If you agency has a blog but very little traffic and no new business leads, here’s some help.
A blog should be central to your agency’s social media strategy for new business. What fuels the engine to this strategy is good content.
You must consistently feed your inbound marketing machine with rich content or you will see a slow-down in traffic, search engine results and prospective client leads.
Here’s my 6 tips to be more effective with your blogging:
To be successful you need to write a lot. The more posts you add to your blog, the more traffic you’ll get. The more content can also fuel repurposing content through other social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. No content = no fuel =no traffic=no new business leads.
Be consistent. To keep writing I visualize someone walking to the end of their driveway to pick up the morning paper, only to discover there’s nothing there. That helps me to stay motivated to write 4 to 5 posts per week. My readers know what to expect. I want to give them a reason to consistently come back.
Write concisely. People are busy. They need your content to be easy to digest. Provide them with the readers digest version. Make your content easy to scan, provide bullet points and numbered lists. People will be much more interested in what you have to say if you don’t try and fluff it up.
Use your analytics. Know what your readers care about and what they respond to. It will help you to connect with you audience. They’re the judge and jury of whether your content is relevant or not. I know daily where my readers are coming from, what post titles and content generates the most traffic, what search terms they are using,
Use your writing to learn. When I first started blogging I was reminded of the old saying, “you don’t know what you know until you write it down.” It’s true. Writing strategizes and invigorates my learning. It can get me ahead of the learning curve and provide me with a system to stay there.
Keep focused. If your blog is broad you will not generate any significant traffic. Narrow your focus. Think narrow and deep rather than wide and shallow. Know who you are writing to, what you are writing about, know the categories you will be writing to, the key words that you want to dominate for search.
Here is a collection of agency blogging resources:
Infographics: A great way to connect with prospective clients for new business.
Infographics (information graphics) are visual representations of information, data, or knowledge. They are mostly image-based with little text. Infographics is a good way to illustrate social media to clients as author Erik Qualman did with Social Media ROI: Socialnomics.
Jesse Thomas continues to do a masterful job in social media data visualization. He is the CEO and Founder of JESS3, a young creative interactive agency. Jess creative this infographic video that positions him as a “thought leader” to prospective clients, “The State of the Internet.”
The Manhattan based agency, Big Fuel, has pulled together a very helpful collection of 85 social media infographics that should be a great resource and spark some fresh ideas to illustrate social media for our clients.
Big Fuel also provides some great examples of infographic videos that they have created for new business:
The Agency Report 2010, provides an annual industry overview. This years report ranks 883 U.S. advertising, marketing services, media and public relations agencies. Ad Age’s Bradley Johnson provides his analysis of this years report: Agency Report: Revenue Slumps 7.5%, Jobs at 16-Year Low
Some Report highlights:
U.S. advertising/marketing-services firms in 2009 slashed 58,400 jobs, or 7.9% of positions, according to Ad Age Data Center’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Since the recession began in December 2007, these firms have cut 107,700 positions — one in seven jobs.
Economists believe the recession ended late last summer. But it’s been a jobless recovery for agencies. U.S. ad agency employment in January 2010 slumped to its lowest level since 1994.
The Big Four agency companies in 2009 collectively cut 23,229 jobs worldwide, or 8.6% of staff.
Agency tumult in 2009 is immediately apparent in one score: jobs.
2009 revenue fall, worst drop on record for Agency Report. The sharpest revenue decline in the 66 years Ad Age has produced the Agency Report.
The Agency Report 2010 wasn’t all doom-and-gloom, Richmond, VA based, The Martin Agency last year came out on top in 14 new business reviews and this year has added Morgan Stanley, Tylenol and Motrin as new clients. The agency is currently looking to fill 100 open positions.
A reminder: The definition of insanity is, “repeating the same behavior expecting different results.”
Small-to-midsize ad agencies generate new business differently from the larger agencies. Those that will weather this economic storm will be the ones that:
Differentiate themselves from their competition
Have narrowed their focus by either their target audience, category or discipline
Have realized they will not appeal to everyone, but within their target group they will have strong appeal
Clearly articulate who they are and how they benefit their target audience
Are digitally ready and comfortable with new media
Have a blog, and understand how to use social media for themselves
Have a large online footprint positioning their agency where it can be easily found online by their best target audience
Have a consistent new business program that fully utilizes new media for new business leads
Robert’s first interview is with David Kirkpatrick is very enlightening and I wanted to share it with the readers of Fuel Lines. David is one of the foremost authorities of Facebook. He just finished a book, The Facebook Effect, about Facebook. David says, “This is not just another company, it is a transformational phenomenon, it is really great, but it is really scary in some ways too.”
