10 Tips for Creating an Ad Agency Blog for New Business

June 28, 2010

The following 10 tips are my suggestions for creating an ad agency new blog with the objective of generating inbound new business leads while simultaneously building social media capabilities and credibility:

1.  I recommend that you do not incorporate your blog into your agency’s website

Online inbound lead generation is like fishing. You should fish for a particular fish (your target audience) with a particular bait (an appealing positioning that differentiates your agency from the rest) and do your fishing away from the boat (the agency’s website) so that you don’t scare away the fish.

Some additional reasons to allow you agency’s blog to reside apart from the website:

  • Most agency blogs look too corporate and less personal.
  • If  tied into your agency’s website and branding, is constricted and has little room to breathe and grow.
  • A blog can and should have a much narrower focus that speaks to a specific target audience. You can think more narrowly without the risk.

Your agency’s website is more like an online brochure, the place where capabilities, credentials and client work resides. It’s okay for your agency’s Website to show its diversity of clients but a blog has to have a specific target audience.

2. The agency’s blog should be reflective of its owners

You have to remember that social media is about people. Be the face of the agency and don’t hide behind a veil. For instance, if your agency’s Twitter account is the agency and the avatar is the agency’s logo, how does a person know who they are speaking to? It makes it awkward if you are not leading your social media with people.

Your agency needs a face and for most small to mid-sized agencies, that face needs to be the agency principal(s).

The agency’s  principals are the least likely to leave the agency.  If you lose a staff member who you’ve allowed to be the face of the agency through social media, you lose a lot of equity, your audience and you must start the process all over again.

3. Keep the design simple

I know an agency that took 5 months just to design their blog’s header. The more people you involve in this process the more chance you will have a bottle neck that slows down the process.

Keep the design simple and highlight the content. The content is the fuel for using social media as a lead generation program.

I would even suggest utilizing WordPress, TypePad, Blogger blog platforms to keep the process as simple as possible. My favorite is WordPress. You can create a blog in minutes rather than days, weeks or months. It will be a constantly evolving process and its important that you keep the process moving.

You have to stay razor focused delivering valuable content to your audience.

A great example is Edward Boches’s blog, creativity_unbound. Edward is the chief creative office for the Mullen agency. With an arsenal of resources available to him, he has kept his blog’s design simplistic, easy to navigate and consistently provides excellent content that has positioned him as a thought leader.

4. Make your target audience crystal clear

I write specifically to small to mid-size agency principals. She-conomy’s audience is male advertisers who should be marketing to women, Blue Collar Branding has a focus on marketers of manufacturers who want to reach blue-collar workers.

For your blog to be successful, keep you target audience in mind. Make your blog a repository of helpful resources they would consider of value. You don’t want traffic for numbers sake, you want targeted traffic.

Being focused-in on a targeted audience will enhance your blog’s SEO, also drawing targeted traffic from other social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

5. Before you begin to write learn to listen

Some to-dos:

  • Spend time building your online community and network. This will require a significant time investment in the beginning but once created it is much easier to maintain.
  • If you want to receive learn to give. Be a help to others and they will in turn be helpful to you.
  • You will have ambassadors, be kind and express your appreciation.
  • Look for opportunities to engage your prospects. This is networking on steroids. Social media provides you with the capability of being in dozens of places, networking with a much greater number of people than you could ever do offline. There are no geographical limitations and you can network literally from anywhere you have internet access. But you must be a participant.

Listen to your readers. Your blog’s analytics will help you to fine tune your writing to make it more appealing. Your readers are the judge and jury of the content you post. Always look to your readers to provide you with direction for your writing, what they care about and respond to.

6. Write Concisely

People read online differently than they do print. They usually don’t read word-for-word, they tend to scan.

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.

Make your posts scannable by:

  • Always lead with the conclusion. Use the inverted pyramid style of writing. The very first sentence in your post should be the “takeaway or benefits statement.” Answer the question, what will be my takeaway if I commit to read this post?
  • Being brief, give your readers the Readers Digest version, the executive summary. Do the work on their behalf
  • Divide up long copy into shorter paragraphs
  • Use bullet points or numbered lists
  • Use compelling subheads, quotations, bold, italics, etc,  so readers can scan for the information they need

7. Jump start traffic to your blog to accelerate lead generation

“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.

You can create a great return on your time investment by repurposing your content. Two good ways to build initial traffic quickly is to repurpose your blog’s content through Twitter and an email newsletter.

Don’t make assume that just because you’ve written it, everyone has read it. You are better off assuming they haven’t.

My newsletter is emailed every other week to a data base of over 10,000 email addresses. The copy for  the newsletter comes from my blog posts. It takes literally 10 to 15 minutes to create and send. That allows it to be maintainable even when I’m at my busiest.

A program called SocialOomph allows me to automate repurposing blog content to my Twitter accounts. I actually have a media schedule for Twitter. Another helpful program is TweetAdder, which will quickly build a targeted Twitter following.

Here are some other tips to help generate traffic to your blog:

  • Publish posts frequently. I would encourage you to post at least 3 times and preferably 5 times per week.
  • Write evergreen for your posts to have a long shelf life and a good return for your time investment.
  • Syndicate your new posts to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
  • Add your blog link to your email signature.
  • Add  a Share Button at the bottom of your posts to allow them to be easily promoted by others to through their personal networks.
  • Provide subscription options for your blog such as through email or an RSS Feed such a Feedburner.
  • Identify key words you want to dominate in Google search and consistently use them in your posts titles.
  • 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.
  • Don’t forget SEO. Identify the key words you want to dominate and consistently use them in your posts titles to accelerate your rankings in search engines such as Google.

