July « 2010 « FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

Recycling Older Posts and Articles for Ad Agency New Business

July 27, 2010

Keeping older content alive can provide additional fuel your agency’s inbound lead generation program through social media. It also greatly enhances the return on your writing time investment.

Some of the most helpful tips on blog writing I have found online from resources as old as 1996. In a day when blog content that was published only a few months, it is often discounted as being old. If it is content that has been generated over six months it is considered ancient. But some of the most helpful resources that I have found for writing for Web is as old as 1996.

I often cite older sources without disclosing the date, if I’m confident the resource is of worth to my readers. Readers would often discount these resources if I included the date when I cite the source.

Just one example is information that I gleaned from Jacob Nielsen when writing this post, “How do users read on the web? They don’t … they scan”. His online writings have completely changed my view of “older content”. The New York Times calls Nielsen,”the guru of Web page usability”.

The date of the material shouldn’t matter. What should matter is relevancy. Is the content still of value to your audience?

Here’s an example of some of Nielsen’s rich nuggets of information for writing for the Web:

In research on how people read websites we found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word. (Update: a newer study found that users read email newsletters even more abruptly than they read websites.

As a result, Web pages have to employ scannable text, using

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)

the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion

half the word count (or less) than conventional writing

Web users generally prefer writing that is concise, easy to scan, and objective (rather than promotional) in style.

Jacob Nielsen’s insights were ahead of the times. It would be a shame to discount them just because some of his great content were published online over fourteen years ago.

I continue to recycle and repurpose blog posts to over 40,000 + Twitter followers and too subscribers to the Fuel Lines eNewsletter. I have also pulled older content together for eBooklets, white-papers, SlideShare presentations. You can even recycle your blogs content into a book. Recycled posts continue to generate lots of blog traffic and fresh comments from readers who have just discovered them for the first time. By reviewing my analytics I can tell what posts to keep in this recycling rotation and what I need to pull out. Ultimately my readers decide what is appealing and what isn’t.

If you’ve written it, don’t assume that the majority of your readers have read it. Don’t be afraid to repurpose/recycle content.

Also, as you write your posts, learn to write “ever-green” to give the content a long shelf life. By doing this, a post that took me an hour to write, will provide a 100% return on my time investment.

I recently wrote a post, 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Ever Small Agency Conference, the first ever small agency conference sponsored by Ad Age. Even though this was a one-day conference, I purposefully wrote the post in a way that would allow the content to be used for a much longer period of time.

I would also suggest revisiting older posts that may not have generated very much traffic. With the proper edits and revisions you can breath new life into them as well.

Here are some additional resources for creating content for an agency blog for new business:

3 Comments | Agency Blogs, New Business Tactics, Social Media, Time Management | Tagged: Ad Agencies, content marketing, Jacob Nielsen, Michael Gass, new business, recycling content, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Has Your Agency Generated New Business Through Social Media?

July 26, 2010

Tried and true best practices and tips can accelerate your agency’s success with social media and keep it ahead of the competition.

Having a clear objective from the get-go is important. I would suggest that you use social media as a big part of your agency’s new business program. Social media can provide a sustainable, affordable and focused program for networking and lead generation and also a great return on the time invested.

I recently received this note from an ad agency president that has differentiated his agency using social media,

“We just landed a significant project with Coca-Cola purely through our sustainable marketing niche. The best compliment 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.”

To be successful with social media for your agency’s new business, here are 6 tips:

