Many agencies struggle with self-marketing. You’re busy delivering great results for clients, but when it comes to promoting your own agency, it usually falls to the bottom of your team’s to-do list.
This is the classic “shoemaker’s kids” problem—agencies help clients grow, but their own marketing gets neglected. A common question I hear from agency owners is:
“How do we find time for lead-gen when we need to focus on client work we’ve already sold?”
Owner mindset: Never stop marketing or selling
The solution starts with changing your mindset: recognize being an agency owner means you never stop marketing and selling.
But you know that already; it’s probably a version of what you tell your clients. The hard part is turning that mindset into action.
Fortunately, good self-marketing doesn’t require you to master 20 different marketing channels.
Find your “Marketing Sweet Spot”: Match your and their needs, consistently
Instead, focus on finding a sustainable, effective approach to self-marketing. The combination will be unique to your agency—and start by finding the overlap between three key areas:
- Prospect Desire: What does your ideal client care about, and where do they spend time?
- Your Services: How can you showcase your expertise through the marketing channels you already know via your client work?
- Consistent Execution: What can you realistically sustain for at least 3-12 months?
Those three help you sustain self-marketing without negatively impacting your team’s billable client work. The Venn diagram helps you reduce the feast-or-famine cycle. I call it the “Marketing Sweet Spot.”
Let’s explore how to use my framework to create a practical, effective marketing strategy for your agency.
Step 1: Understand what your ideal clients actually want
Before diving into marketing tactics, get crystal clear on who your agency serves and what they care about. Some of this, you’ll know already—although your target market may change over time.
Use tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Semrush, Google Trends, and LinkedIn polls to identify:
- Pain points: What challenges keep your clients up at night?
- Preferred channels: Do clients consume content via LinkedIn, YouTube, industry newsletters, private communities, or something else?
- Buying triggers: What makes clients start searching for an agency like yours?
Not sure about priorities as you move into a new industry? Check out industry trade publications for ideas.
Action Steps:
- Create (or update) your core 2-3 buyer personas with specific details (e.g., “SaaS CMOs struggling with product-led growth, from Seed to Series B” or “eCommerce founders scaling from $1M to $10M”).
- Use an SEO tool like Semrush to analyze what competitors are ranking for and adjust your content strategy accordingly. You may also uncover new-to-you firms that Google “sees” as competitors.
Example: If your ideal clients are B2B tech founders, a LinkedIn content strategy and guest posts on startup blogs may be more effective than TikTok videos. In contrast, other buyers likely are on TikTok.
Step 2: Market your agency by demonstrating your expertise
Your agency already sells marketing, creative, and/or technical services—so why not use those same skills to market yourself?
Choose channels that showcase your strengths
Clients aren’t interested in “we’re too busy to market ourselves” as an excuse.
- A branding agency should have clear messaging and a polished, engaging visual presence.
- A SEO-focused agency should lead search rankings for relevant keywords.
- A paid search agency should come up when clients search for your services.
- A content marketing agency should publish insightful, shareable blog posts.
- A PR agency should have great PR for itself.
- A video production studio should have great video marketing content.
Clients want to see evidence of your work. Your portfolio and case studies help, but clients want to see you put your money where your mouth is.
Apply the “eat your own dog food” rule
If you tell clients that (for instance) email marketing, webinars, or video content work—then your agency should be using those same tactics.
You need to show you believe in your own expertise. When clients see great self-marketing, they naturally assume you’ll be good at their marketing. Yet if your self-marketing is random or non-existent, they’ll wonder about your competence.
Action Steps:
- Pick one or two core marketing channels where you can showcase your strengths. Ideally, these are ones you use for your clients. But you may need to diversify; for instance, PPC self-marketing for PPC agencies tends to be very competitors.
- Make sure your website, case studies, and social proof clearly demonstrate your agency’s expertise.
Example: A web design agency with a poorly designed website sends the wrong message. Invest in making your own assets a testament to your capabilities. Don’t have time? Add your agency as a “client” in your PM system, and give a key team member a budget (time and money) to spend and milestones to reach.
Step 3: Commit to a sustainable implementation plan
Many agencies prioritize self-marketing when their pipeline is slow… and then lose momentum as client work piles up. That’s why consistency matters more than perfection.