8. Fueling blog post ideas

Please remember this, your reading will fuel your writing. The key is to find the online sources that inspire great content. A huge time saver for your reading is to use an RSS Reader. My suggestion would be to sign up for Google Reader.  Instead of you constantly having to search for resources, Google Reader will flow it all to you and allow you to scan and organize hundreds of sources daily with little time and effort.  It is very efficient.

Because I know who my target audience is, I have identified the categories that I’m going to write to, coming up with blog posts ideas is not difficult. From my experience, the narrower your focus the easier it is to find things to write about.

9. Be focused and consistent

It is as simple as planning the work and following the plan.

  1. I follow a daily ritual to keep me on track and consistent. I start every day with my strategic reading. My homepage in FireFox is my Google Reader. I open it before I check email. Because if I open the first email, my day is usually done.
  2. I start out each day knowing who is my target audience.
  3. I write consistently to the stated purpose of my blog which is, “fueling ad agency new business through social media.”
  4. I find lots of resources that isn’t specific to my target audience but I make it irrelevant. I do the work on their behalf.
  5. I do my best to follow a regular posting schedule of 4 to 5 posts per week.
  6. I usually write 1 original blog post for every 4 to 5 resource posts which is taken from other online resources. My blog becomes a repository for everything related to agency new business.

10. To keep up you must have the right mindset

One of the main reasons agency principals haven’t been as inclined to participate in social media is that they are already over extended with little time for anything additional in their professional or personal lives.

When they make time to participate and understand social, is when they’ve finally relented,  it isn’t going to go away. What will make the social media pill easier to swallow is the understanding the multiplicity of benefits it provides:

  • I’ve helped to create over 60 agency blogs and have found it to be a great agency branding tool. A lot of agencies are in a perpetual state of branding their agency. A blog helps them to answer the tough questions and provides a way to be more narrowly focused without throwing the baby out with the bath water.
  • A blog is worth doing if only for this one big benefit, professional enrichment. It provides a system for you to stay ahead of the learning curve in communications technologies and in front of where your clients and prospective clients. A position of leadership. Thought leadership.
  • The interaction with your prospects provides you with rich, priceless info. If you really want to know what your prospective clients obstacles are and become a thought leader, then write a blog.
  • The old saying is true, “you don’t know what you know until you write it down.” Writing a blog will help you become a much better communicator.
  • Learn to create a strong appeal for your agency. A blog will help you to stop using agency speak and speak in a language that resonance with your target audience. It will teach you how to generate an appealing message.

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24 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Study: 60 percent of companies using social media have no plan

June 24, 2010

Does your agency have a social media strategy for your social media efforts? Most agencies have jumped on the bandwagon but appear to be shooting from the hip with no strategy or measurements in place.

Ad agencies and companies are going about social strategy backwards, by first concentrating on the tools and technologies instead of focusing on what they want to achieve.  My understanding of social media and how to monetize it was greatly expedited because my rifled focus on applying it for new business.

A survey conducted by marketing firm Digital Brand Expressions found that 78 percent of client companies responding to their survey said they use social media, but only 41 percent said they have a strategic plan in place to direct their social media efforts.

Other key findings from this survey that should be of interest:

  • Of the companies that have no plan in place, 88% agree that it is important.
  • Of those companies that work from some plan, 94% said that marketing activities are included in the plan.
  • 71% of those with a plan said their Marketing Department is the group with the primary responsibility for creating and maintaining the firm’s social media presence.
  • Of the planners, 71% indicate they use social media for public relations communications.while 55% said that they used social media for sales-related activities. A surprisingly small percentage (16%) say their HR team is using social media for recruiting, employee retention, training and development, etc. and 26% use it for customer service.
  • Social media efforts are being led primarily by Marketing (71%) and PR (29%) departments.
  • Even among those with a plan, few (29%) have written policies and communications protocols in place, leaving the organization exposed to problems arising out of employees communicating in ways that inadvertently hurt, rather than help, their company brands.

“It’s fairly well established that social media is a channel that businesses must participate in, leaving CEOs with the new challenge of planning and implementing brand aligned initiatives enterprise-wide,” said Veronica Fielding, president and CEO of Digital Brand Expressions.

Click on the link to download a PDF copy of: Corporate Social Media Report

Your purpose should dictate strategy and the tactics used for reaching desired goals.

Some additional helps:

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15 Comments | Agency Leadership, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Three Helpful Services Improves Ad Agency New Business

June 23, 2010

There are three services that are essential to “jump-start” you agency’s ability to generate inbound leads for new business using social media.

Most ad agencies are participating in social media, meaning they have a blog, Facebook Fan page, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, but they haven’t connected the dots to generate qualified leads for their new business pipeline. It is primary for agencies to have a focused strategy and a clear objective for using social media specifically for new business.

Ad agencies can’t wait six months to start generating leads. They need to new business now.

To accelerate the time it takes for your online new business activities to begin producing, there are three services that I recommend:

To begin a successful agency new business program one of the first steps is to identify your best target audience and build a data base of company information that would include a contact database.

Many ad agencies and marketing services companies expect their new business director to build their own marketing and sales database. A number of ad agencies that I talk with attempt to maintain their own database of prospects. For a short list that is doable but if your list is large it is impossible to maintain unless you have someone totally dedicated to keeping it updated on a regular basis.

I recommend using a database service company. Most charge an annual fee to subscribe but the cost is usually worth the price because of the internal time saved along with updated information on thousands of companies, agencies and businesses.

