FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

Ad Mavericks Ad Agency Blog of the Month for October

November 6, 2009

Ad Mavericks (514 votes), Lessing-Flynn Advertising, one of the oldest advertising agencies in the country, located in Des Moines, IA, has been selected as Fuel Lines’ Ad Agency Blog of the month for October. Media Two Point {OH}!, Media Two Interactive, Raleigh, NC, was second in the voting with a very impressive 334 votes. Check out the voting results for the 45 agency blogs submitted: Twtpoll results.

In their own words, how they did it:

We direct messaged key people that we had an established Twitter relationship with. For the most part, these people had the following attributes:

1. Large Twitter following

2.Previous engagement with the AdMavericks – We tweeted back and forth or retweeted something the other had said.

3. People we’ve met at conferences, parties or networking events.

4. Are passionate about Des Moines business, Iowa business and the Midwest as a place of innovation and growth.

About 30 direct messages were sent in total asking for support.
At least 50 retweets (that I saw) appeared on Twitter
Over 600 people visited our blog on Monday – our 2nd busiest day all time.

“We can’t thank the Iowa Tweeps enough for the ridiculous support this week.”

Congrats to Ad Mavericks authors: Jess Held, Tom Flynn, Joshua Flemming, Bellana Putz and Spencer Anderson. Your agency’s blog will be featured on Fuel Lines through the month of November and also included in the voting for Fuel Lines’ Ad Agency Blog of the Year.

You will appreciate some of the fun jabs Ad Mavericks and Two Point {HO!} threw at one another during this campaign (be sure and watch the videos):

Follow AdMavericks:

Lessing Flynn’s Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @AdMavericks

Submit your favorite ad agency blog to be considered for Blog of the Month for September.

Check out these Agency Blog of the Month winners:

September: Brand Cottage

August: AgencyNet

July: The Russo Group

June: 919 Marketing

May: SONNHALTER

April: The Creative Department

March: Sapient Interactive

February: Razorfish

January: Zapwater

3 Comments | Agency Blogs | Tagged: ad agency blog, AdMavericks, advertising agency blogs, Media Two Interactive, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Twitter List: 200 Advertising Agencies on Twitter

November 5, 2009

If you want prospective clients to find your agency online, provide them with helpful resources.

I’m still researching and experimenting with some list building tools. Recently I shared a post about a list generator tool called TweetpML. This week I’ve been experimenting with Twitter’s new list feature to organize people that you are following on Twitter. But … as always, I’m exploring these list building tools from a new business perspective.

Since I created my TweetpML list of 100 Ad Agencies on Twitter, that list has grown to 153 agencies PLUS 9,636 followers of my list in one week!

This week I’ve been working on my Twitter list and now have 200 Advertising Agencies on Twitter which should also generate significant traffic and interest.

I’m receiving 10 to 15 requests per day from agencies to be added to these lists. These list will continue to grow as well as the number of people who follow them. This takes very little effort but generates a big return through traffic to my blog.

To generate traffic to your agency’s blog, you should be doing the same for your audience. Supply them with the kinds of resources that help them with their marketing challenges. Particularly by providing resources and helps with social media marketing.

My Twitter List:

More Twitter List Resources:

3 Comments | Twitter | Tagged: Ad Agency New Business, Advertising Agencies on Twitter, TweepML, Twitter Lists | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency: Social Media | New Business Roundtable

November 4, 2009

Social media provides great opportunities for ad agencies to network with prospective clients. It is also provides opportunity to network with other agencies.

Stephanie Holland was kind enough to host a social media/new business roundtable discussion with a small group of us who I have worked with over the past couple of years. Stephanie is president/creative director for Holland + Holland Advertising, here in Birmingham, AL. Our group also included Jaci Russo, principal of The Russo Group, Lafayette, LA, S.A. Habib, president of Locomotion Creative, Nashville, TN, John Sonnhalter, founder and CEO of SONNHALTER, a B to B ad agency in Cleveland, OH, and Park Howell, president of Park&Co, a full service ad agency in Phoenix, AZ.

Though everyone had been introduced to one another online this was the first time that our group had met face-to-face. We decided to get together for a couple of days of personal interaction to measure how far we have come and where do we go from here.

This meeting provided an opportunity for us to learn from one another and create some camaraderie as we go forward. Too be a help and a resource for one another.

These were some of our initial questions and thoughts that were used to facilitate our discussions:

How do you monetize your social media efforts for new business?
What has been the best return on your time investment with social, best time management practices?
What still are your biggest challenges?
Reviewing and providing input for each agency blog’s positioning
Is your staff buying in and participating?
How to implement a call to action through social media?

It was an enjoyable and rewarding two days. We came away with renewed energy and focus.

