FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

12 advantages when you focus your agency’s new business efforts on your “sweet spot.”

The sweet spot is that part of the club, bat, tennis racket, etc. that wastes the least amount of energy when it collides with the ball.

New business targeting is about finding an agency’s sweet spot. Deciding on the most fruitful audience that match your agency’s core competencies and wastes the least amount of your agency’s energy and resources to win.

Too many agencies fall into the trap of wanting to go after any prospective client that has a budget, even if its not a good fit. Maybe that is part of the reason why 53% of advertisers are dissatisfied with their agencies and the average agency-client relationship is now two years.

53% of advertisers are dissatisfied with their agencies and the average agency-client relationship is now two years.

If your agency will go after anything and everything you are playing a numbers game. You might get lucky and win a few but you wont be building your brand and when it’s not a good match, you and your staff are going to be miserable.

Think about the advantages when you focus new business efforts on your sweet spot prospective clients, you can expect to:

1. Properly brand/position your agency for success with surprisingly little effort
2. Go beyond thinking about category experience to defining what audiences you know best — one of the most interesting ways to define your brand
3. Clearly articulate how your agency is distinguished
4. More easily build awareness among the best prospects for your agency
5. Become an expert and leader in your field
6. Acquire new business with the least amount of wasted agency energy and resources
7. Develop a well-defined set of criteria for identifying the clients who want your agency for what it does best
8. A stronger win ratio in new business, because the agency is playing to its strengths
9. A broader — not narrower — geographical market area
10. Fewer competitors, because there will be fewer agencies who do what you do
11. Better margins, because specialists command premium pricing
12. A business model that increases the agency’s value and relevance to clients

It’s possible to stop chasing business and have business start chasing your agency.

When advertisers know who your agency is and what it stands for, they’ll seek you out. Instead of being being mildly appealing to a broad group of prospects, you are intensely appealing to your sweet spot group of prospects — prospects who want your agency for what it does best.