Long overdue part two of Toronto Marketing Agencies. Last time I identified that without referall or experience in the industry the only way to look for an agency is using Google. This time I want to look at what a prospect sees on the landing pages of the agency he or she is looking for. Here are my findings

• Flashy Intro - 9 out of 10 sites start with  Flash or Java Based intro. Usually takes a long time to load, doesn’t work on older browsers and gives no value to a prospect looking for an agency. What is worse is when they have a background music -what can be more annoying than a sudden sound that scares the crap out of everyone. A lot of them do have button that allows a poor visitor to skip the intro. Also, I am no expert in SEO, but I assuming that these intros have nothing to do with it.
• Flashy insides - ok, so I skip the intro and try to find the key information I need and what do I see? Flashy insides that require me downloading even more different programs. I am running on Windows Vista with service pack 1 and still neither IE or Firefox would open the pages right without the further download. Personally, I don’t think that anyone cares about your videos if they did they wouldn’t skip the intro.
• Services - 9 out of 10 agencies have a list that includes more than 20 different services they provide with no mentioning of what is their specialty. I have a hard time beleiving that the firm that does tradeshow displays and SEO would be very good at both. Some agencies mention in their services things like “submssion forms,” why not put also “button developing” and “email configuration” as well?
• Process - usually an obscured paraphraph with big words like “customer oriented,” “satisfying needs,” “hands-on,” “pro-active.” No real explanation in how the process works at all. I am sure that a lot of prospects are scared to call the agencies since there is so little info that they are getting upfront.
• Social Networking Huh? - I didn’t find any website with a facebook account, blog or G-d forbid Twitter. If they don’t use it themselfes would they suggest it to their clients?

Conclusion and  guidelines:

• Dont use Flash - to express your creaitiviy. There are different ways to show your creative side without annoying your prospect
• Include real Content - include something else except 3 video clips of how good you are and loud words. Include something that gives value to the prospect. Like FAQ, articles or industry reports
• What is your specialty - tell me what are you best it. Don’t tell me techinicalities tell me what you can do for me: take my idea from start to a profitable business online-for example.
• Be personal - use a blog

 I also found out that most of the marketing agencie’s websites just as bad in USA.

The site I did like is: Words at Work : no flashy intros, good and usefull content states clearly what they do.

Disagree with me? Leave a comment!