Here’s a link if you’d like to see additional photos of our roundtable discussion group

You can review these agency principal’s blogs below. I’m sure each of them would welcome your thoughtful insights:

Blue Collar Branding (S.A. Habib)

Park Howell: A brighter shade of green marketing (Park Howell)

Razor Branding Blog (Jaci Russo)

She-conomy: A Guys Guide to Marketing to Women (Stephanie Holland)

Tradesmen Insights (John Sonnhalter)

9 Comments | Agency Blogs, Social Media | Tagged: Jaci Russo, John Sonnhalter, Michael Gass, park howell, S.A. Habib, Stephanie Holland | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Which of these 45 ad agency blogs best understands social media?

October 27, 2009

Examples of ad agency blogs. Review and decide which of them really “gets it” when it comes to social media. Pick up ideas for your own blog.

45 ad agency blogs have been submitted to Fuel Lines. Vote for the best agency blog for the month of October. The winner will be featured on Fuel Lines throughout the month of November and included in the voting for ad agency blog of the year.

Cast your VOTE by Clicking Here

These are the ad agency blogs submitted for the month of October:

AB&C blog, Aloysius Butler & Clark,Wilmington, DE
Acquity Group blog, Chicago, IL
ACS Creative, ACS Creative agency, Fairfax, VA
Ad Mavericks, Lessing-Flynn Advertising, Des Moines, IA
Adverspew blog, Perich Advertising + Design, Ann Arbor, MI
Avenue 25 advertising & design, Phoenix, AZ
Bergman Group, Bergman Group agency, Glen Allen, VA
don’t drink the kool-aid blog, bg creative, San Diego, CA
Brainstorm, Brainstorm agency, Indianapolis, IN
clickTRUE blog, Singapore
Confluent Forms Blog, North Hampton, MA
Cowie and Fox Blog, Vancouver, BC
CUKER agency blog, Solana Beach, CA
DDB agency’s Strategy blog, NY, NY
Enviral Marketing blog, BGT Partners, Miami, FL
Fusionizer, Fusion Advertising, Dallas, TX
Healthy Conversations, Trajectory agency, Morristown, NJ
Ideas for a Smarter, Faster World, Brunner agency, Pittsburgh, PA
Level Blog, Level, San Luis Obispo, CA
Market Smarter blog, M is For Marketing, Decatur, GA
Marketing Home Products, Kleber & Associates, Atlanta, GA
Marketing Your Hospital, TotalCom Communications, Tuscaloosa/Huntsville, AL
Media Two Point {OH}!, Media Two Interactive, Raleigh, NC
Moveo Integrated Blog, Moveo Integrated Branding, Oakbrook Terrace, IL
My Creative Team, Charlotte, NC
One Eleven Interactive blog, Brooklyn, NY
Outside In Banking, Michael Flora & Associates, Troy, MI
Point of View, Point to Point agency, Cleveland, OH
PUSH-n-PULL, The Cyphers Agency, Annapolis, MD
Red Door Buzz, Red Door Interactive, San Diego, CA
Shared iDiz, iDiz Incorporated, Indianapolis, IN
TechMarketingBlog, Jacobs Agency, Chicago, IL
The Adams Group blog, Columbia, SC
The Blue Fire Notebook, Pilot Light Agency, Dallas, TX
The Boomerang Table, 160over90 agency, Philadelphia, PA
The Furnace, Firehouse, Dallas, TX
The Lint Screen, Ames Scullin O’Haire, Atlanta, GA
The Martino Flynn Blog, Pittsford, NY
The Side Note, Weise Communications, Denver, CO
Villing & Company, South Bend, IN
We Play in Traffic, ESW Partners, Chicago, IL
WeBlog2 – Notes from the Edge, Kuno Creative, Avon, OH
Why Moms Rule, BOHAN Advertising | Marketing, Nashville, TN
Winstanley Partners, Winstanley Partners agency, Lenox, MA
TV Is Not Dead, Ad Partners, Inc, Tampa, FL

4 Comments | Agency Blogs | Tagged: Ad Agency Blogs, Ad Agency New Business, FUEL LINES, Michael Gass, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

To Get the Most Out of Twitter Be a Maverick

October 21, 2009

Don’t just follow the herd. Twitter is evolving. Maximize its potential around your agency’s new business objectives.

Twitter itself created the conditions that has allowed users to innovate. No one in the beginning envisioned that:

People would want to follow strangers
Celebrities would use Twitter to provide updates to fans of their activities
Businesses would use Twitter to to promote discounts, launch new products and services
Twitter would be used in so many different ways by broadcasters, educators, politicians, doctors, lawyers, ministers and so many others you can’t keep up with them all

Guy Kawasaki, an early adopter and leader in social media, recently wrote,

“Three years ago Twitter was a nice little pond that people shared with their close friends … The whole point back then was establishing warm-and-fuzzy relationships with people you cared about by answering the question, “What are you doing?”

Fast forward to today. While there is still kumbaya going on via Twitter, many people are now using Twitter as a twool. They’re not trying to have a one-to-one conversation. At best, they want a one-to-many conversation if not out-and-out broadcasting in the advertising and marketing sense.”

