I have seen a lot of agency content frameworks over 13 years, and Pete Lynagh’s is one of the few I actually borrowed. He runs HAUL, a marketing agency for the transport and logistics industry, from Melbourne, and when he first showed me the one-page document he calls the content quadrant, it was one of those moments where something obvious suddenly has a shape. He built it for his clients, but on the Exit Ready podcast he agreed it works for any business, including your agency.
The idea is simple. Almost everyone points all of their content at one audience, new prospects, and leaves three other audiences completely unserved.
The one quadrant everyone does
New business. New business. New business. Pete watched company after company, and agency after agency, market for nothing else.
“It came from watching other companies just marketing for new prospects. That was all they cared about. I saw they were leaving three other parts behind.”
Chasing prospects matters, but it is only one quarter of the job. The other three are where retention, culture and growth actually live, and they are nearly always empty.
The three quadrants you are probably ignoring
Current clients. The people already paying you barely hear from you publicly. Pete fills this quadrant with the client’s own news: a new depot, new fleet, a milestone. For your agency, it is showing the work, the wins and the results your clients are getting. It reminds the people who already trust you why they do.
Existing staff. This is the one that quietly erodes culture. No recognition, no employee of the month, no coverage of the team day out, and the people inside start to feel like the company has no pride in itself.
“Existing employees would feel there is not much culture, or they are not being included, even though it is just social media. It plays a big part.”
New talent. Pete called this one the biggest, and he is right.
“You cannot grow your business without good people. These days people window shop on LinkedIn. They want to see if the company is a vibe. What do you do, is there events, what is the culture like.”
The best people choose where they work based on what they can see from the outside. If your feed is all sales pitches, you are invisible to the talent you need to hire. If it shows a place worth working, the right people come to you.
Why you need all four
The quadrants are connected, which is the whole point.
“You want new business, yes, but you cannot have one without the others.”
You cannot scale on new clients if the existing ones churn because they forgot you. You cannot deliver for new clients without good staff, and you cannot keep or attract good staff without showing the culture. Market to only the prospect quadrant and you win business you then cannot keep or deliver. Pete borrowed the concept from an old Alex Hormozi video about gyms, and the reason it travels to any industry is that every business has the same four audiences watching.
Founder branding fills the quadrants fastest
The fastest engine Pete found for all of this is the founder’s own profile, even in an industry that finds it excruciating.
“They are all cringe. They don’t want to. Myself included. But people drop the ‘this is cringe’ once it is paying the bills. Founders cannot believe the meetings and the commercial value that come from just a LinkedIn post.”
It is the same in every sector I work in. The founder posting consistently does more for all four quadrants than a polished company page ever will, because people follow people. The discomfort is real and it passes the first time a post turns into a meeting.
Be your own best customer
There is a familiar trap underneath all of this. Agencies run this playbook brilliantly for clients and never for themselves. Pete admitted it, then fixed it.
“All I had been doing for my own marketing, which is bad and typical for a marketing agency, was my own LinkedIn posts. Now I have redone my website and put together a full marketing content plan.”
You are your own most important client. If you would build a four-quadrant content engine for someone who paid you, build it for the business with your name on the door, even if it is a small version you grow into.
What to take from this
Draw the four boxes: prospects, clients, staff, talent. Be honest about how much of your content lands in each. For most of us it is 90% prospects and almost nothing in the other three.
Then put a simple, repeatable habit in each box. Client wins for current clients. Recognition and culture for staff. A genuine look behind the scenes for talent. And keep the prospect content, but stop letting it crowd out the three quadrants that decide whether the business you win is a business you can keep, deliver and grow.
Go deeper: Hear the full conversation with Pete on Exit Ready episode 005, then read how to build an agency sales pipeline and agency team building.