Today’s successful digital agencies are becoming more focused, specialized, and more discerning about which services they offer. Is this push for focus and specialization consistent with the need to scale?
We invited the leadership team at Conduit Digital, recently named by AdWeek as the world’s 2nd fastest growing digital marketing agency, onto Localogy’s “LocalAgency” video series to address this question.
The two Tims, Conduit CEO Tim Burke and Director of Client Experience Tim C. Burke joined us to break down what it takes for digital agencies to both specialize and scale.
“In order to scale, you’re going to have to have a rock-solid process. The pursuit of process excellence has to be #1.”
Conduit is a unit of Traffic Builders, which describes itself as “America’s Most Complete Digital Agency”. Conduit, on the other hand, is a white-label digital marketing agency that the Tims describe as, “the agency that powers agencies.”
Their position in leading a white-label platform for agencies gives the two Tims a unique view of trends in the digital agency space. Specifically, we focused our conversation on what it takes to be successful as a digital agency in today’s environment. Here are some highlights from the interview.
On How COVID Has Impacted Conduit’s Agency Clients
The Tims said their clients have been hit hard by the pandemic. Some harder than others. But they counsel seeing opportunities, not challenges.
“What we continuously talk with them about is, basically, stay in your lane. Let’s look for opportunities in that lane. And let’s look to open some doors that might not have opened before. So in a time like this is, as troublesome as it has been for some, there are doors that are going to open. And let’s just stay open minded to that together, to try and help you grow the agency.”
So what are some of the doors that opened? According to the Tims, it’s different for each agency. But being opportunistic about verticals is one key to adapting to this environment.
“A year like this proves that whatever happened in the past, it’s just that. We’ve got to have our eyes looking through the windshield, not the rearview mirror. And ultimately, for our ad agencies, that might mean moving into an associated vertical, that that might mean broadening out your portfolio in some instances. Or narrowing it in others.”
On What Defines a Successful Digital Agency Today
The Tims believe that success today, beyond having a positive attitude, boils down to ruthlessly culling those services or markets that don’t give an agency a clear path to success.
“What we’ve seen through 2020 is those big broad agencies of the past, the ones that would try to do everything for everybody, now seem to be more focused. And people are getting into vertical specialty and are just reducing the scope of the agency down to those things that they excel at in their core competency.”
On What It Takes for Agencies to Scale
Having the right product and services, and addressing the right vertical, are important keys to digital agency success. But to scale? That depends more on operational excellence, according to the Tims.
“In order to scale, you’re gonna have to have a rock-solid process. So the pursuit of process excellence just has to be number one. Because every agency is as unique as a fingerprint. If are you going to build a process that’s going to scale, it has to have the strongest foundation you possibly can have. We try to advise our agencies that once you have that rock-solid process in place, all those different opportunities are now not going to throw your agency off off tilt.”
You can view the full episode on Localogy Live.
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