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...
20 days 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...
about 1 month 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...
about 2 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....
2 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...
2 months ago • 5 min read
TL;DR Last call for the AI survey! We're refreshing our Factory-Consultancy framework Adding zones: Commodity Factory - Speed and volume Procedure Factory - Repeatable processes Frustrating Middle - A mixture of other zones Gray Hair Boutique - Veteran knowledge Rocket Science - Cutting edge transformation Introducing the service lifecycle lens - A method for tracking service commoditization and knowing when to act. A KPI risk dashboard - Teal-world metrics, risks, and mitigation steps for...
3 months ago • 7 min read
TL;DR We're doing a micro-survey (<10 questions) on how agencies are pricing and packaging the AI services they're selling to clients. Agencies exist because: client teams are strapped, agencies are ahead on the tech curve, they execute faster, know more about specific tech and industries, and offer a quality outside perspective that cuts through (some) politics. Clients are buying revenue, margins, and/or risk mitigation. AI eases bandwidth constraints for both clients and agencies, but this...
3 months ago • 4 min read
TL;DR The 2025 Digital Agency Web Host Report, get your copy here. Privately, many agency leaders are uneasy about where to steer their firms. Their key concerns lie in AI, growth, and team management. AI is obvious, but anemic growth has made team management almost impossible lately. Fixing growth can make management easier. We summarized responses from 50+ agency leaders over the last few months to find pockets of strength and where they're seeing weakness. Leaders most often flagged...
4 months ago • 5 min read
TL;DR The 2025 Digital Agency Web Host Report is live. There were five top hosts that ranked above average in Performance & Reliability and Agency Fit: AWS, WP Engine, Google, DigitalOcean, and GoDaddy. Security, site speed, and uptime were the most important core factors when it comes to agency leaders making hosting decisions. Agency leaders ranked partnership programs the lowest deciding core factor because the current partner programs don't do enough to move the needle. There's an...
4 months ago • 2 min read