Agencies - Stick To What You're Good At

Back in the early 2000s I ran the media team in a 30 person direct response agency. We operated across most media but majored in direct mail, leaflet inserts & press. Clients tasked us with increasing response volumes and keeping acquisition costs down...success lay in opening up ever more channels for our clients and revitalizing the existing ones.

As a result, there was constant mission creep in our channel & creative responsibilities. We’d be exploring & testing new channels, trying out multiple creative variations & running with minimal volumes / media investment. We’d involve the senior (& higher salary) agency brains with the juniors largely left as onlookers. Critically, not every channel or test was a success, meaning we often lost our clients money and ran the risk of damaged relationships.

Working in channels we understood was far simpler & more profitable - ideally with creative that wasn't too far from what had worked last time! Results were predictable, investments & commissions were higher and the campaigns could be executed by more junior staff members.

Dominic Benton , my fabulous boss there, taught me to expand expertise carefully. To only reluctantly go into new business areas making sure the market potential made the business time, energy & risk worthwhile.

For the 14 years that I ran SearchStar (which became Adapt ) we operated in a narrow field of expertise - initially just PPC and later on Paid Digital Media. Additionally we provided Analytics and CRO because they enabled us to understand the media investment and get better returns from it. We built deep expertise, so could delight clients with a relatively junior team. As a result we were efficient and profitable. 

In contrast I’ve never truly understood the integrated agency model. It obviously appeals to some clients who want a one stop shop for their marketing but it’s always felt expensive, with the expertise spread thinly. Can a 25 person agency really do Branding, PPC, PR, SEO, WebDev, Copy, TV, Direct Mail & Influencer Marketing…obviously with freelancers it becomes limitless but really?

There is a point to this article. I’m an investor and Non-Exec with Varn Search Marketing a superb SEO agency. Varn have had a few approaches recently from agencies who are realizing that they’ve over-reached. That they are operating outside of their core skill sets and are struggling to deliver the SEO results their clients demand. In some instances they are also struggling to retain the wide range of talented staff good SEO requires. We’ve confidentially explored their options and come to “mutually satisfactory & profitable” arrangements that allow us to take over the SEO aspects of their client relationships. Typically, this has been done openly with the client, rather than white label. Varn Search Marketing has also agreed to defer to & pay a referral fee to the introducing agency.

The clients are getting better service and achieving better results. The referring agency is getting cred points from their clients for being open about the problem and putting forward a strong solution. Both agencies are making a profit. SEO is pretty much all Varn does so we can do it well for a lower cost than an agency working outside its comfort zone.

If you’d like a confidential conversation about the SEO service your agency is providing to clients please contact myself, Tom Vaughton MD @ Varn or Rob Wilde Deputy MD @ Varn.

Additionally if you’d like to take issue with my critique of integrated agencies then comments go below!