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| Starr Million Baker |
In the agency model, there’s what you do and there’s how you do it. We can define the “what” easily enough as services, but the “how” is often our secret sauce, and many agencies make the same claims. “We’re different!” “We understand you!” “We’ll bring you new ideas!” That intangible magic in our approach doesn’t help attract and keep new clients — most of whom are accustomed to buying, selling, and marketing products.
To sell the “how,” you can make the intangible tangible: productize your difference. This is especially important as agencies navigate the AI hype cycle. Advancements in AI are making the execution of work (your “what”) less valuable and impactful strategy even more valuable.
At INK Communications, we built our product in four steps:
1. Find your focus
This one is obvious, but you can’t productize your difference until you have a clear, validated idea of what it is.
Like many entrepreneurs, my co-founder and I created INK to “do it better” than the place we worked at the time. To us, doing it better meant upping our ability to make a difference for our clients’ businesses and not waiting around to be asked or told. We felt it was our responsibility – and the fun in our jobs – to come up with new ideas based on what was happening in the world.
We regularly beat the drum of proactivity, which became our mantra “Be There Before.” Recommend a strategy before your client even thinks to move in that direction. Share insight on how the market is changing based on what media are talking about. Don’t be an order taker, do use your brain, and above all else, be there before the client has to ask.
Our focus on staying proactive became INK’s differentiator, and not just because we said so, but because our clients said it too when asked about working with us.
2. Build the tools
Next, explore how you can operationalize the differentiator you identified. This takes time.
Over the years, we were constantly on the lookout for tools, software, and ways of thinking that would help us build a systematic approach to our focus on proactivity. We outlined very clearly and often — internally and externally — what proactivity looks like in action across three key pillars: partnership, integrated communications, and analysis.
We wanted a way to build proactive partnerships with our clients as we went through the strategic planning process: enter Think Wrong by SolveNext, a design-thinking method we love and use regularly. We needed to stay ahead of media conversations and feed our integrated comms programs. INK’s media reports — Be There Before, B2B Tech and Be There Before, Energy — were born for that. And our Media Quality Footprint helps us better explain and show the impact of coverage to a client’s business.
Unconsciously and then very consciously, we defined our product. INK’s Be There Before® methodology is a proprietary framework and company-wide practice designed to foster lasting partnerships, integrate communications across channels, and drive measurable business impacts for our clients and ourselves.
3. Hire and train
You’ve found your difference and built systems around it. Now, it’s time to ensure your secret sauce product is applied consistently across the agency.
To ensure all INKers can deliver what our product promises, we hire entrepreneurial spirits with a curiosity mindset. INKers are creative problem solvers at their core: comms professionals who can GSD (get sh*t done) autonomously while collaborating across teams and functions.
Training on the Be There Before methodology is also a key part of product delivery. INKers have two paths to certify their mastery of the method – one is based on demonstrating their knowledge of the systems that make up the methodology;
the other is exemplifying their experience in having led clients and teams through the practice. We mark these certifications on INKer LinkedIn profiles with a badge.
4. Protect your IP
Finally, don’t forget to safeguard what makes you different.
The last step we took in finalizing our product at INK, prior to pricing and promotion, was to protect our intellectual property. We felt strongly that our approach to proactivity wasn’t just an intangible philosophy but a repeatable, protectable process – and the US Patent and Trademark Office agreed. The circle R symbol communicates “only at INK” and adds an element of formality to the Be There Before methodology.
Operationalize the Aspirational
As agencies, our clients aren’t only showing up for the services we provide, and our services aren’t our only product. Find your difference, build systems that support it, train people to deliver on it, and then own it. At INK, we believe there’s always a better way. To find it, we productized proactivity. What will you do?
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Starr Million Baker is the CEO and co-founder of INK Communications, a full-service marketing communications agency for B2B tech and energy companies.
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