Facebook announces new ways subscribers will be able to personalize their online presence and share what is important to them:
The Open Graph: A social platform that Facebook is intending to turn into a more intelligent way of searching the internet, offering an individually relevant set of search results based on the user doing the looking. The Open Graph could offer the first serious challenge to Google.
Social Plug-ins: Facebook is offering a lot of new social plug-ins as a way for other websites to embed widgets on their own pages with direct and often live access to what’s going on in Facebook in relation to the site that you happen to be looking at. Facebook will try and get us to use Facebook Connect, which means all of these other websites will have access to our Facebook profiles and data
Docs.com: From within Facebook, users will be able to create documents, share them with friends and edit them together as well.
Graph API: Facebook API which will allow developers to create better applications and more easily as well. Anything you share or Like around the web is going to turn up on your profile and be obvious to all your friends as well as appear in widgets on external sites as well, an extension of the Public portion of your profile.
This flow of social information has profound benefits—from driving better decisions to keeping in touch more easily—and we’re really proud that Facebook is part of the shift toward more social and personalized experiences everywhere online.
This next version of Facebook Platform puts people at the center of the web. It lets you shape your experiences online and make them more social. For example, if you like a band on Pandora, that information can become part of the graph so that later if you visit a concert site, the site can tell you when the band you like is coming to your area. The power of the open graph is that it helps to create a smarter, personalized web that gets better with every action taken. From Mark Zuckerberg’s (CEO of Facebook) Blog Post
The Bottom Line: All of this is geared towards Facebook being able to make money by advertising with more relevance to its users
Social media benefits the bottom line for small to mid-size ad agencies - new business.
Almost my entire advertising career has been in new business. When I waded into social media, it was from a new business perspective. How best to use to social media to generate new business.
I am a believer, an unapologetic social media enthusiast. Not only is social media having a tremendous impact upon the advertising industry, it greatly impacts ad agency new business. I view it as a positive impact. Almost a new business person’s dream.
To help spread my enthusiasm and enlist principals and those charged with their agency’s new business, I’ve found it necessary to share the “multiplicity” of benefits social media can provide to convince them to make the time to participate.
Below are my top 10 benefits of social media for ad agency new business:
From an agency new business perspective, social media “teaches” ad agencies to do new business the way they should have been doing all along. To be successful with social media you are compelled to lead prospective client engagement with benefits and value rather than agency capabilities and credentials.
Social media is the best branding tool I’ve ever used for agencies. To be able to build awareness, create appeal, generate traffic, you must be able to identify your agency’s target audience more narrowly than ever before. You can’t just be a brand agency, you must take it a step further such as Locomotion Creative has done through Blue Collar Branding.
The personal and professional enrichment provided through social media is worth it all. Social media can provide you with and help you maintain FOCUS. Through that focus you can maintain a ritual to stay up on the latest trends, keep ahead of your clients and provide them with genuine leadership.
Social media greatly improves your communication skills. “You don’t know what you know till you write it down.” My blog has helped me be a better communicator, even Twitter helps me to be more concise, exercise my vocabulary and improve my editing skills to write a message with 140 characters or less.
Social media is not a fad, it is my prediction that it will be the central hub for all of our advertising and marketing. The rich feedback from audiences is incredible, timely and affordable. The engagement with your prospective client audience will help you to hone your agency’s appeal and create the messaging the best resonates with them.
People want to work with people that they know, like and trust and social media provides the opportunity to build relationships in the most efficient way possible. The ROI from your “time investment” is rich. Posts that I have written 3 years ago still produce traffic and engagement from prospects.
Combining social with your agency’s niche, your agency’s point of differentiation, can become an appealing and powerful positioning. Holland + Holland advertising, through their blog She-conomy, has been invited to two national pitches in the past year as a result of their differentiating positioning. That had not happened before in their 25 year history.
