The Marketing Agency Blueprint Part 4

5. Technically sound: Technically sound copy is concise and powerful. It uses proper grammar and is written at the appropriate reading level. It is also consistent in person, voice, tone, and format. Copywriters need strong technical writing skills and the ability to apply these skills whatever the task, medium, or subject matter.

6. Creative: Never underestimate the value of quality creative writing. Although many of the other elements we have discussed can be learned, business-savvy creative writers are in high demand and scarce supply, and can be an invaluable a.s.set to your agency.

7. Results driven: Copywriting needs to be tied to organization objectives, and should play a key role in delivering results, such as generating leads, educating key audiences, and positioning as an industry leader.

Copywriters should be invested in tracking the content's success through metrics such as pageviews, content downloads, social media reach, and leads. This enables future content to be strategized based on past performance, and can encourage the incorporation of new ideas and topics, to drive traffic and capture audiences.

Understand Your Role in the Ecosystem.

The evolving marketing-services ecosystem consists of six agency cla.s.sifications: disruptors, traditionalists, softservers, specialists, connectors, and soloists. Each plays an essential role in the development of a more open and collaborative community.

Let's first take a look at the marketing agency profiles, then visualize how the ecosystem functions.

Disruptors.

Disruptors will be the dominant players in the new ecosystem. They are the most advanced of the hybrids in terms of technology integration, diversified services, and talent versatility. Disruptors are always pushing to evolve services and pricing, and they have the most aggressive growth goals. Unlike their traditional-agency brethren, disruptors are risk takers that fight to remain nimble, always thinking like start-ups and acting like underdogs.

Few firms have emerged to date that embody all the elements of these leading hybrid agencies. As a result, tremendous opportunities exist for the agencies with the will and drive to develop model firms.

Services: Able to build fully integrated marketing campaigns that adhere to the principles of selective consumption. This includes content publishing, social media consulting, SEO, online advertising, mobile marketing, website development, e-mail marketing, lead nurturing and a.n.a.lytics, as well as evolved forms of PR and brand marketing. Core capabilities will center on digital services, with a mix of traditional activities as needed. Some services will be outsourced to partner agencies, including soloists and specialists, especially in the early years as they develop talent and advance internal capabilities.

Staff: Versatile professionals with strong backgrounds in marketing, communications, and business. A high value will be placed on expert copywriters who are trained in authentic on-page and off-page SEO methodology and can function as Internet marketing consultants. All employees are heavily engaged in social media. We will further investigate staffing in Chapter 3.

Pricing: Value based with wider appeal to the ma.s.s market of small businesses.

Results: Leading marketing agencies consistently produce more measurable outcomes, including inbound links, website traffic, leads, and sales. Quickly shifting away from arbitrary metrics such as media impressions, reach, advertising equivalency, and PR value.

Technology: Fully immersed in the technology industry. Will breed a new generation of tech-savvy, entrepreneurial-minded professionals. Cloud platforms play a key role in their growth and adaptability.

Infrastructure: More agile and tolerant to risk than traditional marketing service firms. Built to be highly scalable in terms of number of clients and employees, geographic markets, and revenue streams.

Leadership: Prototype founders have 5 to 10 years of agency experience, with exposure to a diverse collection of accounts and industries, and strong insight into agency management. They will be digital natives who understand what is broken within the current agency model, and have the drive and desire to do it differently. There is significant financial risk, so the ideal professional lives a modest lifestyle, has solid personal savings, and, ideally, has some level of bank- or angel-investor funding to provide a 12- to 18-month runway to figure things out. We will go further into funding and financials in Chapter 4.

Growth: Dramatically more aggressive growth models due to ma.s.s-market appeal. A wave of mergers and acquisitions of complementary firms-PR, SEO, advertising, web developers, e-mail marketing, mobile marketing-is possible, although most will look to remain independent and grow within the collaborative ecosystem.

Market focus: The industry leaders will have a ma.s.s-market focus and international appeal (the Internet has no borders), but, like any emerging industry, there will be plenty of room for smaller agencies to prosper by concentrating on niche market segments and/or services.

