How to find a marketing agency for an indie business?
I run an eCommerce business called TinyPilot. I've been running it for two years, and it's grown about 10%/month. Last month, we hit a record $69k in revenue.
So far, growth has been through organic SEO, a handful of positive YouTube reviews, and word of mouth. I'd like to invest more into paid marketing, but I'm having trouble finding an agency or consultant to help me.
I'd like to find a small company that works with other small companies. I'm looking to spend $4-8k/month between ad spend and management fees. Ideally, the agency would be full-service, so they could write copy, design display ads, place them in effective channels, measure results, etc.
If I just Google "digital marketing agency," the companies that come up are huge and not a good fit for an indie business. I've gotten recommendations from friends and other companies I've worked with, and even the boutique agencies find me too small.
Have any other Indie Hackers successfully found a marketing agency that serves indie businesses well? Any that you'd recommend?
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Hey @mtlynch, we'll be happy to talk with you about the digital strategy. We're a growth agency mostly working with startups helping them grow by removing unpredictability from their marketing and sales process.
The thing is that we would like to take a look at the overall digital strategy and then split it into the channels with the biggest potential for the budget you have. And yes, we can cover all of the activities from copywriting to design and management, result measurement etc. :)
That said, if you're interested, book a call with us and let's have a talk: https://spacetime.ooo/free-20-min-consultation/
I suggest fixing your TinyPilot link above - doesn't resolve.
Thanks, fixed.
I don't have any business or marketing experience at all, but I think at that point (69k in revenue) you should probably think about hiring fulltime marketers perhaps a small sales team. You can also start an affiliate program and start promoting it as well. In my opinion that would pay off way more in the long compared to ads.
Thanks!
Keep in mind that I'm in eCommerce, so even with $69k/month in revenue, I'm only averaging about $5k/month in profit after the cost of raw materials, staff, rent, etc.
I have several people on my team but they're all 10-15 hours/week. Hiring a fulltime marketer would be a pretty big jump, and I don't know how to identify a skilled marketer as an employee.
I've experimented with affiliates, but they haven't gained much traction, so I haven't tried to invest more.
I understand. Hiring a marketing agency is certainly a safer bet if you have limited financial resources but not necessarily a scalable marketing strategy. However, you can use that until you hit a certain revenue threshold that makes you comfy hiring fulltime employees.