A year ago I started my first startup, an online marketing agency. I do a lot of things (web development, email marketing, social media, seo, ppc and content marketing).
I have sold most of my clients web design, seo and ppc (which are my specialities) and now it is time to hire someone else because I have a lot of work.
The questions is, in the future should I offer all these services or should I specialize in one or two fields and stop offering all the other services?
You should remain focused on what you do best.
Have a broad approach on different markets/requirements from your clients (current and to come) and same time have few employees specialized in the most demanded fields.
As a general rule, a professional which provide results in a mixed environment is to be preferred to one which excels in just one field. Is about adaptability and the ability to get the things done in the way to produce results.
There is another issue: could happen to design a campaign which you know for sure that will produce results, but your client to dislike it. If the client is big is difficult to convince about your opinion.
Bottom line, work on a wide spectrum and have few collaborators specialized in niche markets - even just for ideas and insights.
Another useful approach is to design several drafts for a campaign, which to be as simple as possible, only to show the direction and reaction of your client, and to refine that one which have the biggest chances to balance your gut and clients desire.
If you need more let me know by email at bogdins at gmail dot com or by skype at technobogdins.
Your question is a good one - and one that quite a few entrepreneurs struggle with.
The (very) short answer is...Specialize.
Specializing will (usually) help you make MUCH more money per sale.
People (aka potential customers) typically perceive products and services from a specialist to be more valuable than from a generalist. And that means they will usually pay more for it.
You can also run leaner when you specialize (therefore business expenses can be kept lower).
But alas (yes I just said "alas" and yes there's a "but") there is not a simple answer to what YOU should do.
Choosing your products / services is a KEY part of constructing your Strategy and your Business Model. And in order to choose wisely you will (among other things) need a deep understanding of your market.
-What problem(s) does your product resolve? (or what desire does it fulfill?)
AND
-What stipulations does the solution need to consider?
In other words - What does your market WANT?
If you discover that your specific market (aka niche) wants a specialized product or to work with a specialist versus a generalist AND they're willing to pay more for that AND they want it from YOU... then specialize.
I hope you're starting to sense that all of this leads to the bigger picture question: "What are my Goals and what Business Model am I going to test in the marketplace?"
Your current level of success - the fact that you have clients and are making money - is a great sign that you have something the market values. To take things to the next level (to move beyond being self-employed) and GROW a business - you would be wise to proceed with a plan that dictates tactics (like choosing products and pricing).
Send me a message to set up a call to discuss YOUR specific situation and grow your business.
In any case - I wish you massive success!
Cheers,
David
I faced a similar issue with my company, C&M Group. Our speciality is business strategy. No matter who comes to us, we offer business strategy, and THAT is our speciality. In the beginning, we started doing everything under the moon to make our clients happy, including SEO, PPC, content marketing, web development, and Business strategy.
2 Lessons learned.
#1 - No differentiation. We were every other firm.
#2 - Lack of focus - we didn't know what we were doing, other than everything. This also meant we did not know how to improve.
Instead, we started over and decided to focus solely on business strategy. This helped us differentiate ourselves as the TOP individuals in the market, and also gave us opportunities to network with other award winning firms that did what our clients wanted. Referrals work in both directions, which brings in more $$$ as well.
I hope this helped. Let me know if you would like to chat further about this.
Focus on what you do best and if possible create a new category and be remarkakble. That might be sector specific or that you share the risk. Mark
It is not that easy for me to say either you go broad online marketing or specialized online marketing given the current pandemic condition. But reading your business journey I personally feel you should not go with Broad Online Marketing again. The traditional Five Ps of marketing: Product, People, Price, Promotion and Place still apply in Internet Marketing.
1. Product – The physical product or the service that you are offering to the customer. You will decide what to sell or offer, how it should appear, what customer service support will come with it, and any warranty or additional aspects of the product that will be included. You may be offering the same product or service as dozens, hundreds, or thousands of other websites, so you’ll need to somehow distinguish yourself from the pack if the customer is to choose your offering over all the others.
2. People – The people decisions that you will make are those that refer to how you want your customer service representatives to interact with your customers. How will they be instructed to work with the customer? How will you make sure they have the information they need to help the customer? How will you incorporate your current customer service strategies into your Internet strategies? Will you offer live support even to online customers?
3. Price – Pricing decisions are made based on profit margins, pricing that competitors use, and the demand in the market. You will also have to make decisions regarding when to offer price discounts and whether you will allow financing or other payment arrangements. With the Internet market, you will need to compete on price but also on shipping charges and any other fees that might change what the customer pays for the product or service.
