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20 Top Inbound Marketing Resources for the Paradigm Shift in Ad Agency New Business

November 9, 2011

Intersection Consulting

Advertising agencies, PR firms and digital shops should reverse their new business efforts from “Outbound Marketing” techniques to “Inbound Marketing.”

There is a dramatic paradigm shift for acquiring new business opportunities for advertising agencies, digital shops and PR firms. Agencies need to rethink their approach to new business and intensify their focus on inbound tactics, such as creating magnetic content that will attract prospective clients, rather than relying on the traditional interruption model which consumers are responding to less and less.

MarketingSherpa reported in a CMO Study, 80 percent of decision makers said they FOUND their vendors (not the other way around). Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers.

Most agencies are spending the majority of their new business efforts on “Outbound Marketing” tactics such as direct mail, cold calling, email blasts and other efforts that push their message out to a wide, diverse prospective client audience. Their prospects are already inundated with over 2000 interruptions per day. They are becoming experts at blocking out those unsolicited outbound tactics.

It is much more effective and efficient to follow the paradigm shift to “Inbound Marketing” techniques where 100% of your potential clients will begin an agency search by using Google. The internet, coupled with social media marketing and inbound marketing techniques, takes the ability to network and gain referral business to a whole new level. It allows agencies to maintain a top of mind awareness without using interruption tactics and helps to build relationships quickly.

If an agency has been 90% focused on outbound marketing tactics and only 10% on inbound marketing, I recommend that they do just the opposite.

To make this shift effective, the most successful Inbound Marketing programs will have three key parts:

Content – Content is the fuel for this new business engine. It is what attracts potential clients to your site.
Search Engine Optimization – 90% of new business begins with online search.
Social Media – This will amplify the impact of your content.

Those agencies that adapt to this new business paradigm shift from “outbound marketing” methods to “inbound marketing” will have a distinct advantage over their competition. Some are already seeing results.

In a recent 2011 HubSpot ROI Study, 69% of businesses surveyed said that inbound marketing attributed to their lead generation success.

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 inbound marketing was a key lead generation source for 63% of the respondents:

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

The internet and the rise of social media has changed the nature of ad agency new business and subsequently changed the shape of the sales funnel. That initial client conversation today is much different from the one a decade ago because the prospect often knows as much about your agency as the new business director does and the prospect is already much more “qualified.”

Here are 20 of Fuel Lines’s most popular resources for helping agencies make the shift from outbound marketing to inbound marketing for new business:

Image Credit: Intersection Consulting

3 Comments | Agency Blogs, Content Marketing, Creating Content, New Business Tactics, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business, business development, digital shops, inbound marketing, lead generation, Michael Gass, Public Relations, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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.

14 Comments | Agency Blogs, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: 2011 HubSpot ROI Study, ad agency new business, blogs, content marketing, Hubspot, lead generation, Michael Gass, SEO, Social Media | 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:

Identify your audience. This will help to make your writing easier and more focused.
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.
Make sure that your blog’s benefit to your visitors is crystal clear.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Have a distinct point-of-differentiation.
Remember that online readers prefer writing that is concise, easy to scan, and objective (rather than promotional) in style.
Focus on providing quality information over the quantity of posts being generated.
Build relationships with your readers by integrating your blog with Facebook, Google +, Twitter and LinkedIn.
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.
Use bulleted or numbered lists often. Readers love them.
Highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others).
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.
Build credibility and authority for your niche.
Highlight your successes through a featured page such as Press, Awards or your Profile page.
Write headlines that are benefit driven.
Evaluate and improve your writing so that it stands out among the crowd.
Make your posts easy to find and your blog simple to navigate.
Highlight popular posts.
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.
Half the word count (or less) than conventional writing. Usually 350 to 450 words.
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.
Provide one call-to-action with clear instructions above the fold.
Avoid jargon and agency speak.
Provide headlines and sub headlines that make it easy for readers to skim your piece before reading the entire article.
Don’t use white writing on black or colored background that makes it hard for people to read.
Create or choose a blog layout that isn’t cluttered or confusing.
Provide captions (where appropriate) on photos that are keyword rich and benefit-driven.
Don’t use too many fonts, colors, and sizes.
Check to see that your blog is quick to load.
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.
Break-up long text with sub-headings, bullet points, italics, indention, photos and graphics.
Your opt-in should be above the fold.
Provide an incentive for visitors to give you their name and email.
Only ask for opt-in information that you intend to utilize.
Don’t adhere to the belief that if you “build it and they will come”.
Test, monitor and fine tune your blog regularly.
Use offline-to-online marketing to further promote your blog.
Collect blog stats on results weekly, or per campaign.
In the early phase of promoting your blog, consider paid traffic, Facebook PPC and banner ads.
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.
Write guest articles for other blogs in your niche and even other niches.
Submit your blog post to online directories.
Facilitate referral opportunities through your blog.
Interact regularly through social media—Facebook, Google +, Twitter and LinkedIn.
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”.
Conduct online surveys and polls through your blog at least quarterly and share results in a post article, PRWeb or PR Newswire.
Create partnering and promotional opportunities with online thought leaders in your niche.
Find ways, through your blog, to help your readers engage with one another.
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.
Write for fast comprehension.
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.
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 +.
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.”
Write consistently: This is important to creating regular readership. Write at least 3 to 5 posts per week.
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.
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.
Be sure your site is indexed with Google. If your pages are not indexed, then Google is not crawling them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Invite others to guest post for your blog but be selective.
Be proactive in facilitating speaking opportunities by creating a “Speakers Page” for your blog, list the topics and titles that you can speak to.
Place your RSS Subscription Feed button above the fold, near the top of you blog’s homepage.
Also place a subscription for your email newsletter within your blog’s sidebar to create Opt-Ins from site visitors.
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.
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: advertising agencies, blogs, business development, content curation, content marketing, lead generation, Michael Gass, networking, referrals, Social Media | 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: ad agency new business, content marketing, Michael Gass, she-conomy, social media marketing, SONNHALTER, Stephanie Holland, The Russo Group | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

