There are many naysayers for a company to have a blog, much less an ad agency blog. And then to state that an agency blog can be used for lead generation then I must certainly be out of my mind.
Blogs are actually well suited to generate new business leads.
Your agency’s blog can provide the platform for a series of small action agreements.
Chris Garrett, created a blog post Sales Leads – The Art of Selling With Your Blog. Chris uses the A.I.D.A. Formula to demonstrate how blogs can be used to generate sales leads. What he shares is also true for generating agency new business leads from your agency’s blog.
The A.I.D.A. Formula which has been around for over 100 years. This formula has been used in sales letter writing and is still being used because it works.
AIDA = Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
- You must first get the prospects’ attention, before you can sell to them.
- You can begin to build interest if you first have someone’s attention. Interest is developed by giving a prospect multiple benefits of what you have to offer that helps solve a problem for them or some other way positively impacts their life.
- You build desire by having the kind of positioning that makes your services greatly appealing to your best target audience.
- Then, you have to call people to action! When you ask people to act, make it easy for them to do so.
Chris encourages those in sales to run the AIDA Formula against the company’s blog you will see that with the right content, blogs can easily be used to generate attention, interest, desire and yes, even action. This is particularly true of your agency’s blog.
So how do you create Attention, Interest and Desire with a blog?
Blogs are ideal for generating attraction, even more than an agency’s website. I’ve already addressed the benefits of an agency blog in creating attention.
It was once said that every agency needed a Website. Today, it’s every agency needs a blog.
Blogs can easily gather a targeted audience. To have a successful blog it must speak only to your audience’s benefit. Most agency websites are all about the agency’s credentials, capabilities and work. An agency blog must be for the benefit of your audience and not YOUR AGENCY. The minute you start “selling” on your blog you will lose your audience.
Chris asks the question, “Think about it, how do you like to be “sold?” Would you rather have a pressure sales presentation, or would you like to take information in on your own schedule and terms?”
With your agency’s blog, you sell with information. Your audience warms to your ideas, opinions, thoughts and philosophy as you build a relationship with them. If done correctly, an agency blog can easily create attention, interest and desire.
The tricker part is to get action.
Chris states that, “Nothing happens until your prospect takes action. It’s no good having lots of great persuasive content without giving the prospect a way to buy in. You must have action links and buttons. Help them do what you want them to do.
Chris gets them ready then offers them the opportunity to take action through what he states is small action agreements.
Your agency’s blog can provide the platform for a series of small action agreements such as:
- Click through to your agency’s blog
- Read content
- Subscribe to blog
- Sign up for an email newsletter
- Join a Webinar
- Participate in a survey/poll
- Download a podcast
- Forward to friends
- Print a whitepaper
- Provide comments
Show you are trustworthy. Convince your audience to believe what you say and each step will reinforce your relationship and builds desire.
You must be genuine, caring, passionate and transparent. With regards to social media, motive matters.
Chris reminds his readers, “Give without expectation of reward. People will want to return the favor.”
I’ve modified Chris’s list a bit, but here are five things that you need to incorporate into your blog to have success:
- A genuine passion for the topic
- Expertise, credibility, authority
- Honest recommendations that really work
- Welcoming, helpful, rewarding information, given freely
- Demonstrate value
These are the things we should incorporate into any agency new business program. A blog is a great tool that almost forces you to do these things.
A blog is a new tool for agency new business. It is possible to stop chasing business and have business chasing you.
Additional reading: Top Ten Reasons Your Agency Should Have a Blog
Posted by Michael Gass 
