April 2025 marks Strange’s 25th anniversary — a milestone that feels both surreal and deeply satisfying. The digital landscape has transformed beyond recognition since we started: Flash websites and 56k dial-up are long gone, replaced by increasingly AI driven marketing engines and headless CMS. But one thing hasn’t changed — our belief in delivering great work by doing things the right way.
To celebrate, we’ve shared 25 insights — a countdown of some of the more important lessons and concepts that have shaped us over two and a half decades of digital marketing and web development. From building our own CMS before they became so popular to championing open source platforms, we’ve always embraced new tech with an open mind and a critical eye.
We’ve learned that strong results come from good “digital plumbing,” solid processes, and a team that’s empowered to do their best work. That happy clients stay longer and that efficiency isn’t about cutting corners — it’s about using the right tools and saying no to chaos.
Most of all, we’ve stayed focused on solving real problems for businesses. That’s what’s kept us going for 25 years — and what will power us as we start our next chapter. A big thank you to all that have helped us along our way — we wouldn't be who we are without all your help and contributions.
So here's 25 insights from 25 years that have helped make us such a good agency to work with. Of course there are others (and some that we wouldn't share!), but we hope that they're useful to prospective clients, future team members and other interested agencies.
25. Flat management structures work well
We’ve always kept management structures as flat as possible. Everyone’s opinion and input matters (otherwise we wouldn't have hired them).
24. Be charitable with our time
Over 25% of our agency output is focused on supporting charity clients with reduced rates and pro bono work. We also encourage our team to get involved in their local communities. It’s a good thing to do.
23. It’s not all about profit
Of course profit is important, but it shouldn't dominate every decision. For example, we’ve prioritised team welfare over profit with a 4.5 day work week at full pay. It’s very popular.
22. Finance, HR and Legal keeps us moving forward
These core functions manage risk, enable growth, and create the stable foundation our developers and marketers rely on to do their best work.
21. Invest in the best tools for the job
Whether it’s invoicing, messaging or dev tools – choose functionality over price. Don’t settle for bundled, subpar options when the right tools can drive efficiency and deliver better results.
20. Be disciplined about costs and overheads
It’s amazing how overheads build, especially in this subscription-based world. Good financial management helps ensure you keep your rates attractive to clients.
19. Stop bad things from happening with good agency processes
There’s no point in process for process sake. Have processes that make sure clients are happy with your work and that help manage risk to acceptable levels. Both are important.
18. It’s good to be near clients
The majority of our clients aren't too far from our Bournemouth and Bristol offices. Although we've helped clients from all over the UK and indeed the world, our focus on southern England and South Wales has really worked well for us.
17. Embrace new technologies
Every few years, significant changes in technologies and their surrounding ecosystems happen. To find the right approaches for emerging tech, you need to invest the time and money.
16. Built our own CMS and ecommerce platform
Many years ago, long before open source was so popular, we built our own CMS and ecom platform. We built some great sites on it and it taught us so much about solving problems for clients.
15. Keeping agency leadership aligned
We rolled out an agency framework for setting our strategic direction in 2005 and it’s still in use today. It helps keep the team focused and our shareholders aligned.
14. Let your work do the talking
Rightly or wrongly, we don’t spend too much time marketing ourselves. There's nothing better than relying on the reputation you’ve built to attract new clients. For us it works really well.
13. Always look to improve efficiency
Things change quickly in digital and adopting new practices with a view to improving efficiency and productivity is important. Not surprisingly AI is now playing a big part here.
12. Be confident in your strengths
There will always be agencies that appear to be bigger, better and cooler, but sometimes it’s just social puffery. Keep your focus on solving your clients’ challenges in the ways you know work.
11. When to say no
It can be tempting to take on projects purely to meet a short-term revenue objective. We find it’s far better to make sure the work aligns with our values and what we do best.
10. Keep chaos out
Even if a project or client seems a good fit. Make sure projects and campaigns are well planned, well run and that teams have enough time to do their jobs properly. Don’t allow chaos into the mix.
9. Dig deep into Google
From SEO to paid search, we invest a lot of time in Google. Want to know how deep? See if you or your agency can work out how to report on conversions by ad headline in Google ads?
8. Same challenges, different industries
Whilst it’s always great to know a lot about an industry (and we do about several), the interesting thing is how common the challenges are across different sectors.
7. Specialise in core open source platforms
We’ve worked on Magento, Drupal and WordPress since their early versions and know them inside out. Deep platform knowledge has helped us deliver many quality websites.
6. Get the ‘digital plumbing’ right
From tracking and analytics to hosting and release management. If it’s required to deliver quality work to your clients then invest the time and money to do it well. It’s fundamental to our agency offering.
5. Prioritise your team
We’re only ever as good as our team. For employees, find the best you can. For partners, find ones that are better than you. Both need to be aligned and share your values. Take time to learn thee lessons your past team have taught you.
4. Invest time to understand a client’s business
We’ve been working with some clients for over 20 years and whilst we know a lot about them, we still work hard to deepen our knowledge of their business and sector. Change is constant.
3. Average work doesn’t cut it
Average output is unlikely to get the desired results. Most of the time you have to go above and beyond to deliver work that really works. This helps with client retention.
2. Happy clients are keepers
Digital moves fast and we’re proud that our average client retention is over 6 years. Delivering great results for your existing clients makes more business sense than acquiring new ones.
1. Focus on solving your clients’ challenges
Sounds obvious right? Clients keep the agency busy - always put their objectives at the heart of your thinking. Not only in the work you do for them, but also in how you run the agency.
If you prefer to speak with someone, call 01202 203160 or if you'd like to book a 30 min meeting to see if we can help just let us know and we'll arrange a call with one of our Directors.