10 Prime Time Benefits of Blogging for New Business

September 22, 2011

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:

momentum: Moms rule the social web. Does your brand have momentum? - Big Fuel, Manhattan, NY
Off The Shelf: Helping private label food brands take advantage of all the opportunities the market offers – Barkley, Kansas City, MO
Park Howell: Sustainable Storyteller. How sustainable are you and your green marketing - Park & Company, Phoenix, AZ
Roxanne Joffe: Helping women to start, run and grow their business - Cap Brand Marketing, Sarasota, FL
Tradesmen Insights: Marketing to the professional tradesman in the Construction, Industrial and MRO markets - SONNHALTER, Berea, OH
Creative Triage: Market your community hospital efficiently – ABZ Design Group, Charlotte, NC
The Matte Pad: Marketing Know-How for the legal profession – MAX Advertising, Atlanta, GA
Turn Up Your Volume: Strategists and marketers that are looking for ways to drive high-contribution patient volume – The Heavyweights, Indianapolis, IN
Healthy Conversations: Inspiration, Insights & Ideas for Creating New Value – Trajectory, Morristown, NJ
MARKETINGHOMEPRODUCTS: Marketing strategies and communication tactics related to the home and building channel – Kleber & Associates, Atlanta, GA
The One Thing Blog: The casino marketers guide to understanding gamers - Littlefield, Tulsa, OK
Fifth Gear Analytics: Accerlarting sales through analytical insights – SIGMA Marketing Group, Rochester, NY
Ask Smarter Questions: Data drive marketing & business intelligence – Levelwing, Charleston, SC

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:

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.
Identify the true prospect from those that just want to pick your brain for free and will never pay for your services.
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: ad agency, advertising agencies, blogs, business development, content marketing, Michael Gass, networks, new business, referrals, Social Media | 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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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: Ad Agencies, Bear Bryant, Michael Gass, Small to Midsize Ad Agencies, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency Compensation: The biggest frustration of CMOs

August 22, 2011

For small to mid-size ad agencies, it’s time to address the cost of creating advertising in terms of time and money.

All our clients want to know is this – Can your agency solve my problems quickly and at less cost?

Advertising agencies aren’t changing of their own accord, they are being changed. We’ve seen digital technology bring about fundamental change to the news industry, then the music industry. Now seismic change is being forced upon the advertising industry.

Ad industry downsized. There are nearly 120,822 advertising and marketing services companies in the US. We have an over supplied market and receding demand. This is an industry that has already laid off over 160,000 people because of the bloat, the wrong kinds of people and too much inefficiency. Not to mention that we are in the worst economic periods since the great depression and it is far from over.

The same problems that led to he agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution are now plaguing the ad industry in this digital revolution.

John Winsor is currently the CEO of Victors & Spoils, the world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowd sourcing principles and former VP/Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. John addressed the future of advertising agency compensation head on in a recent article written for his blog, John Winsor: Views from the CEO of Victors & Spoils about the future of marketing and product design.