Identify and address a specific target audience. Face it, most agencies are afraid to put their stake in the ground and even identify who their target audience. You would never recommend a marketing campaign for a client without first identifying who they are trying to reach.
Lead content and conversations with benefits. Social media helps agencies to talk in a new way. To discard the past agency speak for a language the resonates with their audience. That is focused on what are the benefits for them. “You Can Only Get What You Want, If You Help Enough Other People Get What They Want” – Zig Ziglar.
Differentiate from your competitors. You wont win any significant business by showcasing how you match up with the rest of the agencies. You must unlevel the playing field. Set yourself apart. What would give a company reason to fly over hundreds of other agencies, across a number of states, to do business with your agency? Social media provides a great opportunity to for your agency to stand out.
Become a specialist instead of a generalist. Our world is becoming more and more specialized. I had to have surgery a few years ago. My personal physician recommended a neurosurgeon practicing at our suburban hospital. My choice was one of the leading neurosurgeon in the country who happened head up the department of neurosurgery at an academic medical center less than 30 miles from my home. A CMO’s job could be very well on-the-line with the choice of an agency. If I were in their position, I would be choosing a specialist rather than a generalist. Wouldn’t you?
Create appeal. One of the great benefits for using social media for new business is the instant feedback from your audience. It allows you to easily test your message an hone your appeal.
Earn positioning as a “thought leader.” In less than 3 years, social media has created an international awareness for my personal brand among my best target audience. I have clients from coast to coast, so far this year I spoken in over 43 cities, traveled over 43,000 miles, recognition from some of our national trade publications and advertising associations. All of it through social media. What has worked for me and can also work for you and position you as a thought leader to your prospective client audience.

Some additional tips and best practices for using social media for your agency’s new business:

Leave a Comment » | New Business Tips, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Michael Gass, new business development, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Don’t Cap Your Ad Agency’s New Business Pipeline

July 22, 2010

An ad agency’s new business pipeline isn’t something you can just turn on and off. It needs to continually flow, constantly generating leads.

While there are different approaches to successful agency new business development programs, they are made up of some common building blocks. The first secret to a new business program is getting started. The second secret is developing a new business program that your agency can consistently execute and sustain.

As you create a new business plan for your agency you should think in terms of “what is sustainable when our agency is at its busiest”.

Many well-intentioned plans are often derailed by success. When the agency starts to get busy the new business program is put on the back-burner. This creates a roller coaster effect for new business. Your new business pipeline often takes 3 to 4 months to begin generating leads so it is very inefficient to turn it on and off like a spigot.

Often, when your agency is beginning to get busy with new business, it is the best time to step-up your efforts. What agency wouldn’t want to be in the position of being able to turn away business. To be more selective of the type of client accounts your agency is willing to accept.

To be consistent, any agency new business program must:

1. Be realistically achievable within the culture and resources of the agency

Set realistic goals. There are a lot of agencies, when asked what are their new business goals will say, ”we want to double in size” or ”we want to take our agency to the next level”. This aren’t realistic goals unless you have a plan and that plan will be dependent upon what resources of time, personnel and budget that are available for implementation.

2. Have a manager who is held accountable for its execution

If everyone is responsible for your agency’s new business then no one is responsible.

Someone must be accountable, have the authority and ability to drive it. There’s a lot of pushing, prodding and poking that must be done to keep the new business program working. Someone must be responsible for keeping it focused and on track.

3. Top management must be intimately involved in the process

No one in the agency feels the pressure to succeed more than the agency principals. Like it or not, they are the face of the agency. Their involvement is important for new business and they shouldn’t shy away from this responsibility. To maintain consistency, new business, must be a priority in their daily responsibilities.

Mandate that your agency has an integrated new business plan. Unbelievably, 62% of agencies don’t have a planned new business effort.
Define your agency’s positioning. This is the starting point for any ad agency new business program. 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.
Choose a target audience. This will not deter your agency from still obtaining “other” type of clients through your personal networks and referrals within your local market, but it will go a very long way to creating awareness, appeal, differentiation and focus for your agency’s new business program. It makes new business so much easier when you do.
Resolve to stay the course. New business efforts are relational and take time to come to fruition.

Some additional articles that may be of interest:

5 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Is social media making many ad agencies look and act the same?

July 20, 2010

It’s time to un-level the playing field. To have success with social media, agencies need to fly a differentiated social media flag.

Small-to midsize ad agencies tend to constantly promote how they are alike rather than how they are different from other agencies. They tend to look and sound just the same.

When agencies gave up fighting against the social media tide and decided to dive in, instead of using this new communications channel to showcase how they were different, they ended up just following the lead of others. Once again positioned as a generalists instead of a specialist and following the “safe-way” rather than the “smart-way.”

