Marketing Maven Nsenzi Salasini on how to start a profitable digital marketing agency
Here we sit down with Nsenzi Salasini to pick his brain on all things digital marketing, and how you can become a profitable digital marketer yourself.
Q. Hey Nsenzi, what made you start a digital marketing agency?
Nsenzi: I found online customer acquisition to be a massive problem business owners were experiencing and I knew my skill set could provide them with the solution they needed so it made sense from a business standpoint.
From a personal standpoint, I always wanted my work to provide me with 5 things:
- Limitless Impact & Reach
- Uncapped Scalability
- Time Freedom
- Location Freedom
- Financial Freedom
Digital Marketing fulfills all the above. Not to mention, the people I work with truly want to grow their business. So the relationships I’ve built and growth I’ve seen along the way has been fulfilling.
Q. How important is going niche?
Nsenzi: Very important when it comes to scale.
After working with many different niches & industries, I’ve found the art of marketing and customer acquisition follows the same 3 principals. 1. Find the target audience. 2. Capture their attention 3. Offer of your product or service.
However, each marketing campaign looks completely different when you work with a Dental practice compared to a Roofing Company, compared to a Car Dealership.
This is why niching down becomes extremely important for an agency when it comes to scalability, and building out internal systems efficiently.
With the right systems and resources in place, you can absolutely expand and work with multiple niches down the road, however in the beginning, niching down is extremely important so you don’t run the risk of spreading yourself too thin and having your clients results suffer because of it.
A hidden byproduct of niching down that no one talks about is the huge advantage it gives you over your competition. Once you are niched down, you naturally will develop a deeper understanding of that niche. This helps position you as an industry expert in that niche. Business owners will always place their trust in a specialist over a generalist.
Q. What’re 3 tips to grow your agency?
Nsenzi:
1. Focus primarily on 2 activities: Setting appointments and closing appointments. These are the 2 activities that actually move the needle forward in your business. I find a lot of people spending time on the color of their logo or the design of their website etc. Those things do not move the needle like setting and closing appointments. If you want to grow your agency, your calendar should never have a lot of white space. Your primary activities should be setting or closing appointments.
2. Laser focus on specialization
Don’t try to be everything to everyone because you will end up being nothing to no one. I see plenty of agency owners offering 8+ different services which in turn require 8+ different skill sets. Doing this makes it challenging to grow and over-deliver for your clients. Get laser focused on one service and go extremely deep with it. Become an industry specialist on that service and new business will start coming to you effortlessly
3. Hire based on “fit” not just skills
As you grow you will need to hire employees to increase company capacity and revenue. However, most agency owners rush the process and only look for people with the best skills, forgetting about company culture. The wrong hire can be extremely costly not only to your revenue but more importantly to your team chemistry and operations. As the leader of my team, I would rather hire someone who is a great culture fit and teach them the necessary skills over hiring someone who has great skills but is not a culture fit for you or the team. Take your time and look for people whose values line up with yours, you can enjoy working with, and are excited to get behind your vision for the company.
Bonus tip — Systemize and automate your lead generation as soon as possible
This will allow you to focus on closing appointments and working above your business to make the larger strategic plays at the top.
Q. What would you recommend to a beginner looking to get started?
Nsenzi: Change your relationship with failure ASAP. Like everything else in life, there will be a lot of trial and error. Especially in the beginning. See those errors as opportunities for feedback to make the necessary changes and take action again. Continue this loop until you achieve the level of success you want. I can assure you, the greatest accomplishments are placed on the other side of failure.
Action. Feedback. Improve. Action.
If someone is looking to compress time and bypass a lot of the failures, seek out a mentor. Find someone who has seen success or is even a few steps ahead of you and ask for their time and assistance in exchange for some kind of value. The value you bring to the table does not always have to be money related, find something they may need and help them with it.
Q. Where do you see digital marketing going for business owners in 2021?
Nsenzi: If a business is not advertising online, they will soon be put out of business by those who are.
We’ve hit a time where more and more people are using the internet to make larger and larger purchasing decisions. I firmly believe that if a business is not taking full advantage of online advertising and social media marketing, they will be drastically left behind in 2020 and beyond.
I’ve seen countless small and large corporations who have ignored online advertising and social media marketing have to close down because their competition was innovative and went digital. In 2020 digital marketing is no longer optional. It is mandatory if you want to see growth and have the competitive advantage in your market.
In 2021 business owners will have to pay to play
In 2021, the most powerful social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn etc will be cutting down organic reach and making it “pay to play.”
For the business owners who have been using social media to post and attract customers organically, they will see a tremendous drop in reach and customers. We’re already seeing this shift with Facebook and Instagram. To increase your reach, even to your followers and audience, you will have to pay the platforms and run advertisements.
Boring will put your business in debt in 2021
I’ve worked with plenty of business owners who throw their entire budget and bank account at digital marketing and tell me “it does not work.” Then when I take a look at their campaigns, I find they are using marketing strategies that are outdated and inefficient.
Consumers are evolving and starting to develop “ad blindness” towards content that screams “I’m an ad.” in the newsfeed. No one goes online to be advertised to so as a marketer and business owner, you have to become creative in capturing and keeping your audience’s attention.
We’ve found the best way to do this is to have an element of entertainment or education in your digital marketing. If you are comfortable on video that’s even better because video creates more familiarity and trust between you and your audience.
Q. What are your current plans with your agency?
Nsenzi: I plan to continue expanding our reach and helping people move away from outdated & inconsistent customer acquisition methods. Putting the power to grow their company back in their hands with online advertising, social media marketing, and customer acquisition.
If you’re interested in working with or learning more about Nsenzi Salasini go visit him online at:
Website: www.nsenzi.com
Instagram: @Nsenzi
