When is it time to launch my own SEO agency in Canberra or get into marketing altogether?

With Canberra requiring over 100,000 homes to be built within the next 24 months, it sufficed to say Canberra is on the move and attracting many new people to this growing city. With an infrastructure boom unrivalled in the last decade within Australia, Canberra is now becoming one of the most attractive places to live and bringing entrepreneurial minds to the city.

Along with every type of service required to facilitate this boom are digital marketing agencies to assist the growth of businesses.

Also, with local SEO now a significant force for effective online marketing, we are looking at how you would launch an SEO agency and get into marketing in the city. Here we look at common factors and the basics of setting up your own SEO agency in this evolving city.

• You want to work for yourself.
• You enjoy being a leader.
• You want to make more than the average public service job.
• You have the right skills and mindset to deliver results to clients.
• You feel like you can make a more positive impact on businesses than you currently are working in your public service job.
• You are unhappy at your current job because you feel like you can't progress any further and have the need to work for yourself.
• You're comfortable wearing multiple hats and can learn new skills on the go fast.

These are many triggers for people looking to move into the arena and provide a service. Anyone who has previously set up a business will tell you it is scary and exciting in equal measure. With an SEO agency, your initial overheads in Canberra do not need to be expensive like in other parts of Australia. So let's start with some common questions you would consider when starting an SEO agency.

Why Start an SEO Business in Canberra?

When a city is growing like Canberra opening a business that helps other businesses within the community is a great place to start. With many businesses turning to digital marketing as the primary focal marketing point, eCommerce and organic SEO are paramount to a business's success. Helping fledgling businesses such as your own is a perfect way to help a growing local economy, integrate yourself within the community and establish yourself as a go-to for marketing results.

SEO agencies collaborate with customers, build rapport and integrate into their success and problem solving to help grow businesses exponentially along with yours. With SEO becoming a yellow brick road as digital marketing grows, it is a challenging but rewarding industry to get involved in.

Can I make Money Owning an SEO Company?

Absolutely! Otherwise, this article would be titled differently. The digital marketing industry is booming and is now the most potent form of global marketing. Businesses are slowly weening themselves off of traditional marketing (which isn't easy or quick) to move toward focusing their marketing budget online. Here is a huge opportunity to grow a business servicing others.

Owning an SEO company, you can look forward to a monthly retainer or fee, which is helpful to a new business with cash flow. A consistent revenue stream allows you to scale other aspects of a new business. With cash flow, you can accurately assess how to grow your staffing and scale your growth accordingly.

Creating Packaging

When you are planning to offer these services, you need to be transparent and accurate with your delivery of services. Doing so makes them easy to sell, and you will succeed as long as you deliver results and increase business ROI. You have a choice of how to approach potential clients to work with you and can charge by:

• The Hour
• A One-Off Payment
• Recurring (Monthly fee)

What you will need to provide as a standard are the following:

SEO Assessment

You have to start at the beginning.

SEO Set-Up

A structured campaign is what you have to create.

Monthly SEO

Organic SEO takes time, so a monthly SEO fee is advisable to ensure longevity and recurring revenue for you. At the same time, you do likewise for another emerging business in Canberra.

Making a clear and concise list of the services you are providing for a monthly fee is crucial to be transparent and gain trust from the start.

Defining Pricing

Once you have your packaging in order, you need to look at pricing yourself adequately to make a profit but be competitive. Your goal is to make money, of course, but not price yourself out of the market where the allure of the big cities like Syndey or Melbourne becomes more attractive to a potential client.

Remember, SEO helps to grow businesses, and you're growing yours. In effect, you understand growth pains, so it equates to you and your potential client being in the same boat - a good place to start.

SEO services are priced in many ways, depending on the initial investment capital you are prepared to put in. However, looking towards monthly spending for your clients has been a successful model for reputable SEO agencies worldwide.

Project SEO

Suppose you decide to look at pricing yourself around projects. In that case, you need to crunch financial figures around the number of hours you will invest in delivering the scope of services you intend to offer within a package. The number of hours multiplied by a competitive hourly rate would give you a project total.

Monthly SEO

On a monthly retainer, you should price yourself around the fact that this is a long-term business relationship. Therefore prices can be more competitive to keep your clientele. Multiplying your work hours by an hourly rate will give you a benchmark to work from.

Presenting Yourself

When presenting your services, you must be ready with powerful marketing. If your marketing approach is captivating, it goes a long way toward you asking the initial question: "How did you find us?"

If I responded to you, I would know that you could do the same for me, so this part is not rocket science. Understanding how marketing works, your copywriting skills should come to the fore.

Naturally, you will need an online presence along with your potential customers. The main focus should be creating an SEO services web page and inserting your local target keywords.

As you would set up their local online presence for your potential clients, you start with setting up Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business). Then categorise yourself with Google Maps as a marketing service.

Preparing for your First Client

Although a fast-growing city, Canberra is still relatively small and effective marketing can see fast results, which is what you are about to embark on. Soon you will have your first lead, a feeling of elation and nervousness in equal measure.

Although the SEO industry is not saturated in Canberra, it is generally, so selling yourself comes with competition. Finding an angle to differentiate yourself can be golden to your success.

TIP: Making yourself stand out should never be about promising rankings and results you are not 200 percent sure you can deliver!

Instead, consider these two proven approaches:

• Avoid industry jargon
• Sell long-term results

These approaches help build rapport, and you need to consider the sales process you will follow with every enquiry and lead for your services.

Delivering your First Project

If you understand the basics of SEO, then our blog will be able to assist you with enhancing your skills, as we have guides to read through.

Everything about deliverance for a new SEO agency is ensuring you deliver:

• Transparency
• Regular Reporting
• A Designated Account Manager
• Quality Assistance
• Local Knowledge
• And Let's Not Forget - RESULTS

In Addition

Your initial starting point is company incorporation and finding a local lawyer. Use searching for both of these as a guideline of what your future clientele would experience on a Google search.

You have to consider banking, a merchant facility and a physical presence, and you are on your way.

SUMMARY

Canberra's growth in population represents one of Australia's hottest hubs for property and business. Although markedly getting bigger, it still holds a close-knit community that, if you decide to go ahead and offer business services, you can be part of the fabric for this and the next generation looking to prosper from the housing boom. Marketing is not for the faint-hearted, but you will reap the rewards if you structure it right. Good luck.