Social media levels the playing field. Small to mid-size agencies can afford tighten up their positioning, hone their appeal and affordably compete for accounts that were once reserved for only the larger agencies. Social plus your niche can propel your agency to the head of the pack.
Your agency’s market can greatly increase through social media. Prior to using social media for new business, The Russo Group, Lafayette, LA, 94% of their new business came from within their market. Since implementing social media, 94% of their new business has been generated outside their market and extended new business opportunities from coast to coast.
Social media provides small to mid-size agencies their opportunity of a lifetime. There are no experts in social. Many agencies are trying to figure out how to monetize it. Don’t understand it yet. Aren’t using it for themselves. This is an opportunity for your agency to get ahead of the pack. Your niche plus social can take you to the head of the line.
Lead generation techniques that include direct mail and cold calls are becoming less effective as new communication channels and technology have greatly altered prospective client behavior.
Prospects are using the Internet and related media to learn about agencies that best meet their needs. Your primary focus now should be on pulling them, through relevant, resourceful content, toward your agency’s services. Why?
Prospective Clients Control Engagement
80 to 90% of business transactions now begin from online search.
A recent CMO Council survey revealed that 80% of those surveyed said that they found their vendors, not the other way around.
Less than 10% of recent buyers were contacted cold by the solution provider.
59% engaged with peers who addressed the challenge
48% followed industry conversations on topic
44% conducted anonymous research of a select group of vendors
41% followed discussions to learn more about topic
37% posted questions on social networking sites looking for suggestions/feedback
More than 20% connected directly with potential solution providers via social networking channels
The Need to Connect Through Content
Almost 95% of recent purchasers said the solution provider they chose “provided them with ample content to help navigate through each stage of the buying process.” Publishing the right content and making sure it gets found in the right places is a vital component for your new business strategy.
Agencies should use inbound marketing tools such as:
Agency blogs
Search engine opitmization
Social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
Social bookmarking sites
Your agency’s website (online brochure)
Forums and peer groups
Comments on other blogs and online articles
eNewsletters
Article marketing
Surveys
White papers
Slideshare: uploaded PowerPoint and Keynote presentations
Podcasts and Webinars
Videos
Analytics
Engagement is Expected
93% of the Internet users active in social media say they expect a company to have a social media presence and to be able to actively engage with that company.
The Forrester Research report Social Media Playtime is Over clearly shows that dabbling or experimenting is not enough. You have to deliver genuinely interesting and valuable content that meets the needs of your audience and actively engages them.
Our recent study of the top 100 companies in the small, medium and large categories revealed that only a very small percentage are actively engaging their audience. The playing field is wide open and this is a strategy that can reap big rewards. Social Media Strategy, Expansion Internet Marketing + PR
A Window of Opportunity
Prospective clients are actively using social media in the agency selection process. Agencies need to implement a social media strategy along with their other new business tactics. Time is of the essence. Because of the fact that few agencies understand this, even less are doing it. Small to midsize agencies in particular, have a window of opportunity to gain market share.
Your niche + social can put your agency at the head of the line for new business.
If want to know what irks CMOs the most about ad agencies the recently released Gerson Lehrman Group, GLG Councils Report —“Closing the CMO / Agency Gap: How Agencies Can Win Business and Build Stronger Client Relationships,” provides some excellent insight.
This report is based on a survey of more than 80 senior marketing executives. It analyzes the disconnect between client expectations and the performance of marketing services agencies.
This study was designed to help agencies better understand how marketing executives view their agency relationships and how they make decisions on engaging an agency.
The relationship between agencies and their corporate clients is more important now than ever before and needs fixing. As Founder of The CMO Club, I constantly hear from CMOs in the club about their challenges and concerns, particularly regarding the gaps in their agency relationships.
Right now, there is a considerable gap between the service CMOs receive from marketing services agencies, and the service they expect and need from them.
Pete Krainik, Founder of The CMO Club and Member of the GLG Councils
Insight: What about their current ad agency irks CMOs the most?
More than half (51%) of the respondents reported that agencies did not have sufficient industry knowledge and clients felt their agencies had not conducted sufficient research.
Insight: Research on a prospective client’s market AND business strategy is critical.
79% of respondents said they decided against hiring an agency because of issues related to the agency’s understanding of their business, market, or how they could add value to that business.
91% of respondents listed the above three factors as the most important components for making a decision about engaging a particular agency.
