creative agency business plan pdf

“Ask an experienced agency founder you trust or admire to sanity-check your plan. Seeking an objective opinion from a third-party detached from your new business is vital.”

Devin makes a great point. This type of peer review methodology is commonplace in other industries but sometimes lacking amongst agency founders. Make sure you get at least 1 other unbiased opinion from someone who has already achieved success in your niche.

Don’t fall into the trap of asking a friend or your accountant or someone you know personally to review your plan. Doing so will give you a biased opinion. You need an unbiased opinion from someone willing to give you objective feedback.

Consideration #3: Stand your ground

The whole point of a business plan is to take the time and effort to research the market, your competitors and potential clients. This document will distill all your insights into a strategic plan you can operationalize. As is always the case, unexpected distractions masquerading as opportunities (rightly or wrongly) will pop up in your field of view demanding your attention.

Perhaps it’s a new client opportunity with a project slightly adjacent to your niche. Perhpas a hiring opportunity for a role you didn’t plan to hire yet. Sometimes the hardest thing is to say no, when you’re in the mindset of taking every opportunity for growth.

During these situations, revisit your agency business plan and remind yourself of your focus area niche and how you planned to grow within that niche.

Consideration #4: But, be ok with change

In fact this balance between sticking to the plan and pivoting the plan needs to be navigated by every digital agency founder. It’s not easy and often you will be second-guessing yourself.

“Every agency owner I know has had to massively adjust their target audience, pricing structure, competitor analysis, and service offerings based on the way they grow over the first 2-5 years.”

Rebekah says that founders need to be prepared for change, afterall, digital marketing is in constant flux and evolution, so change is the norm and we need to write business plans with flexibility in mind.

Trust your performance metrics and continue to do the things that have the biggest quantifiable business impact.

We mentioned previously that there’s no right or wrong way to document your business plan. So with that said, let’s look at some typical marketing agency business plan templates that you can use. After considering all the factors above, choose the structure that works for you and your stakeholders best. We’ve outlined six of the more common options below:

Option #1: Written business document

This is the more traditional (and still valid) way to describe your business. A written business plan document in MS Word or Google Docs is still the most common way to document your digital marketing agency business plan.

This type of business plan is considered “long-form”, ie: longer in length and suited to more descriptive language. Expect to write longer rationales, longer explanations with plenty of space for evidence, research, insights and strategy. This type of plan will likely be 30+ pages and feel comprehensive. This comprehensiveness is especially needed if external investors or business partners are involved who need to be convinced of the robustness of your plan.

Option #2: Slide deck

The PowerPoint Presentation (or Google Slides or Keynote) has become the go-to corporate communication format. Digital agency founders spend most of their time communicating to staff, clients and stakeholders in PowerPoint so it makes sense to use this format for the purposes of communicating the agency’s overall business plan.

The fundamental difference between this option and the written document, is that a slide deck is a presentable format. So typically you might be in the room with your business partners, walking through the presentation on the screen. Whereas in option #1, a written document is not a compelling way to present an idea. It’s much more suited as a sent document to be consumed in isolation. That’s not to say that a slide deck can’t be utilized this way, it’s just more common that you would be presenting and talking through your plan with the slides serving as a visual backup to what you say.

There’s also a good argument for doing both (ie written document AND slide deck). It comes down to who all the stakeholders are (eg investors, business partners or just you) and whether you intend to present your plan or just document your plan.

Option #3: Lean canvas

The Lean Canvas developed by leanstack.com is a business plan on a page split into 10 boxes. This planning document has become very popular in the tech/startup world and has since been adopted in many other industries, including digital agencies. Be sure to check out our previous article explaining how to use a Lean Canvas for your agency .

The entire business plan fits on a single page which means you obviously need to sweat on every single world and ensure only the most important details are included. We are big supporters of this format because this helps you prioritize and focus your efforts down to the fundamental aspects of your new business.

Option #4: Wiki

In the context of a business, a Wiki is usually an internal website with multiple interlinking articles. The biggest Wiki in the world is Wikipedia and if you want to get really meta, check out Wikipedia’s wiki about wikis :

“A wiki (/wɪki/ WIK-ee) is a hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience directly using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project.”

Wiki’s are generally perceived as internal knowledge bases so if your business plan has executional detail, this might be a good format for documenting processes and methodologies for staff.

