Dear agency owners,

I’m sorry. You thought you were different. You were wrong. Confused? Offended? The reality is, no matter the differences in your client list, the size of your business, or the skill level of your employees, your agency is not so different from the others in the marketplace. 

Your agency is one of the hundreds in a crowded bar, and you’re all trying to get the cute girl’s (or boy’s) number. Some of your competitors talk a bigger game, some of them are better looking, some have a more impressive track record, but you can still prove that you and your agency are the best options. How do you do it? 

It’s not with your portfolio. This will not win you clients. It might even work against you. Prospects don’t care about your past work. They care about what you can do for them in the future.  

It’s not by discounting your services. If you get into a fight with other agencies for lower and lower prices, you have entered yourself in a race to the bottom. The prize for everyone involved is going out of business.

Look at your website. Is it filled with your past work and the list of clients you worked with? If so, you’re in the me-too business hoping the fact that you’ve worked before will help you find work again. This will get you nothing more than the clients who are looking for somebody good enough.

If you’re okay with good enough, don’t change a thing. Keep doing what you’re doing, and you will be good enough to get the clients who will pay you just enough. But, if you want better, if you’re going to thrive, you are invited to read on and learn to put yourself in a class of your own.

To achieve impressive results, you’ll need to leave an impression. You won’t look or sound like the other agencies. You won’t talk price, you’ll talk value. You won’t talk about your history. You’ll talk about the future. You’ll talk about results. 

How do you deliver?

1) Create a Proprietary Process 

Imagine you are an agency specialising in motion graphics. You have been in business for 2 years, and you have an impressive portfolio. Business slows down, and you plan to increase marketing. More marketing. Better marketing. Louder marketing.

What if instead of more of the same, you brought something new to the market, something that no one else had? What if you create a process called it The Emotional Transformation, where graphics are animated with targeted emotions. You create a package that gives your clients a more impactful connection with their customers.

While your clients grow a greater connection with their customers, they build a stronger bond with you. Having this proprietary process empowers you to talk about your business in ways you never could. You can craft an impactful story around your owned process and stand out from other agencies who can’t talk about it at all. 

2) Productised Services 

Package a service you specialise in (SOPs, manuals, worksheets, templates) and give it a standard price. You can efficiently market this product and create a whole new demand. The best service to make products out of are those that have a standardised process you can easily outsource or delegate to someone else.

For example, if maybe you looking for a way to improve the efficiencies of your copywriting branch. You could continue to promote yourself to everyone looking for a copywriter, or you could get specific and speak to a different market. Package a product of ten emails that have proven to convert prospects browsing vacation packages. Now, you can sell that package to travel agencies with minimal adjustments and outsource the work to someone else on your team.

You’ve just created a product you can sell at scale and give yourself more time to work on other things. The best financial growth is best when it puts time back in your hands. 

3) Create an actual product 

Write a book, develop an app, or design a game. Display your expertise in a way that nobody else is. Creating a tangible product is challenging but incredibly rewarding. Your product should be a logical extension of your brand and service. That might seem limiting but it leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Be creative, have fun, and be memorable.

A graphic design agency could release notebooks designed to take better organisation during meetings. A product design company could release a deck of cards to gamify the design process. Poke fun at yourself and your industry if you have to, but show you are different and don’t be afraid to fail. Releasing a pen with your name on it is just another sales trick that everybody has done. Don’t be everybody.