Traditionalists.

The unfortunate truth is that traditionalists are the irrelevant aristocracy. They are still influential due to their large networks, established client rosters, and legacy brands, but they have minimal impact on the emerging disruptor cla.s.s. Their archaic business models are difficult to evolve, and, therefore, they will struggle to compete as more companies seek innovative approaches to interactive marketing needs.

The advertising and PR industry conglomerates are not going anywhere soon, but in the meantime, disruptors will gladly chip away at the underserviced small-to-midsize business (SMB) markets, and begin infiltrating larger enterprises one division at a time, slowly undermining the traditionalists' influence and authority. Following are characteristics of traditionalist agencies: Current market leaders with solid reputations and brands, and respected leadership teams.

Strong in traditional services, but struggling to profitably integrate digital services. In many cases, they may have divisions or groups internally that specialize in digital; however, digital services and thinking are not ingrained throughout the agency.

Staffed with some of the industry's best and brightest young talent, but stand to lose A players to emerging firms that offer more innovative cultures. Top traditionalist professionals are also prime candidates to launch disruptor firms.

Maintain top-heavy staffing models with high-paid executives and partners. This makes it difficult to evolve pricing models and build more efficient, value-based services.

Stuck in legacy systems that inhibit their ability to make the drastic infrastructure changes needed.

Some top traditionalists have the resources to acquire upstart disruptors in an effort to remain relevant, but many will look to merge or get acquired as compet.i.tion intensifies.

Unless these firms make dramatic changes, they run the risk of becoming obsolete over time.

A subcategory of traditionalists will develop that successfully evolve into tech-savvy, hybrid agencies but lack the vision and growth goals of disruptors. They will be able to maintain strong, profitable businesses as long as they can retain their top young talent, but these professionals will be highly motivated to find more dynamic career paths with disruptors and softservers.

Softservers.

Softservers are a relatively unknown yet quickly evolving breed. Technology companies, which concentrate on marketing software development, are building service divisions, either based on customer demand for advanced product expertise, or out of necessity to improve utilization and performance, thereby reducing churn rates-a key metric for software companies. Note these characteristics: Softservers is an emerging cla.s.sification that includes marketing software companies, such as HubSpot and Radian6, which offer varying levels of services and consulting.

Their presence creates an intriguing dynamic in the ecosystem given their intimate knowledge of client needs, financial resources, and their role in driving change velocity. In essence, they have significant leverage, and can always be one step ahead of the agencies that rely on them for referrals.

Their services are directly tied to supporting adoption and success with their proprietary products.

Softservers are unlikely to build full-blown, in-house agencies in the near term, since service-based businesses earn lower valuations. However, their presence can be a disrupting force for marketing agencies.

Overall, the existence of softservers pushes marketing agencies to continually innovate. As a result, they present more opportunities than threats to the ecosystem.

Specialists.

Specialists focus on niche markets and opportunities. The top specialists are in high demand, and thus, they can charge premiums for their services. Specialists also have opportunities to build strong brands as thought leaders by sharing their expertise on blogs and within their social networks. These agencies may have direct clients, but also commonly rely on full-service agencies and online marketplaces for business development. Specialists are: Narrowly focused on maintaining expertise in niche markets and services, such as SEO, PR, web development, content creation, video, mobile, or graphic design.

Niche focused, which may still be lucrative, but limits motivation to evolve.

Finding it increasingly difficult to remain specialized in service areas, as selective consumption principles are driving increased client demand for complete marketing solutions. For example, website effectiveness is commonly being measured by lead generation, which requires content strategies and social-media integration.

Sometimes building strong partnerships with traditionalists and other specialists that they rely on for business development and revenue.

Likely more project based, which makes it difficult to create reliable recurring revenue needed for growth and stability.

Prime candidates for acquisitions by full-service hybrid agencies looking to pull resources in-house.

Firms who, if they stay independent, can prosper through disruptor agency partnerships-as long as there is limited crossover in services.

Connectors.