Option #5: General Planning tool

Tools like Notion and Trello have grown massively in recent years as more people are working remotely and more work in general is being done collaboratively online.

These types of planning tools are designed to be multi-purpose and fall somewhere between a wiki and a specialized business planning tool.

Now that we’ve covered the typical business plan structures let’s look at the specifics of how you actually go about constructing the business plan and each of the main tasks you need to perform and sections of the business plan.

Market research & data gathering

Customer/client research.

Rebekah Edwards, who we spoke to previously stresses the importance of market research with as many potential clients as you can. She interviewed several businesses in their target market when developing their service offerings and pricing. Some of the questions she thought were most helpful included:

Answers to these questions are invaluable as they help you position and market your new digital agency based on customer insight.

Competitor research

The importance of competitor research goes without saying. It’s vital you have a good understanding of how your competitors are going to market, how they sell, who they target and what their rough price points are. If you have a friend who owns a small business, ask them to mystery shop at a competitor so they can report back to you what the sales process was like.

The way you position and sell your services should be informed by a combination of both customer insights and competitor insights. Addressing client needs whilst maintaining a unique selling proposition will set your new digital agency up for success!

Download our template!: Digital Marketing Agency Business Plan Document

To make edits to the document make sure to download our DOCX template which you can edit directly in Microsoft Word. However if you would prefer a printable PDF, we also provide this option too. Use these templates as a starting point to help you draft your digital marketing business plan:

Below are some of the highlight areas of the plan:

We suggest conducting three types of research to inform your marketing agency business plan:

Nailing your USP will be tough especially if you are in a competitive industry / city. Use the previous market research tasks to discover where the gaps are in the market and leverage these insights to position your new agency to be competitive AND different. Perform a SWOT analysis based on your new USP. Then you can determine your actual service offerings and pricing strategy.

Go-To-Market (GTM) Plan and Org Structure

Define your target market – the exact client types who you want to sell to and list the marketing and advertising activities that you will perform that would be most effective in reaching these types of people.

Also list your people (this might not be many on day 1!), sources of advice and support as well as the strategies you’ll use to retain your staff and build their skills and knowledge.

This marketing agency business plan template includes goal setting for the next year and goal setting for the next 3 years. This page is structured to help you set SMART goals.

SMART goals are:

Use the Cash flow forecast table as a simple way to visualize cash-on-hand in your first 12 months. Add rows to estimate your monthly expenses like payroll, rent, utilities, subscriptions, insurance, fees and other ongoing costs.

Tools and Tech

Finally, list out all the tools and technology your new agency will likely need to run an efficient operation. We’ve listed SEOptimer for you already because it’s one of the best, low-cost lead generation tools for your agency. Over 2,000 digital agencies use SEOptimer to generate white label site audits and embed an audit form on their agency website to capture new lead details.

If you prefer a slide deck template, use this creative agency business plan example in PowerPoint format:

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Creative Agency

BUSINESS PLAN OCEANIA CREATIVE PRINT & INTERACTIVE

1200 Forester Drive Indianapolis, Indiana 46204

Oceania Creative is in the business of providing premium consulting, brand communications, and visual design services. The Oceania mission is to provide consulting and graphic production services to selected prospect clients primarily in the manufacturing industry. Through the application of knowledge, business relationships, and effective service delivery and continued success of Oceania clients, we will become recognized as a premier industry provider of communications services.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Target market, company team, competitive landscape, projected 5-year financials.

Purpose of the document is to provide a high-level, executive overview of Oceania Creative Print and Interactive business plan for the year 2001-2005. This document is to be used as information and business planning purposes in attaining a second round of credit-based capital.

Description of the Business

Oceania Creative is in the business of providing premium consulting, brand communications, and visual design services.

The Oceania mission is simple. Oceania will provide consulting and graphic production services to selected prospect clients primarily in the manufacturing industry.

Through the application of knowledge, business relationships, and effective service delivery and continued success of Oceania clients, we will become recognized as a premier industry provider of communications services.

Business Problem

The manufacturing industry, particularly, old-line heavy equipment, agricultural, and transportation have difficult business issues related to high-end communications services.

In the manufacturing environment, companies are striving to be competitive in all aspects of manufacturing. This means processes and technology must work together harmoniously and must be integrated. Even world-class companies have found many improvement opportunities in communications processes and market perceptions.

