An advertising agency is opened with the aim of providing its clients with professional assistance in the development and organization of various promotions.
How can an advertising agency stand out from a number of many?
In fact, there are a lot of advertising agencies. And this is understandable, many organizations need to promote their products and services, increase sales. And the advertising agency in this matter is the first assistant.
However, there are a number of points, paying attention to which you can stand out from a number of other similar businesses:
- narrow specialization — if you specialize in one or two services, then the quality of their provision will inevitably increase. This means that the trust of customers in your company will increase;
- creative and original approach to solving advertising problems of clients;
- careful planning and study of advertising campaigns;
- organization of press conferences and presentations;
- production of advertising equipment
Today, only a few agencies 100% meet the requirements of customers and consumers of the advertised goods. After all, only advertising that brings customers to the business is effective.
Advertising agency business plan: where to start?
What are the first steps towards starting an advertising agency?
1) First you need to decide on the choice of niche. You can specialize in print advertising, television or radio advertising. Nowadays, advertising on the Internet is in great demand. Printing is still popular.
2) Having decided on the direction of activity, you can begin to select premises for the office. The area should be convenient both in terms of interaction with customers and partners: manufacturers of printing and souvenir products, etc.
3) In the advertising business, as in any other, nowhere without customers. Therefore, from the very beginning it is necessary to start promoting yourself, i.e. advertise . By the way, many clients evaluate an advertising agency by the quality of the advertisements placed about themselves.
After all, if an advertising agency cannot promote itself, it’s like a shoemaker without boots.
4) It is necessary to pay special attention to the issue of setting a margin. After all, advertising agencies are a kind of intermediaries between advertisers and producers of advertising materials (such as, for example, printing houses).
As a rule, the markup of an advertising agency does not exceed 15% of the total budget of customers. Everything, of course, depends on the specific situation on the market, but in most cases the figure will be just that.
Advertising Agency Business Plan: Staff
The main value of an advertising agency is its employees. After all, they sell and provide advertising services.
What state will need to be recruited? What functions does each employee perform?
1) Director — concludes contracts, deals with personnel, cooperates with agencies that provide printed, souvenir and other products. He attends conferences and exhibitions and exchanges experiences.
2) The accountant takes care of accounting and reporting. Also, as a rule, the issue of money management remains with the accountant (calculates salaries, pays taxes, transfers money to counterparties).
3) Advertising agents — directly involved in the sale of advertising services. This is the main army of such a business.
4) In addition, an artist-designer is often hired on the staff, who fulfills customer orders.
Advertising agency business plan: how much money is needed at the start?
Advertising agency provides services. And therefore, to start such a business, you need not money — more knowledge of how to sell advertising and fulfill customer orders.
However, the initial investment will still be needed:
1) Rent of premises — about 60 thousand dollars for the first 2 months of rent;
2) Staff salaries — also about 60 thousand for the first time (until the project begins to pay for itself);
3) Office equipment — computers, printing equipment — all this is also necessary in this business. The costs will not exceed $100,000;
4) Repair of the premises — as needed.
To start this project, you will need a relatively small amount — about 200,000 rubles.
Advertising agency business plan: promoting your services
In advertising, it is very important to be able to promote yourself and sell your services. Who can be your customer?
- Local trade and service organizations;
- Large retail chains that enter the local market;
- Foreign and domestic manufacturers who consider it necessary to promote their product in the local market.
Each of these clients has different needs as well as advertising budgets. Therefore, each client will need to find their own approach.
For example, local organizations will prefer low-budget and targeted advertising that will reach a small number of clients. They are more likely to use print ads. Sometimes they also order advertising on local radio.
Large networkers will order more advertising on banners, streamers, and television advertising.
Advertising agency business plan: features of this business
I repeat once again: an advertising agency is an intermediary. He often does not have his own base for the production of promotional products.
The whole strength of an advertising agency lies in the wide client base to which they can offer a certain range of services. And not just to offer, but to act as experts — to suggest which advertising will work in this or that case, which advertising will attract more potential customers.
Over time, satisfied customers will work for you. And if your agency solves their promotion tasks, after a year of work, the advertising agency will be able to gain a good reputation.