Today’s Toughest Challenge I set out to write about today’s toughest agency challenges and got a bit carried away with the first one I came up with. Of course, it’s about the value agencies create and how they charge for it. This is something that’s so foundational and yet so misunderstood that it seems to be the root cause of most agency challenges. Not sure about pricing? Start with value. Who to hire? What’s the real value you’re delivering? Should you add a service? How’s it impact the...
22 days ago • 3 min read
TL;DR Leaders are kicking off 2026 with an aggressive push for new business, with many looking to systemize and streamline their revgen strategy and ops. If you’d like a leg up on improving your revgen strategy this year, check out our Agency Revgen Review. Alongside the rush for new clients, agencies are turning inward to streamline operations, with a considerable number of responses focused on improving internal processes and tools. Finally, there's a strong push for productization as...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
TL;DR We're presenting our latest research on how agencies can increase client lifetime value with Tucows OpenSRS on 11/20! Last call for our Future of Web survey! Participate before it closes EOD Friday. (Delphi members, be sure to use your Delphi link from this morning's email) GatherUp hired us to do an independent study on the ROI potential of reputation management. We evaluated 91 digital agencies and benchmarked them against our industry standards to create a financial model that...
3 months ago • 5 min read
TL;DR Delphi's first paid survey is live! Agency leaders can sign up, get the quarterly pulse results, and participate in optional paid research opportunities. We target a compensation rate of ~$500/hr for valid leader responses. Planning for the future can be a luxury, but when you're ready, there are ways to do it that are more successful than others. The first issue is when agencies overindex on their core business lines without investing in future services. Instability in core agency ops...
3 months ago • 6 min read
TL;DR We're live with a new playbook to help agency leaders build a referral system that works. Thanks to GoDaddy for sponsoring, this playbook is free! The 4Q Agency Pulse Survey is closed, but we'll share the results with every Delphi member, regardless of participation status! This is a one-time thing for everyone to see what Delphi is all about. Sign up and get the results. There’s been a strong undercurrent of “wtf do we do next?” throughout the agency space this year. It's causing too...
4 months ago • 5 min read
TL;DR Join Delphi, an exclusive insights network for digital agency leaders. The first survey goes out tomorrow 10/1. Sign up, participate, and get the results. Last chance to participate in the Agency Client LTV study. Over 100 agencies have shared their best practices around growing average client value and we're excited to share what we found! Participate now to get the results. Value Chain Analysis can be used to evaluate all the various activities a firm does to help them deliver the...
4 months ago • 4 min read
TL;DR We're launching signups for the Founding Cohort of a new group for agency leaders. We're kicking things off in October with our first quarterly pulse check. It's free for members who participate in quarterly surveys. Founding Cohort spots are open until the first survey in October. Founding Cohort members will have the opportunity to help shape future research. Later, we'll layer on optional paid surveys and interviews. NEW AGENCY SURVEY: Client Lifetime Value - Participate now and get...
5 months ago • 4 min read
TL;DR We’re building a private insights group for agency leaders interested in real data about what’s going on in the market. Sign up now. For agency leaders who have their strategy, revgen, and structure in place, employee experience (EX) is the next step that can drive significant long-term growth. Developing EX through the service-profit chain provides agency leaders with a solid framework to link EX to agency performance. The S-P chain is essentially: Happy employees make happy clients....
5 months ago • 7 min read
TL;DR There are 12 key components to our updated Factory-Consultancy Framework: Project uniqueness Delivery complexity Pricing model Degree of customization Talent mix and cost Staffing difficulty Service maturity Sales cycle Client concentration Revenue predictability Contract negotiation complexity Presence of substitutes Almost all of them have a few key activities needed to move right toward consultancies. We've also updated our Factory-Consultancy Diagnostic to account for the new...
6 months ago • 5 min read