Productised agencies are hot. Here's how they generate huge profits

Last week I've researched 10+ productised design agencies to understand why they are so popular now, what they offer, how they market and how they generate millions of $

What is a productised agency and why they hot?

Productised agency provides limited set of services with the clear scope, timeline and budget

Typically those agencies operate on monthly subscription (e.g. pay $5k/month for unlimited design requests)

For clients it gives predictable cheaper results compared to the traditional hiring

For agencies — it breaks "bill-per-hour" model which allows to maximise profit margins and scale the revenue without hiring. Close to what you achieve with automated SaaS business

Scalability is not a joke: top-notch designers generate millions of $ in yearly revenue

Design is the most common service that is productised, but there are also decent content, video production and ad agencies out there

How productisation is marketed?

first

Typically productised agencies compare themselves to:
• traditional agencies
• in-house hiring
• freelancers

So their pitch usually sounds like:
• avoid hiring hell
• save on in-house hiring
• get quality results quickly
• scale your business
• manage your expenses predictably
• work with the top talent

How the productised funnel works?
second

The typical "productised" funnel has 2 levels:
• limited productised service (cheaper)
• monthly subscription (expensive)

On the cheaper level you normally don't have a chat channel with your team and pay per "request"

Request is somewhat similar to the Trello card. You add your requests and they delivered to you in 48 hours, one by one

Note: some of the agencies don't have the chat access even on the expensive paid plan

How the pricing look like?
third

The start prices are pretty different, but can start as low as ~$100 per month (or per request)

The high-end plans are usually $5k+/mo

Agencies bill their clients based on:
• Number of parallel "requests" (eg. 1 to 3)
• Turn around time (usually 1—2 days)
• Services (eg. motion design not included)
• Load of the team (eg. your designer will work on 5 parallel project vs 1)
• Chat access (slack is a premium feature)
• Check-in frequency (eg. 1 call per week)

How productised onboarding works?
fourth

Once you ready to "continue" with some services, usually you'll see one of the following pages:
• Stripe subscription page
• Request form (can be pretty complex and paired with payment)
• Platform signup page
• Book a call (free for custom services)

First 3 ways are much more scalable, but you need to gain a solid reputation first to get clients without call or prior chat

Also, many agencies build their own "platforms" to track their requests, payments and client communication

PS We've launched our design studio this way a week ago and already got paid clients. It streamlined our internal project processes (as we have to deal with constrains) and focused on producing regular value and free products. I recommend you to consider launching your services this way too!

PPS Check out the list of productised agencies here

Let me know your questions!

Thank you!