4. Promotion – As described earlier, promotion decisions will need to be made regarding how you will communicate and sell to your potential customers. You’ll have to decide what you can afford to spend on promotions as well based on the expected return on investment (ROI). If not done carefully, you could easily spend thousands of dollars on promotion activities that do not provide any significant return on investment. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one example; if it is not delivering you buying customers, you will spend a lot of money for little to no results.
5. Place – Also sometimes called Placement, these decisions regard how you will distribute your product or service to the customer. Will you have a store front shop in addition to your website? Will you deliver the items yourself or will you simply resell someone else’s products for them (called being an affiliate)? Will you offer immediate delivery of electronic information products or just use your website as a tool to drive customers to a live location?
I will suggest you go for SEO as it provides ample of opportunities. Apart from keywords options SEO has many additional techniques:
1. Article Marketing: Article marketing is a way for you to generate interest in your site by someone first reading an article that then guides them to your website. You can think of it as one way of building the reputation as an expert in your field. You generate (or pay someone else to generate) unique content for your articles that is rich with the same types of keywords as the ones you have used on your site. You can even write articles that are not related to your website, but that would be of interest to people who would find your website interesting as well. At the bottom of the article, and throughout the article if it is allowed, you can include a link back to your website. Those links count as backlinks, which help build your ranking when search engines rank your site. That way, when someone reads your article, if they find it helpful or interesting, they will be motivated to click on a link and visit your site. Ideally, the link in an article will direct the customer to a page on your site that will contain exactly the information or product that they want.
2. Using Blogs and Forums: In a similar vein to writing articles, you can also create blogs or forum posts that will help build your reputation and can guide readers back to your website. “Blog” comes from the term “web log” and was once a type of online diary for individuals. But now, businesses use them to create an interactive environment with their readers, and to add an additional location in cyberspace where they can demonstrate expertise to readers who might want to know more about you, your company, or your products and services. You may also have a blog on your own site where you spend most of your time interacting with customers - but this strategy requires that you create additional blogs out on different sites. Blogs can develop quite a following over time. Particularly if the information that is provided is topical and relevant to the type of person who would be reading your blog. For example, if you were a clothing designer, one blog post might cover the latest fashion trends seen on TV. You would then provide a link to similar products on your website at the end of the blog. Or, you could write about how the fashion industry has cut prices in response to the recession and add a link to your sales page on your site.
3. Social Media Sites: Nothing has changed the way we interact in the 21st century as much as the proliferation of social media websites. These sites provide a virtual community for users, where they can communicate and share with each other about their interests, the events in their lives, and their relationships. Just like blogs, social media sites have been adopted by businesses as another way to interact with their clients, customers, and potential clients and customers. In some cases, following or communicating with a business through one of these sites is a way for businesses to offer a special deal in exchange for the person participating in that company’s social media site.
4. Video Sites: Some of the sites we have already mentioned allow you to post videos to share information with visitors. But there are also some sites that are designed specifically for posting videos. You can use these sites to your benefit in several ways. First, these sites are designed with the software and tools that will play video for most people. You do not have to worry about using a video player on your own website that some people might not be able to operate on their own computers. Second, you do not have to store the video on your site. Video can take up a great deal of storage space on a server and you will not have to provide it on your own site if you use a video site to showcase your company’s videos. Third, you do not have to have the bandwidth available on your site for streaming video for multiple viewers at a time. Again, this capacity is provided by the video hosting site. So, you recognize the benefits of using a video site, but you are not sure what kind of video you could create for your company. Why would someone want to watch a video about your product or service? Furthermore, what would you possibly make a video about?
5. Press Releases: Yes, press releases are still around, even in the age of Internet marketing. You should not underestimate this traditional means of drawing attention to your company and any news-worthy events or announcements that you might have. However, you will not just send them to the traditional press outlets that you would have before the Internet; you will also use them to splash backlinks to your website around the net.
Start by developing a well-written press release that includes all of the information that you would normally include:
a. Your contact information (and website address, linking to the announcement or the area of interest on your website)
b. A summary of the event, announcement, or news that you are sharing
c. What this means for your customers - current and future
d. Another link for more information, particularly if it is to a different page on your website than your contact information
As you write the press release, you should include the keywords that are related to the area of your business that you want the press release to draw attention to. Follow the same rules that you have for using keywords in an article; be sure to use them in the opening sentences, and make sure that any use of keywords and keyword phrases is natural and suited to the context.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