Insight: CMOs want agencies that do their homework, even once business is won.
49% of respondents expected a marketing agency to invest at least 20 hours of research into their industry, business strategy, and product prior to a pitch.
88% of respondents stated that agency understanding of their industries and business was either “critically important” or “very important.”
52% of respondents reported the most frustrating aspect of their agency relationships was a “lack of industry or street knowledge” or “not sufficient diligence in campaign” development. When asked what frustrated them most about their experiences with agencies, they report, “agencies not willing to do their homework – proposing cookie-cutter solutions,” and that agencies need to have a “[g]ood understanding of the technology and positioning.”
Insight: Agencies get passed over by marketing executives for three primary reasons:
Marketing executives strongly indicated they were either not convinced of the value of what the agencies were offering (34%)
They were concerned the vendors did not have sufficient market insight (26%).
The third ranked reason agencies were not chosen, “not understanding needs” (19%).
Insight: Gap between client expectations and agency services
Clients are dissatisfied with the level of business and market knowledge that agencies possess, both during the pitch process and throughout the relationship. A significant gap exists between what marketing executives expect and what agencies offer. The gap is caused primarily by inadequate research on client strategy and market.
Developing and demonstrating this knowledge is key for agencies that want to secure new business and maintain a strong existing relationship with their clients. Social media provides a great opportunity to both develop and demonstrate your agency’s knowledge to targeted prospective clients.
The Big Fuel agency is fueling new business opportunities through social media.
A new 50 page report “Mom-entum”,by social media and branded content agency Big Fuel, is generating a lot of “momentum” and new business for this Manhattan based agency. This research positions this agency’s principals as being “thought leaders” to prospective client companies who should be marketing to moms.
“Mom-entum”, clarifies the new ground rules that advertisers must live by to establish brand relationships with America’s 82 million moms. As a group, this immense and potent demographic is redefining marketing in the 21st century. To impact this new generation of moms, companies must understand how to use social media effectively.
Mom: She spends two hours a day connecting with friends, family and acquaintances online. She’s almost never caught outside the house without her cell phone. She watches over 90 minutes of YouTube videos every month. And she never, ever wants to be preached to by advertisers.
Consider these facts about The Connected Mom from the “Mom-entum” report:
35 million U.S. moms are actively engaged online;
86% of all U.S. women have a social media profile;
52% of moms read blogs regularly—and 15% own and maintain their own blog;
75% go online to research products and services before purchasing;
The top three sources moms use for product research and purchase advice are mom-focused websites, user reviews on shopping websites, and magazine articles;
Over 80% of moms look to online videos to see a product in action;
85% of moms enjoy casual online games and/or applications regularly.
“The Connected Mom is a force no one in American commerce has experienced before,” said Avi Savar, CEO of Big Fuel Communications. “The established rules of engagement no longer apply. As we state in ‘Mom-entum’, the hard part is balancing content with brand messaging and finding the right tone and authenticity. Make no mistake about it—the old model of ‘push marketing’ is over forever. Brands must engage moms through honest, respectful conversation.”
Avi Savar, will also cover the topic of “Mom-entum” at AdTech San Francisco in April. His talk, “Digital Demographics: Digital Marketing to Moms,” reveals how moms are using social media in all its forms to shape their own purchasing decisions and those of others.
“Mom-entum” is available as a free download at www.HaveMomentum.com, Big Fuel’s microsite about social media and The Connected. Mom.
Big Fuel provides a good example for how to use social media for agency new business. Allow their example to germinate some fresh ideas for generating leads through social media.
Additional articles regarding ad agency promotion:
Having the opportunity to speak in front of a highly targeted, interested group of prospects is a very effective form of lead generation. Here are some tips to help you better prepare …
“Be honest, be authentic, and speak from your passion … that’s the advice from Mark Hurst, entrepreneur and writer. He says, “People at events are hungry for authenticity.”
Mark provides the following exercise for anyone who wants to genuinely connect with their audience:
A few weeks out, write out everything you spend your time doing – professional work, side projects at home, everything.
Now pick the one thing you’re most excited about.
Now consider: why is that so important to you?
Design your talk from that point, as if you started by saying, “My name is X, and I’m passionate about XYZ because…Build the talk around your passion.” The rest of your talk should fall into place easily enough.