There are not many who use Twitter the way that I do. Other than sending personal Direct Messages, I do not send many personal Tweets to others. My point-of-view is that most of my 10,000+ followers do not care about a specific conversation that I’m having with @jaybaer, @edwardboches, @sheconomy or other Twitter users. What my Twitter followers have come to expect from me is helpful resources for ad agency new business.

For my own Twitter formula … 80 to 90 percent of my Tweets are made up of resourceful articles and posts. My Tweets usually include just the article/post titles and URL links.

Many of these articles/posts come from my online reading, using Google Reader. When I find a good post that I want to share, I click on bit.ly (a tool to shorten, share and track your links) in my browser bar, configure the information about the post and publish it to my Twitter account. If I’m finding lots of good material, I may post them through Social Oomph (Tweetlater) to be able to spread the posts over a period of time.

I also add posts from my blog. I have written over 400+ posts, the vast majority written as a resource for agency new business. Most of these are not time sensitive and continue to be a helpful resource for my readers. I know that because of the traffic each generates to my blog.

I have a number of reasons for repurposing blog content in this way:

Readers do not ready my blog chronologically. People are so busy they don’t have time. I usually write and post at least once a day, Monday through Friday, but the majority of my readers are not reading my content on a daily basis.
Even my most ardent readers will read posts through many different channels such as RSS Feed, email newsletter, SEO, Twitter and from mirroring blog post content through my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
Even with a large number of followers, an article that I post at 11 am on a Thursday is going to be missed by 99% of my readers.
I use post titles that are crystal clear regarding the content that will be found. This may be dull and bland for copywriters but it is much appreciated by my readership. They can find relevant material through my post titles through search and as these posts appear through Twitter.
I provide links to similar articles that would possibly be of interest to my readers and try to spare them having to search for them on their own.
There are often posts that I discover, that I know would be of interest to my readers, and I will “bridge-the-gap” specifying how this post/article relates to them. Materials, tools, that isn’t specific to my audience, but I make it specific to them, how it is a resource for ad agency new business.

If you aren’t generating traffic, its a sign of a lack of appeal. Metrics keeps everything on track and focused. I check my blog analytics multiple times a day along with other metrics tools from bit.ly, socialtoo and Twittergrader.

I’d like to recommend an enlightening Wired Magazine article: Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter

Here are 20 additional Twitter articles, specifically for ad agencies that can help you take advantage of Twitter’s growth for new business:

2 Comments | Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Ad Agency New Business, Guy Kawasaki, Michael Gass, Social Media, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency New Business: Know Your Sales Averages

October 20, 2009

6a00d83451d49569e2010535dab46d970b-800wi Adam Whittaker is a well-known and highly-respected expert on business development for marketing service firms. He is the Chief Executive of Business development consultancy Reardon Smith Whittaker (RSW). RSW is a leading provider of outbound business development services for marketing service companies in the UK. 30 percent of the ad agencies in the U.K. outsource their business development. That trend is becoming more popular among American agencies fueled by the current recession.

Guest Post: Adam Whitaker

New business, business development, agency marketing … call it what you will, it’s sales. Get over it. If you run an ad agency new business unit your role is to sell your agencies services.

I liken the sales process to the oil business; There is the upstream stuff and the downstream stuff. With the refinery sitting in the middle. The upstream stuff is the down and dirty business of prospecting. You have leads, suspects and prospects and you use the telephone (principally but not exclusively) to move people along the path. Leads are snippets of gossip you hear that lead (hence the name?) you to suspect (hence the name!) that someone may be in the market for what you sell.

You then get hold of them and, if your suspicions are true, they become a prospect. Your next job is to convert them to a face-to-face meeting so you can discuss their requirement.

This process can be excruciatingly time consuming and all the tools you need to be able to do this job properly will cost tens of thousands of dollars per year if you’re going to do it properly. Which is why many agencies outsource this upstream activity to new business agencies.

But NEVER outsource the downstream bit. That’s from the first meeting onwards and you need to concentrate on these guys, which is why ideally the two roles should be divided. They take very different skill sets.

Here’s how the upstream works. You have your database of 500 suspects and leads. Before calling each one you need to research them to become more up speed with their activities. You then need to access all the trade press and search for their name to make sure they haven’t just appointed someone (that would make you and your agency look very foolish!). You then need to check you have the name of the right person and do a quick Google search on them to try to get some background info to inform your discussion with them. You then need to very quickly check you have all the most relevant case studies to hand and familiarize yourself with the stats to throw into the conversation.

You then make the call. And they’re on holiday. Repeat.

Until you speak to someone. On average you’ll need to make ten such preparations and calls before getting to speak to a marketing director. Depending upon how well you have done your research and how hot the lead, your conversion to a meeting and then a pitch opportunity will vary greatly. That’s all the downstream stuff.

