Too many agency websites don’t do a good job of humanizing the business and showcasing the owner and team members.
The About section often gets more traffic than any other part of an agency’s website, yet many agencies aren’t taking full advantage of this opportunity.
A surprising number of agency websites don’t even include photos of key team members and some don’t use any actual names anywhere on the site.
Later in this week’s newsletter I’ll share what you should be doing — and why. But first, let’s take a look at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Weekly Roundup
Below are some articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos that we came across during the past week or so that provide useful perspective and information for PR and marketing agency owners. While we don’t necessarily endorse all of the views expressed in these links, we think they are worth your time.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Latest from SAGA
- Should your small agency be subcontracting for larger agencies? (Agency Leadership Podcast)
- Building Effective Business Development Systems (featuring Jody Sutter) (Chats with Chip)
Articles & Blog Posts
- Consistency is Next to Godliness (RSW/US)
- Time is the only thing you have to spend. (Anchor Advisors)
- When you master your narrative, you control your pitch (The Sutter Company)
Podcast Episodes
- Media Relations in a Turbulent Media Landscape (For Immediate Release)
- Profit-Driven Agencies: The Metrics That Matter with Marcel Petitpas (The Digital Agency Show)
- Smart Scaling, with Austin Dandridge (The Innovative Agency)
- Don’t Bother Eating Your Veggies (2Bobs)
- From Silos to Synergy: Building an Integrated Approach for your Agency, with Kristen Kelly (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- The Secret to Longevity: Building Trust and Overcoming Skepticism with James Loomstein (Smart Agency Master Class)
- How to add genuine value to your network, with Bob Burg (The Personal Brand Business Show)
Videos
- Life after agency ownership (special guest Carl Smith of the Bureau) (Sakas and Company)
- First Party Data & Research – AMI webinar (Agency Management Institute)
AI in focus
- How AI Search Is Changing the PR Game (Spin Sucks)
- Can AI make you a better leader? (Bureau of Digital)
Does your agency’s website show who you are?
People do business with other people. No client logo has ever gone out and hired an agency logo.
Yet many agency websites don’t do enough to show the people behind the work.
Your website should show you and your team throughout. Avoid using stock photos with faces other than the ones that clients can actually expect to see.
If you look at your website stats, you may notice that your About and Team pages get a surprising amount of traffic. For many agencies, these may be the most visited pages.
Take advantage of that to ensure that you are presenting quality photos of you and your team members. Share their expertise and maybe a few things that help put a human face on your business.
Be sure that the people you’re showing are actually team members. Resist the urge to pad your Team page with contractors you have never actually worked with and clients can’t easily request to have on their accounts. (Note that apart from being bad business, listing contractors on a Team page can also make it harder to argue that you have properly classified them.)
I would also encourage you to have a dedicated page for yourself (and possibly other team members). These owner bio pages usually rank highly in search results for your own name — and many small agencies get more searches for the owner by name than the firm name itself.
Finally, I have talked about images and text, but you should also be giving thought to how to integrate video into your website.
Nothing humanizes your agency more than video of you and your team members actually speaking.
At a minimum, you should have at least one video that shows you talking about your agency, including what you do and who you serve. That might go on the home page or in the about section, but it is a useful evergreen bit of video content.
But I would also give careful thought to incorporating video into the insights that you share on your website (and you are doing that, right?).
The more that prospects can see and hear you before (and during) the business development process, the easier it becomes for them to commit to working with you.
The bottom line is that you shouldn’t hide behind fancy fonts, flashy graphics, and compelling color schemes on your agency’s website. Show who you are and build deeper connections with those with whom you want to work.
