Study: 69% of Businesses Increased New Business Leads Through Blogging

September 30, 2011

Blogging greatly improves search engine optimization, which has proven to be a key lead generating factor for new business.

How new business is being acquired for ad agencies is currently undergoing a paradigm shift; instead of pursuing clients, it’s now more important for your prospective clients to find your agency. Blogs make their search easier.

2011 HubSpot ROI Study

In a recent 2011 HubSpot ROI Study,  69% of businesses surveyed said that blogging attributed their lead generation success. The study also found that 75% of businesses believed SEO was a primary factor. The study shows companies that blog attract 55% more website visitors than non-blogging companies.

Blogs generate far more visitors by:

  • Search visibility – blogs are organized to be search engine friendly. Plus the more content you have (well-linked) the more chances there are of attracting search traffic.
  • Click-through traffic - through posting interesting articles a blog gives a reason for other people to link to you.
  • Repeat traffic – regularly updated content and comments bring visitors back … and back … and back. Most agency websites are not conducive to repeat traffic, particularly if your website hasn’t been updated in 5 years.
  • Personality - create a blog around your agency’s culture and let your personality shine through. People will be attracted to you. People like to associate with people they like. It’s hard to make friends with a business, but easy to warm to an individual with a welcoming personality.
  • Viral effects – you create something cool and visitors tell their friends, who tell their friends … and so on.
  • Authority/credibility – blogging allows you to become an expert in the minds of your prospective clients.

Ad Agency Website | Blog

Your agency’s website functions well as an online brochure, a place for agency credentials and credibility. A website doesn’t have the potential that an agency blog has for significant online traffic and provide prospects a reason to visit often. A blog can be the gateway to your agency. Through content marketing, focused toward a specific target audience, an agency’s blog can become a great lead generation tool for new business.

Your agency’s website is about YOU but your blog should be about THEM. Blogging keeps your agency focused on what is important to your prospective clients. It forces you speak to their benefit instead of agency credentials and capabilities. Blog content, if developed correctly, will have more appeal to your prospective client audience because it is focused on their marketing needs and challenges.

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

A 70 Point Checklist for Jump-Starting or Tuning-Up Your Blog for New Business

September 29, 2011

You should evaluate your agency’s blog to optimize its potential as a tool for lead generation, referrals and networking.

There is a dramatic paradigm shift for acquiring new business opportunities for small to midsize ad agencies. Agencies need to rethink their approach to new business and intensify their focus for creating magnetic content that will attract prospective clients, rather than relying primarily on the interruption model of cold calls and unsolicited direct mail, which consumers are responding to less and less.

Creating new business opportunities through social media is growing. In a recent Ad Agency New Business Survey that I conducted, 64% of the 430 responding ad agencies said they now have a blog. Unfortunately, a number of these blogs are not optimized for new business.

I’ve compiled the following 70 point check-list to help “jump-start” or “tune-up”agency blogs for new business:

  1. Identify your audience. This will help to make your writing easier and more focused.
  2. State the purpose of  your blog. Create a descriptor statement in the blog’s Header. A one sentence summation of the purpose for your blog. Expand upon the descriptor statement in a “Welcome” section in your blog’s sidebar.
  3. Make sure that your blog’s benefit to your visitors is crystal clear.
  4. Reading fuels your writing. You need a good strategic reading program with a clear focus that is centered upon your audience’s interest and needs.
  5. Have calls-to-action that are clear. What do you want your audience to do? They can subscribe to your newsletter, inquire about your services, download a white-paper or eBook, email you their questions, etc.
  6. Create each post title with the keywords you want to dominate through search (i.e. “ad agency new business”). It is also helpful to flag a targeted audience through Twitter and let them know the content is specific to their needs.
  7. The first sentence of your post should be the “takeaway or benefit statement”. Just simply answer the question, what will be my takeaway or benefit if I commit to read this post?  Lead with the conclusion.
  8. Have a distinct point-of-differentiation.
  9. Remember that online readers prefer writing that is concise, easy to scan, and objective (rather than promotional) in style.
  10. Focus on providing quality information over the quantity of posts being generated.
  11. Build relationships with your readers by integrating your blog with Facebook, Google +, Twitter and LinkedIn.
  12. Your blog should become a repository of valued information for your audience. This means that it’s not all original content. I recommend writing 1 original post for every 4 or 5 resource posts.
  13. Use bulleted or numbered lists often. Readers love them.
  14. Highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others).
  15. Publish on a regular schedule. Be consistent in delivering at least 3 to 5 posts per week. This will keep your readers coming back for more. Also, frequently updated content makes search engines happy.
  16. Build credibility and authority for your niche.
  17. Highlight your successes through a featured page such as Press, Awards or your Profile page.
  18. Write headlines that are benefit driven.
  19. Evaluate and improve your writing so that it stands out among the crowd.
  20. Make your posts easy to find and your blog simple to navigate.
  21. Highlight popular posts.
  22. Provide links to additional resources. I almost always provide “Additional articles that may be of interest” at the end of most of my post, linking to similar content from my blog and other sources. It also will keep your visitors on your site longer and improve their experience.
  23. Half the word count (or less) than conventional writing. Usually 350 to 450 words.
  24. Demonstrate how you stand out in your niche. Provide testimonials, comments, featured articles, endorsements, and statistics—in text, audio, and video format through additional linked blog pages or specialty pages.
  25. Provide one call-to-action with clear instructions above the fold.
  26. Avoid jargon and agency speak.
  27. Provide headlines and sub headlines that make it easy for readers to skim your piece before reading the entire article.
  28. Don’t use white writing on black or colored background that makes it hard for people to read.
  29. Create or choose a blog layout that isn’t cluttered or confusing.
  30. Provide captions (where appropriate) on photos that are keyword rich and benefit-driven.
  31. Don’t use too many fonts, colors, and sizes.
  32. Check to see that  your blog is quick to load.
  33. Have a clean, simple, banner at the top of your blog that creates the right feeling on your site. A personal rather than corporate feel.
  34. Break-up long text with sub-headings, bullet points, italics, indention, photos and graphics.
  35. Your opt-in should be above the fold.
  36. Provide an incentive for visitors to give you their name and email.
  37. Only ask for opt-in information that you intend to utilize.
  38. Don’t adhere to the belief that if you “build it and they will come”.
  39. Test, monitor and fine tune your blog regularly.
  40. Use offline-to-online marketing to further promote your blog.
  41. Collect blog stats on results weekly, or per campaign.
  42. In the early phase of promoting your blog, consider paid traffic, Facebook PPC and banner ads.
  43. Build or buy email lists as you build your opt-in list for your niche. A good resource would be The List out of Atlanta, GA.
  44. Write guest articles for other blogs in your niche and even other niches.
  45. Submit your blog post to online directories.
  46. Facilitate referral opportunities through your blog.
  47. Interact regularly through social media—Facebook, Google +, Twitter and LinkedIn.
  48. Run competitions. I’ve generated a lot of traffic to my blog through an “Agency Blog of the Month” contest that culminated into an “Agency Blog of the Year”.
  49. Conduct online surveys and polls through your blog at least quarterly and share results in a post article, PRWeb or PR Newswire.
  50. Create partnering and promotional opportunities with online thought leaders in your niche.
  51. Find ways, through your blog, to help your readers engage with one another.
  52. Write with an “evergreen” style that allows your blog posts to have a long shelf-life and provide a greater return on your time investment.
  53. Write for fast comprehension.
  54. Be sure to include a photo or graphic for each post to add some additional flavor. Use only images that you have rights to or  Creative Commons-licensed content that you can find through photo sharing service such as Flicker.com.
  55. Repurpose content. Someone that finds one of your blog post through search might click-through to another post because you have repurposed it through an email newsletter, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google +.
  56. Carefully think through your blog’s heading. A “heading” is a stand-alone phrase that describes your blogs content that appear below it. I usually advise clients to create a blog descriptor statement for the header that lets a reader and search engines know the purpose and intent of the content such as “Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media.”
  57. Write consistently: This is important to creating regular readership. Write at least 3 to 5 posts per week.
  58. Make sure that your blog’s content stays focused and relevant to your target audience. Especially when developing curated content.  Curation is essentially the organizing and sharing (some might even say “repackaging”) of content in ways that are meaningful to a specific target audience. There is a lot of great information you can glean from online that is not related to your readership, but you can easily make them relevant.
  59. Be sure you own your domain name. A person that still has “wordpress or blogspot” in their domain won’t be able to change blogging platforms without losing traffic. This is a huge mistake.
  60. Be sure your site is indexed with Google. If your pages are not indexed, then Google is not crawling them.
  61. Build quality inbound links.There are many online business directories where you can just submit your URL, agency’s name and a description of your services.
  62. Make sure your content can be easily shared on Facebook, Twitter, Linked, as well as social bookmarking sites such as Digg, dell.icio.us and StumbleUpon with Share buttons.
  63. Jump-start traffic by repurposing your blog’s content through an email newsletter that is sent every-other-week. Don’t assume that because you’ve written a post, everyone has read it. You should always assume just the opposite.
  64. Build a sizable Twitter following that is targeted using TweetAdder and repurpose your blog content to your Twitter account using a program such as Social Oomph. Twitter can become your blog’s number one tool for generating targeted traffic.
  65. Invite others to guest post for your blog but be selective.
  66. Be proactive in facilitating speaking opportunities by creating a “Speakers Page” for your blog, list the topics and titles that you can speak to.
  67. Place your RSS Subscription Feed button above the fold, near the top of you blog’s homepage.
  68. Also place a subscription for your email newsletter within your blog’s sidebar to create Opt-Ins from site visitors.
  69. Review your blog site’s analytics daily to see what posts are generating the most traffic, what search terms are being used, where traffic is coming from, who is linking to you, links readers clicked on, page views, etc.
  70. Create a first-step call-to-action for your readers to know how to initially engage with your services. This could be a market or brand audit, or a workshop. Whatever it is, make it something simple and of good value . Price it low so that it doesn’t require a lot of time to consider. It will at least pay for your time in front of a prospect and lead to more new business opportunities.  A call-to-action will also help separate your qualified prospects from those that just want to pick your brain for free.

