Over the long weekend I read Seth Godin’s post The Bad Table and thought about it a context of a marketing agency in Toronto (or anywhere else for that matter). I thought that marketing agencies concentrate 90% on current accounts. My hypothesis is that agencies rely on the referrals and direct sales to earn the business. Let’s imagine a scenario: I am starting a social project in Toronto for dating couples www.toronto4couples.com and need a help of a marketing agency. I don’t know anyone in the industry and I am not a member of a chamber of the commerce in Toronto. How easy it is to find the one that has an expertise in my industry, is in Toronto and has reasonable rates?

Search:

I am a generation Y Torontonian, so obviously I would have started my search directly from Google. However, before I touch it I thought maybe there are some directories that might help me in the research.

• Yellow pages - a quick search for a marketing agency in Toronto (that doesn’t include suburbs) gives me a list of 76 agencies. Take a look at this page, except three ads at the top none of the listings has a description on agency’s core competency. Moreover, in 90% of the listings the website is not included in the ad. I guess if I would stick with yellow pages I would need to call each one of them to figure out answers to my questions.
• Better Business Bureau - bring me the list of 4 marketing agency with only one of them having a website. I am checking out the website and don’t see anything in their portfolio about branding a website.

• My last resort Google - here is the page I get when typing keyword “Toronto Marketing Agency.” 4 ads on a side and 532,000 pages that include these keywords. My page always displays hundred results and I never go to the page 2. That is why if you are in the Top 100 listings or on sponsored listing side you are out of my sights. The good part of the page in Google that I finally see some descriptions of what agency does.

First Impressions

• I don’t see in descriptions an agency specializing in a start-up, small businesses or web projects
• My first couple of clicks lead me to very flashy and sophisticated intros with no real information on the website like: what exactly did you for the client in portfolio? What is agency speciality? Range of prices?
• I didn’t find anyone with StumbleUpon logo, blog or Twitter account
• Statements like: “Top Ranking instantly” make me feel like  I am being sold to.

Conclusion:

If you are not in the industry and don’t know who to ask for a referral finding a marketing agency in Toronto that suites your specific needs can be very hard. This is ironical since agencies are the one who would preach a business on social marketing andtransparency. How many agencies do you know with a facebook account? At some point soon, I am going to publish a part II of the series where I will dissect the websites more closely and part III where I would talk about what companies in Toronto that do use Web 2.0 marketing.

In meantime if you reading this and have any thoughts, don’t be shy and leave a comment.