The Top 3 Mistakes We've Made As An Agency

No matter what industry you are in when it comes to business, mistakes are bound to be made. This is a fundamental part of life. As a digital marketing agency, we are no different.

Although, a difference can be found in the way you deal with these mistakes and if you learn from them. If this is the case, you are likely to eliminate the chance of repeating the same ones again.

The kind of mistakes will be different for every business, naturally. For us, our top 3 mistakes are ones that many others can learn from or relate to.

Keep on reading to find out what these mistakes were and how we learnt from them.

1. Taking On Clients In The Early Days Without Properly Evaluating Them

Any newer business will probably be able to recognise the same mistake made by them.

When you are starting out, any new client that puts their trust in you and chooses you out of a sea of other businesses is one you will most likely want to please. Particularly if you are still relatively small and have not built up a large client base yet.

As you can imagine, being a brand new e-commerce digital marketing agency in London, we fell into this trap.

The problem with this mistake is that you have no idea what the potential problems could be. Poor client evaluation means a very good chance of having many downfalls along the way. Even though some downfalls are unavoidable in many businesses at times, the extent to which they can occur without proper evaluation can be worse.

From this mistake, we have learnt that taking the time to properly evaluate potential clients is key. It may take a little bit longer before you can finalise any agreements between your business and the client, but the guarantee of no unpleasant surprises will save you time in the long run.

2. Not Having A Clear Pricing Structure/Values

Pricing and values are extremely important in a business. Evidently, pricing shows your offerings to interested clients, who can then decide whether or not you fit their budget. 

Additionally, values in a business are equally as important because, ultimately, they convey to clients what you stand for, what you will tolerate, and the standard to which you will deliver on your promises.

As a new digital marketing agency, setting clear pricing and values is something we did not do in the early stages, which, looking back, was definitely one of our biggest mistakes. We have always offered a range of services – from social media advertising to a complete digital strategy -so, being unclear in terms of pricing and values is something we had to quickly fix.

Consistency is another fundamental component of success in business. In terms of pricing, providing different clients with inconsistent pricing will create a negative reputation for your business and steer people away from working with you.

The same is true for values. It is not a good idea to chop and change your principles depending on your client. The results will only be damaging to your potential success.

In the beginning, our pricing structure and values were not as clear as they should have been. We learnt quickly that this does not serve any purpose and would hinder us longterm. 

3. Not Setting Clear Expectations

This can apply to many aspects of your business – your service offerings, clients, work environment, and employees, to mention a few.

When starting a business, there are so many things to consider and overlooking some of them can happen, accidentally. Your focus may be on building up a client list but you may have completely forgotten to inform your team what you expect of them.

This can have some negative implications in the running of your business.

When you set clear expectations, you create an environment in which employees and clients can know what to anticipate without arguing about it later.

The expectations can include things like: the minimum work employees need to get done by the end of the day, the information and honesty required from your clients in order for you to provide the most effective service, the behaviour and etiquette desired in the office, etc.

At the beginning of our journey, setting clear expectations was not on the top of our priority list and we saw the complications of that soon after. Three years down the line and we have remedied this mistake and our expectations are obvious and unmistakable.

The thing to remember with mistakes is that you can always fix them and, more importantly, learn from them. 

There is no doubt that every business has its own list of mistakes that it can share. However, the main thing is to ensure you align with your goals and that your employees, colleagues, and clients do too.

Establishing ourselves as a trustworthy and reputable digital marketing agency in London would not have been possible were it not for our mistakes and what they taught us.