But all that upstream work, as you can see, takes such a lot of time and resource; you really need to determine how best to handle it. You can either get an in-house person, do it yourself or outsource it. But like it or not, unless you’re one of those lucky agencies who have clients queuing up to use them, it does need doing.

You can do whatever else you like, but there is one truth in truth. The more people you meet, the more business you do.

Connect with Adam through Twitter

Additional guest articles that may be of interest:

Todd Knutson: Do you buy or build your ad agency’s new business database?
Jay Baer: Ad Agencies: Don’t Turn Your Back on Digital
Don Beehler: Why Ad Agency Principals Should Consider Writing a Book
Jaci Russo: Should Ad Agency Pitches and RFPs Be a Thing of the Past?

3 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, New Business Tips, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency, Adam Whittaker, new business development, outsourcing, reardon smith whittaker, sales | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

20 Reasons Why Social Media Won’t Replace Email

October 18, 2009

Email marketing is still an important tool to your ad agency new business program.

The rise in popularity of social media only enhances email. The two can work powerfully together. Two excellent articles, Chris Crums, writer for WebPro News, “10 Reasons Social Media isn’t Replacing Email“ and VerticalResponse CEO Janine Popick, “10 More Reasons Why Social Media Wont Replace Email. Chris always has great marketing insights. Janine also provides some insightful resources and practices what she preaches for both email marketing and social media. I recommend them both.

Here are their 20 reasons why social media wont replace email:

People still send hand-written letters.
Nearly all sites on the web that require registration require an email address.
Email notifies you of updates from all social networks.
We haven’t seen any evidence yet that Google Wave really will catch on on a large scale.
Email is universal, and social networks are not.
There are plenty who have no interest in joining social networks.
Email is still improving.
Even social networks themselves recognize the importance of email.
More social media use means more email use.
As far as marketing is concerned, email is doing pretty well.
Twitter and Facebook are fantastic products and companies; but that’s what they are, companies.
Your email recipients are still going to use business email for business purposes.
You can’t easily segment your friends and followers to do targeted marketing (through social media)
You can’t tell who clicked on a link with some social media outlets.
That said, you can’t tell who didn’t click on the link so you can follow up with them with a different message.
You cannot personalize your Facebook updates.
You cannot size your graphics or use more than one in Facebook.
You can’t track how many clicks you got on your links in Facebook.
You are limited to 140 characters in Twitter.
You almost have to have separate social media accounts for your business and your personal life.

Additional resourceful articles that may be of interest:

7 Comments | New Business Tips, New Business Tools, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agency New Business, Chris Crums, email marketing, Janine Popick, Social Media, VerticalResponse, WebPro News | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Agency Leadership: Can you be a great leader and not be a great presenter?

October 16, 2009

public speaking

It is often critical for new business, particularly for small-to mid-size ad agencies, that agency leaders be good at presenting.

I was reading an excellent article written by Dan McCarthy, a manager of leadership development and author of the blog Great Leadership: Opinions and information on leadership and leadership development.

Dan points out that (ad agency) leaders can’t skimp on presentation skills as he raises the question, “Can you be a great leader and not be a great presenter?”

“For most leaders, at some point, they are going to have to give that department presentation, halftime pep talk, inspirational talk to the troops, or presentation to the big dogs. It’s those make-or-break moments on stage when leaders have the opportunity to influence the greatest number of people to change.

So if a leader gets stage fright, and doesn’t shine during these opportunities, or worse, avoids them altogether, than I’d say it’s going to be an up hill climb to ever become a truly great leader. You can’t just throw up your hands and say “it’s just not me”. Consider it a requirement for the job.“

Dan reminds us that presentation skills are “learnable” and provides the following 5 recommendations:

1. Get Help. If you know you are behind most of your peers, there here are books such as “Leading Out Loud”, and public courses that you can find in just about any major city or a personal coach could be a good option

2. Use deliberate practice. That is how the best athletes, performers, and leaders do it. They don’t rely on inborn talent. Never, ever, give a presentation without preparation and practice. Even the best don’t wing it – that’s why they’re so good.

3. Get Feedback. Practice by itself won’t work unless you get feedback.

4. Master the techniques. The best presenters have mastered these techniques:

They use stories to connect on an emotional level.
The use of media.
Audience engagement. We retain 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, and 70% of what we discuss with others. Look for opportunities to engage your audience.
Questions. Always save time for them. Anticipate and prepare for the tough ones.

5. Learn from the best. There are learning opportunities daily if you look for them: movies, YouTube, Conferences, meetings, church and politics.

This is just a “Readers Digest” version of Dan’s article. I would encourage you to read it in its entirety and subscribe to his blog through your RSS Reader for some great tips on Leadership: “Can a Poor Presenter be a Great Leader?“

What’s your opinion? Cast your vote in this twtpoll: Can you be a great leader and not be a great presenter?