I had hoped that agencies would have learned this lesson by now, “if you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no one”.

Having spent my entire advertising career in new business, I know first hand the financial pressures small to mid-size agencies are under. I understand their reservation for not wanting to focus to narrowly on a target audience or discipline. I know all of the excuses for not wanting to drive a stake in the ground and define themselves for who they are. But agencies are missing a grand opportunity.

Social media provide agencies to boldly declare who their target audience truly is, what their points of differentiation are. Social media allows agencies this freedom without fear of ”throwing the baby out with the bath-water.” It provides favorable, acceptable conditions for the agency’s principals to fly their differentiated flag proudly without fear of missing “other” opportunities that use to come by way of their personal networks and referrals.

Agencies tend to look and act the same because they merely have a check list of social media tools and platforms to prove their participation. But their social media practice has no strategy, no connection to a particular target audience, no demonstration of how they are different. Merely showcasing that they are a bona-fide member of the global social media community.

Here are my 5 tips for flying your agency’s differentiated social media flag:

Create an agency blog for a specific targeted audience. If you don’t, it will lack focus and be nothing more than mishmash that has no flavor , appeal or audience.
Have an objective. I would suggest the objective to be using social media for your agency’s new business pipeline. Inbound new business leads through content marketing that positions you as a thought leader to your best prospective clients.
Remember that social is about people. I would strongly suggest that you don’t incorporate your blog into the branding of your agency’s website. Give it room to breath and grow on its own. Let your agency’s blog be a reflection of key persons within the agency instead of trying to socialize an entity. You connect with people online the same way you do offline, but online you can efficiently reach more people over a much broader geographical area. People want to work with people that they know, trust and like. Social media provides you with this great opportunity to network.
Don’t be afraid to use social media differently than the way it was intended. Some social media purists act like Barney Fife and may threaten you with”citizens arrest,” but there is just one social media rule for you to keep in mind, there are no rules! This is still the wild, wild west.
Never lose your marketing mind when it comes to social media. Remember that it is just another communication’s channel. I have had much better success working with the agency “baby boomers” and their getting up-to-speed with social media than younger staffers who understand this new communication technology but they lack the experience in marketing and advertising. Don’t be intimidated. It’s not as hard as it may appear to get your marketing mind around the social media space.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

11 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, small ad agencies, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Ever Small Agency Conference

July 15, 2010

Bourbon Street Painting by Debra Hurd

Direct from New Orleans, some fresh ideas and insights for small-to midsize advertising agencies that are worthy of your review.

Ad Age recently conducted its first-ever Small Agency Conference in New Orleans. They brought together a great group of group of speakers that shared their expertise delivering rich nuggets of information from the importance of having a unique agency culture; how to attract the best talent in the marketplace; using creativity to boost the bottom line; to the nuts and bolts of new business and getting the win.

Attendees have been Twittering from the conference using the Twitter hashtag #smallagency, sharing some of the best-of-the best information. Wish you could have been there? I thought the next best thing for those who missed it would be sharing some of those Tweets for you. Some excellent insights.

Enjoy these top 50 nuggets from the conference attendees:

@sharondnapier The Brownstein Group has “Family” dinners with their key clients.awesome!
@tjeffrey: What do clients want to be educated about most ? 1 – social media. 2 – analytics/measurement
@adage: Everyone at @methodtweet takes turns answering phones, working front desk. “Keeps ego out of the org.” – Eric Ryan.
@jeremyporter: Find a way to get people to audition for your job. Hire off of homework not the interview.
bwaggoner: #smallagency It’s not about an agency and a client. It’s about a bunch of smart people in a room with good ideas. – Eric Ryan of Method
@rupalparekh Brand Jockey? Sure. If you work at Method (@methodtweet) you get to choose your own title
@AdLawGuy: Rocketfish owns a coffee company – who knew?
@jeremyporter: Very impressed by Rockfish. Lots of cool projects. They even make their own coffee to know what it’s like to be a CPG company
tjeffrey: Eric Ryan – “Without a social strategy, you can’t succeed with social media.”
AdLawGuy: Eric Ryan of Method: every brand in social media should have a social message
@BartCleveland: #smallagency speaker Eric Ryan: values ooze authenticity.
@addieking Victors & Spoils’ @ClaudiaBattenexplains why crowdsourcing is not a fad, it’s a paradigm shift.
@addieking: Training is everyone’s job – Eric Ryan
BartCleveland: #smallagency speaker Eric Ryan: get new employee candidates to audition for the job i.e. what will you do to sustain Method’s culture?
AndyGould: Eric Ryan of Method: our HR director is our real marketing director
jacirusso: No social mission? No social media.
@adage: Sharon Napier: to know who you want to be as an agency you have to know who you are. Purpose+values.
@AdLawGuy: Rockfish licenses the technology it creates for clients; smart that agency retains ownership
@scoutbranding: Getting inspired to launch our own products by @kennytomlin
@adage: Miami Ad School survey asked ideal size shop grads want to work for. Top answer? 50-100 people
@AndyGould Miami Ad School’s Pippa Seichrist: recent grads looking for culture foremost when deciding who to work for #smallagency
amklaassen: Now THAT’S a dessert buffet! #smallagency http://twitpic.com/25k0fv
@tjeffrey Account people need to hone their digital knowledge in order to propose solutions for clients. #smallagency NOW!!!!
@AndyGould Miami Ad School’s Pippa Seichrist: recent grads looking for culture foremost when deciding who to work for #smallagency
@jacirusso: Employees really looking for culture first and foremost.
@addieking: Ways to keep good talent: interesting projects, good culture and feeling appreciated
addieking: Aol and @AdAge know how to host a tasty lunch session =)
@AMPEDart: U don’t define an agency by the number of employees, but by the size of their ideas.
@addieking: Client want silver bullets. They don’t exist.
@bobbbyg: ”What unites us more than our size is the fact that we are independent.” Phil Johnson, CEO, PJA Advertising
sharondnapier: Small agency conference or independant angency. I vote Independant
bwaggoner: Too much tactical work makes you into a machine.
@liz_money: There is a need to understand trad marketing tactics as well as understanding social media.
amklaassen: Digital experts/agencies serve as guides. Probably like how agencies felt in 50s, Mad Men era. Tom Martin.
addieking: A #smallagency is there to guide clients thru this new digital age -@tommartin
@AndyGould: panelist @TomMartin: hardest person in advertising to find is the digital-savvy AE
jacirusso: @tommartin wants “people who speak advertising like a native yet still fluent in digital”
@jenmod: #smallagency don’t only look at a prospect’s tool kit, look at the mechanic when hiring
@sharondnapier success is shallow of it doesn’t have emotional meaning
AmyP: Account folks need to have deep marketing knowledge as well as digital competency in order to provide the most client value.
addieking: The lines between publishing & advertising are blurring
AdLawGuy: Do young people understand how 2 market thru social media? Or do the just understand how to use the platform
@jacirusso: Can’t even apply at these agencies if you don’t have digital skills
@AndyGould: Seraj Bharwani: 3 categories of dialog-worthy content – branded entertainment, how-to and “video snacks”
kenwheaton: Small agencies in non-major cities “have to own where you live.”
tjeffrey: Sharon Napiers “There’s only one creative bar for all agencies.”
kenwheaton: ”Don’t you hate when you hear it’s great work for a small agency? It’s great work. Period.” Sharon Napier.
@TomMartin: “We were their ‘and’ agency” – interesting way to look at being the 2nd agency on a roster.
scoutbranding: Sharon Napier, CEO of Partners + Napier speaking. Her agency’s purpose: To liberate the promise of brands everywhere. Nice.
tjeffrey: Vote Daisy – an example of how Method, a challenger brand, is taking on Clorox: http://bit.ly/8YY8go

A great resource for small-to midsize ad agencies is Ad Age’s SMALL AGENCY DIARY.

This is a side note, a way to participate in conferences when you aren’t present by using Twitter:

I wasn’t able to attend the Small Agency Conference but I was able to share in it through live Twitter streams from the attendees. You could easily get a gist of some of the best-of-the-best parts of the conference speakers by what the Twittering attendees felt were important. There would be lots of the same quotes and points repeated.

