Lean Thinking Applied to Digital Marketing Agencies: Part 1

The key starting point here is value. In the context of digital marketing, what does "value" mean to each customer? It varies greatly.

To extend this metaphor, the digital agency is the "producer", and the client is the "consumer." As an agency focused on lean thinking, the first step with any new prospect or customer is a conscious attempt at precisely defining value in terms of specific products or services with specific capabilities offered at specific pricing structures, stemming from specific conversations with individuals.

Producers tend to continue producing what they are already making, and consumers tend to ask for products they are already getting. Consumers understand SEO and know that's a good thing, but it's only a small part of the digital marketing ecosystem.

What happens if that SEO traffic lands on a website that is not optimized for conversions, i.e., a website that is optimized to convert visitors into customers, or, more generally, to take any valuable action on the website?

If the website is not optimized, or, even worse, if it simply is not built or designed to play a valuable role in the organization's sales process, all the SEO traffic in the world is not going to bring value. Thus, we as digital marketing agencies must precisely define value for each client as a first step in becoming lean.

Another lean concept is waste reduction. One area of waste that we see are agencies that offer a small slice of the digital marketing pie such as SEO or web design without full-picture services. Each agency may eliminate waste internally as part of their process, but that does not mean they are eliminating waste for the client.

We've seen clients with ten different vendors all doing a small slice of the digital marketing, and nobody is able to get anything done or have vision and guidance over the entire picture, because there is no thought leader, no process leader, and no lead waste minimizer and advocate for the client. We've arrived at new clients who have just fired all vendors plus the entire marketing team and just started over.

We've also worked with clients as the sole web and digital marketing agency who have a relationship with another highly-specialized agency, say in SEO, who have created waste by interfering with the web design and development process, even offering to own part of the process.

When ownership of something as complex as a website redesign is split into multiple parties, waste abounds. A thorough content strategy, user experience design, information architecture, and design, among other strategic phases, really should be owned by a single agency. Otherwise, fragmentation and waste are almost always introduced into the equation.

Lean concepts of flow, pull, and perfection will be covered in a future article.