Want a successful agency? It starts with a killer business plan.
Dav Nash
12 min read
Business plans.
We all hate them, yet there’s no way to dodge them. If you want to build a great digital marketing business, then you need to craft an effective digital marketing agency business plan.
The best digital agency business plan helps you make smarter decisions while attracting more investors with deep pockets.
Sounds fantastic, so where do you begin?
I’ve covered everything in this guide, including these main points:
Read on, and all shall be revealed…
Let’s start by ticking off the first two questions in my bullet point list.
What are digital marketing agency business plans, and why do they exist?
The UK Government explains that a business plan is a written document that describes your business. In your situation, it’s a document that tells people about your digital marketing agency and how you plan to operate it.
Why do you need one? Because it helps you:
That last point is crucial.
A good digital marketing business plan is the difference between prospects shaking your hand or walking away during a pitch meeting. It shows prospective clients what you do, how you plan to work, and so on. This gives them more confidence and trust in your digital agency, so they’re more likely to stick around.
Similarly, business plans are highly useful for luring investors to your company. Whether you seek angel investment or are crowdsourcing, a well-mapped out business plan attracts money to your digital marketing agency.
Business plans scare a lot of us because they seem extremely daunting.
You’re worried you’ll go crazy trying to map the whole plan together, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
There are some arguments around what to include in a business plan, though Investopedia (and other sources) suggest it should involve seven key elements. With that in mind, your digital agency business plan will look like this:
Some of these components are fairly straightforward, yet others might leave you scratching your head a little bit. Don’t worry; I’ll run through each aspect of your digital marketing business plan in more detail below!
As the name hints, an Executive Summary gives an overview of your entire business plan.
It’s like the headline for a news article – or the blurb on the back of a book. A good Executive Summary will draw in whoever reads it and convince them to rifle through the rest of your digital marketing agency business plan.
Therefore, it’s not meant to be extensive, though it needs enough information to be compelling. You’re walking what I call the Goldilocks tightrope: sway too much in either direction (too long or too brief), and there’s a problem. You need to find the perfect middle-ground where it’s juuust right.
Keep it to a page or less, but be sure it includes all of these key points:
You don’t need to be too descriptive when discussing these points – that’s what the rest of the digital marketing business plan is for!
Keep it short and snappy. Make sure you cover the vital information but only include the killer points that stand out and make the reader nod their head in appreciation. Many business plans fall at the first stage, so you can’t skimp on an Executive Summary.
Pro tip: Write this after you’ve completed the rest of the business plan. It’s easier to survey everything in your plan and find ways to condense it into a summary.
Some digital marketers get confused between the Executive Summary and Company Description.
The former is a summary of the entire business plan, while the latter is an in-depth description of your company.
As explained by The Balance, a Company Description needs to incorporate these elements:
The best way to think about this section is that it should tell readers everything they wish to know about your business and its history.
It’s also the main place where you talk about your target market. This will require a least a page on its own and should dive into your audience and explain who your services are for. You’ll need a proper breakdown of your target market to display their demographic – I recommend creating buyer personas as they’re an easy way of displaying this information.
By the end of this section, readers should know that you’re running a digital marketing agency. They should also know what you do, who you do it for and the general goals of your business.
If you thought the Company Description was a chunky section, then you have no idea what you’re in for!
The Products/Services component of your digital marketing agency business plan is one of the biggest out there. In it, you embark on a journey to explain all of your products/services in as much detail as you can muster.
Begin by introducing all of your core services; this may involve:
I personally think it’s best to include a quick summary list of your services before delving deeper into them below. It makes this part of your business plan easier to read, and the readers will know what they’re getting into.
Unlike your Executive Summary, this section requires as much detail as possible.
Cover all aspects of your services, making sure to talk about:
Your goal is to show the reader what you do and why it’s better than your competitor’s. As such, it will need a huge amount of competitive analysis to pick out your biggest rivals and showcase their products/services, too.
If you’re starting a digital marketing business, this is a genius way to differentiate yourself. Look at your competitors and determine what they’re good at. Then, provide things your rivals might neglect to ensure your products/services are even better.
The Products/Services part of your digital agency business plan should also look at any patents or proprietary technology you currently own. Now there’s every chance you don’t have either of these – and that’s fine. But, if you do have some patents related to services or technology, be sure to talk about them as they give you a USP.
Get your nerd hat on because it’s time for some hardcore analysis.
This section shows readers where your digital marketing agency fits in the market landscape. It lets you delve deeper into your target market with a sprinkling of competitive analysis thrown in for good measure.
