“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.
Today’s column is written by Rob Beeler, founder of Beeler.Tech.
With so much upheaval in our industry, agencies are the ones bearing the brunt of the greatest changes. If you’re an agency that wants to last beyond this chaotic inflection point, you must accept that resistance will only decrease your chances of survival.
To move forward, you will need to make three core changes across your business: evaluate what your core competencies truly are, take proactive steps to retain your top talent, and accept that brands want more ownership in your relationship.
- Evaluate your agency’s core competencies
Even before the pandemic, agencies were people-pleasers, with decades of experience in pushing themselves to do more (faster and cheaper) to meet the expanding client demands. The problem is that, today, clinging to a “We can do anything and everything!” mindset is no longer sustainable. In fact, it can be fatal to your business.
Instead, you need to ask yourself a few essential questions:
- What are you actually good at, i.e., what are your true core competencies?
- What are you spending time on right now that isn’t a core competency?
Once you establish what your core competencies are (and aren’t), you can dial into how you deliver value as an agency while also improving your agility to scale and adapt for the future. Then you can establish strategic, mutually beneficial relationships with specialized third-party partners that can alleviate the strain you feel in certain areas.
- Prioritize retaining your top talent
In spite of the current economic volatility, recent data shows us that the Great Resignation is far from over. According to PwC, one in five professionals is still planning to quit their job in 2022. Their research also found that while a higher salary is one of the leading motivating factors for making a job change, another significant reason is the desire for “more fulfillment in the workplace.”
In short, retention is a priority.
How do your best people spend most of their time? Are they working on tasks and projects that are truly strategic and in-line with career objectives? Or are they constantly bouncing between endless manual tasks and mindless reporting duties? Have you set the necessary conditions for them to do meaningful work in a focused way? Or are they suffering because your agency is spread too thin in the services you offer?
Someone is going to have to do the manual work, but does it have to be your best people? There are companies out there whose job it is to take this manual work off your plate. If you fail to address the work environment shortfalls you uncover, you’re guaranteeing turnover will remain an issue.
- Accept that brands want more ownership
After having their budgets slashed during the pandemic (and then kept at record lows in 2021), in-house marketing leaders are bringing almost a third of the work they previously sourced to agencies in-house. That’s why your brands, for better or for worse, want more ownership in their relationship with you.
As an agency, you can’t turn back the clock on this significant mindset shift within your clients.
You must adapt.
This starts by resetting your understanding of what your clients actually want: expertise and creativity. For the most part, they’re no longer looking for you to be reactive button-pushers who can say yes to every need they have, no matter how specialized or out of scope. Instead, outsource the button-pushing to someone else and focus on being the strategic, transparent partner they want.
Agencies, you need to take action
Crossing your fingers and hoping that this proverbial storm will pass is not an option. The only choice you have is to meet this moment with a posture of acceptance and a willingness to challenge the way you’ve always done business.
Yes, this will require you to ask tough questions:
- Are you focused on the right competencies? Are you accidentally making it easy for great employees to leave?
- Are you making it harder for brands to want to work with you?
- Are you reaching out to get the support you need to be successful?
You will need to answer these with unflinching honesty. Will the changes you need to make based on what you discover be easy? No, they won’t. But your survival depends on it, and the long-term benefits will be more than worth it.
Follow Beeler.Tech (@BeelerTech) and AdExchanger (@adexchanger) on Twitter.
For more articles featuring Rob Beeler, click here.