Additional posts regarding agency leadership that may be of interest:

Leave a Comment » | Agency Leadership, Best Practices | Tagged: ad agency, Dan McCarthy, leadership, new business, Presentation skills | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

A Nice Set-Up for Ad Agency Conference Room Presentations

October 15, 2009

I’ve had opportunity to visit a lot of agency conference rooms over the past two years. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I’m glad to pass on to you examples from some of the better ones.

cs2 Advertising, Memphis, TN, has a great set-up for online conference room presentations. Agency principal Brian Sullivan was gracious enough to provide me with the details that I used to set-up in my home office. It is an easy set-up and the components are not very expensive. You’ll probably have some of them already.

My Home Office

Wireless Apple Keyboard + Mouse

The main components for Brian’s set-up: Apple’s: Mac Mini, Wireless Keyboard,, Mighty Mouse, Wireless Airport and flat screen TV.

Here’s the components and pricing for my home office set-up. Most of these I found and purchased on Ebay:

Macbook laptop ($1000)
Wireless keyboard ($55)
Mighty Mouse ($21)
Insignia 42″ Flat Screen TV ($598)
Poll<Audio Sound-Bar ($398)
Apple IR Remote ($6)
Apple Mini-VGA to TV Adapter ($9)
10 Ft HDMI Cable ($5)
Linksys Wireless Router ($35)

Since I already had the TV, sound system, laptop, and router my cost totaled less than a $100 dollars for the rest of the equipment.

It’s important to make the best first impression, especially for ad agency new business presentations at your office. Here are a few suggestions:

Make sure your conference room is clutter free, a nice clean look without equipment wires showing.
Double check all of your audio/video equipment and complete a couple of run-throughs prior to the presentation time.
Have a back-up plan in case of equipment failure.
Make sure the room temperature is comfortable for your guests. If you constantly have heating/cooling problems in your conference room, fix it! This is The Most Important Room in your agency.
Chairs that are also comfortable for your guests. Comfort trumps design … “the mind can only absorb as much as the seat can stand.”

Feel free to share other examples of set-ups for conference room set-ups and meeting tips:

3 Comments | New Business Tips, New Business Tools | Tagged: ad agency presentations, Apple, audio and video set up, Brian Sullivan, cs2 Advertising | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

AgencyLand: Google Offers New Resource to Ad Agencies

October 13, 2009

Google is offering a new resource for advertising agencies, it’s called AgencyLand. This is a resource platform to help agencies stay current on digital media, and plan, execute and manage advertising campaigns using Google solutions. It originally launched in March 2009 to a limited number of agencies. They are now offering this resource to agencies and third parties in the United States and Canada. To request an invitation, visit www.google.com/agencyland/.

The following video provides an overview of AgencyLand’s features.

1 Comment | Best Practices, New Business Trends | Tagged: AgencyLand, digital resources, Google | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

A Little Tool Can Be a Big Deal for Ad Agency New Business

October 13, 2009

People share links to web pages by email, through Twitter and Facebook and a lot of other methods. There are a number of URL shorteners available but one in particular is standing out from the rest. Not only does it easily shorten your links but it also shows traffic, conversations, and history from those links.

Over the summer I made the switch from TinyURL to bit.ly for my URL shortener. This little tool is becoming a big deal. It is now the default shortener for Twitter and has rapidly become the most popular URL shortener available. Google Reader included it in their new “send-to” feature, which lets you share any post on Twitter, automatically shortening long URLs with bit.ly.

You can drag a convenient button to your browser’s tool bar to shorten a URL from any Web page and quickly share it without interrupting your reading. You can customize the copy to share and even customize the URL if you want.

Bit.ly allows me to more easily share links to people in my network. Whether I want to do it through Twitter, Facebook, Email. I can also get real-time stats. Just review the stats from the post link above just after I shortened the URL and and shared it through my Twitter account: http://bit.ly/info/1BAyEm. It shows me the clicks on the link, the conversations that took place about the post, etc.

The great value in this, from a new business perspective, is getting instant feedback, knowing what information is appealing to your audience.

Targeted traffic = inbound lead generation. To generate traffic you have to hone your appeal.

If you get into the habit of checking these kinds of metrics, it will greatly help you to become a better writer by providing the resources your prospective clients are searching for.

Remember: People want to work with people that they know, like and trust.

1 Comment | Social Media, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency Generates Inbound New Business Leads Through Social Media

October 12, 2009

Social media can greatly help with your agency’s positioning. It can also create appeal and generate inbound leads, but you’ll need to start by answering two questions:

Who is our best target audience?
What is our agency’s most appealing point of differentiation?

Holland + Holland, a small advertising agency in Birmingham, AL, provides an excellent example of how a small agency can create an appeal to a specific target audience using social media.

