The Paradigm Shift in Agency Services
As inbound marketing leads the paradigm shift from “Mad Men” thinking to customer-centric marketing efforts, many agencies are evolving their skill sets and offerings to keep up with the pace of change.
Plenty of agencies are taking the shift in stride, but to me the agencies listed below stood out as demand generation experts and I want to call them out. It’s one thing to understand the best practices, but it’s another thing entirely to practice what you preach. These agencies talk the talk AND walk the walk. If you’re on the lookout for an agency partner or wondering what a true demand generation agency looks like, these are the cream of the crop who are leading by example.
My Criteriamagnet
I evaluated each agency based on their own implementation of inbound marketing tactics. I looked for an active blog with regularly updated relevant content tailored to the target audience, calls to action on the agency’s website, design with conversion in mind (functional, not just pretty) and an active social media strategy incorporating (at the very least) Twitter and Facebook.
Agency name: Kuno Creative
Website: http://www.kunocreative.com/
Twitter handle: @kuno
Why they’re awesome at demand generation:
The folks at Kuno Creative are demand generation experts. Their site offers content all over the place in exchange for some information about you. While their forms could definitely benefit from some progressive profiling (wow that’s a lot of fields!) we think that their overall strategy clearly adheres to inbound marketing best practices and we’re impressed. Kuno also has a great blog and social media strategy. They generally publish a quality blog post every weekday- an impressive frequency-to-quality ratio for a busy agency. They also have a “Resources” section on their site where they offer guides and whitepapers to their visitors. This agency really gets it, and that’s obvious.
Agency name: Second Law Media
Website: http://www.secondlawmedia.com/
Twitter handle: @2ndLAWmedia
Why they’re awesome at demand generation:
This agency got on my radar because their Twitter feed is SO.AWESOME. These folks truly get demand generation and their social media reinforces that they eat their own dog food. But social is just one piece of the demand gen puzzle. Something that really stuck out to me is the way they’ve created case studies from past projects that illustrate what their services have done for the client. You can bet this boosts their credibility and it also does a better job of illustrating their full suite of capabilities because it doesn’t just show off the design, it explains quantitative benefits gained from using their services. Also, their blog is a fantastic resource for all things demand gen with an emphasis on SEO and analytics.
Agency name: Digital Telepathy
Website: http://www.dtelepathy.com
Twitter handle: @dtelepathy
Why they’re awesome at demand generation:
Great portfolio site that highlights digital marketing accomplishments case-study style. They have a unique CTA on their portfolio page that is designed to compliment the visual identity of the agency. The way they title their case studies (ie. “21% conversion increase in just 30 days”) is smart and incentivizing. They also feature their best success stories prominently at the top of their portfolio page, making it easy to see quality demand gen work instead of having it mixed in and buried under all their (incredible) design work.
Agency name: Overit
Website: http://overit.com/
Twitter handle: @overit
Why they’re awesome at demand generation:
Gotta love the clever, colored rollover effects on their CTAs. The round shape also draws the eye. Their blog has informative articles and they took the time to thank us for adding them to our “Agencies doing it right” Twitter list. Social strategy? Check. They also have a smart layout for their homepage- it includes logos of prominent clients for social proof, and at the bottom there are recent posts from the blog and recent press releases to catch the interest of anyone who takes the time to scroll down. Keeping visitors engaged is an art form and this is cleverly done to do exactly that.
Agency name: DMX Engage
Website: http://www.dmxengage.com/
Twitter handle: @DMXEngage
Why they’re awesome at demand generation:
DMX Engage is the inbound marketing agency within DMX Direct. DMX Engage’s homepage is clearly optimized for demand generation with smart details like social proof in the form of their clients’ logos, the latest content call out at the top-right, a regularly updated blog with attractive, compelling content, and clear calls-to-action that stand out against their very clean website design. Socially speaking, their Twitter feed has lots of great Tweets about content marketing, they post frequently, and their posts are generally about relevant demand generation-focused topics.
Agency name: Magnet Media
Website: http://magnetmediafilms.com/
Twitter handle: @MagnetMediaInc
Why they’re awesome at demand generation:
These guys are an agency that targets film and broadcasting. They make the case for SEO and content marketing in that vertical and do a great job of maintaining a Twitter feed that is both fun and strategic. They list big name clients on their homepage for great social proof, and include plenty of videos about their services on their website. This makes for a fun experience during research and consideration phases. They have simple, easily-reproduced resources that consist of 5 tips about XYZ- very digestible and interesting for any clients considering using their services. Their forms to download those assets are short and sweet (just first name, last name and email address) and they have a subscription CTA in their right sidebar which is subtle but reinforced by the list of recent resources below the email field. I really enjoyed browsing through their blog- it’s a mix of videos, recent projects, digital marketing tips and new resource announcements. I think it is well done and it probably brings in a lot of traffic and leads for them. Overall, Magnet Media looks clean, professional and smart.
Agency name: The 1st Movement
Website: http://www.the1stmovement.com/
Twitter handle: @the1stmovement
Why they’re awesome at demand generation:
These guys go all out on the demand generation front. The homepage of their site is dominated by a recent project with a CTA to see the case study. When you click through to the case study it’s got major accomplishments from the campaign on the right-side with a graphic to call them out, which makes the information very compelling and showcases what these guys are capable of. Their Twitter feed, at first glance, seems more about entertainment than educating people about demand generation, but over time it actually maintains a nice balance. Their options to connect could be stronger; you can only connect by going to the very bottom of their single page layout and clicking the button to email a particular office. Their blog is also well hidden. It Overall I was very impressed with this agency..
Walk the Walk
As more and more agencies branch out into the world of inbound marketing and content creation, the experts have an opportunity to separate themselves from the rest. The thing is, it isn’t difficult for an agency to produce excellent work, so determining the best marketing agencies out there becomes a challenge. If an agency is going to sell you marketing services, they should believe in the value of those marketing services. If they believe in their value, then they should be putting the money where their mouth is and actually implementing those marketing techniques for their own agency. So look around, do some research and have a look at the different agencies I’ve found who are walking the walk. To see other examples of demand generation agencies, check out our Twitter list called “Agencies Doing it Right“.
Got an agency you admire? Get them on the radar in the comments below!
