The Problem
There are 1000s of marketing companies out there, many of them excellent.
Finding a trusted, proven one online is amazingly difficult.
When my consultancy gets more business than we can handle, I typically refer clients to my small network of trusted professionals. But other times—when we don’t have a good fit and resort to searching the web—the results are always worse than useless. Google is dominated by marketing directories that feature:
- Pay-to-rank schemes, giving top listings to companies who pay multiple $1000s per month to appear. Fake and highly manipulated reviews almost always plague the “top” companies.
- Fake location pages like “Advertising Agencies in Denver” where nearly none of the companies have offices even close to Denver. Some of the offices are on the other side of the world.
- Agency “partners.” Typically created by software companies, these require marketing companies to use and promote a particular tech platform (Salesforce, WPEngine, etc.) Sometimes they even employ the same pay-to-rank schemes simply to appear in the directory.
I know the marketing world well, and I rarely, if ever, see highly reputable names at the top of these sites.
Here’s a frustratingly bad, top-ranking result in Google if you search for “SEO agencies in Portland.”
- Every single result is paid in some way
- Only one company is located in our search area
- These are undoubtably not the best SEO companies in Portland
It’s a problem for people on both sides of the equation: the good marketing companies out there, and businesses looking for services.
So we asked ourselves a question:
What if we created a marketing directory that wasn’t pay-to-rank, featured authentic endorsements, downgraded fake reviews, and promoted companies and consultants with deep expertise and proven track records?
Wild, right?
Zyppy List: A Marketing Directory Glow Up
If we wanted to take on the big marketing directories, we knew we needed a completely different approach.
For people looking for marketing help, we needed a place to honestly recognize and promote the top marketing companies and consultants in every category and location, while simultaneously offering value to the companies that list with us.
In other words, we wanted Zyppy List to provide so much value that people would feel silly not using it.
So after many months of blood, sweat, and tears, meet Zyppy List.
Here are a few ways we made Zyppy List different….
1. Free Verification, Zero Strings Attached
Many directories charge hefty fees, often 1000s of dollars every year, to “verify” a marketers profile. Yikes! This means they simply list the companies that pay them the most.
With Zyppy List, we verify every company 100% for free. We do this because we simply want the best directory. We manually vet every company against a strict set of standards.
It means we’re pickier than most. It also means we have a higher rejection rate.
This is also why we can provide every accepted business with a “followed” link – often seen as a sign of an endorsement for search engines. (From a Ahrefs DR 71 Domain, no less!) This means a marketing company benefits simply by being listed.
Side note: One “popular” directory rejected our application because we wouldn’t add a link to their website from our homepage. Yikes!
2. Rankings Built on Real World Reputations (Not on Money)
Let me be clear: companies cannot pay for higher rankings on Zyppy List.
We grade every company using a proprietary Reputation Score. It loosely resembles how Google’s human Quality Raters score websites on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust) only our evaluations go much deeper.
While we do have premium subscriptions for additional benefits—such as appearing in multiple categories—those perks don’t influence your Reputation Score or placement. If you see a company at the top of a Zyppy List search, we believe they’ve earned that spot.
In the event we ever have “sponsored” listings (because honestly, some companies deserve it) we pledge that these will never, ever be at the top of the page, and will be clearly marked.
Read more about how Zyppy List evaluates and ranks marketing companies.
3. Limited Categories, Stronger Specialization
Unlike other directories, we strongly limit how many service categories each company can choose.
Why? It means businesses can stand out in their true strengths, and prospective clients can find experts who excel in the exact services they need. Tighter, stronger categories lead to better search results and improved client/company fit.
4. Community-Powered Endorsements
We hate fake reviews. Some marketing companies are also excellent at manipulating their online reviews to make them appear better than they are.
With Zyppy List, we combat fake reviews in two ways:
- When evaluating companies, we dive deep into user reviews. We look at reviews the company played a hand in creating with a high degree of healthy suspicion, and we put much more weight on third-party reviews and mentions the company doesn’t control.
- On Zyppy List itself, we let only verified members “endorse” other companies. Marketing companies are often familiar with each other’s work, and it’s very difficult to win endorsements from vetted peers when you’re faking it.
5. A People-powered Marketing Directory
In the age of AI content, we’re seeing a shift where authentic human experiences become more valuable. Just like Google is shifting its algorithm to favor people-first content, Zyppy List is doing the same.
Not only do we encourage founders, leaders, and team members to share who they are and what drives them, we require it for listing, like BEAST Analytics does here.
Features For Marketing Companies
For marketing agencies and independent consultants, we offer a good number of features, most of them 100% free.
In fact, our free listings are fantastic. For folks wanting more visibility and features to drive business leads (again, not rankings!), we do offer enhanced subscriptions. That said, even at the free level, we believe it’s the best offering in the business.
A few of the top features:
- Free verification for life
- Followed link for all approved companies
- Multiple contact methods. You can choose how clients contact you, including directing them to your website contact form, email, phone, booking link, or direct email via Zyppy List.
- Social Profiles – you can link to your LinkedIn or Instagram for greater credibility.
- Team Bios – Because we’re a people-powered directory, we feature team biographies and real human profiles to showcase the folks behind the listing.
- Portfolios & Case Studies (Pro). You can show off your work with featured case studies and portfolios. Includes budget, type of work, detailed descriptions, and additional images.
- Endorsements. Collect endorsements from other verified companies and consultants. This adds to your credibility, influences rankings, and can make your profile stand out.
- Category Specialization. While we limit the number of categories each business can list itself in, we have a huge list of categories. You can also suggest new categories, allowing you to rank specifically for your top services.
- Multiple Ranking Opportunities. In addition to ranking within your category, you can also appear in many other places on Zyppy List, depending on what the user searches for. This includes location-based search at the country, region, and city level, e.g., “Best Digital Marketing Agency in Los Angeles.” Shortly, we’ll also rank companies for industry-specific searches, like “law firm SEO in Denver.”
- Google Analytics – We let listing owners see how many visits their listing received via Google Analytics – right on the page.
Your Invitation
As of today, Zyppy List is open to the public.
We’re accepting applications from top-notch marketing companies and consultants everywhere.
The more good companies we can include, the better positioned we’ll be to take on the no good, unhelpful marketing directories that currently dominate Google.
Want to help us out with this huge challenge, and gain valuable visibility for your marketing services? If you’re a quality marketing agency or consultancy, we’d love to hear from you. Apply for a listing (a basic listing is 100% free) and let’s get boosting.
I’ve already used Zyppy List this week to refer new clients to deserving companies.
Please consider sharing Zyppy List with your network! The bigger and better we can build it, the better the platform works for everyone.