I was able to glean from the Tweets some of the best insights from the attendees themselves. It felt as though I was there in a sense. I knew that the conference room went from being extremely cold to hot and very uncomfortable. Participants loved the New Orleans style cuisine and were absolutely blown away by the deserts.

The camera guy offered advice, through Twitter, to the speakers. Speakers shared their impressions. Lots of behind-the-scenes info that you wouldn’t have gotten just through a live video stream.

I was even able to follow along during the Awards Banquet that evening and have heard from friends who attended the conference on their travel home.

How to enhance Twitter by Blogging:

I was able to post the 50 Best Insights out to my 40,000 + followers on Twitter before the conference was even over through a blog post on my Fuel Lines site. That allows the content provided through the Twitter hash tags to have a much longer shelf life. This info will continually be shared well beyond the conference. This is a reason to use a blog as your central social media platform to complement tools such as Twitter. I will continue to gain SEO, content for my eNewsletter, repurposed Tweets that will be re-published through my Twitter accounts periodically

I also help spread the word of the conference, create buzz and help generate traffic for the conference sponsors: AdAge and AOL Advertising.

@adage And it’s not even over! RT @michaelgass 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Small Agency Conf #smallagency http://bit.ly/bTZqhL

19 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Digital, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Ad Age, AOL Advertising, new business, New Orleans, small ad agencies, small agency conference | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ideas for Creating an Ad Agency New Business War Room

July 15, 2010

A command center (often called a war room) is any place that is used to provide centralized command to determine the best course of action.

Every agency needs a “new business war room”, a place within your building that is organized for and focused on nothing but new business.

Usually the new business person is the “odd duck” of the agency. Why? No one else likes doing what they have to do, which is to sell the agency. But it is amazing at how quickly the new business director can get roped into almost everything but agency new business. Endless meetings throughout most days with no time left for execution of the agency’s new business strategy.

When I served as the VP of new business for the BOHAN agency in Nashville, we were fortunate to have our own space dedicated solely for the purpose of new business. We often called it our New Business War Room, because this was the place that we were able to focus on the lifeblood of the agency’s new business efforts.

No matter the size of your agency, I would suggest that you designate an area just for the purpose of agency new business. Here are some of the features, equipment and arrangements we had for our new business area that may spark some ideas of your own:

Multipurpose Room:

Comfortable seating for about 15 people. The chairs were on rollers and could be easily re-arranged or moved entirely out of the way.
Not a typical conference table, but two tables that could be set apart for workshops, focus groups, etc. A large whiteboard, flip-chart, a large bulletin type display board. This provided us our own space where we could keep visuals of on-going new business projects.
Large flat screen TV, wireless Apple keyboard and presentation remote, Apple Airport, DVD player and sound bar.

Work Room:

Equipment and materials to create customized notebooks, presentation-leave behinds, RFP covers and special delivery boxes.
A collection of agency work that was well organized, that could be easily gathered and customized for a specific prospect.
Storage for agency collateral materials, new business direct mail pieces, printed agency newsletters, prospective client gift items such as hats, shirts, pens, thumb-drives, etc.
Files: Hard copies of previous RFPs, new business intel on current prospective clients, materials from prior pitches.

New Business Server:

On our agency’s server, we had a designated area for new business that was password protected. Only a limited number of staff persons had access. It included:

RFP resources: to help with new RFP requests, we had all of the previous RFPs broken down into sections such as Experience, Staff, Billings, Case Studies, Processes, Client Lists, Work Samples. This made the RFP process much easier.
New business intelligence on prospective clients: current news, press releases, staffing info, current work, agency relationships, etc.
Intelligence on competitor agencies: client lists, news updates, press releases, staff changes, etc.
Electronic prospective client data base, a collection of prospective client data from sources such as The List.
Electronic samples of the agency’s creative work and a system to add new work consistently.
Web-based microsites for prospective clients, specific to certain areas such as healthcare and leisure products. Two of the agency’s core strengths.
Downloadable Agency Fact Sheet and Agency Brochures that were specific to certain prospective client groups.

