Ad Agency Hill Holiday dumps website for “all-blog format”

April 30, 2008

An ad agency has dumped its website for a blog. But not just any ad agency, one of the best known agency’s in the country, Hill Holiday, has done it. They now have an “all-blog format.” Could this be a trend, perhaps the wave of the future. I predict that it is.

From a new business perspective, I’m convinced that this is what most agencies need to do. But if you don’t have the courage to go to an “all-blog format” at least start an agency blog. Let the blog become the gateway to your agency’s website. Your agency’s static website becomes your online brochure or portfolio piece.

Here are a few of the advantages of an agency blog:

  • Greater search engine optimization
  • Potential clients will better know you and how you think
  • Easy updating
  • Easy RSS integration
  • The ability to add video and audio, quickly I might add
  • Keep your agency relevant
  • Strategic online partnerships
  • Build a devoted online community of potential clients who will already have a sense of knowing your agency. People like to work with people they know

The noted corporate blog strategist, B.L. Ochman said, “with e-mail, Instant Messages, Websites, newsletters, forums and all the traditional media we already need to read just to keep up, people ask: how can we possibly read blogs too? Well guess what folks, it’s either adapt or die.”

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Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies Need to Blog for New Business

April 21, 2008

Your blog can be one of the most important agency new business tools you will find. It is becoming the gateway portal for an ad agency’s prospective clients. Your website is becoming more like an agency brochure or portfolio and there is nothing wrong with that.

I’ve stated repeatedly that the key to effective new business tactics is consistency. For an agency to maintain their new business efforts when they are busy, is a chore. New business activities are usually the first things that are put on the back burner. But from my own experience, when you are busy is often the best time to step up your new business efforts.

Everyone has the same problem. Most agencies are busy. When I mention blogging to my clients, their first reaction is, ” They don’t have time.” But when they see the value of having a blog, how inexpensive it is and how the content created for the blog can be repurposed for so many other channels and its longevity, they are converted.

Below are just a few examples of how to reuse your blog content for greater exposure for your agency at minimal cost and effort:

E-newsletters
Yes, you can have an agency newsletter that goes out on time, every month, and with very little effort. Develop a simple email template and just reuse your blog content for your agency’s Enewsletter. Your E-newsletter can literally be created and sent in a manner of minutes.

The service I use is VerticalResponse. It is very easy to use and inexpensive. You can also use the service to build an opt-in subscription for use on your blog and website.

EzineArticles
This is an article marketing, publicity generating, traffic building, and article exposure service.
Previously they were a fee-based service but now are free service supported by ad content. You simply copy and paste your blog article into a template and submit. Once approved by Ezine’s staff and distributed, it will generate traffic back to your blog and added exposure for your agency. Again, this takes only minutes to set up and send out content that you’ve already written.

FeedBlitz
FeedBlitz converts your blog updates into email digests. Take a few minutes to subscribe and set up, then the delivery of your blog content to your subscribers inboxes will be totally automated. You can’t make it easier than this.

For the latest agency new business updates subscribe to Fueling Ad Agency New Business by Email


 

4 Comments | New Business Tactics, New Business Tools, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

She-conomy: Why Your Advertising May be Missing the Mark

April 21, 2008

Stephanie Holland PhotoToday’s post is guest post written by Stephanie Holland. Stephanie  one of only 3% of female creative directors in the country. That minority status is becoming a strong point of differentiation for her agency, Holland + Holland, located in Birmingham, Alabama. Especially since 85% of all brands purchases are made by women. It gives her a unique selling proposition and strength as her agency competes with the “big boys.”

Check out Stephanie’s new blog: she-conomy.com. Even though she’s speaking about marketing to women, she isn’t losing sight that her target audience is primarily men, who should be marketing to women. She has discovered that her blog allows her more flexibility to explore this positioning as her agency’s brand evolves.

GUEST BLOG: Is Your Advertising Missing the Mark?

A quick Google search will flood your screen with seminars, new business models, web sites, articles and blogs dedicated to the recently discovered art of marketing to women. The foundation being that 85% of all brand purchases (that’s about $7 trillion annually-more that half of the GNP) are made by women. And yet more and more conclusive research is revealing women are not swayed or influenced by the traditional branding messages. In fact, more often than not, women are turned-off by the very brands seeking to target them. The modern woman has become numb and indifferent to ads that speak to her husband, or even worse, her great aunt.

“Only 3% of advertising creative directors are women”

This is not at all surprising considering a measly 3% of advertising creative directors-the people in charge of communicating to purchasers-are women. Even the advertising industry award shows can’t argue the point. Less than 15% of the top honors are awarded to ads targeting women. It’s like some very valuable logic was lost somewhere in the last 50 years.