The final measure of your success as a speaker:
Did you change something?
Are attendees leaving with a new idea?
Did you provide them with some new inspiration?
Did you give them a renewed commitment to their work or to the world?
The above was taken from Mark’s contribution to Seth Godin’s ebook What Matters Now (PDF download) – it appears on page 18 – one of 75 contributions.
The great motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, often says, “You can have everything you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” Give your audience what they want … authenticity for ad agency new business.
I’m attending and speaking at The Mirren New Business Conference in New York City today. It is considered to be the premier new business conference for advertising agencies, marketing, public relations and digital agencies. Over 400 agencies, from across the country, are represented by those charged with new business development.
If you would like updates and insights from those in attendance follow on Twitter, @mirrenBizDev, Brent Hodgins, Partner | Director of Client Services for Mirren. Attendees will be using the official hashtag for the conference #mirren.
Just some of the rich nuggets of info gleaned and shared so far from attendees who are using the #mirren hashtag:
Theme at#mirren: don’t do spec creative! Undermines value of work from Day 1.
In my session today, I plan on sharing my Formula for Fueling Agency New Business through Social Media. A step-by-step overview and guide for creating a social media strategy to build credibility quickly and to generate inbound new business leads for your agency:
Major Shift in Advertising Means a Shift for Agency New Business Practices
The 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Ad Agency New Business
The Benefits of Social Media for Ad Agency New Business
The Best First Steps Into Social Media
A 4 Step Approach to a Social Media Plan
Social Media Best Practices: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogging
Time Management: How Do I Keep Up with Social Media?
According to Jupiter Research: companies that run contests or sweepstakes have twice as many fans on their sponsored social network pages as those who don’t.
Social media provides agencies with many avenues for new business lead generation. One particular strategy, creating contests to engage an audience, quickly build online traffic and generate leads, is now even more feasible for agencies thanks to easy-to-use platforms that have recently emerged.
These new platforms allow you to simply create, automate, and execute powerful online contests at little-to-no cost. Here are a few online contest platforms that you may want to explore:
ContestMachine: Promotions Made Easy
ContestMachine is an inexpensive solution for contest campaigns for small to midsize ad agencies. They offer a packages that range from free to $99 per month with no long term contracts. ContestMachine takes care of the details, from collecting entries to notifying winners.
Strutta – The Contest Platform
Strutta it easy for publishers, marketers and agencies to create online contests and promotions at a fraction of the cost of custom development. The make it easy for users to engage with your promotion and share via popular social media and communications tools (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
They offer a Trial (Free), Basic ($499) and Pro version ($2499), and to create custom contest campaigns in minutes. The Strutta platform enables a wide range of promotional activities, including online contests, product testing, awards programs, and more.
Wildfire
Wildfire, another contest tool that can easily build & launch social media marketing campaigns within minutes. You can easily integrate branded interactive campaigns like sweepstakes, contests and give-aways with the viral features of the social web to create engaging campaigns that spread like virally, thus the name Wildfire.
Every campaign you build & launch on our platform offers a lead generation component or can be linked to one through another format.
They have the Basic package $5 per campaign, their Standard package, $25 per campaign and their Premium package, $250 per campaign. The also offer subscription plans as well. I liked that they have no contracts, no on-going fees and no credit card is needed for sign up.
Some additional contest ideas and tips:
You can promote your contest to hundreds of Web sites that list free contests
Send out a press releases about your contest
Ask for as much information as you can from contest subscribers. It would be important to get their social media information as well (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc)
Ask participants to your contest if they would opt-in to receive your agency’s eNewsletter
Use your agency’s services as the give away as prizes
Offer prizes that are relevant to your target audience
You may want to offer more than one prize and include some runner-up prizes
Provide enough information about the prizes, to generate interest and participation
Keep your contest simple and make it easy for people to participate
Be sure and include a specific time period for the length of the contest
Tell visitors how winners will be determined
Search online for other contests to get more ideas
Get your clients and prospective clients onboard by creating a contest for your agency that you can demonstrate success and that your agency uses the tools it recommends its clients use
Additional articles regarding ad agency promotion:
Out of a a group of 18 ad agencies blogs, CS2 Livewas selected as Fuel Lines’s Blog of the Month for March capturing 42% of the votes casts. Engaging Trends, Pixel Farm Interactive, Minneapolis, MN came in second with 30% of the votes.
