By Jasmine Jenkins

January 5, 2021

An agency partner directory is a matchmaking tool that helps customers discover approved and vetted agencies, specialists, and/or freelancers that deliver consulting, customization, implementation, and/or development services for your product. 

A well-curated agency directory is one of the fastest ways to scale up your agency partner program — it enables your customers to “self-serve” while ensuring they work with proven agencies.

But any directory is only as good as its filtering and searching abilities. Providing advanced filters — like specialties, budget, customer reviews or ratings, certifications, locations, tiers, and more — can increase the likelihood customers will find “the one.”

So, we’re here to save you some time. We created a list of filters you should consider, as well as a gallery of examples to give you some inspiration.

(If you want to see some of our other galleries, bookmark these posts featuring our favorite SaaS partner pages and partner newsletters.)

7 Filters For Your Agency Partner Directory

We reviewed more than a dozen examples to see how other companies structure their agency partner directories. Here are the main filters to consider when building your own:

#1 Agency Specialties or Services

If a customer is looking for e-commerce consulting or needs help with a website migration, it doesn’t make sense for them to view every single company in your agency partner directory. That’s a time-suck and a frustrating user experience.

Speed up the search process by allowing customers to filter agencies’ specialities, just like WP Engine does. Visitors can choose from a drop-down menu of specialties like application development, b2b, content strategy/production, creative & branding, data & analytics, direct response, e-commerce, marketing services, and more. 

Omnisend takes its search capabilities a step further by allowing you to filter agencies by the eCommerce platforms they work with and their service offerings. 

#2 Budget

You wouldn’t start the homebuying process without a budget in mind — and your customers are no different when they’re looking for an agency to work with. They likely have a budget (or range) they want to stay within when pursuing a specific project. 

Klaviyo’s agency partner directory allows customers to filter agencies by monthly budget ranges.

In Flywheel’s agency directory, you can filter by budget, and you can see the number of agencies that cater to each budget range. 

#3 Industries Served

Some agency directories allow you to filter by industries, which is valuable for customers operating in highly regulated and technical industries (think: manufacturing, healthcare, financial services). 

For example, a healthtech company likely wants to outsource a data and analytics project to an agency that has decades of experience working with other healthcare companies and is knowledgeable on industry laws and data regulations — as opposed to another agency that has great brand recognition but minimal healthcare experience.

Twilio’s Showcase makes it easy for customers to find consultants, apps, add-ons, and ecosystem partners based on these industries: financial services, healthcare and life sciences, government, manufacturing, communications, media, education, retail, travel transportation and hospitality, real estate, professional services, and nonprofits.

#4 Certifications

Agency partners with certifications can brand their platform competencies and expertise, making them more attractive and marketable to potential customers who just so happen to be scrolling through a partner directory.

HubSpot’s Solutions Directory allows visitors to filter agencies based on specific HubSpot certifications. If a SaaS company needs help implementing HubSpot’s CMS, it can choose from select agencies that have earned the Advanced HubSpot CMS Certification. 

Magento’s agency directory allows partners to proudly brand their certification badges. Plus, if a customer is looking for an agency with extensive Magento experience, they can filter their search by the number of agency staff members who are M2 (Magento 2) Certified.

#5 Location & Regions

If you’re a global company, your customers will likely want to work with agencies that serve their particular region or country because of different factors like currency, language, time zones, etc. Include a location, region, or country filter so prospects and customers can find local agencies to work with.

BigCommerce’s partner directory allows customers to refine their search based on regions served like Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America.

#6 Language

Language barriers make communication challenging and can add friction to the project management process for agencies and customers. If your agency partner program is global, include a ‘Language’ filter so customers can find agencies that speak their local language. 

Sprout Social’s gives customers the option to choose from English, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese.

#7 Tiers

Some companies allow customers to filter or sort agencies according to their partner program tiers. In fact, 52.3% of partnership professionals reported having tiered programs in our 2021 State of the Partnership Ecosystem Report. Much like partner certifications, agency partners in higher (or more elite) tiers stand out for their competencies, service quality, and performance. (Get the 2022 State of the Partner Ecosystem Report here.)

Typeform offers customers the option to sort agencies by their partner tiers. Each tier is labeled with a colored dot: expert (black), advanced (yellow), intermediate (blue), and starter (orange).

Examples of Agency Directories

Scroll through our gallery of agency directories to spur some ideas for your own!

WP Engine

Sprout Social

BigCommerce

Twilio

HubSpot

Databox

CallRail

Typeform

Klaviyo

customer.io

Magento

Omnisend

Privy

Mailchimp

Flywheel