Here are ways to sustain your agency’s self-marketing:
- Batch content creation: Set aside 1-2 days per month to create blogs, social posts, or video content. I tend to write and editing in blocks of time, rather than doing that in 10-15 minute chunks. When you’re in Maker mode, you need blocks of uninterrupted time… versus the smaller chunks from Manager mode.
- Automate where possible: Schedule social posts, newsletters, and email follow-ups in advance. A CRM can also help you do automation nurtures, lead scoring, and more.
- Assign internal ownership: Have a dedicated team member (or yourself) accountable for execution. This is the biggest gap I see when agencies aren’t marketing themselves: no one’s job is to market the agency. An ARCI (or RACI) matrix can help.
- Outsource selectively: If your team is too busy, consider hiring a freelancer or (to an extent) using AI-assisted content creation. See my tip below about building custom GPTs.
You can probably think of other examples, based on your client work. What comes to mind?
Action Steps:
- Choose a 3-12 month commitment for your agency’s marketing strategy and then track results monthly to refine your approach based on engagement and lead quality.
- Enlist a team member to help you stay accountable to your goals. This might be your assistant, a project manager, or someone else detail-oriented who wants you to succeed… and who’s comfortable pressing if you miss a deadline.
Example: What if you committed to publishing (and publicizing) one high-quality case study per month? It would help you build credibility and attract leads, without overwhelming your team. And if this is new, start with one every two months, or one a quarter.
Tip: Create a custom GPT that drafts case studies in your style. That’s what I do, and it’s been a huge time-saver for my team. Our record is drafting a ready-for-signoff case study within two days of receiving the interview answers.
Putting it all together: Your agency’s self-marketing plan
Want more leads and tired of the “shoemaker’s kids” excuse? It’s time to take action.
To recap, self-market your agency more effectively using my three-part “Marketing Sweet Spot” framework. The ideal approach does three things:
- Fulfills prospect desire
- What does your ideal client want, and where do they look for solutions?
- Define (or update) your 2-3 core buyer personas and research where they consume content.
- Promotes your services
- How can you demonstrate expertise using the channels you already use for clients?
- Pick 1-2 marketing tactics that align with your agency’s core strengths.
- Supports consistent execution
- Can you sustain this effort for at least 3-12 months? You likely won’t get results immediately, but you also don’t need to commit to years of effort; that’s too daunting.
- Create a marketing plan, including an ARCI matrix for roles.
This is all easier when you have a head of marketing. A client with nearly 100 team members has struggled with this; I recommended they treat the agency as a client in their PM system (and in their weekly priorities). One of their client-facing directors now leads self-marketing, including a budget for time and hard costs. The agency is finally getting traction, which will reduce their cost per acquisition (CPA).
From my research with Databox, 71% of owners serve as their own CMO. This becomes less likely as agencies grow—but owners at 50+ employee agencies are still often the self-marketing CMO. If that’s your situation, accept that being CMO is part of your job—and then enlist team members to help.
Final thoughts: Small, consistent efforts win
Marketing your agency doesn’t have to be overwhelming. The key is to:
- Focus on what your ideal clients care about
- Use your own agency’s expertise to demonstrate value
- Stay consistent with a plan you can realistically maintain
By applying these principles, you can attract high-quality leads, build your agency’s authority, and generate predictable growth—without sacrificing client work or client results.
Your next step right now
What’s ONE thing you can do in the next 24 hours to move things forward? I was speaking with an agency CEO. They mentioned knowing they should do more thought leadership, but they didn’t have time.
- I asked how they felt about public speaking; they love it but haven’t done it lately. I asked if they’d done any pitching; no, but responding to offers. I suggested they speak on podcasts, as a way to use their speaking expertise.
- I asked if they know any podcast hosts who’d either have them as a guest, or who’d at least share advice on pitching others. Yes, lots.
- Perfect. My assignment: Use my “Conference Pitch GPT” to come up with 10 topics. Refine three (in the next day) and offer those to one of their “known already” podcast hosts (in the next week).
Everything’s easier when you break big things into smaller things. It also helps to know where to focus, to find your highest-ROI activities.
If you’d like concrete advice to get more leads, check out my on-demand Diversify Your Lead-Gen training. You’ll get actionable tips within the first 15 minutes.
QUESTION: Which of the three will you focus on next to improve your self-marketing?
