I talk with a lot of agency owners worried about their websites. But more often than not they lead with the design or appearance of the site, rather than the substance.
Over the course of my career, I have seen many agencies dwell too much on the design of logos, websites, brochures, and PowerPoints.
This can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money.
The reality is that most agencies simply need to appear to be professional and not using materials that appear to be designed by an intern just learning to use a new computer program.
However, the substance on your website does matter.
Not so much because it will be consumed by so many people or will be key to their decision-making, but because it serves as a great catalyst for honing your agency’s identity and positioning overall.
I’ll explain more a bit later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s take a look at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
P.S. If you want my feedback on your agency’s website, be sure to sign up for the upcoming free Roundtable conversation!
Upcoming Events
- Webinar: How to accelerate your agency’s growth in the year ahead (October 9)
- Roundtable: Agency website reviews (October 23)
Latest podcasts from SAGA
- Agencies and ageism (Agency Leadership Podcast)
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
Articles & Blog Posts
- Lessons In Crisis Communications from CPK (Spin Sucks)
- Your Team is Ready To Lead, Are You Ready to Let Them? (Bureau of Digital)
- Are you wearing your oxygen mask? (Anchor Advisors)
- How Your Hiring Strategies Change (Punctuation)
Podcast Episodes
- The Power and Evolution of Email Marketing, with Scott Cohen (The Innovative Agency)
- Building Agency Pipelines Using Commonality-Driven Email Outreach (The Digital Agency Growth Podcast)
- How to Outsmart Your Own Thinking , with Laura Aura (The Personal Brand Business Show)
- Mining Your CRM for Gold to Maximize Agency Growth with Wendy Lieber (Smart Agency Master Class)
Videos
- Natira McDermott on Just Ask Jody Live (The Sutter Company)
- Making More Without Selling More (Agency Management Institute)
AI in Focus
- Navigating the New Normal of AI (That Solo Life)
- The Future of Search: A Content Knowledge Graph and AI (Spin Sucks)
- Top 6 Ways to Enhance Marketing Agency Reporting With AI (AgencyAnalytics)
Focus on your agency’s website — but for the right reasons
Your website won’t win you nearly as much business as most owners seem to think, so you need to be careful about spending too much time and money making it a beautiful masterpiece.
But you should focus on your website for another reason: it provides a great vehicle for refining your agency’s identity and positioning.
Let me explain.
To me, agency websites are a bit like business plans. The work that goes into them matters more than the final product.
Nobody is going to hire you because your website has stunning animations or dazzling images — unless you are a design agency showcasing your own work.
They’re not even going to sign with your firm because of what they read on your website in most cases.
But to properly organize your website and populate it with content, you need to go through a clear process that will provide great business development value far beyond the site itself.
You need to start by defining your ideal client. That means you need to do the work of reviewing your performance for current and recent past clients to find those that you produced great results for and did so profitably.
By looking at the commonalities in these clients, you can define your true target prospect.
Then you need to define the problem you solve and understand the expectations that clients have.
That provides you with the information you need to craft your messaging most effectively.
If you stopped here and just shared this information with your team and used it to have meaningful conversations with prospects, you would have a win — even if you never put any of it on the website.
Of course, that would be silly. So put it on your website. And make sure that you and your team are singing from the same songbook as the text that appears there.
If you feel the need to update your website in the future, ask if you are doing so because you are bored with it or if something has changed about your identity and positioning.
Focusing on your website matters a lot if you are zeroing in on substance and not getting carried away with glitz and glamour.
Webinar: How to accelerate your agency’s growth in the year ahead
As agency leaders start to think about annual planning, most will be looking toward accelerating their growth rates – especially if the past 12 months haven’t been as robust as hoped.
In this webinar, Chip Griffin will provide attendees with simple steps to take to get started on mapping out a plan that maximizes the chances for faster growth in the year ahead.
He will identify approaches that he has seen work well – in addition to potential pitfalls – based on his own experience as an owner coupled with many years of advising agencies of all sizes.
To register for the webinar at 1 PM ET on Wednesday, October 9, click here.
