creative briefing

My team and I have been hard at work building our agency’s new site (which explains my lack of posts lately). Just like the evolution of our business cards, the next evolution of our website is a reflection of the growth and maturity of our agency. It’s funny how much can change in a single year, but I think it’s absolutely critical to keep your company’s website up to date and always in line with what you’re trying to achieve. The ironic reality is that most agencies get so caught up in the work they’re doing, that they often neglect their #1 marketing vehicle. I’m guilty of this as well.

If you run an agency (or any company for that matter), you’ll know how commonly your potential clients or customers ask “where can I see some of your past work or learn more about your services?”. That question alone should be reason enough to keep the content on your site up to date. But the content isn’t the only thing to consider when it comes to your agency website. From design to tone to architecture, there’s quite a bit of thought that goes into building something that effectively represents your agency on the internet. Now engulfed by the magic and wonders of this process, I thought I would share with all of you my perspective on the anatomy of an agency website.

Design & Style

The face of your agency lies within the design and style of your website. More importantly, if you’re an interactive agency, this website represents your skill set and everything you’re trying to sell to your visitors. Hell, if you’re in the design industry at all, you can bet that your visitors will have greater expectations from the aesthetics that greet them. Not that visitors will be forgiving of an ugly website - and that’s the thing: sometimes the design and style of your website will say more than your content ever could. You may have the most intriguing and insightful copy in the world, but if it looks like crap, your visitors won’t buy it. Literally.

Consider this:

• Is the style of your website consistent with the style of work you produce?
• Is it easy for your visitors to find out information about your agency? Usability, usability, usability!
• Is your website branded consistently with the rest of your materials? Colors, fonts, look, feel, etc. (More importantly, do you have a brand?)

Voice & Tone

Your website is a communication tool. And when it comes to communicating, it’s not always what you say, but how you say it. Imagine your website as if it were the front desk receptionist in your office. What does she sound like? How does she greet your visitors? This same concept applies to the voice and tone you choose to use to communicate your message to your audience.

Consider this:

• Are you a “we” company? Decide whether you will communicate from first person or third person. The perspective you choose dictates how personal you want to get with your visitors.
• Is your tone corporate, business casual, casual, or flat-out web 2.0? The fashion in which your content is written speaks again to the relationship you’re offering. A very corporate tone will allude to a more transactional relationship. A casual tone says screw the corporate BS, let’s be pals. You may find your agency’s tone somewhere in between.

Content & Architecture

Okay, now we’re talking about what you’re saying. For the most part, new visitors to an agency site follow a simple pattern when attempting to learn about your agency. Here’s a ranking of the must-haves on your website that also reflects the typical order in which a new visitor browses your agency’s content.

1. Portfolio
   It’s no surprise that visitors looking to see what you can offer will first check out what you have already offered to others. Plus, for the visual learners, a portfolio will say more about your capabilities than the copy of your services section will. Which brings me to…
    
2. Services
   A portfolio is a great way to wet the lips of your visitors. Typically, after seeing what you’ve done for others, they’ll be on the look out for what you actually offer to do. As such, your services page should be prepared to clearly outline everything you can do.
    
3. About your company
   You may have convinced your visitors that you’ve done great work and that you offer the services they’re looking for, but if you’re a crazy group of axe murderers (as some agencies may be…), then chances are the sales cycle stops there. Tell them a bit about your agency and reassure them that you’re not that crazy group of axe murderers. Or if you are, then try not to mention the murderers part. Or the crazy part.
    
4. Contact
   If your visitor has made it this far, you’re in good shape. It means they’ve been convinced enough of your agency’s abilities that they’re even considering speaking with you. Make sure the contact options are clearly laid out and as easy as possible for your visitors. The harder it is to contact you, the more reluctant they’ll be to actually do it.
    
5. News/Blog
   Here are the rules for this section, as I see it: if you have a lot of great news, share it in a news section. If you don’t have news worth mentioning, use a blog instead. If you don’t plan on updating the blog that often, don’t include this section! The use and importance of this section varies across different agencies of different sizes.

These are the basic sections to cover when it comes to the content on your agency website. Many agencies opt to offer extra features as well in hopes of adding value to the user’s visit. Remember folks, value is the keyword.

Consider this:

• Does the content you’re offering provide the answer to the questions your visitors would be asking?
• What do you want your visitors to do after interacting with the content on your site (i.e. what’s the call-to-action)?
• Does your content offer reason for your visitors to come back?

* * *

Remember, I’ve only discussed the main areas of an agency website here. There’s clearly much more to consider when it comes to building out your site. But, if you don’t know where to start, this should give you a nice blueprint for your first few steps. If you’ve already started, I think it’s still important to review some of these points as a checklist just to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

As I write this, my team is still working hard at building the next instance of our online face. Looking back at the current site, I can’t help but see how many things need changing. It suited us a year ago, but so much has changed since then.

Is your agency site up to date?

Watch the opening sequence of Antitrust (sorry, the page has since been taken down). As typical programming cliches go, lines of syntax run down the screen, flashing complex functions and protocols, and alluding to, in this case, an advanced and scary language that supposedly sets the dark and diabolical tone of this movie’s premise.

… unless you pay attention to it and realize it’s just HTML. Well, everything but the <trust></trust> tags. Those are a bit scary.

