A better way to hire your website agency

On the face of it, if you need a new website, asking agencies to pitch sounds a good place to start. But competitive pitches are actually unreliable indicators of who will deliver the best web project.

Why is that?

1. The best agency is likely close to fully booked. They’ll have little time free to prepare for pitches.
2. The best agency for you is likely normally sought after by others. They’ll have the least experience of competitive pitches.
3. Pitches don’t show agencies working at depth, or over time. Marketing relies on depth and consistency.
4. Liking one or two people, or one or two ideas in a pitch doesn’t show what working with the whole agency over five years will be like.

So what is a better way to hire your agency?

First, the best agency will normally specialise in your sector.

Second, the best agency will be loved by other businesses like yours.

Third, a sound agency hire is normally the one with experience, stability and longevity.

It’s easy to find the agency that fulfils these criteria with desk research, or by asking for recommendations.

Then you engage in some deep work with them. Have chemistry calls. Book a workshop. Visit them.

You should find they understand your business very quickly, and show real commercial awareness and competence.

You can always go back to the market if you want to of course. This approach will see you find a great two-way client-agency match, and plenty of additional revenue as a result.