How to Stand Out in a Crowded Agency Market

If you’re a business owner like me, you’ve no doubt noticed that many of your competitors market themselves and promote their services in a remarkably similar way. You probably even follow suit yourself, proudly announcing your product line, sharing your mission and values and disseminating your customer testimonials … like everyone else in your industry. 

To a degree, redundancy of messaging and overlap of company offerings is inevitable in any given market; after all, a tennis pro shop does what a tennis pro shop does, a pet store sells what a pet store sells and a nail salon works on nails. So how do you convince your potential customer base that you’re not like everyone else in your industry and that you deserve a chance at their business?

What I’ve found in my 15+ years as the owner of my public relations agency is that I must continuously differentiate myself along chosen parameters and in targeted areas if I want to earn my piece of the pie. And that differentiation requires constant, diligent attention.

In today’s incredibly crowded marketplace, every single entrepreneur-owned enterprise needs to find a way to grab the spotlight. Here are five ways I make my PR firm shine.

1. Build genuine thought leadership

Lots of PR and marketing agencies help their clients pursue pathways to thought leadership. Far fewer spend time paving their own.

By “thought leadership,” I mean far more than posting the occasional blog or compiling a comprehensive FAQ page on your website. I mean positioning yourself as a credible expert in your field who readily shares fresh insights, market trends and industry-specific perspectives that will help fellow business leaders make informed decisions. 

Basically, you want your target audience to turn to you when they’re seeking guidance and knowledge, and you can establish that kind of prestige through:

• Booking speaking engagements (make sure they’re taped and then post them on YouTube!)
• Hosting free webinars
• Making tutorial videos that you publish on your channels
• Creating educational social media content
• Writing or contributing to research papers
• Volunteering for expert panels

When you’re thought of as a thought leader, you become a trusted resource rather than just another service provider. And when potential clients are looking for valuable industry know-how, they’ll come looking for you!

2. Develop clear niche expertise

There’s a time to paint with broad brushstrokes … and there’s a time to deviate from that approach. A review of other PR agency websites reveals that my field as a whole pretty much makes the same promises, using the same buzzwords: media coverage, strategic campaigns, brand awareness, reputation management. 

The challenge for me isn’t simply proving I’m good at public relations; it’s finding meaningful ways to show the exact same audience that my agency is not typical, but exceptional.

So instead of trying to appeal to everyone, I concentrate my efforts on connecting with a select few via the vehicle of specialization. My firm doesn’t offer only brand management; we offer a speciality arm in crisis communications. Although we can service any sector, we zero in on what we know best: hospitality, food and beverage, small business startups and lifestyle brands. And though I of course serve up all the normative items on the PR menu, I also extend higher-tier options for clients who want more personalization: (a) white-label service, whereby we do all the work for a particular client without putting our name on it (so you get all the credit, but we give you all the support you need); and (b) white-glove service, whereby we can go as “above and beyond” the baseline as a client wants, with customized à la carte deliverables. 

This niche expertise not only creates a competitive advantage, but it also strengthens media relations as we fortify relationships with journalists and outlets that also specialize in certain industries. 

3. Increase founder visibility

Guess who jumps on planes, mics up for podcasts, signs up for conferences and regularly submits herself for featured profiles in the media? Me. And I’d advise you to do the same to get your name out there.

Clients hire people before they hire companies. By putting my face on my business as often as I can, I humanize my business. I cultivate familiarity and trust. I attract reputation management clients by successfully projecting my own reputation.

Founders can generate and maintain visibility by joining industry associations, chairing committees, doing media interviews, publishing articles and getting involved in community initiatives. When you do so, you become an extension of the company’s brand. You become recognizable as an influential leader with beneficial lessons and industry observations to impart. That creates far stronger connections than company branding alone.

4. Create proprietary processes

My business runs on creativity, but my operations need to run on consistency. As my firm has grown over the years, I’ve developed and adopted proprietary processes, frameworks, methodologies and strategic planning systems. And, surprisingly, what started as an effort toward efficiency became another mode of differentiation.

My clients appreciate discovering that we have a structured model to achieve the results they’re after as opposed to simply chasing opportunities as they arise. They notice the systematized materials we employ to learn about the inner workings of their businesses and the goals they hired us to attain. They’re impressed when we provide them with workflows, process visuals and step-by-step plans that map out precisely what we’ll be doing on their behalf.

Potential customers want to see more than what you’re selling them. They want evidence that you’ve met client expectations in the past, that you have a high retention rate on the basis of skill and talent and that their engagement will be managed with experience and proven expertise.

When you can show clients the processes and procedures you have in place to realize their objectives, they feel comforted by your attention to detail and confident in your capacity to meet their needs.

5. Focus on measurable outcomes

Perhaps the most important differentiator in any market is the ability to produce desired business outcomes.

In my industry, clients are no longer satisfied with just media placements and impressions. They want to see quantifiable payoffs from their investment — things like conversion rates, UVMs, brand mentions, number of click-throughs and backlinks, increase in followers, volume of social shares and other KPIs — and they also want to be clear on how all of the billable time spent on their accounts supports both their short-term and long-term organizational goals. 

Sometimes it’s hard to capture positive impacts in terms of numbers, for intangibles such as expanded brand awareness, enhanced reputation or a well-executed crisis intervention; but my focus still needs to remain on providing measurements because that’s what the current marketplace is demanding.

Consequently, businesses that prioritize data analysis and reporting tools will have an advantage over those that do not. When client-facing service industries like mine set clear, agreed-upon objectives, track meaningful metrics and effectively communicate results, they help clients see their service as a smart investment rather than an expense.

Rising to the top of your field

Over the years, I’ve learned that differentiation rarely comes from having a longer list of services than my competitors do. Rather, it comes from demonstrating uncommon value in a few key areas that matter most to clients. 

To stand out in your field, create an identity that distinguishes you from the crowd so that your intended audience starts to recognize you as an authority and view you as an exemplary provider. The steps above, coupled with your own distinctive flair, all contribute to securing a stronger market position. From that position, you can transform your business from just another agency into a trusted strategic partner that would be very hard to replace.