CS2 Live is the blog of CS2 Advertising, a full service ad agency located in Memphis, TN.
The CS2Live blog will be included for Fuel Lines’s Blog of the Year.
Submit an agency blog for April’s blog of the month.
Ad agencies need an integrated social media strategy if they are ever going to see the payoff from their participation in social media. An agency blog should be the central component. The place you can drive targeted online traffic through SEO, Twitter, email newsletters, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The blog becomes the “gateway” to your agency and the“face” of your agency. As important as it was to have an agency website, it is now equally important to have an agency blog.
But … having a blog isn’t something you check off your list of social media “to do list.” Nor is it a place to lead with agency capabilities and credentials. It must be of benefit to your audience.
Here is a collection of agency blogging resources:
Your ad agency’s blog should be a central component to your social media strategy for new business. It is the site that you want to bring your prospective client audience to, the gateway and face of your agency.
“Build it and they will come,” is not the answer to generate traffic to your agency’s blog. You must employ proactive tactics to create awareness and interest among prospective clients. The more traffic that you can generate, from among your target audience, the more inbound new business leads that will follow.
Denise Wakeman, Online Marketing Advisor and Founder of The Blog Squad, has created an excellent list of tips to generate traffic to you blog. I would encourage you to create a list of “to dos” from her suggestions. For more details, be sure to check out her article,“19 Tips for Driving Traffic to Your Blog”
Here are the 19 tips:
Publish as frequently as possible
Pay attention to the headlines (blog post titles)
Send an email broadcast
Add a link in your email signature
Include multiple subscription options on your blog
Try article marketing
Comment on blogs in your industry
Do some guest posting
Conduct surveys and polls
Submit your blog to directories
Make a Google profile
Syndicate to Twitter
Syndicate Facebook
Syndicate to LinkedIn
Use Hootsuite
Distribute your video
Add the retweet button to your posts
Consider share buttons
Use social bookmarking
Denise’s list isn’t an exhaustive list of tactics but these are the core that you need for your own list. Just be sure that someone from your agency is charged with implementing it.
I would add at least six additional tips:
Make your target audience crystal clear. If you can’t clearly and narrowly define your audience you wont build significant traffic.
Optimize your posts content for search. Identify and dominate a few key words that your target audience will most likely use to find you. Use these words consistently in your posts titles and copy.
Knowledge is power. Get in the habit of checking your blogs analytics frequently. Keep it simple, but know at least daily the number of unique visitors, page views, top posts, how people got to your blog, search terms and incoming links.
Don’t be afraid to repurpose older blog content through multiple social media channels. Posts that I’ve written 3 years ago is still pertinent and continues to generate traffic to my blog.
One thing to not do that will impact traffic. Don’t sell! The moment you start to sell on your blog is when you will most likely LOSE your audience.
Identify who your audience is in your post titles. This is especially helpful when you repurpose your content on Twitter and an important part of SEO for your blog.
Here are some resources to help you further create an agency blog for new business:
With almost 500 post on this blog, I thought it would be good to publish this top 50 post list. I’ve assembled the “best of” FUEL LINES agency new business articles based upon analytics of site visitors and their comments.
A lot of people who led new business programs in the past don’t know how to do it now.
The job of ad agency new business directors is becoming very difficult and complex. A significant paradigm shift is taking place that impacts how ad agencies acquire new business and the knowledge and skills new business rainmakers need to make it happen:
According to a recent CMO survey, 80% of decision makers say they found the vendor, not the other way around.
Client reviews in recent years have generally become more complicated, given the expanding marketing needs of clients.
Agencies generally are having to reinvent themselves for the digital age and how they market that to prospective clients and consultants has changed.
A lot more of new business begins with the RFP-driven processes
The initial new business engagement is often with procurement executives
Ever changing targets and turnover. Over 50% of client relationships lasting less than two years and the average CMO tenure 27 months
SEO is now a critical part of new business strategy. According to Marketing Sherpa, 80-90% of business to business transactions begin with a search on the web.
Having a working knowledge of social media isn’t even an option any longer. Social media is now mainstream and greatly affects the way agencies promote themselves.
“It’s just such a hard position to fill,” said Michael Zuna, New York managing director at Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi, “The Mad Men-rainmaker days — that doesn’t happen anymore. It’s a tough job.”
