Productized agencies vs. retainers

The productized agency model isn’t new. 🙅‍♂️ It existed before Videodeck, before Designjoy, and before the wave of new productized agencies. Pre-paid agency retainers have been around for a long time. But don’t let the meme fool you; there are differences between the two models. 😆 I like the productized agency model much more than a typical retainer agreement. Here are some of the differences: Clear expectations ✌️ Standardized service packages with clearly defined deliverables and prices. The scope of work is clearly defined for a productized agency, while a retainer might encompass any services a client might throw at the agency. No call is needed. 📵 And when calls do happen, they’ve usually already made up their mind and allocated the budget since everything is transparent and available on the website. In the early days of Videodeck, we would close almost all calls we had since people usually knew exactly what they wanted and how much it would cost them. This changed a bit when we started doing outreach. Operationally less complex 💫 If the productized agency is set up right, the services are designed to be repeatable and scalable. This makes running that agency much smoother, with not as many moving parts. The model is not perfect, though. I’ll cover some of the cons in the next post.