My recommendation is The List, the service that I currently use and the service I recommend for my clients. It provided the “seed list” of email addresses for the FUEL LINES email newsletter. If I need information on a company not in their data base, I can make a request and The List will research and get the data for me.

It’s worth your time to review their free trial and explore how many of your targeted prospects they have in their data base.

Questions to help determine if  The List is the right new business database service for your agency:

  • How many “qualified” companies are listed that are viable prospects for your agency?
  • How many (marketing) contacts do they have at the companies that matter to me? Be sure they have them in the quantity you need to justify the expense for their.
  • What contact information is provided?  Beyond the usual address and phone numbers do they have sufficient numbers of email addresses which would be a great resource for your agency’s eNewsletter.

SocialOomph.com is a service that provides free and paid productivity enhancement services to fuel your agency’s new business through social media. It is not only a great tool for your agency but also one that will greatly help with your clients social media efforts.

Content marketing is a key component for using social media for ad agency new business. Content is written for SEO so that it will be found by your best prospects who elevate you to a position as a thought leader. SocialOomph will help to repurpose you content through multiple social media channels. It is a huge time saver.

Out of the  hundreds of tools that have been developed to enhance Twitter’s usefulness for marketing SocialOomph is the one that has been the most helpful for me.

These are some of the SocialOomph features that I like and use:

  • Manage multiple accounts from one dashboard (your agency’s as well as clients Twitter accounts)
  • Manage an unlimited number of blogs
  • Upload your agency’s blog posts and URLs from an Excel spread sheet, in bulk to Social Oomph
  • Pre-set the date/time range for each post in minutes
  • Automatically shorten post URLs through Bit.ly and track clicks
  • Automate – follow those who follow you in Twitter
  • Automate – unfollow those who don’t follow you in Twitter
  • Purge and filter your Twitter account’s DM box
  • Small monthly fee that is month-to-month, cancelable at any time (more than pays for itself for the time that it saves)
  • Junior level people/interns can be easily trained to use this tool on behalf of the agency and clients
  • You can also schedule your agency blog posts to Facebook, just keep the repurpose level to only a few per day

Basecamp is an online project management tool that focuses on communication and collaboration. It is the best tool that I’ve used for creating consistent new business programs for my clients. Many agencies enjoy it so well they in-turn use it for their clients. Basecamp expedites the new business process, provides an accountability system and moves projects forward. All communications, files, presentations, resources, meeting notes, etc. are all in one place. Milestones and To-Do lists easily created, assigned and tracked.

“Basecamp is so simple you (or your clients) can’t do anything wrong. Basecamp is addictively easy-to-use.” — Robert Hof, BusinessWeek

Basecamp features I love the most:

  • No “IT Guy” required
  • Nothing to download all Web-based, always up-to-date and backed-up
  • Plays well with Mac
  • Easily handles multiple client accounts and dozens of projects
  • Transfer info from one account to another such as detailed to-do lists
  • Any client can use it, no need for training

Additional new business resources: 75 Ad Agency New Business articles, posts, reports, surveys and white papers

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6 Comments | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, New Business Tools, Social Media, Time Management | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Vacationing with Social Media and Still Generating Ad Agency New Business

June 21, 2010

Ad agency new business can be a grind. It’s always good to recharge your batteries by some personal time away. But just because you are taking some much needed time off doesn’t mean your agency’s new business has to suffer. Utilizing social media with a few select tools and tactics can keep your new business pipeline full even when you are away.

I’m writing this post on the last day of a vacation trip  to Key West. My wife and I have enjoyed some amazing sunsets, incredible art, beautiful landscapes and excellent cuisine. The entire time, I’ve been able to stay connected and while I’m personally coasting and relaxing, my new business program remains in place and continues to generate leads that I’m able to easily respond to by checking-in online a few minutes out of my day.

You need to look at social media a savior not a nemesis,  an asset rather than a liability and time saver rather than time killer.

Social media will allow your agency’s new business program to continue running along while you are unwinding on the beach. It also easily maintains a consistency for your new business efforts when your agency is at its busiest times.

  • My blog provides content that is optimized for search to a very specific target audience. It is also repurposed through my RSS feeds, eNewsletter and over 38,000 Twitter followers.
  • Facebook allows you to connect on a more personal level. Family, friends and followers stay connected no matter where you are. Some of the vacation photos we’ve shared via my Facebook account: http://tinyurl.com/2c4lu4b
  • Locate others, receive great tips through location-based tools such as Foursquare.
  • An eNewsletter, which can be created in minutes by repackaging and repurposing your content, also enhances your return from your time investment. An example: Fuel Lines

I would add a few more but my wife is telling me that she’s ready for brunch … so while I’m away, here are some previous social media | new business articles that may be of interest and a help to you:

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3 Comments | Agency Leadership, Social Media | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Coach John Wooden: Inspiration for ad agency new business

June 16, 2010

 

When you are responsible for agency new business, it’s easy to get down and out. You are in need of a good dose of inspiration periodically. I hope this post will provide you with a spark and also honor one of the greatest human beings of our time.

This post is written in honor of John Wooden, who died in Los Angeles on June 4 at age 99, he was the greatest collegiate basketball coach of all time. His UCLA Bruins won a record 10 NCAA national championships and their 88-game winning streak is the longest in major collegiate basketball history. He  was the first person ever to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player (1961) and a coach (1973).

His favorite part of coaching was leading the practice sessions in which he taught the fundamentals that were the foundation of his success. His practices at UCLA by teaching his players the proper way to put on their socks and lace their shoes. He said,  “It’s the little things that make the big things happen.”