According to a press release by Reardon Smith Whittaker (RSW), nearly 85% of agencies continue to hire new-business development personnel internally hoping that “this hire will be the right hire.” Yet the vast majority in that position are gone within 18 months.
Why is new business talent becoming harder to find?
Agency leaders say that the job has become difficult to cast and searches for new business talent is taking much longer.
There are fewer persons that aspire to the job. It is often considered to be a “cul-de-sac” agency position.
The turnover rate is very high.
Expectations for new business is often outlandish.
The current talent pool seems to be very shallow.
With all of the difficulties in finding new business talent, it is still an important position for agencies to fill and deserves priority attention.
Why is it critical for agencies to fill this position? Primarily because of their notorious inability to sell themselves. Agencies desperately need an expert/specialist in the mechanics of new client acquisition, someone who has the sole focus and capabilities to bring “life-giving” new business to the agency.
A good resource for locating agency new business talent that I would highly recommend is Talent Zoo. A number of agencies that I’ve worked with have utilized their services. You can also follow them on Twitter @talentzoojobs
The world of advertising isn’t changing, it’s changed. Marketers have pushed for the change and assessing whether their current agencies are ready to help them into the future.
New data suggest that marketers know social is the way forward. Social media is breaking down the walls between between “all types” of agencies, each trying to own it for their clients.
Eric Kintz, a Hewlett-Packard marketing exec and blogger said: “I think they [agencies] are somewhat helping. But they need to show how social media has helped them further their own agenda. So if an ad agency comes to me, I’d ask if they have their own page on a social network site? Are they posting videos on YouTube? Do they have their own blog? And how has it helped them in their own business?”
“My personal experience is that most agencies are social media posers. They do not embrace social media for their own agencies yet recommend it for clients.” agency search consultant, Hank Blank, Blank and Associates
Marketers are still finding it difficult to locate the ad agencies that are credible and capable within the social media arena. According to Forrester’s research, marketers don’t trust traditional agencies to run their social media campaigns, but neither do they trust interactive agencies their entire marketing program to smaller interactive agencies.
“All of this creates somewhat of an agency purgatory – where different agencies try and take on each others’ roles but no one type of agency is ready to take over,” writes Forrester Analyst, Sean Corcoran.
Agencies need to first get their own house in order when it comes to social media. Prospective clients will be looking for agencies with verifiable social media experience that practice what they preach.
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.
The following 18 advertising agency blogs have been submitted to Fuel Lines. Vote for the best agency blog for the month of March. The winner will be featured on Fuel Lines throughout the month and included in the voting for ad agency blog of the year.
Writing for the Web is definitely different than writing for print.
Many who are accustom to writing for print have a difficult time writing for Web. In order to write effectively online you must understand how people read on the web.
Nielsen Norman Group ’s research found that 79 percent of their test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.
On the Web, users are engaged and want to go places and get things done. The Web is an active medium.
Web content must be brief and get to the point quickly, because users are likely to be on a specific mission.
The Web is perfect for narrow,just-in-time learning of information nuggets.
People arrive at a website with a goal in mind, and they are ruthless in pursuing their own interest and in rejecting whatever the site is trying to push.
In print, you can spice up linear narrative with anecdotes and individual examples that support a storytelling approach to exposition. On the Web, such content often feels like filler; it slows down users and stands in the way of their getting to the point.
If you’re smart, you’ll write accordingly: make your content actionable and focused on user needs.
For your agency’s blog to be effective, your text must be scannable. Nielsen offers these 6 tips:
highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)
meaningful sub-headings (not “clever” ones)
bulleted lists
one idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
half the word count (or less) than conventional writing
Nielsen’s research also found that users detested “marketese”; the promotional writing style with boastful claims. I’ve often said that the moment you start to sell on your agency’s blog is when you will lose your audience.
You need to understand how people read on the web and learn to write for them effectively. Go to Jakob Nielsen’s web site and read this paper. If you look at the top blogs, you’ll find they follow Nielsen’s style guidelines remarkably well.
Helpful resources:How Users Read on the Web and detailed reading behavior in eyetracking studies (please note that this is an older study but provides very helpful and relevant information)
Here are some additional resources for creating an agency blog for new business:
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Posted by Michael Gass 
