Strategic Planning Now Will Grow Your Agency For Years to Come… and Here’s Proof
If you don’t already have your strategic plan for 2025, start now.
For marketing and communications agencies, competition today is intense and more formidable than ever. For the last year or two, it has been tougher to grind out year-over-year revenue growth and protect your agency’s profit margin. The hope is that with interest rates declining and the divisive Presidential election behind us, robust growth will be possible once more. However, to best position your agency to take advantage of any growth opportunities, you should develop a plan that identifies
the areas of possible growth and,
the steps and investments required to be successful,
We have seen repeatedly that agencies which embrace strategic planning outperform agencies that do not. The most successful firms understand that a goal without a plan is just a wish. They recognize that strategic planning is their roadmap to sustained success.
As former agency owners ourselves, we apply our deep experience and proprietary Growth Driver Audit to help agencies overcome whatever challenges they may be facing. This time-tested approach helps them to significantly grow their businesses by adhering to a proven set of strategies, an actual written plan and a timely decision-making process.
How the Growth Driver Audit works.
Based on a thorough but fast-paced review of your agency’s written materials, online presence, presentations and financials (followed by interviews with you, your management team and selected clients), we analyze the firm’s performance on the nine key drivers of long-term growth and success:
Mission – What are you and your team most passionate about? Where do you have the deepest category knowledge and experience?
Vision – Why does your agency exist? Are you prepared to achieve it?
Brand Proposition – Do you have a distinctive brand and compelling service offerings?
Leadership – Is responsibility for success shared by a broad team? Are the necessary resources and staffing architecture in place?
Structure – Are you most efficiently and effectively selling and servicing the Brand Proposition?
Methodology – What’s your “secret sauce”? How strong is your IP? How will you maintain quality client service as your agency grows and you personally get further away from each pitch and engagement?
Business Development – Are you fully leveraging your expertise and capabilities to reach those prospects most likely to hire you for what you know? How are you building your firm’s reputation? What are your sales tools and process?
Culture – Is everyone aligned with the agency’s mission and vision? Are you building next-generation leadership?
Finance & Operations – How effectively are you managing pricing, billing, scopes of work, client budgets and required investment in the agency’s future vs. short-term profit?
The deliverables. We recommend in writing not only where improvements are needed but how to implement them, the investment cost and expected ROI. For each approved recommendation, we then develop a timeline with the specific steps to be taken and assign responsibility within the agency for implementation.
The findings from the Growth Driver Audit then become the core of your strategic plan.
Strategic planning will grow your agency. Here’s proof.
These are just four brief examples (among many) of how our Growth Drive Audit results in strategic plans which drive substantially higher growth and profits:
Healthcare agency: Reorganization of staff and development of a dedicated marketing function led to 300% revenue growth (yes, that’s a real number) and the blockbuster sale of the firm to a management consultancy.
Digital marketing company: Bringing PR, creative and digital production in-house drove 500% growth in three years.
Advertising agency: Revitalized the brand proposition, energized senior leadership, increased profitability by dropping low-margin clients and re-working the new business process. The result? “Agency of the Year” recognition by a national publication.
Social good agency: Drove substantial improvements in competitiveness, revenue and profitability by reorganizing the business around knowledge centers, transformation to a learning culture, more focus on staff development and a re-worked pricing model.
Learn more about Prosper Group’s Growth Driver Audit here.
Review our approach to strategic planning here.
We’re here to help you prosper.
Prosper Group exists to help the owners of independent marketing and communications agencies achieve their ambitions and maximize the value of their life’s work. Our team is comprised of former agency leaders and owners who focus their deep experience on implementing proven proprietary methodologies across our three practices of agency performance, owner exit planning and M&A transactions in order to drive owner and agency success.
To learn more about us, please visit our Services page.