I’ve been trying my best to keep up with my RSS reading lately, and I have to admit, my recent switch to Google Reader has made the process a bit more productive. Ironically, RSS reading can be anything but productive sometimes (thank you/curse you Satish). What Google Reader has done though, is let me “star” posts that are interesting so that I can reference them later. Brilliant. It’s like my Outlook inbox for RSS feeds (because who doesn’t need another Outlook inbox to live by?).

Anyway, here are a few posts that really stuck out this past week.

• Who remembers the periodic table of elements? Well for all those who thought you left it behind for a career in marketing, think again! The folks at Kolbrener have put together this awesome table of brand evolution terms. It’s time to love chemistry again. (Courtesy of Mish’s Playground and Satish, the RSS monster)
   
• For those racking up consultancy hours, Freelance Switch has posted a list of 6 cool online tools to track your time and help you figure out how many hours to bill. Shweeet.
   
• Starting your own design agency? Here are 20 questions to ask yourself first to ensure you’re ready. Hell, even if you already have a design agency, you should answer these questions. It’s never too late to change!
   
• Your pipeline is your business’ lifeline. How healthy is yours? Shane & Peter get intimate with math and show you how you can measure your sales pipeline in 15 minutes… or it’s free. Their blog post, that is.
   
• If you run a virtual office, check out the Notes from the virtual office series over at #comments. There are only 3 posts in the category, but they’re all worth a read!

I don’t plan on making this a regular thing, I just thought these links in particular were useful to share. Enjoy!

They’re here! TPH (our newly-found printer people) just delivered our new set of business cards. I’m really excited about them because they’re slick, they’re very well branded, and they’re rockin’ the increasingly popular 3.5″x1.5″ dimensions.

When I threw out the idea of getting new cards done a little over a month ago, my team rolled their eyes. “Again?” they sighed. It’s true, we got our first cards less than 3 years ago, and since then, we’ve gone through 3 design changes (the new one inclusive). But with good reason! As any entrepreneur would know, nothing is ever quite concrete in the first few years of a new business. Our agency is no different - and as we’ve evolved as a company, so has our business cards. And looking back at each of the cards, the evolution is pretty evident. Here’s what I see:

February 2005

Specs: 3.5″x2.0″, 12 pt card stock, backless, printed at Kinkos

• We started out as just a web agency so our retardation with print work shows through a bit on our early cards. 
• Amateur print work: the design for this card was done as a PSD, rather than a vector EPS file. 
• Our first lesson in branding: never cut off pieces of your logo, especially if it only appears once on the card.
• Friends don’t let friends print business cards at large printer chains. Their service sucks and they’re more concerned about turning around orders fast than about delivering quality.

September 2006

Specs: 3.5″x2.0″, 10 pt card stock, front & back, printed by a business contact (not sure who the printer was)

• We have a brand! Part of it is blue. And part of it is that geometric set of triangles that now has a home next to a company name written out in a consistent font that is not Arial. Score!
• We also started branching out into print and brand work so our cards are done properly this time around.
• Notice the change in my position title from Creative Director to Executive Director. I think at the time I was doing a lot more business development and the company needed a face to lead it. I was that face.
• Notice the change in email address format from firstname@ to firstname.lastname@. This was partly done to accomodate two Kevin’s on our team, and also in following a more ‘corporate’ vision we had at the time. What can I say, I worked at Microsoft at the time, and well, you don’t get more corporate influence than that.

October 2007

Specs: 3.5″x1.5″, 12 pt card stock, front & back, printed at The Printing House (highly recommended)

• As an indication of the establishment of our print business, we finally have a trusted printshop to rely on. 
• The brand strengthens: simplicity has been a prevalent element in our brand since the beginning. Only now does it finally show through on our business cards. The difference is simple… and a lot of white space.
• Notice the change in my position title from Executive Director back to Creative Director. This comes after a few years of running the business and realizing what I’m really passionate about (creative). It also comes from a strategic move to sway the public perspective away from the idea that one guy runs the business. In reality, the company is built on the blood, sweat, and tears of 5 Executive Directors.
• And of course, the new size! This is a clear reflection of our agency’s ability to stay on top of industry standards and all that is the latest and greatest. The new size also says that we’re cooler than you. Na-na-na-na-boo-boo. Just kidding.

So there you have it. The intimate journey of a growing agency and its business cards. How often do you refresh your design? What stories are embedded in your cards?

And just for kicks, I’m entering this post into YGG’s Business Card Contest that they’re running with Orange32. Sure, I don’t really need new business cards (given the subject of this post), but I like to support YGG’s initiatives. That or I like free stuff.

A friend and I always talk ideas. Not always big ideas, but certainly ideas that excite us. They’re usually business ideas, or ideas for businesses. It always starts with “you know what somebody should do…” or “this randomly came to me the other day…”. Then we start tossing thoughts back and forth. Then we get amped up about the idea. Really amped up. We even come up with the name for the business and pick out appropriate domain names. And if we could submit MSN conversations as business plans, we would.

Then at the end of the night, we get back to reality and realize we have no time. And even if we did, we acknowledge the fact that we already run a business.

Is it wrong to want to do something a little different sometimes?

Entrepreneurs are on the path they are on presumably because they desire a lifestyle that lets them do what they want to do - free of restrictions. But as an entrepreneur, how restricted are you from diverting your attention to other ventures? Is it a formal duty or a personal judgment call that holds you back? Do you create policies that govern these scenarios for you, your partners and your employees? Does that make things a bit hypocritical? Does that make you hypocritical?

Enough questions, back to work. I love what I do. We just have great ideas, that’s all.