The agency · its clients
An attachment can be lost. A record cannot.
An agency selling search to law firms, with two problems that were really one. Its own site did not look like it belonged in the category it was pitching against, and its reporting went out as an email attachment.
Both are credibility problems
When reporting arrives as an attachment, nobody can find last month’s, nobody knows whether it was opened, and the agency is the only party who can see the whole picture.
A firm being asked to trust you with its visibility is reading how you present yourself and how you account for yourself.
What I built
The flagship, rebuilt end to end
Thirty two pages on a written theme: a main page for each of three practice areas, with every case type as its own page underneath.
A publishing engine on top
Two pieces a day, every piece briefed to a minimum length and a minimum standard for its links, scheduled weeks ahead.
A portal that is an application, not a folder
Database backed, behind a login. Each account sees its own brands and nothing else.
Built like something that holds client data
Two factor login. Access keys stored scrambled and shown once. Reports hidden until they are finished. A history of every version, a record of who opened what, and a receipt when a client reads one.
Publishing through the interface, not around it
A report cannot exist on the server without existing in the record. Copying a file into a folder publishes nothing, on purpose.
This is what a client sees.
The portal from the case above, as it runs today. On your phone it works like an app. Three things live in it.
- 01Performance. Visits, appearances, position, sites linking in. Plotted, dated, checkable.
- 02Work log. Every piece of work, the day it was done and what it moved.
- 03Approvals and messages. Drafts wait for your yes. One tap. Replies reach me, not a desk.
The numbers, dated.
Visits, appearances, average position, sites linking in. Every point is read on a named day from your own Google account, or from Ahrefs for the links, so you can open the source and check.
The work, itemised.
Every piece of work, the day it was done and what it moved. The monthly report is written from this log, so the report never says more than the log does.
Your word, first.
Drafts that need your word wait for it before they go anywhere. Approve with one tap, or say what to change. Messages reach me directly, there is no account manager in between.
Ask the hard ones first.
Who owns the work?
Everything I build is documented as it is built, and it all lives in your accounts, not mine. The plan, the procedures and the reporting are written so somebody else could pick them up.
What stops the quality slipping?
A writing and checking system I have run for years, built once and reused on every job. The volume is the system working. When the diary is full, I say no.
What about time zones?
I work while my clients sleep. Your overnight is my workday: a fault found in your evening is fixed by your morning.
What have you actually been doing? Now there is a page with a date on it.
Reporting you can log into is a different promise from reporting that arrives when someone remembers to send it.
You can buy this piece on its own. It is the reporting service. Next, the authority play