Some additional agency blogging resources:

7 Comments | Agency Blogs, Content Marketing, Creating Content, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Ways Social Media Marketing Makes New Business Easier

September 23, 2011

Photo Credit NCinDC

For agency new business, you need to look at social media as a saviour not a nemesis; an asset rather than a liability; a time saver rather than a time killer.  

Having spent most of my advertising career in new business development I can tell you that social media marketing is the most efficient new business tool that I have ever used.

Here are 5 ways social media marketing makes agency new business easier:

1. Social media marketing allows agencies to easily define and adopt a differentiating new business strategy

The FOUNDATION of an ad agency’s new business program is its positioning.

When you have the right positioning, it’s like fishing for a specific fish, using  a particular bait. You know where the fish are, what bait is most appealing to them, the right equipment to use and you have developed the expertise to catch the real trophies.

Small to midsize agencies have been reluctant to name what they stand for. Social media marketing allows agencies to adopt a narrower niche and a more differentiating strategy than they would be comfortable in doing through their website.

“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 waaay 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, She-conomy: A guy’s guide to marketing to women” – Stephanie Holland, president, Holland + Holland Advertising

Holland + Holland advertising, through their blog,  She-conomy, has now been invited to 3 national pitches as a result of their differentiating positioning. Nothing like this had ever happened before in their 25 year history. They even had trouble with local press coverage of their anniversary. But through social media, they have been recognized by Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and NPR radio.

Stephanie had never been comfortable stepping out with this positioning prior to social media. She was like other agency principals who felt that they would be missing opportunities.

Here are a couple of other examples:

  • The Littlefield ad agency, Tulsa, OK,  is carving out a niche through their The One Thing blog: The casino marketers guide to understanding gamers, written by the agency’s new business director, Kelly Fiddner.
  • MAX Advertising, Atlanta, GA, has created The Matte Pad, Marketing know how for the legal profession, written by its CEO, Tom Matte.

The way these agencies are using social media as a differentiating tool doesn’t impact the way the have obtained new business in the past. It doesn’t impede the networking and referral business that is generated offline. MAX advertising will still obtain new business outside of legal marketing and even though Littlefield is focused on casino marketers, it doesn’t impact winning a sizable local bank as a new client.

Why would a prospective client, outside of your market, want to work with your agency? Why would they pass over hundreds of other agencies to work with yours? Through a differentiating social media marketing strategy you can give them a reason.

2. Social media marketing provides an easy system to create intellectual capital and share your area of expertise

Social media marketing is effectively driven by content development and curation. This in turn provides a customized continuing education program for your professional enrichment, keeping you ahead of the learning curve and positioning as a thought leader.

An added plus, social media marketing pays for you to go back to school! What you do for professional enrichment will also provide your FUEL for new business.

3. Social media marketing lessens dependency upon new business tactics that rely on interruption tactics

I’m a cold caller from way back and have had much success with it in the past. But times are changing rapidly. Cold calling isn’t what it use to be and it isn’t an efficient or effective method for agency new business. You make dozens of calls to find the right prospect and the right time but you still have to go through the “dating process”.

Social media marketing has the potential for building prospective client relationships much faster than cold calling. 

Can you imagine a prospective client picking up the phone and initiating a call for the first meeting with your agency? It doesn’t happen very often. That’s not the norm. The vast majority of the time, small to midsize agencies, PR firms and digital shops are chasing after new business opportunities.

Having steadily grown my consultancy over the past 4 years, I have yet to make an initial call for any new business. I strategically built awareness and appeal through my social media networks.

Prospective clients call and  those initial conversations are much further down-the-road. They talk to me as if they know me, because they do know me. I’ve built a relationship with them online through the use of social media and when they make that call, they are usually ready to do business. You skip the dating process and move straight to the altar. 

Why? People want to work with other people that they KNOW, TRUST and LIKE. Social media is an efficient and effective communication channel that allows relationships to be built much faster than they could be offline.

For instance, to have a physical, initial meeting here in my home town of Birmingham, Alabama would take much longer and is less efficient than the way I generate new business opportunities online through my social media networks.

I can be building a relationship with an agency in Costa Mesa, California while simultaneously I’m doing the same with an agency in Portland, Maine and Miami, Florida. I am doing this while I’m networking internationally through a network of agencies in South Africa and a couple of agencies in London.

All of this networking is taking place from my home office located above my garage in Alabaster, Alabama or from where ever I happen to be.

4. Social media marketing allows agencies to broaden their market 

Small to midsize ad agencies can affordably build a national awareness.

Prior to using social media for new business, The Russo Group in Lafayette, LA, 94% of their new business came from within their market. Since implementing social media, 94% of their new business has been generated outside their market and has extended their  business in over 9 different states.

The growth clients well outside of their market of Lafayette had never happened before. Social media marketing made the difference.

Not long ago I received this message from a midsize agency located outside of Cleveland, Ohio:

“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

This agency has a very narrow niche, manufacturers who target professional tradesmen, plumbers, electricians, contractors. They’ve been able to play to their strengths because social media marketing broadens their business opportunities.

