Marketing agency business plan with retainers and margins
Agencies grow by winning retainers, but they stall when one big client leaves or when every new client needs a new hire. This prompt has your todo.is agent research agencies in your niche, price your retainers, work out gross margin per client and show exactly when to hire your next person.
The prompt
- Write a business plan for [AGENCY NAME AND SERVICES], serving [NICHE OR CLIENT TYPE]. It is for [WHO WILL READ IT]. Current state: [TEAM, CLIENTS AND MONTHLY REVENUE TODAY]. Research 6 agencies that serve this niche with links: services, positioning, case studies and any published pricing. Write: summary, niche and positioning, services and retainer packages with deliverables and prices, onboarding and reporting, team structure (employees vs freelancers), tools and costs, how we win clients (referrals, content, partnerships, outbound), client concentration and churn, contracts, risks, and financials. Build an Excel forecast with clients by package, monthly retainer income, project income, delivery hours per client, staff and freelancer costs, gross margin per client, overheads and profit for 24 months, with hiring triggers at [HIRING RULE]. Mark assumptions. Send a Word plan and the Excel file.
What to change
- [AGENCY NAME AND SERVICES]: E.g. "Tidepool Digital: paid social and email marketing".
- [NICHE OR CLIENT TYPE]: E.g. "dental clinics in the UK" or "B2B software companies with 20 to 200 staff".
- [WHO WILL READ IT]: E.g. "a bank", "a co-founder" or "just me".
- [TEAM, CLIENTS AND MONTHLY REVENUE TODAY]: E.g. "me plus 2 freelancers, 5 clients, about £14,000 a month" or "starting from zero".
- [HIRING RULE]: E.g. "hire when the team is over 85% booked for 2 months".
Example result
- Summary
- Tidepool Digital runs paid social and email marketing for private dental clinics in the UK. The founder and two freelancers serve 5 clients today, about £14,000 a month. The goal is 16 clients and a team of 5 within 24 months.
- Positioning
- • Only dental clinics, so every campaign builds on the last one
- • Promise: more booked consultations for implants, aligners and whitening, tracked to bookings, not clicks
- Retainer packages (illustrative)
- • Starter: £1,800 a month, Meta ads for 1 treatment, monthly report
- • Growth: £3,200 a month, Meta and Google ads, 2 treatments, landing pages, email to past patients
- • Group: from £6,500 a month for clinics with 3 or more sites
- • Setup fee: £1,500, minimum term 6 months
- Delivery and reporting
- • Onboarding in 14 days: tracking, call recording check, offer review
- • Weekly 15-minute call in month 1, then monthly review
- • One-page report: leads, booked consultations, cost per booking
- Team and margin
- • Delivery hours: Starter 18 a month, Growth 32, Group 60
- • Freelance rate assumption: £45 an hour
- • Gross margin target: 55% per client after delivery costs
- • Hiring trigger: hire when team is over 85% booked for 2 months; next hire is an account manager in month 5
- Winning clients
- • Case study per treatment with permission from clients
- • Talks and stands at 2 dental industry events a year
- • Partnerships with dental practice consultants and a dental software reseller
- • Short outbound to clinics opening new sites
- Financial summary (illustrative assumptions)
- • Month 24: 16 clients, about £47,000 monthly retainer income
- • Year 1 revenue: £232,000, Year 2: £468,000
- • Tools: £950 a month
- • Profit margin before founder pay: 22% in year 2
- Risks
- • Client concentration: no client above 20% of revenue
- • Churn: quarterly strategy review with every client; target average stay of 18 months
- • Ad platform changes: spread across Meta, Google and email
How to do it with todo.is
- Copy the prompt and fill in your agency, niche, team and current revenue.
- Paste it into todo.is or send it to your agent on WhatsApp, Slack or Telegram.
- Your agent researches agencies in your niche and returns a Word plan with a 24-month Excel forecast.
- Ask for a case study template or a sales deck in PowerPoint built from the plan.
Tips for a better result
- Pick one niche. Agencies serving one industry reuse ads, reports and processes, which lifts margin on every client.
- Track delivery hours per client from the start. Margin problems show up there long before they show in the bank account.
- Set a minimum term and a setup fee. Onboarding is the most time-heavy month, and short contracts make it unprofitable.
- Have your agent run a monthly to-do that turns your time-tracking export into a margin-per-client table.
marketing agency business plan: FAQ
- How do marketing agencies price retainers? Most price by scope and expected hours, with packages for different client sizes. Some add performance fees. Check that each package keeps a healthy margin after delivery costs.
- What is a good gross margin for an agency? Many agencies aim for roughly half of revenue left after delivery costs. It depends on how much work is done by staff versus freelancers.
- Should a new agency pick a niche? Usually yes. A niche makes marketing, sales and delivery easier because you can show results with similar clients.
- Can todo.is help deliver client work? Your agent can draft ad copy, emails, reports and research for you to review. You stay in charge of client accounts and posting.
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