Their point of differentiation: Stephanie Holland, agency president and creative director is one of only 3% of female creative directors in the US, 97% of creative directors are men.
The strength of their positioning, 85% of all brand purchases are made by women. Women bought more product from HomeDepot and Lowes last year than did men, they also purchased more hamburgers, consumer electronics, NBA and NFL apparel … women are the purchasing agent for the family. Holland now has a distinctive advantage over their competitors, because most of them have male creative directors. Its much easier for Holland to call into question their competitors understanding of reaching women.
Focusing on a target. The agency is targeting male advertisers who should be marketing to women. Stephanie, through her blog, educates her readers about this important consumer group that most are not reaching through their marketing efforts. She is careful not to talk down to or berate her audience. Her blog’s descriptor statement is crystal clear, “a guys guide to marketing to women.”
The initial results for Holland + Holland: For the first time in their 25 year history, the agency was selected to pitch for two nationally known brands, winning one of those accounts and invited to handle the social media for the other. The two companies are not headquartered within Holland’s market. They discovered Stephanie and her agency through their online presence using social media and were chosen for their expertise in marketing to women. One midwestern prospective client flew over hundreds of other agencies to meet in person with Stephanie at her office in Birmingham because of getting to know her through her blog.

Holland + Holland's Blog: She-conomy

Over a year ago, Stephanie created her agency’s blog, She-conomy: A Guys Guide to Marketing to Women. She has created a community of followers, providing helpful resources to their marketing challenges in reaching women.

Here’s an example of the kinds of posts that Stephanie uses to reach her audience and keep them coming back:

Stephanie is using her blog as the “gateway” to her agency. This is the place, the central platform of her social media strategy. Instead of the agency’s website, Stephanie generates traffic initially through her blog.

Stephanie has a strategic reading program that helps keep ahead of trends and her clients. Instead of searching for resources, most of the resources are sent to her through RSS feeds, Google Alerts, etc. Her writing is an important component to her professional enrichment. It helps her better articulate her thoughts and the way she communicates to prospective clients. She’s learned to lead her new business efforts through benefits instead of agency capabilities. She speaks to her prospective clients marketing challenges and provides to them her thoughts, opinions and resources to help provide solutions.

People have a strong desire to work with other people that they know, trust and like. Stephanie has become the face for her agency. Her audience feels like they know her, because they do.

Holland + Holland’s website has become their online brochure. It is designed simply in a way which easily highlights the agency’s latest work and case studies. If you’ll notice, the blog intentionally lives apart from the branding of the agency’s website. It was allowed room to breath and grow. It will actually provide a great resource for the agency’s brand through the engagement with their targeted audience. It’s their audience that decides what’s appealing and what’s not.

Stephanie's Twitter Account

Stephanie is using Twitter to network and repurpose her blog’s content to a growing following. Twitter has become the leading traffic generator to her blog.

She-conomy allows for greater SEO. Stephanie can generate organic search placement in Google by consistently using the search terms her audience is most likely to use to find the resources she provides.

She-conomy Email Newsletter

A She-conomy email newsletter is generated monthly to a database of over 2,000. The newsletter is easily created and sent using blog posts that are already generating higher traffic. It takes only minutes to create and send. This allows the agency to be consistent, sending the newsletter out twice a month, even when they are at their busiest.

Stephanie's Facebook Page

Facebook allows for Stephanie to integrate her professional life and personal life. Facebook shows a much more personal side. It is the inclusion of family members, friends, colleagues, fellow alumni. There are applications found in Facebook that allows her to repurpose her blog’s content.

Stephanie's LinkedIn Page

Stephanie uses LinkedIn to network professionally. It is a great tool for highlighting her profile and recommendations from others. Like FaceBook, LinkedIn has an application that allows for automatically repurposing of content from She-conomy.

YouTube

The agency created a video for YouTube to create a strong appeal around their niche, which is marketing to women.

Stephanie Holland and her staff follow a simple social media plan for an inbound lead generation program for their new business. It is consistent and easily maintained. It is an integrated effort with specific goals and objectives and its bearing fruit.

1 Comment | New Business Tips, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Ad Agency New Business, holland and holland advertising, inbound lead generation, Social Media, Stephanie Holland | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Best Social Media Practices for Ad Agency New Business

October 9, 2009

I’m often asked about Best Practices for Social Media for Ad Agency New Business, how to get started, time management, pricing social media for clients, etc. Below is a compilation of articles based upon my personal experiences with social media and assisting in creating a social media presence for over 40 ad agencies. I hope they will be a help to you and your agency. Anything that I haven’t covered that you have questions about, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Four Things Your Ad Agency Should Know Before Jumping Into Social Media

I am a enthusiastic advocate of using social media to market your agency and generate new business leads. But … before your agency jumps in, there are four things you need to know to have success. Read more

How to Get Started Using Social Media for Ad Agency New Business

I’m often asked what is the very first step in developing a new business program for a small-to midsize ad agency? To have an efficient and effective new business program you must first … identify your agency’s point of difference and select a target audience. Read more