Coach Wooden was more than a basketball coach, he was a life coach and always more pleased by his players’ success in life than on the basketball court. There’s much we can learn from him. Here are some of his quotes that relate well for ad agency new business:

  • “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
  • “Never mistake activity for achievement.”
  • “Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.”
  • “I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.”
  • “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”
  • “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”
  • “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
  • It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”
  • “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
  • “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
  • “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

“John was a better coach at 55 than he was at 50,” Hall of Fame basketball coach Pete Newell said in 1989. “He was a better coach at 60 than at 55. He’s a true example of a man who learned from day one to day last.”

In the midst of the Great Recession and communication revolution that are greatly impacting ad agency new business,  I hope his words will be an inspiration, don’t be afraid of change, keep on learning and remember that it is the little things that make big things happen.

I highly recommend: Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success: Building Blocks For a Better Life

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4 Comments | New Business Trends | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies: Alex Bogusky’s Keynote at Mirren’s New Business Conference

June 14, 2010

First rule of new business: make a list of the rules. Second rule of new business: break every rule on the list.

If you want to shake up your thinking regarding agency new business and following conventional wisdom, Alex Bogusky, the highly respected creative director for Crispin and Porter Advertising, shares his perspective.

He was one of the featured speakers at Mirren’s annual new business conference in New York. He urged attendees to ‘defy convention’.

“I hate conventional wisdom,” Bogusky said, “conventional wisdom is learning from your mistakes. What about learning from your successes? That’s where I’ve focused [my energies]. Like, this works, we better get down and study on this.”

Crispin Porter Bogusky’s success in new business came from breaking with conventional wisdom. He says that cheating is breaking the rules and (when it comes to new business) “If You’re Not Cheating, You’re Not Doing It Right”.

Alex joined Crispin and Porter Advertising in 1989 as an art director. He became the creative director five years later, a partner in 1997, and co-chairman in 2008.

Under Alex’s direction, Crispin Porter + Bogusky has grown to 900 + employees, with offices in Miami, Boulder, Los Angeles, London and Sweden. CP+B has become one of the world’s most awarded agencies, and is the only agency to have won the Cannes International Advertising Festival Grand Prix in all five categories: Promotion, Media, Cyber, Titanium and Film.

Alex was inducted into the Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame in 2008, and in 2009 he received an honorary PhD from the University of Colorado. He was also named Creative Director of the Decade in Adweek magazine’s Best of 2000s report.

Read more from Alex’s blog, alexbogusky’s posterous. You will also find him on Twitter.

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6 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Can you describe your ad agency’s positioning in 30 seconds?

June 11, 2010

The starting point for any ad agency new business program is positioning. It is a fundamental prerequisite for small and midsize agencies. But it is also the place where most agencies where most fail. Positioning is everything.

“The common failing among agencies seeking new business is the inability, or unwillingness, to name what they stand for” Bob Lundin, Agency search consultancy Jones Lundin Beals

Brand coach Josh says, “If you can’t say why your [agency] brand is both different and compelling in a few words, don’t fix your statement, fix your [agency] company.”

Can you define your agency’s positioning in a simple statement? I can’t begin to tell you how many agencies I know struggle with this.

Advertising agencies and other marketing firms must do for themselves what they do for their clients – this SlideShare presentation, Agency Brand Thyself, provides an excellent overview of agency positioning based on the work of Ignition’s Tim Williams as outlined in his book “Take a Stand for Your Brand: Building a Great Agency Brand from the Inside Out.”

Advertising agencies need positioning because prospective clients have lots of choices—and if you don’t stand out, you are going to struggle with new business.

10 Things a Clear Positioning Provides for Your Ad Agency:

  1. An increase in your agency’s relevance
  2. A direction for how your agency spends its time, money and resources
  3. An understanding on the types of persons to hire
  4. A better new business win ratio
  5. A strong appeal to a select group of prospects
  6. Prospects that line up with your agency’s core strengths, what you do best
  7. A broader market area
  8. Fewer competitors, because there will be fewer firms who do what you do
  9. Have prospects seek out your agency
  10. Better margins, because well-focused agencies command premium pricing

Follow Tim Williams on Twitter. I would also encourage you to read Tim’s book Take a Stand for Your Brand

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5 Comments | Agency Branding, Agency Leadership, Agency Search Consultants, Best Practices, New Business Tips, Promotion | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 reasons ad agencies continue to have problems understanding social media

June 10, 2010

I’m not the only one that one that thinks most agencies still don’t get the social media.

“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

Forrester’s recently projected social media marketing spend to increase at an average of 34% a year through 2014. But 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. Marketers find it difficult to find credible and capable ad agencies experienced in the social media arena.

In 2009 more agencies had surrendered and started participating in social media. But they left their marketing minds on the bank when they jumped into the water. A lot of agencies don’t have a clear objective for using social media and it almost seems like they have a check list to check off to show they are social media credible. We have a agency blog, Twitter account, Facebook Fan page and LinkedIn. They fail to connect the dots to make social an effective tool for new business.

Here are 5 reasons why ad agencies continue to have problems with understanding social media:

1.  Thinking you MUST use social media the way the early adopters intended

Social media was not invented for marketing purposes. The purists are quick to reprimand efforts to use social media to generate  business. But as social media consultant Jason Falls, in his post, “Why Social Media Purists Wont Last” said, “a conversation never paid the damn electric bill!” For agencies and clients to benefit, we must be able to monetize social media or it is a tremendous waste of our valuable time.