Offices:

Quiet, comfortable, individual offices, designed for long hours, for the entire new business team.
Nice common areas for collaborative discussions.
Our own kitchen area with bar seating. A nice plus for prospective client meetings as well as meetings for our our agency staff.
Our offices included a large balcony overlooking the city of Nashville, where we also entertained prospective clients, after hour drinks, grilling, etc.

Having our own space on a separate floor of the agency allowed us to stay rifled focused on new business. Making calls, gathering intelligence, cultivating and engaging our prospects. It was amazing the amount of work we were able to do.

Systems were in place to keep us in the loop of the new creative work and we had consistent communications with our staff regarding the efforts of the new business team working on their behalf. We still participated in the monthly and quarterly meetings but avoided being brought in for a lot of the daily meetings that went on in one of the agency’s other four conference rooms.

I hope this can serve to help spark your own ideas for creating a space for your agency’s new business. Be sure and share some of your best ideas us.

9 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, BOHAN, business development, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency Blog of the Month: Murdoch Marketing

July 13, 2010

Out of a a group of 53 ad agencies, Murdoch Marketing’s blog, We Think. We Can. Blog., was selected as Fuel Lines’s Blog of the Month for June capturing 40% of the votes casts. They are a 27 year old full service agency located in Holland, MI.

Why We Get Social

We Think. We Can. Social Media – Our clients know first hand how seriously We Do social media. Whether it’s managing multiple Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn accounts, blogging for our clients or creating viral videos, we know that at the end of the day only one thing matters – tangible results. That’s why we measure. Our social media metrics track interactions, site visits, analytics and rankings. And the fun doesn’t stop there. We drill down into the social media-sphere to ensure our clients are forming valuable relationships with their audience. – Murdoch Marketing

How is your agency using a blog for your new business? Submit it for July’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:

2 Comments | Agency Blogs | Tagged: ad agency blog of the month, Blogs I Recommend, FUEL LINES, Michael Gass, Murdoch Marketing, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

7 Tips to Find Time for Ad Agency New Business

July 8, 2010

Your agency’s new business program must be sustainable at the times when your agency is at its busiest.

To often new business development is put on the back burner until existing business decreases and a downturn begins. That creates a roller coaster effect on your agency’s pipeline of prospects which impacts agency income and causes you to accept the wrong type of client, from the wrong pool of prospects who do not fit your agency’s strengths and core competencies.

Definition: con·sis·tent

adj = able to maintain a particular standard or repeat a particular task with minimal variation

To be consistent, any agency new business program must be “realistically” achievable within the culture and resources of the agency.

A lot of agency’s, when they start thinking about new business, are doing so when they are not busy. They should create a new business program that is sustainable when they are at their busiest.

7 tips to find time for ad agency new business, when you are at your busiest:

1. Have someone who is held accountable, who will also keep others accountable for the agency’s new business process. If “everyone” is responsible for your agency’s new business, in actuality no one is. But that doesn’t mean that others, particularly agency principals aren’t involved in the process.

2. Look for ways to simplify your new business processes. Your agency’s new business program should shut down or even slow down just because you have a couple of RFPs that have a short turn-around period or even if you have a significant new business pitch that week.

For all of your agency’s new business activities such as RFP responses, direct mail, phone calls, social media marketing, etc, always invoke the K.I.S.S. principle. It isn’t rocket science, so keep everything simple so that it is sustainable even during your agency’s peak periods.

3. Keep reporting to a minimum. I know of some agencies that overburden the person that is charged with new business with lots of detailed reporting on the persons daily or weekly activities. Don’t hold them accountable for the activities, hold them accountable for results. In the end that is what they are judged on anyway.

4. Keep meetings to a minimum. Don’t tie up your new business person(s) with meaningless meetings.

When I served as VP of new business for a regional ad agencies, we moved our new business staff to a quiet floor of the agency that no one else occupied. We didn’t get roped into the plurality of meetings that were being held throughout the day. This kept us out-of-site and out-of-mind so that we could stay focused on generating results for new business.

