When I started my marketing company, my goal was to give my clients great ROI without spending my funds on overpriced equipment that wasn’t needed. While taking on new clients, I faced a perpetual struggle between the funding I had as a business owner and the results that I was expected to deliver. After all, no one wants to spend vast amounts of cash on unnecessary equipment, staff, or resources. In reality, high qualitative standards regarding clients’ deliverables on a tight budget is feasible, and here’s how I aim to do it.
Why The Pressure Is Real
In my view, I think clients are under enormous pressure and more seems to be expected from them constantly. Forwarded service? Smart strategies? Results? Oh, and let me guess, you want all of this super fast? Some impressionable agencies without resources, poorly trained personnel, and incompetent staff will continue to exist, but that is not the norm and today that way of thinking is simply laughable. You either learn how to minimize your spending to meet these elevated expectations or you run the risk of your clients walking over to the following so-called ‘best marketing’ agency.
Everyone knows by now that certain deliverables can be completed without spending an arm and a leg, and I would like to assure you that the premium is not required at all. This requires understanding how to cut down on expenditure, as well as learning to utilize budget-saving alternatives such as nifty AI tools for the rest of the finances. The moment we can achieve finacial freedom will be the moment demand commoditized offerings cease to exist. Trust me, selling these services is as boring as watching paint dry – it makes everyone feel like mindless zombies putting the same canned output.
Understanding Your Expenses
Firstly, I needed to dissect my agency’s processes to pinpoint where the money was being spent. It turns out a chunk of my budget was being spent on boring activities like preparing audience analytics reports or building the same funnels over and over again. While these tasks were necessary, they did not always make sense for the time or money expended. To put it more simply: My team was grinding their way through work that could easily be automated and faster. I’m happy that they were compensated, but that does not exactly put me in a good mood. Not good if ROI is what you are after.
I jotted down everything that goes into client projects: research, content creation, scheduling, analytics and even follow-ups. I asked myself, Am I prepared to spend a large part of my budget in these areas? Do I have any other options? Where can I change things up so that money isn’t wasted, but rather turned into progress?
That is when my brain began to plot an outline for a new demand curve. Central to this new approach was a robust GTM Strategy that ensured every marketing effort was laser-focused and cost-effective. There is a risk to complete commoditization if every other competition out there offers the same quality marketing service for the same price. It’s a lose-lose situation – No matter what you do, you either go broke or ruin your profit margins. The answer is building your service value. The problem, however, does not have to remain unsolved. The good news is, these methods allow for both goals – reducing expenses, while simultaneously increasing the quality of the products you deliver.
How To Save Money On Efficient AI Tools Like Elsa
Let me introduce you to Elsa which I discovered on M1-Project.com, it is an AI platform with a specialization that piqued my interest. Before, I used to believe advanced AI solutions were only accessible to larger agencies with lots of cash, which is such an absurd assumption that I’ve had in the past. Now, I know better. Elsa is entirely dedicated to marketing serve where they segment their audience, automate content generation, and even optimize campaigns through AI, and the best part they do all of this at the best price for their clients.
For me, one of the most exciting things is that Elsa perfectly fits what I call the ‘dream outcome’ for both my clients and me. Out of nowhere, I can now implement bespoke campaigns that create the impression of being developed by a gigantic in-house team. And the icing on the cake? I do no need to pay a lot of time or expenses on extra people who would charge me a fortune. Instead, I am using an invaluable resource that does not require sleep. It’s like I have an undercover agent doing all the heavy lifting while my human team works on more sophisticated things like strategy creation, client consultations, and creative brainstorming.
Integrating Elsa into my company workflows was simple and effective. My only concerns were, “Will AI dry and boring content?” or “Will my company data be safe?” After using Elsa, however, I learned that the AI had amazing privacy controls and customization options that helped with branding. Even my designers were saying how much fun it was to edit text and images so easily. Automating these processes also meant saving tons of money, allowing staff to focus on creating unique marketing strategies, which is hugely beneficial for my clients. So, I was very relieved.
Let me give you an example. Some time ago, I had an e-commerce brand as a client, and I had to create diverse weekly social media visuals for them. My process before using Elsa was time consuming and frustrating. I had a junior copywriter and a designer prepare a mix of posts, which required a lot of revisions and, at times, was impossible to create in quality. It drained my team. Of course, the client was satisfied, but I knew we were wasting resources.
Ultimately, it was time for me to enlist Elsa’s help. From One Night to the Next, I kept hearing reports that Ai was generating content briefs and even suggesting color schemes for visuals that he created based on engagement analytics. Tasks that would have taken weeks of back and forth edits were done in mere hours and all that was left were a few tweaks here and there. My clients began to see an increase in their output and the regularity of posting, enabling them to shift into a new level engagement. This gave us the opportunity to increase our posting rate and instead of slowing down to A/B test, we began moving at a much faster rate. Client satisfaction reached incredible levels, leading to them renewing the contract, but this time for a higher tier service. Even better, my operational expenses actually went down because I was not spending money on a full time employee to handle mundane and low level tasks.
An additional advantage my staff seemed to have gotten inspired. Now that they were unburdened from the mind-numbing and monotonous routine work, they were free to channel their ideas and energy into developing more comprehensive campaigns and improving client engagement. Eventually, all this positivity began to reflect in client calls and subsequently, the feedback turned positive. For an agency owner like me, who has a profounding interest in making profits and a great agency reputation, this is priceless.
These examples show how searching for the right tools is useful in reducing operational costs and increasing the perceived value of your clients.
Steps to Take Now
How can someone start without feeling overwhelmed with the enormous AI world?\n\nWhenever I began using Elsa, I tested it on small and basic tasks first to check if II could accomplish basic tasks . Think of this as the first step, and if it did a task like improved numbers and gained revenue because of less manual work, know you’re on the right track.\n\nThink about creating trust in the users of the AI model in the company.\n\nEvery new technology brings forward a mental barrier for some people. Some people may worry that the new tool is designed to replace them, while there are others who may be apprehensive about the learning gap they possess.
Remember AI is there not for decreasing creativity, but for boosting it. When people realize how basic the functions become once core, tedious jobs are taken over by AI, there is no hesitation in acceptance. Lastly? Blow your clients away with it. Tell them that the quality of work was higher, but the campaign results were much better, and gradually watch in wonder as their enthusiasm for a bigger package or a longer contract, definitely, starts to go through the roof.
If you’re wanting to learn more about incorporating affordable and effective AI technologies into your marketing agency, then check out Elsa. M1-Project.com explains how this platform helps businesses grow on a budget. There is no reason why you should be using poorly rated and moderately pricey services. Instead, use advanced technologies to improve your agency’s services, ensure better profits, and achieve business results that makes clients remark, ‘I am glad I made the right choice.’
I am a firm believer in the fact that your agency can grow significantly, faster, and become more efficient if the right tech tools are applied. If for any reason things take an unfortunate turn, at the very least you will have gained something valuable for the future. I think the great news is that your dream outcome is entirely possible.