Social media can be a great tool for ad agency new business. It is more efficient use of time, allowing you to network with more people than you ever could in person, without geographical limitations (just as I’m doing now from my office above my garage in a small suburban town outside of Birmingham) and affordably.

Your niche plus social media can propel your agency to the head of the line, generate a strong appeal to a particular target audience but only if you willing to participate and press the envelope for how it can be used for your agency’s new business.

2. A mindset of income first (and your prospective clients aren’t dumb, they can sense it)

This may sound like a contradiction to the first reason. Many agency principals are too anxious to sell. We must be able to monetize social media, but many agencies still are talking capabilities and credentials and aren’t leading conversations with benefits. You have to create a genuine value for prospective clients if you are going to have appeal.

My very first position as new business director for an ad agency, the agency’s co-owner and I were having lunch. I’ll never forget him telling me this, ”When I’m sitting across from a prospective client, I’m constantly thinking, MY money is in YOUR pocket. How do I get MY money out of YOUR pocket into MINE.”

No matter how veiled his motive was, prospective clients could always sensed it and that made new business harder.

Here’s my philosophy, “the key to successfully building an online community is to genuinely care about the people you want to reach.”

Just like in our offline networks and referrals, it’s relationships first. People want to work with other people that they know, trust and like.

3. No social media strategy

Agencies create a blog to “check it off their social media to do list.” But these blogs have no guiding strategy, no focus, few comments and NO TRAFFIC. The content you find on many agency blogs is a lot of self-promotional posts of little interest or value to a prospective client.

“Agencies are going about their social media strategy bass-ackward. They are selecting the most popular to-date, social communications technologies instead of focusing on what they want to accomplish.”

The first step in creating a social media strategy for your agency, you MUST have an objective (I suggest new business) and secondly identify who you are trying to reach.

A helpful resource to get you started is the POST Method. 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. It is highlighted in Josh Bernoff’s Groundswell blog post, The POST Method: A systematic approach to social strategy. The POST Method serves as a guide to help you determine the right strategy for the right audience.

4. Waiting  passively for prospects to find them

I have a consistent SEO strategy but still generate most traffic to my blog repurposing my blog posts through Twitter and a bi-weekly eNewsletter. I don’t passively wait for traffic. I’ve been proactive in reaching out into a number of online communities where my target audience resides.

“Syndicate your blog content to strategic, high-traffic social sites like your Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and iTunes so you can attract new prospects and bring them back to your home base with opportunities for conversion.  Most people miss this easy opportunity to boost visibility and get a lot more traffic.”    Denise Wakeman, online marketing advisor, co-founder of The Blog Squad

Some additional “proactive” traffic building tips:

  • Comment on other blogs.
  • Consistently write valued content and post frequently.
  • Submit your blog to directories
  • Include your blog’s URL in your email signature, link from your Website and all your off-line literature such as business. cards, letterheads and brochures.
  • Build a targeted Twitter following.
  • Automatically publish new posts to your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
  • Encourage comments and interaction.
  • Don’t forget SEO. Identify the key words that you want to dominate in search. Be consistent in using key words in your posts titles.
  • Develop relationships with other bloggers but don’t be selfish.
  • Check your blog’s analytics often to make adjustments to your writing.
  • Make your blog mobile friendly.

5. Lack of appreciation for those that are helping promote you

There are scores of people that are willing to be of help to you online but they’ll be quickly turned off if you don’t show appreciation. Your agency’s credibility rests upon what others are saying about you. Be sure to show your love to those who go out of their way to promote your services. Also be willing to reciprocate.

“You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.” — Zig Ziglar

Additional articles that may be of interest:

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Posted by Michael Gass

Let Hemingway improve your writing for ad agency new business

June 9, 2010

A great resource for content marketing, social media marketing and agency new business is Ernest Hemingway, one of my favorite authors.

Hemingway, is among the most famous American novelists, short-story writers and essayists, who won both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes.  No doubt he would have easily adapted to write for Web and word limiting platforms such as Twitter.

Hemingway  pioneered a new style of writing, simple clear, direct and unadorned. His style is very helpful for content marketing and writing for social media.

Content marketing is a means of achieving a position of  thought leader and lead generation. Creating relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined target audience – with the objective of generating agency new business.

Social media didn’t create content marketing, but it’s an incredible tool for getting it easily circulated to a large audience.

The two combined can greatly increase inbound lead generation and networking opportunities. But I’ve found that a lot of agency principal’s struggle with generating content and writing for the Web.

People read online differently than they do in print. Most people tend to have short attention spans and are constantly scanning rather than reading word-for-word. They are more comfortable and accustom writing for print. Hemingway can help.

Ernest Miller Hemingway was 18 years old when he walked into the newsroom of The Kansas City Star and began his writing career. He was given a copy of “The Star Copy Style’” sheet, a single, galley-sized page, which contained the 110 rules governing Star prose.

Hemingway would always remember the style sheet and its core admonition: “Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.”

At the core of the style sheet that greatly influenced Hemingway’s writings are these four simple rules for writing well:

  1. Use short sentences. Don’t waste time and words, get straight to the point. Perhaps his finest demonstration of short sentence skill was when he was challenged to tell an entire story in only 6 words: For sale: baby shoes, never used. Just write the truest sentence that you know.
  2. Use short opening first paragraphs.
  3. Use vigorous English. “Vigorous English is muscular, forceful, it comes from passion, focus and intention” – David Garfinkel
  4. Be positive, not negative. Say what something is rather than what it isn’t. For example, instead of saying “inexpensive,” say “economical.”

“Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing,” Hemingway said in 1940. “I’ve never forgotten them. No man with any talent, who feels and writes truly about the thing he is trying to say, can fail to write well if he abides with them.”

I’ve printed out, read and re-read often the Kansas City Star Style Sheet.  I hope that it will be a helpful resource too you.

Here are some memorable Hemingway quotes on writing:

  • All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.
  • I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.
  • I never had to choose a subject – my subject rather chose me.
  • If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.
  • My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.
  • The shortest answer is doing the thing.
  • There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.
  • There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
  • Develop a built-in bullshit detector.

A quote from Hemingway that every agency should adhere to for new business, “Never mistake motion for action”.

Photos from my recent trip to Hemingway’s home in Key West.

6 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Creating Content, Fuel for Thought, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The Four Great Laws of Copywriting for Ad Agency New Business

June 7, 2010

 

Herschell Gordon Lewis, a copywriting trainer, at American Writers & Artists teaches The Four Great Laws of Copywriting. These are excellent Web writing tips for agencies too generate great content that produces inbound leads for agency new business through social media channels.

  1. The First Great Law gives direction: Reach and influence, at the lowest logical cost, the most people who can and will respond. You can’t target everyone.
  2. The Second Great Law is a caution for sanity: In this Age of Skepticism, cleverness for the sake of cleverness may well be a liability rather than an asset.
  3. The Third Great Law is an equation: E2 = 0. This equation means, when you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing. Don’t expect your readers to “go fish” for what might be of interest to them.
  4. The Fourth Great Law (and the most violated) is the payoff: Tell the reader/viewer/listener what to do. The whole point of salesmanship is lost if we don’t tell our targets what to do.

Read the entire article: The Four Great Laws of Copywriting.

Here is a collection of agency blogging resources:

 

12 Comments | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, Creating Content, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency Blog of the Month: Kleber & Associates

June 7, 2010

Out of a a group of 46 ad agencies, Kleber & Associates blog, Marketing Home Products, was selected as Fuel Lines’s Blog of the Month for May capturing 44% of the votes casts.

“Marketing Home Products is what I do. This blog covers marketing strategies, brand development and communication tactics and smart business practices as they relate to the home and building channel.

My company, Kleber & Associates, works closely with clients helping them to build brands that build a better home.” Steve Kleber, founder, owner and president of Kleber & Associates Marketing & Communications, Atlanta, GA

How is your agency using a blog for your new business? Submit it for June’s blog of the month.

Ad agencies all 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:

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Posted by Michael Gass

Social Media for Agency New Business is Networking on Steroids

June 4, 2010

Everyone has a desire to work with someone they know, trust and like. Social media greatly accelerates and expands networking opportunities.

I’ve heard many agency principals say that they have better things to do than write blog posts, Tweeter, update their status on Facebook or LinkedIn. They clearly do not understand the power and efficiency of social media to generate new business for their agency. Social media for agency new business is networking on steroids.

Creating and managing social networks is more efficient online than generating networks offline. From my office, above my garage, in the quaint community of Alabaster, Alabama I can and have created personal networks globally. The return on my time investment pays huge dividends and that is what compels me to consistently participate in this space.

An important lesson for using social media for ad agency new business, first build a relationship.

I previously owned a houseboat docked in Nashville, TN. A friend of mine, the marketing director for a houseboat manufacturer, had a boat slip near mine.

One weekend I invited to take a couple out on my boat. They were interested in purchasing a houseboat but had not spent much time on one. I told my marketing friend the time we should be returning to the marina and suggested that he hang around and I would introduce him to the couple. They would be a great prospect.

Pulling into my slip, my friend lost the sale before we ever stepped off the boat. He was standing at the end of the pier with sale brochures in hand. The couple’s defenses went up immediately.

If he had only established a relationship first. The couple would have learned that he worked for a houseboat manufacturer. He could have even invited them on a private tour of his companies plant where the couple could have seen first-hand how well their boats were made. But he was too quick to sell and didn’t have the patience to establish a relationship first. A missed opportunity.

Here are some additional lessons gained through using social media for ad agency new business:

  • It’s hard for people to socialize with an entity such as an ad agency. The agency needs a face, people must be involved and it needs to begin with the agency’s principal(s).
  • Social media isn’t that complex. Use your offline personal networking skills online.
  • Always lead with benefits rather than agency’s capabilities. It’s all about your audience. The moment you try to “sell” your agency’s services will be the moment you lose your audience.
  • You can realistically build awareness among your best target audience well beyond your geographical location.
  • Be transparent. The success of your audience must be more important than your own. But it goes without saying if you can help your audience with their success you will be successful.
  • It is a powerful when you can personally demonstrate how you are using social media.

Even though social media is very time intensive in the beginning as you get up to speed, it becomes an extremely efficient use of your time.

Prospects have an opportunity to check under the hood, kick the tires, examine the upholstery within their own timetable. When the need arises and they are ready to do business, they will even initiate the call and that first conversation is going to be much further down the road than if you had made a  cold call. You skip the dating process and move on to the engagement, they are usually ready to do business.

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Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies: What has social media done for you?

June 3, 2010

How can an agency help a client monetize their social media when they don’t have a handle on how to use it for itself? As more-and-more agencies jump on the social media band-wagon, clients are beginning to ask them, “what has social media done for you?”

Gone are the days when an agency can get by “talking the talk but not walking the walk.” Clients will be able to discern between the agencies that truly get social media from the ones that don’t with just a few clicks of their mouse.

That said, does your agency have a social media strategy or are you winging it?