5. Create a support group. Involve junior level staff, interns and/or persons working remotely to carry out a lot of the “grunt” type new business work. There are many activities that don’t make financial sense for a new business executive to be doing on a daily basis. It isn’t smart business for their time to be used for some new business tasks.

6. Outsource services where it is appropriate. An example of a service that could be outsourced could be the agency’s prospective client database. A lot of agency’s tell me about their data base of prospects. But most of the time, this type of a database is just a bunch of names and contact information gathered from lots of different efforts and sources. But there usually no one that is maintaining and updating the data because of the tremendous amount of time that it takes.

A midsize ad agency, outsourced their own PR for new business, even though they had a PR department. They found that outsourcing the service provided more accountability and consistency. “You can be sure it’s no accident that some agencies get more ink and air time than others. It’s because they have an intentional, ongoing effort to get their names in the marketplace, and they have made PR a priority” - Don Beehler, PR Consultant.

7. Maintain focus. Part of the excitement and also frustration of working within the agency environment is that it face paced and constantly changing. But this kind of environment makes easy to get sidetracked and wastes lots of time. And it will happen particularly if your new business program lacks focus.

To have focus, it is imperative that you create a simple new business plan and ritualistically work it. It must be the person responsible for new business to keep it headed in the right direction. Strategic, not reactionary. Plan the work and work the plan. It is that simple.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

4 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Tips, Time Management | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, business development, Don Beehler, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Of these 53 ad agency blogs, which best understands social media?

July 6, 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 53 advertising agency blogs have been submitted to Fuel Lines. Review and vote for the best agency blog for the month of June. 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 June:

30 Dana, Dana Communications, Hopewell, NJ
5 to 9 Branding, Cameron Christopher Thomas Advertising, Denver, CO
Aloft Group Insights, Aloft Group, Inc., Newburyport, MA
Blog-a-Rhythm, Rhythm Interactive, Irvine, CA
brainwoo, Thompson & Company, Memphis, TN
brandSTOKE, CONRAD | PHILLIPS | VUTECH, Columbus, OH
Content to Commerce, Big Fuel, Manhattan, NY
creativity_unbound, Mullen, Boston, MA
Energy Efficiency Marketing, Kelliher Samets Volk, New York, NY
Engaging Trends, Pixel Farm Interactive, Minneapolis, MN
Fifth Gear Analytics, Sigma Marketing Group, Rochester, NY
Going Social Now, Razorfish, New York, NY
Healthy Conversations, Trajectory, Morristown, NJ
Hill Holiday Blog, Hill Holiday, Boston, MA
ideas @ work, Ideas Collide Marketing Communications, Scottsdale, AZ
JWT blog, Atlanta, GA
Marketing Thoughts by Domus, Inc., Domus, Inc., Philadelphia, PA
Marketing Your Hospital, TotalCom Communications, Tuscaloosa, AL
My Name is Not Ralph, Toth Brand Imaging, Cambridge, MA
Never Be Forgotten, Palio, Saratoga Springs, NY
New FoundNation, The Communications Group, Little Rock, AR
Off Madison Ave, Phoenix, AZ
Off the Shelf, BARKLEY US, Kansas City, MO
Ogilvy Earth, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, New York, NY
onmessage Blog, OnMessage, Dallas, TX
Park Howell, Sustainable Storyteller, Park&Co, Phoenix, AZ
Peak Seven blog, Peak Seven Advertising, Deerfield Beach, FL
Relate with Us, GS&F, Nashville, TN
RIESTER BLOG, RIESTER Advertising, Phoenix, AZ, Salt Lake City, UT, El Segundo, CA
Root & Madison Blog, Root & Madison, LLC, Dallas, TX and Denver, CO
Scatter/Gather, Razorfish, New York, NY
See What’s Working, Anderson Partners Advertising, Omaha, NE
Share, bcad group, Toronto, Canada
She-conomy, Holland + Holland, Birmingham, AL
Spyder Trap Blog, Spyder Trap Online Marketing, Minneapolis, MN
Superhype, Razorfish, Chicago, IL
Tangent, Sharpe Partners, NY
The Ad Contrarian, Hoffman/Lewis, San Francisco
The Assurance Blog, Assurance Advertising, Orange County, CA and Las Vegas, NV
The Experience Effect, Lippe Taylor Brand Communications, New York, NY
The Idea Drawer, ABC Creative Group, Syracuse, NY
The Main Artery, Kuhn & Wittenborn, Kansas City, MO
The Nebo Blog, NeboWeb, Atlanta, GA
The Point, Spear Marketing Group, Walnut Creek, CA
Through the Ears of an Entrepreneur, Small Army, Boston, MA
TV is Not Dead, Ad Partners, Tampa, FL
Under the Iconic Influence, Preston Kelly, Minneapolis, MN
Up Your Ups, Wheeler Advertising, Arlington, TX
W+K NYC Blog, Widen + Kelly, New York, NY
We Think. We Can. Blog, Murdoch Marketing, Holland, MI
Why Moms Rule, BOHAN, Nashville, TN
Wired to the Real World, Smiley Hanchulak, Akron, OH
Wright -to -Know, Dimension X, Jeannette, PA