5. Social media marketing helps create consistent new business practices

You can keep your prospective pipeline full even when your agency is at its busiest. Once you develop your social media marketing strategy and get it in place, it will take little effort to keep it working on your behalf.

We previously owned a houseboat that was docked at a marina in Nashville, TN.  I often would make the 250 mile drive to spend time on the boat.  I absolutely loved the atmosphere and the culture around the docks at Black Jack Cove Marina. My new business pipeline didn’t suffer when I spent weeks there. Often I would be sitting on the back of the boat watching the sun set while cranking out another blog post and engaging with new business prospects hundreds of miles away.

I can easily create, maintain and grow new prospective client relations through my social media network. It is similar to how I would network offline but much more efficient. It is like networking on steroids.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

4 Comments | Agency Blogs, Content Marketing, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

4A’s New Business | Social Media Workshop

September 22, 2011

A Formula for Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

Nov. 3 , New York, NY

This is a rare, one-day workshop sponsored by the 4A’s. I usually conduct these workshops on-site, at individual agencies, and only do one or two of these open full-day workshop all year.

Registration is open to both 4A’s members and non 4A’s members.

CMO Study: 80% of decision makers said they found their vendors not the other way around.

Social media has already impacted advertising as we know it. It also impacts new business development. It’s more important to strategically place your agency in front of your best prospects online than to continually chase new business by interruption tactics such as cold calling.

This practical seminar is designed to “focus and kick-start” your agency’s understanding, participation, credibility and leadership in social media with less expense, time and frustration. Simultaneously, you will create a new business pipeline and lead generation network that can be maintained when your agency is at its busiest.

You will learn:

  • What a major shift in the advertising business means for agency new business practices
  • How to make sense of social media from a new business perspective
  • New methods for inbound lead generation
  • How to greatly accelerate your personal networks and referrals for new business beyond your local market
  • How to create online content that generates online traffic
  • How to use social media to get your agency out of a “perpetual state” of rebranding itself and provide an appealing and differentiating position for your new business

Who Should Attend
This agency seminar is created for “C” level and senior executives charged with the responsibility of new business development.

Event Location
Draftfcb New York, 100 West 33rd Street, New York, (212) 885-3000

Schedule
8:30 AM     Registration and Continental Breakfast (included in registration fee)
9:00 AM     Workshop begins
12-1 PM     Lunch (included in registration fee)
4:30 PM     Workshop adjourns

Registration Fees
$295 per person, 4A’s members
$395 per person, non 4A’s members

Click on the following link to download more information/program agenda

Logistics/Registration:  Contact Cecilia Graham at 212-850-0756 or cecilia@aaaa.org
Programming:  Contact Bob Linden at 212-850-0750 or bobl@aaaa.org

About the 4A’s
The 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) is the national trade association of the advertising agency business and provides leadership, advocacy and guidance to the industry. The management-oriented association founded in 1917 helps its members build their businesses, and acts as the industry’s spokesperson with government, media, and the public sector. Its membership comprises virtually all of the large, multinational agencies and hundreds of small and mid-sized agencies across the country. More than 1,200 member agency offices served by the 4A’s employ 65,000 people, offer a wide range of marketing communications services, and place 80 percent of all national advertising. For more information, visit the 4A’s Web site at

 

 

Leave a Comment » | Agency Leadership, Best Practices | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

10 Prime Time Benefits of Blogging for New Business

September 22, 2011

Prime Time for New Business

Photo Credit zoutedrop

The majority of ad agencies have yet to comprehend what huge benefits a blog can make and why it deserves to be “prime time” for new business.

With help from American Business Media and the Business Marketing Association, Junta42 and MarketingProfs surveyed over 1,100 North American B2B marketers from diverse industries and a wide range of company sizes. The survey revealed that content marketing, including blogs, is a key lead generation source for 63% of the respondents.

  • Brand Awareness – 78%
  • Customer Attention/Loyalty – 69%
  • Lead Generation – 63%
  • Website Traffic – 55%
  • Though Leadership – 52%
  • Sales – 51%
  • Lead Nurturing – 37%

Here’s the story of how my blog helped launch my business

I started my consulting business just prior to The Great Recession. We had three kids in college at the time. I didn’t have a lot of funds to promote my services nor the time to play around with social media. But, I sensed the potential of social media for building awareness quickly and creating new business opportunities. So I jumped in, immersing myself in it as if I were back in grad school. From early mornings until late at night and even weekends, I spent time trying to get my head around this new communication channel but always from a new business perspective.

From the start I was compelled to monetize social media, forced to press the envelope beyond the way the early adopters of social media had intended for it to be used. Within a short three months I was already securing new clients as well as an income that matched my previous salary.

From the beginning, the centerpiece of my social media strategy was my blog

My blog, Fuel Lines, literally launched my consultancy. If I had promoted my business using traditional methods, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have spent a substantial amount of money and it would have taken much longer for my consultancy business to be where it is today.

