Practical decision support

Articles for choosing and managing a digital agency.

Useful guidance for UK professional services firms. Each article helps you test a claim, compare evidence or protect your position before signing.

Latest guidance

Make the next decision easier to inspect.

01Agency selectionHow to choose a digital agency for a UK professional services firmA practical framework for defining the job, comparing relevant evidence and protecting ownership before appointing a digital specialist.
02Agency selectionWhat questions should you ask a digital agency?Five questions a UK firm can check against a public record, with an answer key for grading the replies you get.
03Agency selectionDigital agency red flags: what to walk away fromA practical way to spot agency red flags before signing, and separate terminal risks from terms you can negotiate.
04Agency selectionHow do you tell if your marketing agency is any good?Four checks a UK firm can run on public records in an afternoon, without asking the agency for a report.
05Agency selectionWhat should a digital agency brief include?The four sections that protect the firm, not the agency quoting for the work.
06Agency selectionIn-house or agency: which suits a 20-person firm?The fully loaded cost of a first marketing hire, the crossover point against a retainer, and the five criteria that actually decide it.
07Agency selectionShould a UK firm hire a freelancer or a digital agency?How to tell whether the agency quoting is a team or one person, and where a freelancer is genuinely the better answer.
08Agency selectionWhat should a UK accountancy practice actually pay for SEO?Every price on the first page of this search is quoted by someone selling SEO. Here is the number that actually decides it.
09Agency selectionWhat does AI automation actually cost a UK firm to run?Day rate against fixed price, and the licence run rate that continues after the build is paid for.
10Agency selectionWhat should a law firm pay for a new website?What public bodies paid for comparable websites, and the half of the quote that is set by the regulator.
11Agency selectionHow much should a financial adviser pay for a lead?Cost per lead is the wrong number. Cost per client, at your own conversion rate, is the one that decides it.
12Agency selectionWhat does a marketing agency retainer include?Seven lines turn a list of services into a scope. Most proposals name one of them.
13Agency selectionIs a marketing agency worth it for a 20 person firm?Break-even on one additional client, at your own average fee.
14Agency selectionWhy do agency quotes vary so much for the same job?Two quotes for one brief, divided into days and tested against a published salary floor.
15Agency selectionShould a UK practice buy AI software or hire an agency?Seats are priced per person and retainers per task, so the cheaper option changes with the size of the firm.
16Agency selectionWho actually builds AI automation for accountancy firms?Four kinds of company answer this brief, and the public register says which one you are actually calling.
17Agency selectionWhat can AI actually automate in an accountancy firm?The answer is decided by the rule at the end of each task, not by what the software can be shown doing.
18Agency selectionHow should you brief a supplier to automate admin work?Measure the task first. A brief that names an outcome gets four quotes priced against four different guesses.
19Agency selectionWhat should a UK recruitment agency automate first?Start with the records the regulations already make you keep, not the shortlist every demonstration opens with.
20Agency selectionWhich AI tools should a professional services firm buy?Two of the subscriptions your firm already renews now include an assistant. The paid seat buys one thing on top of that.

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