Change is on the Horizon
It’s been a very slow realization, but it’s finally happening. Established traditional agencies are seeking out the female creatives, new female-focused agencies are cropping up all over the U.S. and Europe, and even the huge, super-star ad agencies are adding entire departments dedicated to tapping into this gold mine of a market.

“71% of women feel that brands only consider them for beauty products and cleaning products”

More Stats Making the News
Research tells us that 71% of women feel that brands only consider them for beauty products and cleaning products. Which is astounding considering the additional statistics state the following:

  • 94% the wealth acquired in the next four years, will be acquired by women
  • 69% of household health decisions are made by women
  • 74% of all NBA & NFL apparel is purchased by women
  • 91% of new home decisions are made by women 81% of grocery decisions are made by women
  • 60% of the online population are women
  • 62% of all workers are women

Does this Mean Excluding Men? Absolutely not.
Improving your marketing doesn’t mean making it “for her eyes only.” That would be short-sighted to say the least. In fact, making your product more desirable to women will more than likely make it more appealing to everyone. Quite simply, if you connect with the intelligence and sensibilities of a woman, chances are good your message is effective across the sexes.

Business owners, both male and female, should consider the fact that this information is immensely valuable to every person wanting to thrive or, and in some cases, survive in today’s tenuous market place. Particularly in a fragile economy, advertisers should focus on trying to understand how women think and feel in order to expand their audience.

In other words, if you want your company to shoot for the stars, you may want to aim more in the direction of Venus.

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Posted by Michael Gass

Top 5 Benefits for Having an Ad Agency Blog

April 19, 2008

“As important as it was for your ad agency to have a website, it is now as important to have an agency blog.”

Your ad agency’s blog is one of the most important new business tools in your arsenal. It can quickly become the “gateway” to your agency. The ad agency website is becoming more like the agency brochure or portfolio. This isn’t a bad thing. Below I have listed my Top 5 Benefits to Having an Ad Agency Blog:

Benefit 1: Fresh Content

From my experience working with agencies, anything you try to do for your agency tends to be a very slow process. Typically, because of overcreating, agency politics, agency turf wars, too busy doing clients work, it takes agencies a great amount of time and effort to update their website. Even more painful and slow is an agency website redesign.  Most agencies website designs are not condusive to easy content management and difficult to update. Agencies also also tend to be too self critical of their own work. It is always harder for them to do work for themselves than it is for their clients.

Blogs on the other hand are much easier to keep updated with fresh content, highlighting work and are designed for repeat traffic.

Benefit 2: Generate More Traffic

Your blog has the potential to create more web traffic than your agency’s website is ever could. Your blog can attract a high volume of quality traffic from the pool of prospective clients you are trying to reach.

Blogs develop more visitors through:

  • Search visibility – blogs are organized to be search engine friendly. Plus the more content you have (well-linked) the more chances there are of attracting search traffic.
  • Click-through traffic - through posting interesting articles a blog gives a reason for other people to link to you.
  • Repeat traffic – regularly updated content and comments bring visitors back … and back … and back. Most agency websites are not condusive to repeat traffic, particularly if your website hasn’t been updated in 5 years.
  • Personality - create a blog around your agency’s culture and let your personality shine through. People will be attracted to you. People like to associate with people they like. It’s hard to make friends with a business but easy to warm to an individual with a welcoming personality.
  • Viral effects – you create something cool and visitors tell their friends, who tell their friends … and so on.
  • Authority/credibility – blogging allows you to become an expert in the minds of your prospective clients.

Benefit 3: Easy to Use

Setting up a blog isn’t like setting up a Web site. A blog is simple to set up even for the technologically challenged. No HTML coding experience is necessary.

If you are new to blogging, you will find there are a number of free blogging services that can easily get you started. You can literally be up and running in a few minutes. Blogger, is a great place to start. It is very simple to use. However, you’ll probably want to transition to WordPress eventually. Be sure to secure your own domain for your blog so that changing services wont be an issue for you down the road.

Benefit 4: Inexpensive

The only word more popular than “easy” to ad agency CEOs is “inexpensive.” There is virtually no hard cost is involved. Only your time. You will greatly return you cost on investment of time by reusing your blog content in ezine articles, emails, enewsletters, white papers and in traditional publications.

Benefit 5: A Great New Business Tool

In a recent survey of business technology marketing executives by the research firm MarketingSherpa, blogs were voted the No. 4 tool for generating sales leads. Ultimately, a blog can be highly effective and the most powerful and low-cost new business marketing tool your agency will ever use. Provided you know your target audience, have the right positioning, messaging and rich content that is of benefit to those you are trying to reach.

