SEO agencies are becoming increasingly more interested in how to productise SEO services, especially as the industry evolves.
SEO agency owners without productised services face constant challenges such as:
- Inconsistent streams of income
- Scalability issues
- Difficulties standardising and optimising SOPs
- Challenges facing client acquisition and retention
- Difficulties maintaining and standardising quality control
- Inconsistencies in pricing
Among many other challenges.
On the other end of things, productising an agency enables you to:
- Ensure the best service quality
- Standardise pricing options
- Keep SOPs up to date
- Emphasises authority in the industry
- Allow you the opportunity to identify areas of growth
- Mitigation of Scope Creep
SEO For Hire has connected with many SEO agencies in their start-up and growth phases.
Many of the agencies highlighted their key to their success began with their move towards productisation.
With that in mind, it’s definitely worth exploring the move towards the business model.
Not to mention, you’re giving your agency the opportunity to completely specialise (and even monopolise–if you’re lucky) an entire industry.
For example, providing SEO services to a niche, such as law firms, ensures you build-up client retention. In doing so, you enhance your skill sets, knowledge and authority within that niche.
In this article, we will be assessing the benefits towards productising an SEO agency, and comparing it to traditional models.
Before we get into today’s article, it’s important that we first explore the true essence of:
What Exactly is a Productised SEO Agency?
Contrary to its traditional counterpart, an SEO agency that aims to productise SEO will offer a refreshing take on an original service-based business model.
The aim is to take pre-packed and refined, specific services and then offer those at set prices.
You’re aiming to sell a service as the product.
This service-based business model is not uncommon in modern days.
It is used by many online and offline industries–such as photography, digital marketing and so on.
However, SEO agencies can, and have, benefited significantly from this model.
You can aim to identify a productised agency through a few of the characteristics below:
- Packaged services with set prices
- Recurring services with set dates for payment instalments
- Services that identify as ‘done-for-you’ solutions
- Serving a specific niche or market
- Systemised to be able to grow with or without the founder
- Being able to ‘buy’ the service online; like online shopping off of Amazon–for instance
Why should an SEO agency productise SEO?
As previously mentioned, the main takeaway is to ensure scalability flourishes in your agency.
Productising a service-based business is the best way to ensure that happens.
Brian Kerrigan adds that productising your services can help your agency to ‘standardise’ your offering. This allows you to help your clients while expanding your reach, and increasing your revenue potential.
By standardising one aspect of your business, you’re able to help redirect your time and energy to other parts of your business.
In natural progression to that, productisation and consistent quality can be better maintained, as you gain better understanding and control over your resources.
In response to that, there’s domino effects of improved:
- Customer/Client loyalty, relationships, retention, attraction and communication
- Streamlined marketing funnels for your business
- Stable income
- Better client onboarding
- Greater focus on team scalability
- Elevated profit margins
- Competitive advantages and market differentiation
- Greater advances to network within a niche’s market (and potential monopolisation)
- Natural progression towards market authority
Where to Next?
In our upcoming articles, we will be exploring:
To leave you with a teaser for our upcoming article, here’s a little quote to set the scene:
“An SEO agency can become productised at any moment. All it requires is a little bit of restructuring to make a massive difference. The payoff can be tremendous. Case and point look at The HOTH.”
– Gillespie, 2020 (HothBlog)