Highlight the need for digital marketing services within your target market. Talk about the clients you wish to serve and why they need a business like yours. This will force you to offer more information about your competitors to demonstrate how your business fills a gap in the market.
I won’t lie; it’s probably the most difficult part of your business plan, as you feel like you’re repeating yourself a lot.
The best way to avoid repetition is to focus on your digital marketing agency’s place in your target market. Showcase the strengths and weaknesses of your business, as well as the expected demand for what you offer.
At the very least, this section shows people that you understand your business. You know where it sits in the market, and you have a firm understanding of what needs to be done to outperform your competitors.
Also, make sure you display all of your analysis as cleanly as you can.
Provide charts and graphs that break down and support your writing – people love visual cues, and investors absolutely adore evidence. Some eye-catching data in the right format will hook readers and encourage them to keep going.
Normally, marketing strategies are crucial parts of any business plan.
When your business plan is for a digital marketing agency, this section potentially becomes the most important of all.
Why?
Because you’re not just demonstrating how you’ll market your business; you’re showing off your own knowledge of marketing as a whole. It’s an opportunity to flex your muscles and bring out the big guns – nothing shows you’re a great digital marketing agency quite like an in-depth marketing strategy in your business plan.
What do you need to include within your Marketing Strategy section?
Banc has a wonderful resource with some tips and tricks on how to present your marketing strategy in a business plan. One of the big points is ensuring you present the right data/metrics. Think about what investors or people reading your digital marketing agency business plan want to see.
More often than not, they need clear evidence to support your marketing budget projections and the potential ROI from your marketing strategy. If you can come up with these numbers and make it clear to readers how your marketing strategy generates income, then they’ll lap it up.
The more detail you go into, the better. Try to provide examples of content pieces or strategy ideas to support what you present. It’s all about selling your strategy and proving that it will generate leads and conversions.
One final point: you’re at an advantage as a digital marketing agency. No other business can present a marketing plan with proof that their tactics work.
You can!
Go back through your previous work with different clients and pick out examples to support your strategy. If you’re leaning heavily into SEO and PPC, back this up with reports of how your approach helped many clients in the past.
Investors are less likely to fund a business when it doesn’t have a clear and proven marketing strategy. After all, it doesn’t matter how great a business idea is if nobody knows about it!
I know, I know. Finances – yawn.
However, it’s not something you can avoid in a digital marketing agency business plan. Investors – and anyone else reading your plan – need to know some key financial information, such as:
This section alone is why it’s beneficial to have an accounting & finance expert working for your digital marketing business. They can handle this entire part of the business plan and collect all the financial information required. If you’re short on money, you could hire a remote freelancer to look at your accounts and help you talk about the key company financials.
Those of you with an existing business that’s looking to expand or seek investment/business loans should have plenty of information to use here. Present all the boring stuff like balance sheets, tax returns, financial statements and everything else that shows the financial health of your digital agency.
It’s so much easier to get an injection of cash when there’s evidence of your business doing well!
Those of you without this luxury will have to take a different approach.
Maybe you’re starting a business and need funding from the get-go. Focus on your budget and show you have a fundamental understanding of how to use the money you’re after. Use clear calculations and present accurate forecasts that explain how you’ll make money.
Please take this section seriously!
Most businesses fail to get funding because they don’t have an understanding of the financial aspects of running a company. Have you ever watched The Apprentice when Claude handled interviews?
Whenever he laid into a contestant, it was normally because they messed up their financial projections or didn’t include enough information to back them up. You must show how your business will make money – and how you’ll use any money given to you.
Of all the sections in your digital marketing business plan, this is the shortest.
End your plan with a summary outlining your clear Goals & Objectives. You want both short and long-term goals like:
Break all of your goals down and explain what you’ll do to achieve each of them.
Investors and banks love stuff like this because it shows them you know what you’re talking about. You have a clear vision for your digital agency and can break it all down into a pathway for them to see.
Don’t worry; you’re almost at the end of this guide!
Every digital marketing agency needs a killer digital marketing agency business plan. Make sure it incorporates all of the seven elements listed above – but there’s one final thing to remember.
Your business will adapt and change over time. So, your digital marketing business plan must reflect this. If any changes happen in your business, make sure you edit your plan so it always contains the latest information.
As a result, you’ll always be ready to display a plan to whoever needs to see it. More often than not, this will be investors, crowdfunders or lenders as you seek a financial boost.
I hope you found this information useful – now get out there and start drawing up the first draft of your digital agency business plan!
