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...
17 days 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...
29 days 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...
about 1 month 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...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
TL;DR Our next opening for an agency consulting project is in late September. Please get in touch early if you're interested in a Revgen Review or a Custom Strategy Project. The AM/PM confusion has spread all the way to McCann as they restructure to replace their AMs with PMs. Unfortunately for them, AMs and PMs serve two different but complementary roles. AMs drive growth while PMs drive margin. The core purpose of an account manager is to oversee the client relationship. The core purpose of...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Special Survey Edition This is a special edition of our newsletter. We'll be back next week with our standard deep dive into a new agency topic. Today, we're doing a study on how digital agency teams evaluate web hosts, and we'd appreciate your perspective. As a thank you, we'll send the full analysis and a $25 gift card to everyone who submits a valid response. Research Invitation I'd like to invite you to participate in our research. It takes about 5min on average. We're hoping to learn...
3 months ago • 1 min read
TL;DR NEW SURVEY: Web Host Sentiment open through 5/30. Agency leaders are slightly optimistic about their agency's outlook for the rest of the year. Many leaders view 1H25 as a low point, so it’ll be pretty easy for the second half to be better. Web development services face polarized demand depending significantly on client industry health and exposure. We saw high demand for strategy services (digital and marketing strategy). The weakest services were content marketing, social media...
3 months ago • 4 min read
TL;DR We're live with a new agency pulse check survey. We just published our latest (free) Digital Agency Industry Report, which serves as our primer on the industry. The key takeaway is that the industry has matured, and this changes how leaders need to approach it. A new episode of Agency Mythbusters is out! Register for my session at AmpUp where I'll run through the top trends reshaping digital agencies. New Survey: How's everyone feeling? Will the second half of the year be better or...
4 months ago • 2 min read
TL;DR Referrals are one of the most powerful and cost-effective growth channels for digital agencies. There are four main sources: Current clients, Partners / adjacent businesses, Past clients, & Personal and professional contacts Ask for referrals at the point of peak happiness, when industry changes occur, or when tech changes. Different roles will be responsible for referrals at different-sized agencies, but make sure that SOMEONE is owning it. Use simple, confident language and tailor...
4 months ago • 8 min read