Four-step Approach to a Social Media Plan

POST is one of the most effective acronyms since the four P’s of marketing. It’s a four-step approach that helps marketers define a social media marketing plan for their business and/or clients. Read more

Socializing Your Ad Agency’s New Business Development

Discovering how to generate inbound leads and create an agency new business program through social media. Read more

Clear and Present Danger of Social Media for Ad Agencies

Currently the problem is not agencies and new business consultancies are all jumping into social media. The problem has been the lateness in their willingness to participate. When they do, they don’t understand how to use it. Read more

Social Media “Teaches” Ad Agencies to Promote Themselves the Right Way

I recommend using social media as a central component for your agency’s new business program. The primary reason is that it “teaches” small-to midsize agencies to do the things they should have been doing all along to acquire new business. Read more

Social Media 101 Explained by Fishing Analogy

Park Howell, president of Park&Co, a full service agency that specializes in environmental marketing, came up with a great way to illustrate the need for their prospective clients to participate in social media using this SlideShare presentation he and members of his agency created. Read more

The Best First Steps into Social Media for Ad Agency CEOs

If you are a advertising agency principal and just getting immersed in social media, try this two step approach that will accelerate your learning curve. Read more

A Social Media System For Ad Agencies To Get Up-to-Speed Quickly

An overview for an accelerated way for agencies to get their head around social media, build a credible presence in a short period of time (60 to 90 days) that also will provide professional enrichment and at the same time provide tools for branding, new business and networking. Read more

How Do I Keep Up with Social Media?

The first step … in order to keep up … is to have the right mindset. Social media only becomes a priority when you understand the multiplicity of benefits generated from it to you and your agency. Read more

A Guide for Ad Agencies: The Cost and Servicing of New Media

The two big questions that ad agencies are asking: “How do we price new media and what type of services should we offer?” Read more

SlideShare: Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

This is a recent presentation that I gave, on how ad agencies can create a new business program through social media. Read more

Social Media Time Management Tips for Professional Enrichment

For success in agency new business, you must lead. To get to and maintain a position of leadership within this industry you need a consistent and strategic program for professional enrichment. Read more

1 Comment | Best Practices, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agency New Business, Michael Gass, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

BrandCottage Ad Agency Blog of the Month for September

October 6, 2009

fuel-lines-blog-of-the-month-3

BrandCottage Blog

BrandCottage (62 votes) edged out Michael Flora & Associates (59 votes), DDB (55 votes), and BOHAN (49 votes) as Fuel Lines’ Ad Agency Blog of the Month for September. Check out the voting results for the 30 agency blogs submitted: Twtpoll results.

Brand Cottage is a media and communications agency with offices in New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. with a client roster that includes such brands as Mellow Mushroom, Shoney’s,Ted’s Montana Grill and Wired.

BrandCottage Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @brandcottage
Witter: @BrandCottage PR

Submit your favorite ad agency blog to be considered for Blog of the Month for September.

Check out these Agency Blog of the Month winners:

August: AgencyNet

July: The Russo Group

June: 919 Marketing

May: SONNHALTER

April: The Creative Department

March: Sapient Interactive

February: Razorfish

January: Zapwater

Leave a Comment » | Agency Blogs | Tagged: Ad Agency Blogs, BOHAN, BrandCottage, DDB, Michael Flora & Associates | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies: Don’t Turn Your Back on Digital

October 5, 2009

This guest post is written by my friend Jay Baer (@jaybaer), a digital marketing consultant devoted to helping agencies get better and more profitable at digital marketing. Jason has also provided digital consultation to hundreds of major companies including Nike, Fujitsu, Pulte Homes and RJ Reynolds.He is also author of the blog, Convince and Convert, Social media and email consulting, which is recognized as one of the best marketing blogs by AdAge, Alltop and Social Media Today.

Ah yes. Digital marketing. Once a great champion. Now a broken-down has-been, struggling to remain relevant in a changing world. Like Joe Namath, but with a keyboard.

So goes the story in many agencies today.

In their zeal to jump aboard the social media express, agencies are neglecting to shore up the other corners of the digital marketing foundation – many of which deliver more concrete ROI (at least for now).

Further, while social media is the most transformative because of its impact on brand>><<consumer relationships, it’s certainly not the easiest (or most lucrative) professional service to offer clients.

Forrester’s recent projections of interactive marketing spend through 2014 show social media increasing at an average of 34% year over year. That’s pretty spectacular, sure. But, for all the Twitter this and Facebook that, remember that even five years from now banner advertising will be 5 times bigger than social media, and search marketing will be 10 times larger.

Should agencies develop social media competencies, and help their clients create sound, sustainable social media strategic plans?

Absolutely. But, social media does not work as a solo act. Because almost every other aspect of the company manifests itself in some way in social media, it’s imperative that social activities are integrated with other elements.

Thus, if you want to get serious about being an agency that can provide social media services, you better be able to offer meaningful email marketing, mobile marketing, search marketing, and online advertising counsel.

