Right now, you probably feel deeply ingrained in your marketing agency's processes. The business simply couldn't go on without you. But what if you could set up your agency to run itself and take a step away without worry?
At Seven Figure Agency, one of our goals is to help agency owners scale their marketing agencies so that they can enjoy more free time. Learn how to structure a marketing agency that runs itself through our proven strategies.
Understanding the Obstacles That Limit Your Ability To Scale
If scaling your agency and taking a step back feels impossible, you likely have at least one of these problems that is hindering your growth:
- Everything runs through you: You handle sales, manage clients, and oversee delivery so that nothing can happen without your intervention.
- You use reactive operations: You haven't set up consistent, predictable systems, instead bouncing between getting clients, delivering work, and scrambling for more clients. This creates a “feast-or-famine” cycle that makes scaling difficult.
- You don't have a clear organizational structure: Without clear roles and accountability, you cannot effectively scale.
The Three Components of a Hands-Off Marketing Agency
Structuring a seven-figure agency that runs itself comes down to having three solid pillars in your agency.
1. Predictable Client Acquisition
Taking steps daily, monthly, and quarterly to attract more clients to your agency can help you achieve sustainable growth that makes scaling much easier. Focus on scheduling certain activities into your daily workflow to generate leads, like:
- Posting short-form and long-form content
- Reaching out to at least five new prospects
- Retargeting interested prospects
- Running paid ads on Facebook and Google
Each month, you should be doing these two things consistently:
- Publishing one podcast where you interview clients, experts, or industry leaders
- Hosting a webinar or workshop that teaches something valuable to your niche
And each quarter, make an effort to attend at least one industry event for in-person networking, and create one detailed client case study to provide evidence of the results your agency has achieved.
Creating consistency with your client acquisition measures allows you to teach your team how to continue generating new clients even when you are out of the office.
2. The Right Systems and Processes
Systematic processes also help you feel more confident taking a step back. You should have systems and procedures for all of the following:
- Project management: Use tools like ClickUp or even just a spreadsheet to track every step of service delivery. Set deadlines, monitor progress, and assign responsibilities so that everyone is clear on what stage of delivery each service is in.
- Account management: Assign account managers to each client to handle communications, and create structured onboarding, check-in, and reporting processes.
- Services: Create standard operating procedures (SOPs) for every process: website builds, copywriting, SEO, paid ads, and any other services you offer. This ensures consistency even when your team members change.
You should also take steps to streamline internal communications so that everyone stays aligned. Use Slack for asynchronous communication, and host:
- Daily 15-minute team huddles
- Weekly leadership meetings
- Monthly all-hands meetings
3. A Reliable Leadership and Team Structure
To structure a marketing agency that you can truly step back from, you need reliable leadership in place. Four key roles will keep your business running while you are away:
- Director of Operations: This role owns the service delivery process and manages execution and team output.
- Account Management Director: This person owns client experience and retention and oversees account managers.
- Marketing Lead: This role manages lead generation and tracks metrics like cost per lead and acquisition.
- Sales Manager: This person owns revenue growth and manages sales processes and teams.
These roles allow your business to operate without you being involved in everything.
Steps To Get Started
If you're just beginning the process of structuring a marketing agency that runs itself, you can focus on these next steps:
- Audit your client acquisition.
- Document your services and processes.
- Build your agency organizational chart.
- Create a hiring plan to start strategically building leadership.
- Implement an operating system, like the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).
Join Seven Figure Agency Today
With these three pillars needed to scale, you can structure your marketing agency to continue running while you take a step back. At Seven Figure Agency, we help agency owners like you learn how to grow and scale their businesses to seven figures and beyond. Schedule your agency acceleration session today to learn how we can help you.
