Are Digital Agencies A Commodity?

By Martin Pedersen

If you’re not embedded within a specific industry, you naturally don’t fully understand what it takes to get a job or project done, a product developed, a service performed. On the outside looking in, you may think, why is this taking so long? Why can’t I make a change on the fly? Why does this cost so much? This mindset is further exacerbated by disrupters who come in to a specific niche to ostensibly streamline a process or to enable consumers to do what professionals have long been doing for them. While disruption is great, it can also cause confusion and a perceived reality that doesn’t necessarily align with the true nature of the work being performed or produced.

Take the work performed by digital agencies, for example. Over the last several years, we have seen aspects of the services digital agencies provide become commoditized. For instance, there are services that provide content creation. For pennies a word, you can get a cookie-cutter article to include on your blog or in your e-newsletter; for a bit more money you can get “tailored” articles or “custom” copy for your website in targeted industries. How tailored and well researched these articles are is up for debate. For example, we had a client who decided to contract a series of blogs from an online content provider using certain keywords to help drive traffic to a company website. The articles ended up being generic, required extensive editing and didn’t reflect the brand’s voice. No one spoke to the client or conducted a thorough intake call to really delve into the company’s expertise, products, benefits and what they wanted to convey with each article. No one kept their pulse on industry trends for relevant topics to offer fresh, engaging content. This client ultimately decided it was best to use a digital agency that was a partner, an extension of his organization, to produce content.

Website creation for some has also become a commodity with do-it-yourself templates and services available. These templates or services may work for small organizations that require a page or two on WordPress for a basic online presence. Yet the real work involved in developing a website that’s truly aligned with a company’s overall marketing goals includes many phases, among them: creating a truly custom user experience and design that reflects the brand, navigation that’s easy to use, a keyword strategy founded on robust research, optimized content that gives voice to a company’s products and services, and programming features specifically designed to address the desires and demands of a company’s customers. Finally, a CMS solution is needed to provide the client with the ability to add fresh content on an ongoing basis, and much more. A true solution will set the client up to be able to maintain the site going forward. Most off-the-shelf solutions fall short here.

This all requires expertise and regular communication and feedback with a client – from the initial proposal process to gathering information and planning, which can involve the most time and effort; developing a site map and wireframes; designing page layouts and photo selections for client review; content writing; coding, testing; and site management. The planning alone that a professional, successful digital agency undertakes is comprised of many exercises, activities, and entities to uncover what makes the client tick, what their values and goals are, who their audience is (and who they want it to be), where they've been – and where they hope to go. It also means working with professionals who keep up with the latest web advancements and trends, and people in varying disciplines, including project managers, content strategists, user experience (UX) designers, user interface (UI) designers, information architects (IAs), search engine optimizers (SEOs), and data analysts among others.

This is only the beginning of the what and who that’s behind great website creation, and I have barely even scratched the surface. For example, how about data analytics – reviewing who is doing what on the website to determine the effectiveness of the collective components and suggest changes and improvements. This takes serious know-how.

Beyond website development, there is also social media marketing and email marketing – all requiring the knowledge of professionals with experience in this arena. 

So, the answer is “no” – the services provided by professional digital agencies aren’t a commodity, although there are those who have tried to sell their services as such. What customers have to be aware of are false promises and expectations whether you are told you’ll get great copy for $5.00 a page, first-page search ranking after a month, or an e-commerce site up and running in a month.

It takes a lot of hard work, time, expertise, engagement and passion to deliver digital services that truly work. That’s what we do at Stellar. We are our clients’ partner, in it together and working to achieve their goals.

Martin Pedersen is CEO of Stellar, a digital design agency providing a portfolio of digital marketing services: digital brand strategy; UX strategy; information architecture; creative, branding & visual design; technical solution architecture; front-end & back-end development; content management systems; email marketing & automation; and project management.