Fuel Lines Agency Blog of the Month for May: Marketing Home Products, Kleber & Associates, Atlanta, GA

If you would like to submitted your agency’s blog for next month’s vote, send me an email and include:

In your email’s subject line – Blog of the Month
Blog title:
URL:
Agency Name:
City/State:

3 Comments | Agency Blogs | Tagged: Ad Agency Blogs, Barkley, business development, FUEL LINES, Hill-Holiday, Kleber & Associates, Michael Gass, Ogilvy, Preston Kelly, Razorfish, Social Media, Widen + Kelly | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Jump Start Your Ad Agency Blog Using Email

July 2, 2010

This is a guest post from my friend Todd Knutson, CEO of The List, the most accurate online database of marketing and advertising decision makers in North America. Todd is also the author of a great new business blog, New Business Intel.

If your ad agency has or is considering writing a blog, deciding how to spread the word to acquire readers is important: If relevant corporate marketers aren’t reading it, the time you invest in writing may be in vain.
Common ways to promote your blog include:

Email marketing
Twitter
Links from your website

This post is a guide to using email as a blog promotional tool.
Your most important decision is choosing between using an internal email list or purchasing a list. There are pros and cons of each:
Your list – pros

You own it
It’s free
It has your clients and (some) prospects on it

Your list – cons

It may be out of date
It may not include all the prospects you should be pursing
It may be too small (you need at least 1500 good names to kick-start your blog (and more gets you there faster)

External list – pros

It’s the most effective way to increase the size of your list
The right llist will allow you to reach the corporate marketers that exactly fit your prospect profile: by the geography, industries, titles, company size(s), and media spend.
The right list will be high-quality (i.e. clean), with a low (5%) bounce rate
Certain list companies will completely update their email list multiple times per year, and/or will offer to correct or replace those emails that bounce.

External list – cons

There are few, if any, opt-in lists for corporate marketers
You’ll get what you pay for: low price usually equates to not being able to effectively target as described above, or you’ll have a high bounce rate.

The opt-in question is tricky: to my knowledge, highly targeted, opt-in lists of relevant corporate marketers just aren’t available. Our clients tell us they’ve purchased them from many different companies and they’re universally terrible. We’ve tried it internally and experienced the same thing. I think the reason is fairly simple: the corporate marketers you want to reach just don’t opt-in very often. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in relevant content.

Your next decision is to choose an email provider from the many available services. I recommend you look for one with as many of the following features as you can get:

Easily manages opt-out requests
Tracks soft and hard bounces
Tracks opens
Manages out of office replies
Creates browser-friendly, text-friendly, and HTML-friendly format
Allows you to test different subject lines to see which one(s) work the best, with follow-up emails going to non-opens of the first message
Allows you to easily manage days, times, time zones for each send
Has good analytics / reports so you can effectively measure your performance over time

Promoting your blog well makes the effort it takes to write all the more worthwhile, and email is a great way to do so.