Perhaps interested parties could gather round a table and discuss how we can more transparently disclose the shares of our revenues and where to draw the line now “everyone” is offering some sort of emarketing services.

I remember when helping to determine categories for the Best Internet Awards we came up with quite an exhaustive list. Maybe that’s a starting point?

Perhaps if we could all persuade our finance directors and accountants people to tag each sale according to an industry agreed set of categories then at least we would all be able to (if we want to) compare category to category and see who is “biggest” in each.

For example one agency might do a lot of email marketing but very little paid search.

In other words it would be good for clients to see which specialities each company has most experience of.

I propose a meeting of interested parties (one representative person per agency) in early-mid March.

Mihkel- we claim to be the first specialist internet marketing agency and we have never suggested that no emarketing was done in Estonia before we arrived on the scene. We believe its a justified claim as we like to to think we have been instrumental in drawing client interest to the area (through events etc) and helping to stimulate growth of the market.

I absolutely respect the experience of others and I even remember Rene from Saurus telling me there had been an attempt at an emarketing agency a long long time ago but it failed. I cant remember the name though,maybe someone else does. it would be good to hear that story.

Yes of course the lines are blurring.
At altex we build websites occasionally for clients (not our core)and we buy media online too (mostly paid search campaigns but also some banners, MSN ads etc from time to time). An increasing number of clients want a one-stop shop (understandable but dangerous when there is no agency in Estonia that can claim to be the best at all categories and many seem to use the clients as guinea pigs (test cases)).

However our core business still remains what used to be “traditional emarketing” i.e. services that do not include building corporate websites or online media planning and buying.

Certainly these are interesting times….and to help clients make more informed choices i would like to see agencies be more transparent about the experience (and revenues?) they have in each category.

For example we offer usability analysis and user testing of websites and its a steady (but not huge) part of our revenue. I am curious about other agencies’ experiences.

Allowing clients to see where are strengths are will help them to select the right agency for each project.

it would also allow better competition to emerge so agencies can see who is strong where and decide where to focus their continous prfoessional development/training etc in order to keep a competitive edge. In other words transparency would raise the quality of our work and therefore our services and therefore our chances of attracting more international projects and awards too (for those interested in that sort of thing).

Much though i would love all clients to palce “all emarketing work” with altex I am pragmatic and accept that whilst I do genuinely think we are the best (and most experienced) at some of the things we do I accept fully that there are stronger competitiors in some categories.

I think for all the new players (and boy there has been a little explosion in 2009 hasn’t there?) to succeed in the market there will need to be a focus on “being focussed”.

I predict the rise of specialist sub agencies e.g. email marketing, social media, search. Agencies that do just one thing, excellently.

So who wants to meet up? “emarketing” agency reps only.
At the meeting if we can agree some sort of categorisation then we could share this with the market and get feedback and then each company would have the right to publish the category list and ticks against their genuine specialities and revenues from the past year (or something like that).

Altex would be happy to host the event and provide the project management unless someone else wants to take it on, which is fine.
Perhaps Mihkel as ADm are the biggest and the best ?;) you would like to deal with it? Sorry, could not resist it, only kidding. Love you really.

Yes, we call ourselves an e-marketing agency, because we are one. Quite a big part of our everyday work is about e-marketing strategy building, creative and consulting, not to name the other definitely e-marketing services (For example, one of our last social media projects was http://www.milanaraamat.ee). The list of our services can be found here: http://www.adm.ee

Why “biggest”? Shortly: yes, revenue and number of employees, 2009. I think, i will write a bit more about it in our blog next week.

Siim, actually, I agree with you! Just the good old “one of the… ” sounded just dull, and our claim was backed up by some statistics we had… Well, we wrote about the same “pig picture” problem here: http://www.adm.ee/blog/2009/09/18/e-turundusagentuurid-aripaeva-turunduse-top-2010-s/ - so if you have ideas, share with us!

Actually, yes, the question is about the pig picture. More about it in our blog next week.

Have a nice weekend!

Anyway, it would be good if at least Best Marketing and other professional marketing sites would not call one or another as “biggest e-agency”, until ERAL or anyone else having the big picture, has agreed on a measuring model.