Connectors are often the thinkers and networkers, not the doers. They prefer to make connections and build provider networks that enable them to earn comfortable profit margins. This business model frees up their time to pursue multiple ventures, and affords them the opportunity to prosper off their reputations and profiles through activities such as consulting, speaking, and publishing. Common connector characteristics include: Their strongest capabilities lie in networking, promotion, sales, and/or project management.

They rely on a distributed network of soloists and specialists to do the work, while they may remain involved in planning and consulting.

They are likely more interested in building wealth and a balanced lifestyle than investing the time and energy required to create a full-service hybrid agency.

They are often social media influencers who have built large followings that give them flexibility in their career paths.

They could be a primary compet.i.tor to disruptors with the right partners and systems in place. However, they will struggle to compete at lower prices, due to tighter margins from the distributed workforce model.

Soloists.

Soloists have modest growth goals. They are limited by their own time capacities, and, therefore, either have a small collection of larger accounts, or are taking advantage of emerging online service marketplaces, such as crowdSPRING, to find consistent project work. Soloist characteristics include: Not looking to build an agency, but to simply make a comfortable living as a part- or full-time freelancer and subcontractor.

Possibly motivated more by lifestyle goals than monetary achievements.

Most likely gained experience from prior agency or corporate marketing positions.

Work directly for clients or as outside agency contractors.

Expected to benefit from a more collaborative ecosystem, but capacity is always an issue-which makes them difficult to rely on for growing agencies.

Visualizing the Ecosystem.

The ecosystem is client centric, meaning agencies must continually evolve to meet their needs and demands. Change velocity, selective consumption, and success factors are the environmental factors that dictate agency pricing, services, staffing, and infrastructure.

Disruptors and softservers, the most motivated to continually adapt, will come to control the workflow and budgets, whereas specialists, connectors, and soloists will increasingly rely on the leading agencies for opportunities and growth. Traditionalists gradually will fade from prominence and lose market share to disruptors and softservers.

The ecosystem diagram (Figure 2.1) is designed primarily to demonstrate workflow and relevance. Here is a breakdown of how it works: Clients are shown at the center of the ecosystem.

Change velocity, selective consumption, and success factors are the catalysts that are fueling agency transformation and driving the evolution of client needs and demands.

Solid lines represent direct workflow from client to agency and agency to agency. For example, clients may work directly with specialists or the work may flow from clients to traditionalists, who then outsource work to specialists.

The arrows along the lines are multidirectional in many cases, because work may flow both ways. For example, an SEO specialist firm may bring in a disruptor to handle content marketing or a disruptor that does not have SEO capabilities in-house may outsource to a specialist.

The dashed lines represent pa.s.s-through work and referrals. For example, softservers have a solid line from the client demonstrating that they may do direct consulting, and they also have a dashed line that runs to the other side of the ecosystem, which shows how they commonly refer clients to other agencies.

Varying sizes of the agency circles are meant to show relevance in the evolving ecosystem.

Softservers and connectors are isolated from the other agencies because they are not pure service firms. Softservers are primarily marketing software companies, whereas connectors are mainly networkers, educators, and facilitators.

Proximity to the core shows how strongly connected agencies are to clients. Disruptors, traditionalists, and softservers tend to have the most in-depth knowledge of the client, and the deepest relationships throughout the companies. These agencies often are the most heavily involved in strategic planning, and have access to a.n.a.lytics and business-intelligence data.

Figure 2.1 The Emerging Marketing Agency Ecosystem.

Are PR Firms the Perfect Hybrids?

As budgets continue to shift to content marketing, search marketing, and social media, PR firms have an opportunity to a.s.sume unparalleled levels of leadership and influence in the marketing mix, if they can expand their services and consistently deliver measurable value to their clients.

Consider the following:.

Social media partic.i.p.ation is nothing more than relationships and communications through online channels. That is what PR pros do-build relationships and enhance communications with audiences-employees, media, customers, prospects, vendors, and partners.

Although advanced SEO is both an art and science and reserved for brilliant minds like Rand Fishkin (@randfish) and Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan), most core SEO concepts and methodologies can be easily learned and executed as part of a larger content strategy. Plus, platforms such as HubSpot and SEOmoz create a low barrier to entry for PR firms interested in integrating basic SEO services such as keyword a.n.a.lyses, link building, and on-page optimization.