100% of our clients are online and all they have to do is take a quick look and they can easily tell that most agencies have no plan with regards to social media. Agencies may have a blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, but those accounts tend to hide behind the agency name and tend to be blatantly self promotional with little value to an undefinable audience.

Not only is it clear agencies have no definitive audience (everything to everybody) but there is no integration, no overarching strategy to reach viable goals and objectives.  It’s like most agencies have a “check-list” of social media accounts but no plan to make it all work.

“Agencies are going about their social media strategy bass-ackward. They are selecting the most popular to-date, social communications technologies instead of focusing on what they want to accomplish.”

Your purpose should dictate strategy and the tactics used for reaching desired goals. A few common outcomes for your social media marketing efforts should include:

  • Gain insight into your target audience – You can use all the qualitative data you want, but some of the most interesting and helpful market research can be found within the social communities where your prospective clients interact, share information and make recommendations.
  • Link building for traffic and SEO - According to Marketing Sherpa, 80-90% of business to business transactions begin with a search on the web. Creating link-bait and promoting it to social media news and bookmarking sites can attract a slew of links from bloggers that read them. Creating value for the community is not the only rule, creating value and behaving according to formal and unwritten rules is what sustains social media sourced link building.
  • Build brand visibility and authority - You’ve heard it before,“Conversations are happening online about your agency’s brand, with or without you.” You might as well participate and do so in a way that pays close attention to the interests and needs of your prospective clients – providing them with information and interactions that further support your agency’s brand.
  • 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.

Start with a plan. I propose that  agencies demonstrate a competency with this new communications channel by using it for effectively for themselves by creating a social media plan with the objective of creating qualified inbound leads. Fuel their new business pipeline in a way that is sustainable when the agency is at its busiest.

A few agency social media success stories:

  • “We just landed a significant project with Coca-Cola purely through our sustainable marketing niche. The best complement we could receive was when they said our price was waaaay more than the next bid, but given our background in green marketing and sustainability, that it was worth the extra investment. Finally, a value over price purchase. Love it” – Park Howell, president of Park & CO
  • “Just thought I would let you know. We are participating in a pitch tomorrow for another national account. This opportunity is 100% related to our agency’s new positioning through our blog, www.she-conomy.com” – Stephanie Holland, president, Holland + Holland Advertising
  • “Kudos to all! Our social program is generating leads and business from around the world. Earlier this year got a client out of Australia and currently talking to a company in Japan that follows me on twitter” – John Sonnhalter, CEO, SONNHALTER
  • “We have 24 new social media clients since we launched our blog 4 months ago. We also have an opportunity for new business with a national bar-beque chain” – Ron Wheeler, president, Wheeler Advertising
  • “We just had a meeting with our second largest client today. They put their account up for review a few weeks ago partly I believe because we are only recommending traditional media and our work was stale and automatic. I used the meeting to interject some of my learning about new and social media. And was able to give very direct answers about the value of a social program to their brand. As he was summarizing his learning from the meeting, our client turned to me and said, “I didn’t realize you knew so much about “virtual media” (his term for social and emerging). I realize we are not using you to your full capacity. Two months ago I woke up scared every morning because I knew our agency was falling further and further behind on social and emerging media. Today I know we are at Mile 50 of a 1000 mile journey, but I wake up each day with a new determination knowing that we are on the right path” (prefers to remain anonymous).

And a few client social media success stories:

  • StormHoek Wines increased their sales by 400+% after sending wine to bloggers, inviting them to blog about the wine (good, bad or indifferent).
  • Burpee Seeds created a daily relationship with customers through RSS feeds on gardening news, tips and coupons, increasing sales 400%.
  • BlendTec’s Will It Blend videos increased their sales by 500%.

What has social media done for your agency? Please share your successes in the comment section below.

Here are some additional helps:

10 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

46 Advertising Agency Blogs. Vote for your favorite for the month of May

June 1, 2010

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 46 advertising agency blogs have been submitted to Fuel Lines. Vote for the best agency blog for the month of May. The winner will be featured on Fuel Lines throughout the month 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 May

