1. What was that saying about opinions?
Simply put, it’s hard to find anyone at an agency who doesn’t have their own ideas/vision for how to get the new company website to make it rain 7 figure accounts. What’s most important? Well, ask an AE, a CD, or a DD, and I’ll bet the farm you get 3 different answers. The copywriter is worried about the voice of the blog, your interactive AD just found a sweet new gallery plugin, the intern is worried about posting some beer-thirty pics in the culture section, and the new business guy wants…you guessed it…LEADS! Mix that with the digital department’s SEO, UX, UI, and other acronymic concerns—top it all off with that guy who says, “We’re just not telling the story enough,” and you have a real cluster on hand!
2. Client work keeps the lights on…
And that pet project that will change the face of the agency? Well…it’s just a black hole on your timesheet. 90’s hairstyle icon Jessie Spano nailed it when she cried, “There’s never any time!” When your team is already working nights and weekends just to keep their heads above water, it’s kinda hard to ask them to skip meals and neglect even more personal time, just to work out the bugs in their WordPress PHP.
3. It’s never good enough!
We’ve all been there with our clients, so you’d think we’d know better than to do it to ourselves, but as we all know, us agency folks are gluttons for pain. As soon as one department’s satisfied, the other chimes in with, “One last thought.” Bump this logo, swap that copy, jazz up the other case study and what you have is a vicious cycle of over-perfectionism. Then…right when you’ve got that beta site functioning and looking just the way you want it—oh let’s say in a fully customized Joomla environment—you realize that your CMS of choice has changed…AGAIN! And you’re back to square one.
4. New Guy Syndrome
(Actually an extension of number 1.) In the long illustrious history of the world-wide-web, NO creative (myself included) has ever been hired who didn’t have an agenda to “redo the company website.” I can hear us all in chorus now…“You know, I’ve got some great ideas for the company site.” Yea buddy…we all do. Put em’ in the shoebox marked “New Guy Suggestions.” Why are we all like this you ask? I’ll tell you why…creatives are the great optimists of the world. We actually believe that we can make things run, perform, look and work better with better creative. And you know what…we’re right! That’s why clients hire us.
So, all that said we somehow managed to develop and launch our new site all by ourselves. And we can see why 38% of small agencies seek outsourced help when developing their website.* My advice? Treat your brand like a client’s! We had our most productive moments when we applied the processes and procedures that help us succeed with client projects time and time again. Most importantly, keep in mind that a website is never done…constantly evolving and always in a state of improvement and change. So, without further ado, the new G/L site is officially live! Please take a look and let the feedback commence. Thanks for reading.
* “The Findings of the Digital Marketing for Small Agencies Survey” by Christopher Butler