It seems to be universally accepted these days that "content is king" in the new marketing world. Content marketing requires strong technical and creative writing skills, business ac.u.men, marketing savvy, and strategic thinking. Again, a perfect fit for the capabilities of top PR professionals who tend to have strong copywriting skills.

Content-management systems (CMS) have made web development and management far less complex. Websites have become communications and content-distribution vehicles. As a result, professionals who understand brand positioning and buyer personas, as well as the content and social media strategies, should guide website design and content. PR firms and web developers are a natural fit for future mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships.

Unfortunately, PR firms remain their own worst enemy. As a whole, they have been slow to seize the opportunities to evolve. In a 2009 study, we found that only 38 percent of PRWeek's top PR firms published a blog.11 Although the numbers improved in 2010 to 63 percent, it appears the industry at large is struggling to integrate social media, SEO, and other interactive strategies. For now, they are not the perfect hybrids, but the possibility is there for forward-thinking PR firms to emerge.

Are You Building a Disruptor?

Building a dynamic, full-service hybrid agency designed to grow beyond 10, 20, and even 50 employees, requires incredible drive, remarkable patience, and an undying belief that you are creating something of great significance. Money cannot be the primary motivator. It is the need to create change, to push boundaries, and to positively impact the lives of others. Professionals who choose to build disruptors believe they have a higher purpose. It is not the right career choice for everyone.

Some professionals will be better suited to make their mark as soloists, connectors, or specialists. Historically, many agencies have been built by professionals who, having excelled at their work, wanted the freedom and financial rewards that came from owning their own business. They were pract.i.tioners by trade, not businessmen and women. However, in order to construct a disruptor, the pract.i.tioner function must become secondary, and your pa.s.sion has to be for building and running a business.

Like all entrepreneurs, agency princ.i.p.als have to make sacrifices in the early years, especially if you have a vision for growth. This includes working endless days followed by sleepless nights, taking smaller paychecks (if at all), investing profits back into the agency, fighting with increasingly conservative lenders to secure capital, dealing with mundane details such as health-care benefits and taxes, putting employee and client needs ahead of your own at all times, and learning to live with and embrace the unknown. In order to thrive in the new agency ecosystem, you have to start by being honest with yourself: What are you willing to sacrifice?

What motivates you?

How will you define success?

What type of agency do you want to build?

What are your greatest strengths?

What are your greatest weaknesses?

Are you a leader?

Are you in the financial position to take the risks needed?

Do you have the ability to recruit and retain top talent?

Will you be happy running a business, rather than doing the work?

If you plan to build a disruptor, you will come to spend 90 percent or more of your time on three things: (1) recruiting and retaining talent, (2) setting and pursuing the vision, and (3) driving growth. If you do not have the desire or ability to excel in these areas, you either need to find a business partner who does to a.s.sume the role of CEO, or you should consider pursuing a different path in the ecosystem.

We will further explore these ideas in Chapters 9 and 10 where we focus on embracing failure and pursuing purpose.

The Art of Outsourcing and Collaboration.

Whether you are building a disruptor or planning to stay small and enjoy the freedom that comes from life as a soloist, outsourcing and collaboration are essential. Change velocity makes it nearly impossible to stay at the forefront of every trend, and selective consumption is driving demand for a vast array of services and expertise that most firms are not prepared to deliver.

Until you can make a strong business case for bringing new capabilities in-house, either through an acquisition or hire, it is best to focus on your agency's core competencies and find great partners for the rest. Start by determining the service mix needed to plan and execute client campaigns, and then go to work finding the right partners.

Based on digital-services demand and selective consumption, standard agency competencies will include: brand marketing, website development, SEO, online advertising, local search, e-mail marketing, social media marketing, copywriting, video production, PR, graphic design, and mobile marketing. Services that require very specialized capabilities, software, or equipment are logical competencies for full-service firms to outsource to specialists and soloists.