7 steps for Starting your Influencer Agency

4 min readJan 24, 2022

Apaksh Gupta is just 27, and he has already made it big in the Influencer Marketing Areas. His company ‘One Impression’ is a pioneer in this field. But, he does not stop here. He is also an angel investor and has helped many small businesses to flourish with his support.

I am more than happy to have him on Figuring Out because of all of the things set aside, Apaksh is a very dear friend of mine, and we go back a long way. So chatting with Apaksh was refreshing, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
It is so much fun to have him on my podcast, and as expected, it was a fantastic session. I feel so good to see him getting all the well-deserved praise, like featuring in Forbes’ 30 under 30.
I enjoyed it a lot, and I am sharing excerpts from my conversation with Apaksh, where he talked about how one should grow an influencer marketing agency that stands out:

1. Do not make Your Company a Service Provider

Most influencer marketing agencies work as service providers who do not usually consider getting inputs and data regarding their clients’ needs.
Be a data-driven intelligent marketplace for influencers so that they can pick and choose depending on what needs they have from you. Your company can be a space with all the logistical and technical data available for the influencers and brands.
Being data-driven will make your company stand out because you are aware of the trends. You can back your strategies based on all the data you gathered that would almost make your company fail-proof and help the brands and influencers grow their business gradually.

2. Focus on Quality

The market is all about various influencer agencies that will offer many services to their clients. But what makes a difference is how well they understand the needs of different influencers and brands.
Quality where you can make a difference by not only offering services. But also acting as a consultant for your clients.
Since you have now established your company into a data-driven space, you can act as a consultant for all your clients and include qualitative inputs for their brands to grow. This way, you are an agency that focuses more on quality and making more space for potential clients.

3. Location Plays an Important Role

So, this point is pretty fundamental, yet most companies miss it.
You cannot rely on data from a different city while you are entirely on the other side of the country. This is a blunder that almost everyone has committed in this field.
Tier 2 and tier 3 cities cannot start an influencer marketing agency based on surveys and data collected from a tier 1 city. Therefore, it will not help instead hamper the company’s growth.
If you want to start an influencer marketing agency in the city or town where you live, try and gather data from in and around your city only.

4. Start with Small Goals

Dreaming big is great. But to bring your biggest of dreams into reality, you will have to take baby steps. Start small, make achievable goals and do not run behind just gaining profit. Start by building your brand in a way that attracts clients. Then, pace your steps gradually and keep expanding your horizon. This is the only way that will lead to the exponential growth of your company. Similarly, if you try to jump the ladder, nothing will come out of it. So dream big but start small.

5. Raise Money only When You Need it

People who start their companies initially focus on raising money without realizing whether they need it or not.
Understand that raising money is such a task, so before you start doing it, please make sure that if you need it or not, if you do, then strategize your campaigns accordingly.

6. Build your Trust

Trust is not just important here but in all spheres of life. It is one of the most fundamental things. Building a brand that people can trust may take time, but it will only be beneficial. Once trust accompanies your marketing agency, you will constantly be flooded with clients because they trust you on delivering on time.
Building a trustworthy company when marketing agencies are mushrooming in every city and town will make you stand out because you focus more on quality than quantity. You are committed and consistent in delivering what the brands and influencers expect of you.

7. Pay Attention to Feedback

Again, this is something that plays an important role everywhere in life. Whatever business you do, whatever jobs you have and even in relationships. Getting feedback is one of the essential things needed for anyone to grow.
How you handle feedback is also pretty vital. If they are primarily positive, be happy but do not believe that it will always be this way. If it is negative, consider it as constructive criticism. Either way, do not stop growing and improving.
Feedbacks will always help your company grow. However, if you do not consider feedback important, especially for a marketing agency, nothing can save your company from falling apart.

These steps will help you to kickstart your own influencer marketing agency. But you have to remember it is always the basic things like quality and trust that makes or breaks any company. And if you are determined enough, the sky’s the limit.
My podcast with Apaksh was terrific. It was lovely to hear about his journey of success. It was inspiring to hear how he made it big in such a short period.

The link to the podcast is here.