Once I created my blog it became a never-ending cycle of content development and learning curves based on the fast progression of social media. It has been a process of “learn as you go”. I came upon an old adage in the early days of my writing, “you don’t know what you know until you write it down”. This is so true. My blog has served as a key tool for my personal continuing education program. It brought focus to my reading and writing along with the discovery enriching online resources that fuel both content created from other sources and original content.

Content marketing, through my blog, quickly became one of my most effective marketing tools. Instead of the typical “once and done” traffic of a website, my blog has provided a much better platform for repeat traffic and search visibility.

Here are the benefits that I hope will give you reason to devote Prime Time to your agency’s blog: 

1. Generate more online traffic

“Businesses (agencies) that blog, get 55% more website traffic than those that don’t,” According to a social media study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42

Your blog has the potential to create more web traffic than your agency’s website ever could. Your blog can attract a high volume of quality traffic from the pool of prospective clients you are trying to reach.

Blogs develop more visitors by:

  • Search visibility – blogs are organized to be search engine friendly. Plus the more content you have (well-linked), the more chances there are of attracting search traffic.
  • Click-through traffic - by posting interesting articles, a blog gives a reason for other people to link to you.
  • Repeat traffic – regularly updated content and comments bring visitors back … and back … and back. Most agency websites are not conducive to repeat traffic, particularly if your website hasn’t been updated in 5 years.
  • Personality - Put a face with your agency. Create a blog around a person(s) and let your personality shine through. People will be attracted to you. People like to associate and work with people they know, trust and like. It’s hard to make friends with a business, but easy to warm to an individual with a welcoming personality.
  • Viral effects – you create something cool and visitors share it with their friends, who share with their friends … and so on.

2.  A blog is a great place for your best prospects to easily find you

MarketingSherpa reported that a CMO Study, 80 percent of decision makers said they FOUND their vendors (not the other way around).

New business for ad agencies has been going through a paradigm shift; instead of chasing after prospective clients, it’s now more important for your prospective clients to find you. Blogs allows you to take full advantage of this paradigm shift for new business, shifting a good portion of your time and energy from outbound lead generation to implementing an inbound lead generation strategy.

A content marketing strategy is a major feature for inbound lead generation and a blog is a central component.

3. A positioning tool

Most ad agencies struggle with narrowing their target audience and thus have great difficulty in positioning and differentiating themselves. A blog is a tool that allows agencies to more easily define and adopt a differentiating new business strategy. Agencies are more comfortable with a narrower niche through a blog than they ever would be with their website.

Here are some examples of agency blogs with a strong target focus and differentiated positioning:

4. Your own focus group for new business

I have been enriched by having this online, ongoing, personal “focus group” that has provided real-time feedback and insights. My blog readers provide me with an ongoing education. They help me to help them. They let me know whether or not I’m clearly communicating with them.  They help me to take my experience and expertise with agency new business and social media and become better at meeting their specific needs.

5. The recycling of older content for a greater ROI

You will continue to generate a great return on your time investment, writing for your agency’s blog, by recycling older content. As you write your posts, learn to write “ever-green” to give the content a long shelf life.

Here are some ways to repurpose your blog content:

  • Twitter: This isn’t like your email inbox. People are on and off Twitter rather quickly. Often they are scanning for helpful resources to their advertising/marketing challenges. The odds that the majority of your followers would see a post that you published at 11 am on a Thursday is remote. It’s about reach and frequency. SocialOomph is a great program to assist with repurposing content through your Twitter account and allows you to control your publishing schedule knowing what post is being published when.
  • Email Newsletters: Posts from your archive will find new life by way of your newsletter. You can group older posts around a particular category or theme. Highlight the “best of” your online content. Here are a couple of examples: Fuel Lines, Convince and Convert’s Vault
  • Facebook and LinkedIn: Another way to repurpose content is through other social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. These are not with the same frequency of posting as you would with Twitter.

6. A pipeline for consistent lead generation

You can keep your prospective pipeline full even when your agency is busy with client work or you are away.

At the beginning of the summer, while my wife and I were vacationing in Key West, I wrote a post and published it along with a photo while on the beach. I wrote,“Vacationing with Social Media and Still Generating Ad Agency New Business,” to illustrate how content marketing through a blog can keep your new business pipeline full even when you are away.

7.  Leading with client benefits instead of agency capabilities

Blogging keeps your agency focused on what is important to your prospective clients. It’s not about YOU it’s all about THEM. It forces you speak to their benefit instead of talking about your agency.

If you don’t have a passion to help your audience succeed, you wont success with blogging. As soon as you start to “sell” your agency or brag about your credentials and awards, you will lose your credibility along with your audience. Instead, provide content that helps your prospects with their marketing challenges and build trust. Then new business will come.

8. A professional enrichment tool

Blogging will enrich your professional life, keep you up to date with the freshest thinking and help you to be acquainted with the newest and best trends. Writing to a specific audience to help them with their needs will focus your reading and your writing. You have direction to begin each day and that makes blogging easier.

9. Enhances Network and Referrals

A survey of advertising agencies conducted by Fuel Lines, reveals that 50% of the 430 responding agencies generated new business from two primary sources last year: referrals and networking.