Communications services supported by proven concepts, tools, and methodologies by our experienced designers and consultants, our process accommodates the client's needs. Our communications and marketing experts help the client manage operational change and focus on integrated resource management.

We are committed to creative concepts and tangible results, evaluation, and continuous improvement. With the client's leadership, OC's business approach helps them achieve their vision of world-class market communications.

Examples of our service offerings:

Target prospect market companies include the following list of companies with primary locations and/or headquarters based in the Midwest. The Midwest is defined as a six-state area including, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and northern Kentucky. The states of Minnesota and Missouri will be considered a secondary market due to time, travel, and budgetary requirements in pursuing business in these areas. However, for the right prospect with the right project, with the right level of revenue commitment, we will consider investing in pursuing the business in that geographic area.

Target companies listed below are primary targets:

Market Size

The current market size analysis, based on identified prospects and selected categories of current and projected spending, has estimated this market at more than $750 million in current communications spending.

Note: Detailed industry and analysis methodology information available on request.

Revenue Model

Oceania revenue will be based on client needs and market competitive service rates.

Examples of client billing models include:

Expected margins are estimated at 30-35 percent for graphic production services and 50-65 percent for consulting services. Production services are required to align our companies with client to provide ongoing management and design services to carry projects from concept to delivery.

The Oceania team is comprised of seasoned design, consulting, and management professionals. Experience is our hallmark. The Oceania team has an average of 10 years of experience in communications, marketing, and related disciplines, and 12 years in professional brand and executive communications strategy consulting experience.

Each team member brings industry relationships. Oceania has an expectation of its sales and consulting personnel to leverage these relationships in a meaningful manner and to demonstrate a direct relationship to revenue contributions.

We intend to continue to compensate our entire team with an outstanding package of ongoing salary with individually based bonus and fringe packages. These packages will be based on performance and return to the Oceania enterprise, primarily revenue-based packages for sales professionals and relationship-expansion-based incentives for our consulting professionals.

Note: Professional profiles available on request.

Market Awareness

We plan to achieve industry and client recognition and establish a market reputation by providing superior service delivery and enabling business performance for our clients. Achieving our strategic vision will play a major role in our long-term success and ongoing profitability.

Community Involvement

Oceania Creative will play an active role in community-based organizations to support important arts-based programs as well as continued involvement in business-based professional organizations. Participation in community and business organizations is critical to business success and employee satisfaction. We are actively researching and engaging leading organizations to determine which organizations will best serve the goals of the community at large, our organization, and associated business community partners.

The following is a short list of professional organizations we have sponsored or have participated in.

Each year competition in this market space gets stronger and stronger. Our competitive advantage will be our superior service delivery and client satisfaction; however, in this environment it may not be enough. Thus our focus on leveraging industry and client relationships will become tantamount to continued revenue growth.

This market has a unique competitive model. Companies we will compete against in our dayto-day operations and sales pursuit will range from 3-person high-level consultant partnerships to established, multimillion-dollar advertising agencies such as Ogilvy and business management consultancies such as Accenture and Deloitte & Touche. However, members of our team will exercise high-level relationships particularly with the business management consultancies. Our leadership team has participated with these organizations within high-level engagements—a true win/win environment for revenue generation.

Success to Date

Oceania has had many successful engagements and client experiences to date. Two of which address attainment of strategic intent.

Tangible Results

Client Acquisition Over the first 16 months of our business operations, Oceania has engaged 35 companies at the Senior Manager through Vice President level with business engagements resulting from 15 percent of those pursued relationships. This has resulted in a 50 percent win rate for sales pursuits. Market Awareness Recently, our company has been asked to participate as speakers at several communications/ marketing/design industry conferences. Attaining speaker-level positioning at these conferences is a preliminary indicator or our success in achieving market-leading (topof-mind) executive perceptions. Organizational results Over the past 18 months we believe we have assembled a team of 18 highly focused, nimble professionals. Our continued success will be predicated on the basis of our ability to work comprehensively as a team with a high degree of individual performance successes.

All financial projections are estimates and further detailed information and individual services-level reporting are outlined in additional documentation. All financial expectations are based on current level of success, sales performance, and a robust economic environment. A five-year expansion in the U.S. economy has contributed to a robust environment for communications services. This economic environment cannot be predicted or expected for years upcoming. All dollars are listed in millions.