  1. Blog-a-Rhythm, Rhythm Interactive, Irvine, CA
  2. brainwoo, Thompson & Company, Memphis, TN
  3. brandSTOKE, CONRAD | PHILLIPS | VUTECH, Columbus, OH
  4. Content to Commerce, Big Fuel, Manhattan, NY
  5. creativity_unbound, Mullen, Boston, MA
  6. Energy Efficiency Marketing, Kelliher Samets Volk, New York, NY
  7. Engaging Trends, Pixel Farm Interactive, Minneapolis, MN
  8. Fifth Gear Analytics, Sigma Marketing Group, Rochester, NY
  9. Going Social Now, Razorfish, New York, NY
  10. Healthy Conversations, Trajectory, Morristown, NJ
  11. JWT blog, Atlanta, GA
  12. Marketing Home Products, Kleber & Associates, Atlanta, GA
  13. Marketing Thoughts by Domus, Inc., Domus, Inc., Philadelphia, PA
  14. Marketing Your Hospital, TotalCom Communications, Tuscaloosa, AL
  15. My Name is Not Ralph, Toth Brand Imaging, Cambridge, MA
  16. Never Be Forgotten, Palio, Saratoga Springs, NY
  17. New FoundNation, The Communications Group, Little Rock, AR
  18. Off Madison Ave, Phoenix, AZ
  19. Off the Shelf, BARKLEY US, Kansas City, MO
  20. Ogilvy Earth, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, New York, NY
  21. onmessage Blog, OnMessage, Dallas, TX
  22. Park Howell, Sustainable Storyteller, Park&Co, Phoenix, AZ
  23. Patients Please, CJRW, Little Rock, AR
  24. Peak Seven blog, Peak Seven Advertising, Deerfield Beach, FL
  25. Relate with Us, GS&F, Nashville, TN
  26. RIESTER BLOG, RIESTER Advertising, Phoenix, AZ, Salt Lake City, UT, El Segundo, CA
  27. Root & Madison Blog, Root & Madison, LLC, Dallas, TX and Denver, CO
  28. Scatter/Gather, Razorfish, New York, NY
  29. Share, bcad group, Toronto, Canada
  30. She-conomy, Holland + Holland, Birmingham, AL
  31. Spyder Trap Blog, Spyder Trap Online Marketing, Minneapolis, MN
  32. Superhype, Razorfish, Chicago, IL
  33. Tangent, Sharpe Partners, NY
  34. The Ad Contrarian, Hoffman/Lewis, San Francisco
  35. The Assurance Blog, Assurance Advertising, Orange County, CA and Las Vegas, NV
  36. The Experience Effect, Lippe Taylor Brand Communications, New York, NY
  37. The Idea Drawer, ABC Creative Group, Syracuse, NY
  38. The Main Artery, Kuhn Whittenborn, Kansas City, MO
  39. The Nebo Blog, NeboWeb, Atlanta, GA
  40. The Point, Spear Marketing Group, Walnut Creek, CA
  41. Through the Ears of an Entrepreneur, Small Army, Boston, MA
  42. TV is Not Dead, Ad Partners, Tampa, FL
  43. Up Your Ups, Wheeler Advertising, Arlington, TX
  44. Why Moms Rule, BOHAN, Nashville, TN
  45. Wired to the Real World, Smiley Hanchulak, Akron, OH
  46. Wright -to -Know, Dimension X, Jeannette, PA

Fuel Lines Agency Blog of the Month for April: Jane Nation, St John & Partners, Jacksonville, FL

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Posted by Michael Gass

Combine Email Marketing and Social Media for Ad Agency New Business

June 1, 2010

The mix of social media and email marketing can greatly accelerate your social media presence and in turn generate inbound leads for your agency’s new business.

An email newsletter is one of the two most important sources for information and advice for small and medium businesses, according to a study entitled, “Optimizing Email Newsletters for Small/Medium Businesses” released by Bredin Business Information, Inc. (BBI).

According to the study of over 380 executives …

  • Email newsletters remain highly relevant. Seventy-nine percent of respondents said that even in the age of Facebook and Twitter, email newsletters are as, or more, important than ever. Ninety-seven percent rate them an important or very important source of business management advice, more than print and broadcast media, major company websites and social networks.
  • Readers spend time with email newsletters. Fifty-eight percent spend more than a minute reading an email newsletter in their inbox, and 73% spend more than a minute reading (or watching) content that they click through to from the newsletter.
  • Readers prefer frequent email newsletters. Forty-two percent prefer weekly delivery, 27% monthly and 12% daily. Only 5% prefer a quarterly delivery schedule.
  • Readers want “how-to” information in their email newsletters. On a scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (important), how-to content rated 3.6, slightly ahead of case studies, perspective pieces, product information and offers, and company news.
  • Readers want information on their industry and a quick and easy read. Roughly 80% of respondents rated those as important or very important newsletter criteria.
  • SMBs use email newsletters themselves – after having a website (70%), an email newsletter is the second most popular online marketing tactic (63%).

The rise in popularity of social media only enhances email newsletters. The two can work powerfully together to generate inbound leads for your agency’s new business pipeline as you share content and engage in conversations.

Here are a couple of tips to mix email marketing and social media:

1. Repurpose content. The content for your newsletter can come from your blog. Don’t assume that just because you’ve written it that everyone has read it. People are busy. Your audience will read your content in a variety of ways. Your helpful posts will be found by keyword search or through an RSS reader. It may be seen through your Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn accounts.

I recommend choosing your newer, highest ranking posts to use for your email newsletter. Include a snippet of teaser copy and a link-back to the full article on your blog site. Give your recipients 4 or 5 of these choice articles to choose from in each newsletter. It will take literally 15 minutes at most to create the newsletter. Anybody can be easily trained to put it together and allows for it to be consistently created and sent, even when your agency is at its busiest.

This link provides a good example of an agency’s email newsletter that derives content from its blog, Big Fuel

2. Use your email list to “jump-start” your social media presence. Your blog should be the gate-way to your agency. This is the place where you want to generate a consistent flow of targeted traffic. The use of your email list to send your email newsletter will provide you with a spike in your blog’s traffic, as you introduce those on your list to your rich, helpful content.

Your list will also accelerate your followers on other social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Your social media presence will also help to grow opt-ins for your email list.

Additional tips:

  • Send your email newsletter twice a month. Set the send-dates in advance.
  • The email should come from you rather than the agency. It is much more personal.
  • Use a blog post title for the email newsletter’s subject line.
  • Best days to send, usually are Tuesday and Wednesdays. You can always test other days/times once you have a benchmark established.
  • Compare your blog’s analytics to your email analytics whenever your email newsletter has been sent. Also compare analytics of previous email newsletters to improve your open and click through rates.
  • Remember that the fuel for this engine will be new content. You’ll need to be consistent in creating it.

A great resource for small and midsize ad agencies is iContact’s 35 page report Email Marketing Best Practices

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10 Comments | New Business Tips, New Business Trends, Promotion, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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