Agencies have long understood the importance of individual connections to generate new business. It has always been the lifeblood of small to midsize agencies. Thankfully, albeit slowly, agencies are starting to understand the potential of social media to enhance networks and referral opportunities.

A blog, as the centerpiece of your social media strategy, will greatly enhance your capabilities of networking within your local market plus far beyond it.

Over the summer, I wrote a post from my hotel room in London, England. I was reflecting on how far I’ve come since I created my blog. I have worked with new clients all across the United States from Costa Mesa, CA to Port Clyde, Maine and this year had my first overseas client in the UK. I’ve recently been invited to speak to agencies across South Africa in the cities of Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.

I’ve generated these personal networks and referrals by blogging from my home office which is located above my garage in Alabaster, Alabama. It’s absolutely amazing.

10. A Call-to-Action converting blog visitors into new business opportunities

A strong call to action is a clear, simple and compelling offer that persuades your readers to take the action you want. Just having a “Contact Us” form on your blog site is not very appealing to your blog’s visitors. It doesn’t count as your call to action.

I would suggest creating an offer for a particular service, usually a first-step that you normally conduct with every new client, like a brand or marketing audit. Price it in lower than normal, a clear value to the prospect. This will do 3 things:

  1. Render a quicker decision from your prospects. They are not having to make a major financial commitment at this point. They’re just committing to take a small initial step.
  2. Identify the true prospect from those that just want to pick your brain for free and will never pay for your services.
  3. Pay you, at least for a portion of your time, for important face time with your prospective clients.

3 Comments | Agency Blogs, Fuel for Thought, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing for Ad Agency New Business

September 19, 2011

Photo Credit Hubspot

Inbound marketing techniques are rapidly becoming more important for agency new business.  

Over the past four years I’ve seen a steady progression of agencies embracing social media as part of their new business program. Primarily because of the way their prospective clients are making decisions on how they are finding their agency partner. Traditional, “outbound marketing” methods are getting less and less effective.

CMO Survey: 80 percent of decision makers said they found there vendors, not the other way around. MarketingSherpa

Social media is now mainstream and has greatly advanced the importance of “inbound marketing” techniques. Your agency’s prospects are more in control of what information they receive and how they receive it. They are able to get a considerable amount of information about your agency without ever interacting with you directly.

Those agencies that have adapted to this new business paradigm shift from “outbound marketing” methods to “inbound marketing” have an distinct advantage over their competition.

A helpful resource on how companies are generating business through inbound marketing is the “2011 State of Inbound Marketing” report. This is a study, conducted by  Hubspot., and is based on responses from 644 marketing professionals.

Here are the reports top 10 key takeaways:

  1. Inbound consistently delivers a dramatically lower cost per lead than outbound. In 2011, the average cost per lead for outbound-dominated businesses was $373, while inbound businesses reported their leads cost on average $143.
  2. The gap between spending on inbound v. outbound continues to widen: In 2009, inbound marketing had a 9% greater share of the lead generation budget; in 2011 inbound’s share was 17% greater.
  3. Blogs and social media channels are generating real customers: 57% of companies using blogs reported that they acquired customers from leads generated directly from their blog.
  4. More and more business are blogging: Businesses are now in the minority if they do not blog.  From 2009 to 2011 the percentage of businesses with a blog grew from 48% to 65%.
  5. Three out of four Inbound Channels cost less than any Outbound Channel: In 2011, the average cost per lead for outbound-dominated businesses was $373, while inbound businesses reported their leads cost on average $143.
  6. Businesses are increasingly aware their blog is highly valuable: 85% of businesses rated their company blogs as “Useful”, “Important” or “Critical”; a whopping 27% rated their company blog as “Critical” to their business.
  7. The majority of businesses are increasing their Inbound Marketing budgets:54% of those surveyed are increasing their inbound marketing budgets. Among the 54% of respondents with increased inbound marketing budgets, the most commonly cited reason was ―past success with inbound marketing.
  8. Social Media and Blogs generate real customers:57% of those using company blogs have acquired a customer from a blog-generated lead; this is an increase of 11 percentage points since 2010. Facebook and Twitter users reported customer acquisition rates of 48% and 42%, respectively.
  9. Company blogs are increasingly valued. The blog is the channel most frequently reported as critical or important, both in 2009 and 2011. Higher Education, Professional Services & Consulting, and Software & Biotech found blogging was highly effective. All of those industries had over 50% of respondents indicating customer acquisition through their blog.
  10. Most company blogs publish at least weekly. 71% of respondents indicated they blog at least weekly. Despite the evidence showing that increased blogging correlates with increased customer acquisition, blogging frequency remained relatively steady between 2009 and 2011.

HubSpot’s 2011 “State of Inbound Marketing Report” is now available for download.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

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

Ad Agencies: 7 tips that will prep social media success for new business

September 15, 2011

Photo Credit Maxey

“It’s not the will to succeed, but the will to prepare to succeed that makes the difference.”  Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant

It wasn’t until 2010 that most small to mid-size ad agencies gave up fighting against the social media tide and decided to dive in.

When most agencies finally jumped into social media, they had a check list that merely showcased how they were a bona-fide member of the social media community.  From the get-go they were not prepped for success.