That’s why the notion of centralizing social media expertise in a personnel silo is a short-term gratification, but a long-term mistake (like most tattoos). If you accept the premise – as I do – that before long everything will have a social component, you can’t have only one or a few people in your agency holding those keys.

Everyone in your agency needs to understand social media, and while they’re at it, get comfortable with search, email, mobile, banners, and analytics, too.

Additional Post That May be of Interest:

3 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agencies, convince and convert, digital, interactive, Jay Baer, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

6 Examples of “Appealing” Ad Agency Blog Posts

October 2, 2009

Having difficult generating traffic to your agency’s blog?

Your audience is the judge and jury as to what is and what’s not appealing in regards to your agency’s blog. You’ll need to listen (blog analytics, comments, etc) to hone in for what will consistently resonate with them.

I want to provide some examples of the kinds of posts that will generate interest from prospective clients. Notice, they are not written about the agency. There is nothing about any of the agency’s 3 C’s … Credentials, Capabilities or Case studies.

These are “resourceful posts” written for the benefit of their intended target audience. Much of the information for this type of post can come through your personal reading program that will keep you ahead of the wave of the trends impacting the advertising industry and its clients.

Your reading (using a RSS Reader) and writing program (agency blog) should be focused by having a specific target audience that you are writing to. If you start an agency blog without first answering the question, “Who is my target audience?” it will lack focus, be more difficult to find resources, harder to write, have less traffic and provide little if any new business leads.

Park Howell, president of Park & Co., a full service ad agency in Phoenix, AZ, provides an excellent example of an agency’s blog post written the right way: 6 Reasons Why Green Marketers Should Listen to their Mothers. I would encourage you to go ahead and read this post and I’ll give you some observations and additional examples below.

My observations for what they are worth:

A few thoughts regarding Park’s blog site … I like that the blog has a clear “descriptor statement” just under the title. You know immediately who and what the blog is for. It’s also personal more of a personal blog where Park is the face of his agency. People want to work with people they, know, like and trust.
Not every post you write has to be original. This is a “resource” post that has information that is gathered and relayed to his best target audience. His blog becomes a repository of helpful information that is pertinent. Not every post has to be original content.
The post title is written for SEO. If there is a consistency in utilizing “green marketers” in the post titles, Park has an opportunity to dominate this search term in Google.
People tend to read differently online than they do in print, they scan. This post is easily scanned. Good, helpful, valuable and concise information. The writer has done the work for the reader and highlighted the important info.
The author gives credit and links by to his original sources. He even provides accolades to the person who brought this information to his attention.
Park has pulled together a great resource lists for his readers and asks others to share additions to it. He’s inviting participation.
This post has the right “share buttons” that allow it to become viral and generate traffic beyond SEO. Park also repurposes his blog’s content and generates traffic through an email newsletter, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn apps.

These are some additional examples of other agency blog posts’ that I think are on target:

Leave a Comment » | Agency Blogs, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency blog, blog posts, Park & Co, park howell, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

Twitter List: 200 Advertising Agencies on Twitter

If you want prospective clients to find your agency online, provide them with helpful resources.

Ad Agency New Business: Know Your Sales Averages

Agency Leadership: Can you be a great leader and not be a great presenter?

It is often critical for new business, particularly for small-to mid-size ad agencies, that agency leaders be good at presenting.

A Nice Set-Up for Ad Agency Conference Room Presentations

AgencyLand: Google Offers New Resource to Ad Agencies

BrandCottage Ad Agency Blog of the Month for September

MICHAEL GASS

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Ad Agency New Business

If you want prospective clients to find your agency online, provide them with helpful resources.

Social media provides great opportunities for ad agencies to network with prospective clients. It is also provides opportunity to network with other agencies.

Lists can be an important tool to generate awareness, traffic and appeal for your agency’s blog.

Examples of ad agency blogs. Review and decide which of them really “gets it” when it comes to social media. Pick up ideas for your own blog.

Cast your VOTE by Clicking Here

Don’t just follow the herd. Twitter is evolving. Maximize its potential around your agency’s new business objectives.

Email marketing is still an important tool to your ad agency new business program.

It is often critical for new business, particularly for small-to mid-size ad agencies, that agency leaders be good at presenting.

I’m excited. This is my 400th blog post and I also get to introduce a new tool social media tool that could be a great help to your agency to connect with prospective clients.

Targeted traffic = inbound lead generation. To generate traffic you have to hone your appeal.

Remember: People want to work with people that they know, like and trust.

Social media can greatly help with your agency’s positioning. It can also create appeal and generate inbound leads, but you’ll need to start by answering two questions:

Having difficult generating traffic to your agency’s blog?

MICHAEL GASS

Agency Blog of the Month

Blog of the Month SUBMIT your agency's blog

SUBSCRIBE by RSS, Daily or Weekly Email

Social Networks

You are invited to network

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