5 Lessons I learned from running a digital agency for about 5 years

It’s been almost 5 years since I started Oxedent, and we have grown strength to strength over the years. Although we had very humble beginnings, we are now one of India’s best performance marketing agencies.

Having served over 250 clients and generated over 510 crore in sales and expanded our in-house team to nearly 20 people over this period, I have learnt a lot of business lessons as well. I recently turned 26, which makes this journey a bit more bitter sweet to share.

Here are 5 huge lessons I have learnt over the years:

1. Your company culture defines you

For me personally, company culture is completely an internal thing - a set of principles that guide us in all that we do. Our culture shapes our business in more ways than we will ever be able to measure it and although we speak a lot about it in corporate circles, I feel still not enough is done to build a supportive culture across workplaces, universally.

Startups especially need to focus on this aspect very strongly - in a setup where people usually adorn multiple roles, being supportive and understanding is absolutely key.

2.Promote a culture of taking calculated risks

A subsequent layer to the culture side of things is the ability to take risks across the board - calculated risks, not blind ones. No matter which segment of digital marketing your agency specialises in — SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media advertising, landing page design, conversion rate optimisation, content marketing, digital PR — it’s constantly changing and evolving.

Self-development is a big part of our culture at Oxedent. We fundamentally believe that pushing yourself to take calculated risks and then learn from your mistakes is by far the best way to improve your knowledge and skills.

3. Build the right balance

Having a risk-taking culture should not affect your ability or quality of results - you’ve got to find the balance between experimenting for the *benefit* of your clients and not at their expense. Without a doubt the most important part of digital marketing is knowing if it is or isn’t working - this is why numbers are critical to your growth.

Set up tests and measure your results. Have retrospective meetings after running a campaign to openly discuss what worked, or what could have been executed better - communication is key!

Where do things fall short? How can we fix those issues as a team?

4. Develop SOPs that work and can be scaled

As the agency grows, you need to realise that you cannot do everything single handedly. This is why having standard operating procedures is so important - they make your life easier, they keep your work consistent and they make your team more productive.

At Oxedent, we treat our processes open for interpretation, feedback and change. Of course, every single project we work on is different and completely bespoke — but there will always be elements of our offering that we can re-use.

5. Client communication is key

Feedback loops and clear agreement of terms and conditions and communication of results delivered - these are 3 key aspects of running an agency.

Whether it’s ad-hock Slack messaging, email updates, weekly calls or monthly reports - communicating with your clients is key to the success of your campaigns and the ongoing relationship you have with them.

As an outsourced digital marketing agency we are essentially an extension of our client’s marketing team. That means we need an intimate knowledge of their business, customers and the marketing strategy.

And always, always remember to celebrate wins no matter how small they might look! After all, you are building something and it would be impossible to do so without your team by you at all times.

Here’s to those who build!