“We have an agency blog – check; Twitter account with the agency’s logo – check; Facebook Fan page – check; LinkedIn account for the agency – check!”

No strategy. No specific audience. No positioning and no appeal. Instead of using this new communication channel as an opportunity to showcase how they were different, they ended up looking just the same.

They are positioned online the same way they were offline – as a generalist instead of a specialist and once again following the “safe-way” instead of the “smart-way.” 

Is there any wonder why most agencies are not having much success using social media to create new business opportunities?

As a new business consultant. I understand the need for acquiring new business NOW. But short-term solutions will not provide long-term results. 

To be prepped for success using social media for agency new business, here are 7 tips that I hope you find helpful:

  1. Identify and connect with a specific target audience. Face it, most agencies are afraid to put their stake in the ground and even identify their target audience. You would never recommend a marketing campaign for a client without first identifying who they are trying to reach.
  2. Lead with benefits. Social media helps agencies to talk in a new way from the self promotional agency speak of the past. For success with social media, it’s about them not you. Your communication and content should be focused on your prospective client audience and be of benefit too them.
  3. Differentiate from your competitors. You wont win any significant business by showcasing how you match up with the rest of the agencies. You must un-level the playing field. Set yourself apart. What would give a company a reason to fly  across a number of states and over hundreds of other agencies, to do business with your agency? Social media provides a great opportunity for your agency to stand out.
  4. Become a specialist instead of a generalist. Our world is becoming more and more specialized and the internet and social media allows you and your agency to become more specialized than you dared offline.
  5. Create chemistry.  Remember that social media is about people. You lead with a person, not the agency. People want to work with other people that they know, trust and like. Social media is the greatest networking tool in my lifetime. I’ve built my consultancy utilizing it; building a network with agencies all across the U.S., Canada, Europe  and South Africa from my home in Alabaster, Alabama. How incredible is that?
  6. Develop 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 and hone your appeal. It forces you to give up the “agency speak.” Analytics will provide insight into the needs, challenges and objectives of your prospective client audience. Your community of prospects will let you know whether or not what you communicate is of value to them.
  7. Earn positioning as a “thought leader.” Thought leadership is a critical component in using social media for new business.  But you will never attain such status without a platform and focus. Social media provides a great platform. You much choose your area of focus if you are to have success.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

Leave a Comment » | Agency Blogs, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Small to mid-size ad agencies need to protect their own backyard

September 9, 2011

This guest post is written by Bret Giles, president of agencyside, which offers training and consulting to sell and implement digital marketing services. It’s all exclusively designed for small to mid-size advertising, marketing and PR agencies. One of the premier agency side events is BOLO 2011, October, 9-11, Scottsdale, AZ. A discount for Fuel Line readers is available by using the code MGass. I hope you’ll plan to join me there.

Bret Giles

My backyard is afoul with these pesky rodents intent on ruining what I’ve spent so much energy planting.  They just won’t go away; in fact, I fear they grow in number while their teeth become sharper and their devastation more obvious.  They are invading my space and I’ve done little to prevent it.

Until now.

As an owner of a mid-size agency, I’m ready to passionately protect my turf and start a little invasion of my own. 

Media companies are not agencies – they have hidden agendas and a distinct bias in media selection.  Technology companies like Google are not agencies – they protect their valuation by positioning themselves as a technology to investors, yet they pretend to our clients they are creative strategists capable of pulling off complex campaigns.  And unfortunately they have found a strong ally in procurement offices across American companies.

They are invading our space because their own backyards bear less fruit than needed to sustain juggernaut growth (or prevent death in the case of some media companies).  They know that as marketing budgets are wrestled from people who look beyond the numbers, they will continue to win plum assignments and perform adequately to the expectations of the unsuspecting buyer.

As the story goes, the buyers commoditize our agency offerings and we are relegated to discussions of efficiency against the likes of Meredith, Hearst and Google.  And yet we have some tricks up our sleeve, right? 

By focusing our energy in owned and earned media we feed ourselves, as these media are mostly fee-based (money to us) rather than the media-based alternative of paid media.  As an added bonus, we lessen our reliance on the very entities that invade our turf, thus cutting off their food supply.  On top of that, we can infiltrate their backyards by becoming publishers on behalf of our clients.  After all, conventional media no longer controls the media and conventional wisdom no longer holds value.

It’s time to protect our backyard and organize a small invasion of our own. 

In addition to co-founding an agency, I also helped start agencyside, an organization dedicated to serving small- to mid-size agencies and the issues we face.  We put on an annual conference called BOLO that will further discussions around the role of the small- to mid-size agency and where we can truly add value in a vastly changing backyard.  There is actually tremendous opportunity right now and I think we’ve lined up some great talent to lead forums around that opportunity.

I hope you will join me and about 175 other independent agency owners and executives to further this discussion.  You can get a full account of our agenda at www.BOLO2011.com.

Leave a Comment » | Agency Leadership, Agency Networks, Digital, Special Events | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

A Tribute to Trey Pennington Through His Own Words

September 8, 2011

I was moved watching this video created by Ben Cope, founder and president of Epic Web Strategies, a full-service web design firm and wanted to share it with the readers of Fuel Lines.

