Small Town Big Reach Digital Agency Identifying Statements
Here’s something gleaned from a mini-project. Looking into a big city satellite town’s local marketing firms. Many boasting a nationwide clientele. Listed below are pretty much the first words you see when landing on website homepages of the dozen digital marketing agencies of the area;
affordable web design
we are thinkers & creators
website designers & builders
marketing agency for lead generation
we are a creative digital marketing agency
we are bright quick wise savvy clever sharp
we create; design, digital & everything in between
straight forward marketing services with proven results
we don’t just design; we create, communicate and connect
elevating marketing execution for leading brands worldwide
maximising your company’s potential with results driven marketing
integrated communications; smart pr, digital, social & content strategies, simply delivered
It struck me that there must be some best-practice in there. After all, these guys gain eyeballs for a living.
I’ve often marveled at the use of the identifying statement.
The subtitle that comes after the brand name.
Publishers of ‘airport books’ ranging from self-improvement through pop-science to business instructionals are masters at this. A snappy catchy title, followed up after a semi-colon with a sentence more fully describing the treasures within.
Any modern-day self-appointed ‘influencer’ can get in on this act too. All platforms of choice allow for personal brand names to be accompanied by a social media mission statement. The same can go for the longest established of corporates. Even old media rush to tell you how it’s done. Like Forbes here specifically for your business.
Then there’s my constant suggestion that you should suffix whatever the label of what you sell with a few compelling words truly explaining its wonders. Focused on the problem you resolve. Unique in your hands.
On this scale, I’m not so sure many of the above score.
Admittedly, theirs is a crowded, dare I venture almost commoditised, field .
My very first experience of a specifically self-styled ‘digital’ agency was way back in ’97. In of all places a town called Stockport. Even then such offerings felt abundant. “How are you different?” I asked. “Our websites actually work”, came the reply.
Tricky to get that across in a short phrase losing the dismissive arrogance of the spoken delivery.
The old-schooler in me likes the ‘lead generation’ reference in the list above.
Yet what else really sets each company apart?
Which is strange, particularly given the clear quality of much of the work examples included further inside.
Can you check your ‘identifying statement’ against competition? Does it now feel a touch ‘generic’? If time for a change, try another slant, but losing the temptation for adding hyperbole…
& by way of bonus, one of these players had this metric ‘slide’ at time of finding;
