Decide What Type Of Agency You Want To Be

The other day, I encouraged you to define your ideal customer. Once defined, the next step would be to define your value proposition; that is, what you need to tell this customer and how you need to tell him so that he hires your agency and not another one.  With this information, you will be able to define the type of agency you are or can be, the benefit you are going to provide, and how you are going to communicate this service so the customer understands it well, values it, and hires your agency.

The other day, I could have told you that before defining your ideal customer, you should think about the type of agency you want to be, and define your value proposition based on this. This approach makes sense, but has the problem that it puts the focus on the agency and not the customer.

It is much better if the approach is born from the customer and you define what to offer depending upon the needs of your ideal customer.  As an agency, you will be able to change the services you are offering and focusing on, but you are not going to be able to change what your customers need.

These two steps go hand in hand and, depending on what you define today, you may need to change the type of customer you defined the other day.

Now you should focus on the problem you are going to solve for your customer or on the opportunity you are going to generate.  If, for example, you are going to offer to make a communications campaign, think: what is this campaign going to do that is interesting for him?, why should he hire such campaign?, why should he hire your agency instead of another one?

Write down these benefits.  Do not think in general, think about it from the view of the customer that you defined the other day, and write down these benefits.

Now read them out loud.  How do they sound?

Do you consider these benefits relevant for that person? If they are, congratulations, because you are headed in the right direction.  If they are not, you will need to work on your ideal customer and on the benefit until you find a combination of customer and benefit that seems convincing.

The important thing is the benefit, not the service itself. If the customer buys the benefit, he will hire your agency if you communicate it persuasively.

Clearly define the type of service or services that you are going to offer and how these are going to solve a real problem for your customer.  If you offer different services, center on the benefits that these services will provide.  More about this soon.