What problem does your agency solve?

That’s what you should keep in mind when writing agency credentials, according to advisor Rachel Raphael, co-founder of Outskirt Collective.

“We have seen a lot of creds,” she says. “We work with clients and intermediaries, so we know what they’re interested in.”

“It’s all about telling a compelling story in your deck, and putting the client in the centre of it. Talk about benefits, not features. What are the problems that you solve? And for whom?”

Think of your creds deck as your agency’s CV. You want to demonstrate the value you can add, not just reel off the things you’ve done in the past. 

Rachel’s business partner Caroline Sparkes says the biggest mistake founders make during this process is being too ‘agency-centric’.

“You’ve got to think about who are you actually talking to, and what’s going to chime with them,” says Caroline. “It’s that old age thing of, ‘Don’t tell me you’re funny, make me laugh’. With creds, it’s: ‘Don’t tell me you’re a storyteller, tell me a story.’”

Often, the first hurdle agency leaders succumb to is finding the right person to write the creds. A lot of founders believe this is something they can do themselves, but they might not actually be armed with the right skillset, or the right perspective, to do so.

“It’s really hard to find people that are going to dedicate time to this and do it well. Even if you’ve got a dedicated marketing person, we find again and again that they are not equipped to write an effective set of creds,” says Caroline.

“People think they can do it all themselves, but actually, bringing in a specialist copywriter can be golden, because they can make it more succinct and snappy. This is a document that people need to sit up and pay attention to, so creds copy really needs crafting.”

In this session, Rachel and Caroline will be taking you through how to create a set of creds that really showcases your agency’s value, and the things all leaders do, but really shouldn’t. 

If you’re feeling uninspired by your agency creds, or perhaps you’re not winning as many pitches as you think you should be, come along to pick up some tips.