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Sector Spotlight: Advertising and Marketing Agencies

The UK has a huge advertising and marketing sector. Find out more here!

The UK is the fourth largest advertising and marketing industries in the world. When it comes to Europe, they are the largest. The industry has seen massive growth in digital advertising over other more traditional mediums. This has opened huge opportunities for people looking to get into this industry. 

If you want to build a solid business in this sector, you will need to be prepared to keep up with the faced paced changes that come with it. Read on to discover more about these opportunities and what it takes to become successful in this industry.

Different types of agencies

This industry has a lot of opportunities but taking advantage of them will mean identifying the services that you want to offer. Getting to grips with the options that are available to you is a good start.

Creative agencies are charged with producing the Big Idea. They devise a communications strategy in three stages: identifying who the customer is, what to say to them and how to say it.

marketing agency

Media agencies coordinate the last stage - the 'how' - identifying the best, most cost-effective media for transmitting the message to the customer, whether through TV or radio advertisements, printed advertorial, sponsorship, events, the internet, email or SMS text messaging.

Digital agencies can be creative, media or a mixture of both. Characterised by an emphasis on digital technologies, they use internet marketing, interactive TV and mobile and email marketing, among other media.

Some agencies concentrate on direct marketing, the effectiveness of which can be tracked easily as the customer is asked to ring a free phone number, email, visit a website, return an order form, complete a survey, etcetera.

Beyond that, there are also brand agencies and design agencies. A brand agency helps a business to identify and develop their own unique brand and point of view. A design agency provides clients with graphic design services.

Finally, social media marketing agencies help businesses to use social media as a tool to market their business or services.

Agency

This list is far from extensive. There are many more types of agencies and the list will continue to grow as the market grows, however, this list is an indication of the wide range of options for any entrepreneur looking to go into the field.

Exciting growth but tough competition

This industry has seen a lot of growth over the years. This will probably continue. This prediction can be made because, when it comes down to it, in order to stay competitive, businesses have to invest in their marketing. This is not going to change anytime soon.

The success of the industry, though, means that there are marketing and advertising businesses a plenty as your competition. If you want to make yours successful, you will need to be able to pick a niche and stay ahead of the trends.

Marketing and advertising

Find an area of the industry that you can become the specialist in. Use this to market yourself and

draw in new customers. Your niche could be the services that you provide or the type of customers that you provide them too.

You can then use content marketing to display your expertise, build trust and reach out to new customers. 

Your business set up 

You can offer as many or as little services as you want. Think carefully about this as the more you can offer the more business your customers are likely to bring you, however, you will also risk spreading yourself too thin.

Agencies also decide between hiring in house staff or getting freelancers in to work on projects when they get them in. There are pros and cons to each option. Inhouse staff can be more costly, however, it can be good for your business and your brand to have in house staff that can grow and develop along with your business. Freelancers will need to be thoroughly briefed if they are expected to create work in line with your brand. 

Don’t forget to keep refreshing your skills and services. The world of social media and digital marketing moves quickly and you need to keep up! And don't forget this advice when looking for the right business to buy!



Anthea Taylor

About the author

Anthea Taylor is Content Producer at Dynamis and writes for all titles in the Dynamis stable including BusinessesForSale.com, FranchiseSales.com and PropertySales.com as well as other industry publications.