Trey left an indelible impression upon my life and the lives of thousands of others. I know he will continue to be an inspiration beyond his untimely death.

“Why I do what I do (and why I need to do a whole lot MORE of what I do!).” Trey Pennington

Here are some of Trey’s quotes that are included in this video:

“”What I admire most about my 6 children – every one of them looks out for the rest. They are immensely sweet people.”

“What drives me is a philosophical world view:

  1. Everyone wants to be heard
  2. Everyone wants to be understood
  3. Everyone wants his or her life to count”

“It’s fun to encourage others and help inspire them to boldly make a difference with their treasure.”

“We cannot solve our problems or seize  upon our opportunities with the same way of being we enjoyed last year”

“Just like most of an iceberg is hidden, so a human being’s backstory is out-of sight.”

“There is a certain level of grieving when we know that our expression of ‘I love you’ falls on deaf ears. That hurts at the soul level.”

“Storytelling captures the essence of what it means to be human”

“One day, it was probably around 11 o’clock at night, I was sitting at my computer and my 13-year-old daughter came in and she said, ‘How are you doing daddy?’

I said, ‘Well, okay,’ and I was looking at my to-do list and I said to her, ‘I wish I had a couple of more hours on this thing.’ And she, with great enthusiasm and zest said, ‘Yep, that’s why God gives us a whole new day tomorrow.’

“These are still scary times. You’ve been through them before. Opportunities are ahead. Focus on that one thing in the present and take action on that today. You’ll make it through.”

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Additional Tributes to Trey:

2 Comments | Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, Social Media | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

An Important Question is Raised as Social Media Loses Trey Pennington to Suicide

September 6, 2011

The Sunday of Labor Day weekend was a very sad day for the social media community. We lost one of our All-Stars and that raises the question; ” Just how real are online relationships created through social media?”

According to news sources, on Sunday morning, around 11 am, Labor Day weekend, Greenville, S.C. Police received a call that there was a man in possession of a gun at the Second Presbyterian Church on River Street. Police found social media personality, Trey Pennington, in the church’s parking lot. Police repeatedly asked him to put the gun down but Trey  turned the gun on himself and fired a single shot, committing suicide. He was 46 years of age.

Trey Pennington was a Greenville, South Carolina businessman, author, international speaker and a thought leader in social media. He created such an appeal because of his genuine desire to help people.

One of the people he most admired was Zig Ziglar. Last year he shared the stage with Zig and a highlight of his life was conducting an interview with his mentor. Trey’s favorite Ziglar quote was also a summation of his attitude when it came to helping others:

“You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” 

Ironically, I never met Trey in person but he was indeed my friend. 

My first connection with Trey came when he asked to conduct an interview for his Blog Talk Radio program, Social Media Professor.

Later, he was a huge help when I was planning my first business trip to London. He co-founded Like Minds, a social media conference that launched in England. He traveled there on many occasions and was kind enough to share his knowledge of the area and prepared a detailed list of resources and contacts for my trip. He was always glad to be of help, never expecting anything in return.

Trey called me several times. I knew what his personal struggles were. We talked about his ongoing battle with depression and how he was trying to cope. I tried my best to instill hope. Before our conversation ended, he wanted to know if there was anything he could do for me. Typical of Trey.

I received my last correspondence from Trey at 8:46 on Friday evening.  He let me know in his final note that he was still struggling, but was hopeful for the future. Traveling on Sunday, I didn’t learn of his suicide until later that evening. I was stunned to say the least. I immediately checked out Trey’s Twitter account and found this:

Trey posted that message at 10:21 a.m. on Sunday, just minutes before ending his life. Trey had a Twitter following of over 111,000 people, but no one could help him at his greatest time of need.

When I checked Trey’s Facebook page, I saw where he had posted more than  70 photos before taking his own life. Photos of happier times spent with his family and friends. He shared some of his most treasured  memories with us.

Trey’s suicide raises many questions. Among them, just how real are the relationships created through social media?

I know personally that Trey drew strength from his social media community.  Many responded with support and expressions of genuine affection for him. Willing to do whatever they could to be of help. Just as did his family, friends and church community.

At Trey’s memorial service, his pastor shared that Trey’s problems weren’t from lack of support or that people were not aware that he was having difficulties. Trey reached out and many of us were aware and there for him, but in the end, powerless to help him.

We probably won’t ever know what was going through Trey’s mind on that Sunday morning for him to commit the ultimate act of letting go of life. But I think that we know that the many relationships that he established through social media are real. He had friends throughout the world that he most likely wouldn’t have made had it not been for social media. We are all grieving for a friend that we lost, someone special, that always showed that he cared.

My heart goes out to Trey’s family. He leaves behind a wife, six wonderful kids, two grandchildren, mother and brother.  I know they will draw strength from the rich memories Trey leaves with them.

My hope, in the coming days and weeks is that his family will be able to draw real strength and support from his online family of friends. 

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Here are some additional special tributes to Trey:

7 Comments | Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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