha Damon (04:35) What’s your take — should an agency sell a service, or should they solve a specific business problem? Mads Singers (04:45) It depends. I’d say the more you can target a very specific pain point or problem, the sexier you are when it comes to solutions. However, there are people who need services. There are people who say, “I need someone who can do this thing.” So depending on what you’re doing, test things out, figure out your niche, and see where you can most easily sell. Mads Singers (05:12) Sometimes when you’re starting an agency, you’re heading in one direction and you suddenly get a bunch of inquiries in a different direction. And you think, “Wait a minute — we’re trying this thing, which is really hard, and we’re getting a lot of inquiries over here. Let’s change focus and do this instead.” What we thought was a great thing is maybe not as great, but we see a lot of demand over here. A lot of companies have succeeded by switching direction. Mads Singers (05:39) That can also happen with technology. I know a lot of good people right now who have been harmed by AI doing what they used to do. Their ability to switch, move in a different direction, and identify other needs their customers have has been crucial to them actually surviving as a company. So being able to pivot is key — but again, always think about the one process you’re executing repeatedly. Mads Singers (06:03) Because the second there isn’t a clear, repeatable process, you as an agency owner become detrimental to the business. You’re required everywhere, you never have a day off, and you don’t want that as an agency owner. And fundamentally it’s not just that you don’t want it — the problem is that it limits the growth of the agency. It severely limits the amount of money you can make. Sasha Damon (06:25) So if everyone is specialising, does having a niche actually differentiate you anymore? Mads Singers (06:31) It does, because again it’s about who you’re serving. I run a number of businesses. Let’s say I want accounting, and I operate businesses that operate worldwide. If I go to a normal accounting website, they’ll say, “We do accounting, come to us.” Now, I’ve had many headaches with accounting over the years, and I know I need an accounting company that works with international clients — because I know that if I go to a normal local accounting company, they’ll probably mess it up. Mads Singers (06:59) So that’s what I’m looking for. Same thing: if I’m a dentist and I need a new website, someone who does websites specifically for dentists has a huge advantage over someone who just builds websites. Same again if I’m looking to buy a service — let’s say I want some LinkedIn outreach. If you have a company that does social media in general versus a company that specialises in LinkedIn outreach… Mads Singers (07:22) …even if the specialist is less established, I’ll be a million times more likely to put my money into the company that specialises in the exact thing I want. Sasha Damon (07:30) That makes sense. And what should an agency owner change if their positioning isn’t attracting the right clients? Mads Singers (07:39) That’s a great question. Number one, I’d ask: have you done enough lead generation? The problem is most people start with their network. The reality is you might be targeting a certain type of person, but they might not be in your network. Now, if you have a network full of the people you’re targeting and none of them bite, that should make you ask questions. What I’d do is sit down with a lot of those people and say, “We’re offering this thing…” Mads Singers (08:05) “…what are we doing wrong? Why should we do it differently?” Sometimes people give you feedback based on their opinion, and sometimes it might not be the right feedback. But if you talk to a bunch of people and you’re consistently told it’s too expensive, or it’s not really a big problem for us, or it’s not urgent, then you can deal with that. But the starting point is… Mads Singers (08:26) …definitely looking at and getting feedback from your ICP — your ideal customer profile. Sasha Damon (08:33) Thank you so much for all that information, and thank you for your time. Mads Singers (08:37) Great.