Blogging will take time and effort but the reward will be great. Just remember, be consistent. Provide a blog post at least several times a week and don’t sell. Instead use your blog to establish and build relationships. This new business tool is superior to any other tool that I’ve used in building relationships for new business. People enjoy working with those they know, trust and like.

Agencies have difficulty articulating who they are, why they are different, what they offer and how they do what they do. As you research and write your blog posts, an added benefit will be clarity. The old adage is true, “you don’t know what you know, until you write it down.”

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Posted by Michael Gass

7 Tips for Using Direct Mail for Ad Agency New Business

April 11, 2008

Direct mail isn’t dead as a tactic for ad agency new business.

Raise awareness for your agency and keep top of mind with prospective clients by using direct mail. Most agencies fail at their own direct mail efforts because they give up after only a couple of mailings when they have little or no results. Direct mail isn’t dead. But its not very effective unless it is used consistently.

To be consistent, here are 7 tips:

  1. Keep it simple, a single concept that fits with your overall new business plan and additional campaign pieces. For simplicity I would suggest using an oversize postcard, 6 to 12 designs for monthly or bi-monthly mailings.
  2. Treat it like it’s a project for your agency’s most important client, because it is! Open a job, develop a creative brief, identify your target audience, have a start date and hard deadline for delivery.
  3. Develop a full years campaign at one time. Have it on the shelf ready for mailing.
  4. Outsource with a direct mail service. Let them print, pre-sort and stamp for efficiency. I’ve learned that the more things you can outsource the more consistent your efforts will be. Some can even pay for themselves in cost savings. An agency client of mine outsourced their direct mail for the first time, more than doubled their mailing at a savings of $72 not to mention the staff’s time that was saved.
  5. Purchase a mailing list. Most agencies don’t have the time and resources to develop and maintain their own data base. Executive positions change often. supplement your data with a targeted list of companies. Purchase a list for 1 to 2 years and multi-use. Names, titles and addresses plus phone numbers that you can use for your “warm call” program.
  6. Have a strong call to action. I would suggest driving traffic first to your agency’s blog site. The blog site is becoming the gateway to ad agencies and websites are more like an agency brochure or portfolio. Your agency’s blog can become a major lead generator.
  7. Don’t “over-create” your own direct mail piece. Agency’s tend to be too “self-critical” for their own promotional materials. Keep in mind that your target audience isn’t other ad agencies. So don’t be concerned about their opinion or whether or not your self promotional piece will win an Addy award. The best designed self promotional piece wont be successful if can’t get it out the door.

Your agency is probably like most. When you get busy doing clients work your own work is put on the back burner. So remember to keep your process simple so that you can be consistent. Consistency is the key to success.

 

2 Comments | New Business Tools, Promotion | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Basecamp: A Great Ad Agency New Business Tool

April 5, 2008

Bar none, Basecamp is the single most useful Web application that I have ever used to assist in developing and maintaining a consistent ad agency new business program. Even though it wasn’t specifically designed for new business, it has quickly become the best new business program management system that I have ever used.

Basecamp takes a fresh, novel approach to project collaboration by providing tools tailored to improve the communication between people working together on new business. It’s addictively easy to use. Everything about it makes sense.

When you sign up with Basecamp you get a full month to try it. You can use the free service or pay a nominal monthly fee for expanded features.

Basecamp can become your communication’s hub for your entire new business team:

  • Make to-do lists
  • Keep track of what needs to get done and who’s responsible.
  • Share files
  • Share files internally, with team members.
  • Schedule milestones
  • Track when things are due and who’s responsible.

Keep all your new business initiatives moving and on track.

Basecamp project management and collaboration

 

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8 Comments | New Business Tools | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies Need to Discover The Power of Social Networks

April 2, 2008

Ad agencies are behind the trend toward social media. When they should be leading, it’s actually their clients who are pushing, prodding and poking them into this arena.

Here’s an example of power of social networkworks is the Stuff White People Like blog created by 29 year old aspiring comedy writer, Christian Lander. The website has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, and on NPR, and it is, by its own description, “devoted to stuff white people like,” presented as numbered, encyclopedia-style entries, e.g. #1 Coffee; #5 Farmer’s Markets; #69 Mos Def; or #79 Modern Furniture.

When Christian started his blog, he never expected more than a couple of hundred people, but in its’ brief three month existence, over 16 million people have been drawn to his website. He recently signed a six figure book deal with Random House, according to ABC News.

Most ad agencies are starting to get it but are struggling, still playing catchup to this swift evolving marketing tool when they should be leading the way.

 

1 Comment | New Business Tools, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass