Podcast Decoded 01 : Building a marketing agency from scratch | Ali Abdaal & Eric Siu

Greetings from my Side !
This is basically my learnings and key takeaways from the Podcast of Ali Abdaal & Eric Siu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S41DwTT7cnA&t=711s)

In this article, I'm going to describe about the following Topics:

✔ How to Make Money from Internet
✔ Approaches you can follow to start a marketing agency
✔ Prerequisities & Skills needed to make money
✔ Fun conversation with ali abdaal & Entrepreneurial journey of Eric Siu ~ Founder of Growth Marketing Agency, SingleGrain.

Eric said, you have to just get really good at one thing. Pick a skill and master it. But, What skills you can try out ?

1. Making short form content on Youtube and Instagram

2. Editing short Form Videos (IG Reels, Youtube Shorts)

3. Copywriting

   1. writing specifically on X

   2. writing specifically on LinkedIn

   3. Web design

Eric also mentioned a strategy/Approach about cold Pitches (how to reach out to people to get work) :

1. If you excel in a particular skill, such as video editing, you can reach out to someone on X, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Directly share a sample of your work that aligns with their needs. This way, the person you contact will already have a relevant example of your abilities. If they are impressed with your work, they may offer you more opportunities or even bring you onto their team.

2. First of all, it's hard to get a response when reaching out. You can't just directly contact the CEO or Director of the company and expect a reply. You need to play a calculated game. Try messaging an employee of that company or someone on the sales or analyst team—someone who is more likely to respond to your cold pitch.

3. Market yourself to the world. This is a major strategy to get work. You need to showcase you work to the people, for which you want to get paid. To market yourself, you can post content on Linkedin, Instagram and Youtube. These places will help you to get work and build a strong portfolio.

4. You need to be best at what you do. Marketing yourself is a really good strategy, but it won't work unless you are not good at what you are trying to showcase. Most people get replies, but didn't get the opportunity only because they are not that good at what they showcase.

5. Use any platform from where you can get leads of. Don't Limit yourself to some reknowned platforms where you think you can get the lead. You can reach out to the people on discord, X. you can make blogs and market yourself on hashnode, medium. You can contact your friends, create a whatsapp community, attend events, take webinars, take live sessions, give talks in college or events. There are many ways, try each, something will work for you, for sure.

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How much to charge ?

What minimum clients do you need per month ?

Let's say you are charging 500$/month for clip making/video editing from one client. you can get 20 clients to work for every month.

so basically,
20 x 500 = 10,000$/month

So, less or more, you can hit the mark of 10kper month, and that's a really good earning to start with.

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one important thing Eric said “It doesn't matter what everyone thinks, whatever approach you are following, if it works for you, do it! But you need to be stick to one thing. You need to Focus”

You can do anything, But Not Everything

Eric was explaining about how important it is, to do only one thing with full focus, because most of the time, doing everything won't make you any better, because you are spending your whole energy on multiple things, which won't give much output.

Mark Cuban (American businessman, Investor and film producer) once Said "Diversification is for Idiots". He argued that spreading investments across different assets is ineffective without specific market knowledge. Instead, Cuban advocates for concentrated bets based on thorough research.

Some of the Richest people in the world, are either Business Owners or Investors. So it is really Important for you to own an asset or equity in the long term.

Keys aspects you should focus on to build a Digital Marketing agency :

1. Market Research : Identify Your Target Market: Research industries or business sizes that need digital marketing services.

2. Niche Selection: Specializing in a specific area (e.g., SEO, social media marketing, content marketing) can help you stand out.

3. Business structure: Choose a legal structure (sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation).

4. Pricing Strategy: Decide how you will charge clients (hourly rates, project-based, retainers)

5. Branding and Marketing: Establish a presence on relevant social media platforms to engage with potential clients and showcase your expertise.

6. Invest in Tools and Technologies: Invest in tools for SEO, social media management, email marketing, analytics, and project management.

   • Implement a customer relationship management (CRM) system to manage leads and client interactions.

7. Continuous Learning and Development: Invest in ongoing training for yourself and your team to stay ahead in the rapidly changing digital marketing landscape.

8. Networking: Your Network is your NetWorth. Build Authentic connections with the people.

9. Financial Management: Plan your finances carefully, including expenses for tools, salaries, and marketing efforts. Ensure you have enough working capital to sustain your business during slow periods.

10. Vision and Goal: Define your agency’s purpose and long-term goals.

Networking, Retreat and Connections

Being able to network with people and just show up everyday is really important. You can Increase you probability of increasing your business or building your business, if you have a good network of people who will support your vision.

Eric gave an example,
You can be a connector/orgainzer as well, the person who brings everyone together, is always the liked one too, you can bring a group of wealthy people or skilled people together, and can network with them. All you need to do is the groundwork for that. But in the long run, it will take you more forward, that you can ever think of.

This is all for now, hope you Like my Blog.
Thank you!