This article started as a LinkedIn post that the algorithm surfaced to about 15 people - this is a more in-depth explanation of why I think it's important.
A few weeks ago I read in Strat Scraps (worth a subscribe, by the way) that a New York agency called Side Projects had made a zine - an actual physical publication, with paper and ink. I thought it looked great, so I reached out and said I'd love a copy, with the caveat that I'm in Australia and would completely understand if that was a hassle. They posted one over anyway, for free, no strings attached.
It's sitting on my desk now, and it's going to stay there for a long time. Which is what made me want to write this article.
The challenge with digital-only agencies
If you run a performance shop, a media agency, a dev studio, an email or SEO agency, basically anything where the work only ever exists on a screen, you never get a physical output. There's nothing to hold, nothing that sits on someone's desk reminding them you exist.
I think that's a missed opportunity, and the Side Projects zine is a good example of why.
It's six essays plus a few other bits from contributors, some in-house, some guests. It's well designed, on nice stock, and clearly had a lot of thought and effort poured into it. My favourite piece includes the strapline: "Why Must We Reposition Grandma as a Distinctive Brand Building Asset?" Amazing.
What I find interesting is that I'm not a Side Projects client, and I'm never going to be. I'm a voyeur at best. But I now have a genuine feel for how they think, what they care about, and how they approach brand and strategy. Nowhere does the zine say "here are our services and here's what we charge." The essays do a lot of that work without making it so explicit.
As a bit of a brief aside here, I think there's value for pixel-only agencies creating something physical for their own team as well. Whether that's an onboarding guide that's an actual book, some well designed merch (that isn't just destined for the charity bins), or some other novelty item - some representation of your brand that sits as a reminder.
Note that I'm not talking about industry swag for the sake of it. I wrote about how much I hate that all the way back in 2022.
The value is in the friction
A zine like this says a hell of a lot more than a PDF hidden behind a subscription form. Part of that is the quality of the product, and part of it is because of the friction in actually creating something physical.
It's much harder to produce something physical than it is to export a PDF and stick a registration gate in front of it. That difficulty is what makes it more valuable. Anyone can gate a PDF. Almost nobody bothers to design, print, and post a beautiful object to a stranger on the other side of the world. So when you do, it makes a bigger impact.
The gated PDF gets skimmed once and lives on a hard drive forever. The zine sits on my desk.
Where this is useful for your agency
The obvious application is client onboarding. Imagine a welcome pack, or a welcome series, that includes something physical. A genuinely good representation of who you are and what you stand for, rather than a services list. Something closer to the Side Projects book, where someone comes away understanding how you think about the work.
There's a financial cost to that, so it might be reserved for clients above a certain size, or you build enough buffer into your pricing that it makes sense across the board. But once you've made something people actually want to read, you've earned the right to slip in a couple of pages on the team or the services. That's a very different thing to leading with the sales pitch.
The same logic applies to hiring, and I think this is the more underrated of the two suggestions.
A new team member usually has a four week notice period, so there's often a month or more between signing the contract and walking in the door. The research is fairly consistent that the first few months of someone's time with you largely determine the next few years, whether they stay, whether they're engaged, whether they feel like they've joined a business that actually cares.
Posting a new starter something physical before day one does a lot of that work for you. It's the same reason as the client pack. It's harder than emailing a PDF of the policies and the "how we do things around here" deck. That deck gets skimmed and forgotten, however nicely it's designed. Something they can hold, that has obvious time and care behind it, tells them they're joining a business that cares about craft and about them. And with most agencies running a couple of work-from-home days now, it ends up on their desk at home as a quiet reminder of the kind of place they've joined.
Okay, now what?
You don't need to commission a six-essay zine tomorrow. Start with the principle and find the lowest-friction version of it for your agency.
If you're onboarding clients, think about whether there's one physical thing you could send that represents how you think, not just what you sell. If you're hiring, think about what lands on a new starter's desk before their first day.
If you're looking around for an easy excuse to send something out to existing clients, Christmas is going to be here before we know it. Instead of the usual hamper or a $30 bottle of wine you've also paid $20 to ship, could you send something that's an actual representation of who you are and what you stand for? Something that strengthens the relationship rather than just ticking the gift box.
For agencies whose work only ever lives on a screen, a bit of paper and ink might be the most memorable marketing you do all year.
Cheers, Sam
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