Personally having discussions with dozens of CMOs of Fortune 500 companies John addresses their greatest frustration, the cost of creating advertising – both time and money.

He writes,

“Businesses act based on the way they are compensated. And, the majority of agencies are compensated by selling their people’s time. Compensation is based on the number of FTE’s or full-time employees working on a piece of business. In the age of collaboration the FTE model is broken. The fact is that many agencies make more money when they put more people, or say they do, onto a piece of business. Likewise, it’s more profitable to take more time to do something. If a project should take a month there’s no disincentive for most agencies to drag it out longer.

If advertising industry is to thrive in the age of collaboration we must address the root of the problem, the way we are compensated for our work. If we don’t many companies won’t survive the current economic transformation that’s underway.”

John encourages agencies to come together to fix the problem and proactively transform our industry before it is changed without us.

Click on the following link to read John’s article, “Fees, Lies and Advertising” also follow John on Twitter. John’s books include:

For the latest industry news and resources from all corners of the internet, be sure and check out my new site: Gass On Line: Daily fuel for ad agencies

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Compensation, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency compensation, CMO, Crispin, digital revolution, Fortune 500 companies, John Winsor, Michael Gass, Porter + Bogusky, Victors & Spoils | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Zig Ziglar and Ad Agency New Business Directors

August 1, 2011

Agency new business directors have one of the most important, as well as toughest, jobs in advertising – selling the agency.

Why is agency new business so tough? Primarily because agencies are notorious for their inability to sell themselves. Agencies desperately need an expert/specialist in the mechanics of new client acquisition, someone who has the sole focus and capabilities to bring“life-giving” new business to the agency.

“It’s just such a hard position to fill,” said Michael Zuna, New York managing director at Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi, “The Mad Men-rainmaker days — that doesn’t happen anymore. It’s a tough job.”

In my time in the trenches as a new business director for a number of agencies, I was often inspired by the writings, tapes, videos and presentations of Zig Ziglar, a fellow Alabamian. He is one of the most famous motivational speakers and authors in the world. He is also one of the nicest persons you’d ever want to meet.

Ziglar comes from a successful sales background and has a first hand understanding about the daily grind of being in sales and the need for motivation.

He once said,

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily!”

To help feed your daily motivational needs, here’s my list of Zig Ziglar’s most notable motivational quotes (I’ve paraphrased a few of these to make them a bit more specific to our industry). Hopefully they will provide you with a spark of motivation as you attend to one of the most important jobs of your agency – business development:

Motivating gets you going and habit gets you there . Make motivating a habit and you will get there more quickly and have more fun on the trip.
Stop selling and start helping.
Your agency’s most valuable asset is its reputation.
Prospects are perishable – handle with care.
Obstacles are the things we see when we take our eyes off our goals.
If you’re sincere, praise is effective. If you’re insincere, it’s manipulative.
The primary reason prospects will choose not do choose your agency is lack of trust.
New business is more than a profession, it is a way of life.
If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.
When we do more than we are paid to do, eventually we will be paid more for what we do.
A goal properly set is halfway reached.
Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.
If there were no problems, most of us would be unemployed.
Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.

Click here to heck out the official Zig Ziglar website for additional new business resources.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

Photo credit Matt Wright

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Facebook, New Business Tips | Tagged: Ad Agencies, ad agency new business, business development, Michael Gass, motivation, new business director, sales, Zig Ziglar | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Ways to Recycle Older Content for Ad Agency New Business

March 31, 2011

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. 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.

My recycled posts continue to generate lots of blog traffic and fresh comments from readers who have just discovered them for the first time. The date of the material shouldn’t matter. What should matter is relevancy. Is the content still of value to your audience?

Here are 5 simple ways to repurpose older 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. 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. Just not with the same frequency of posting as you would with Twitter.
Through other posts: Do the work on behalf of your readers and at the end of your new posts include links to additional content that is relevant. Check out my ‘Additional articles of interest’ at the end of this article. This makes it easier for your readers to find relevant, older content on your blog.
eBooklets and Whitepapers: After you have been writing awhile, you can easily pull together content to create eBooklets or whitepapers to share with your audience. I have also pulled older content together for SlideShare presentations. You can even recycle your blogs content into a book. An example is Bob Hoffman’s The Ad Contrarian.

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.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

5 Comments | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: advertising agencies, business development, content, Michael Gass, recycle, The Ad Contrarian | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Create a Call to Action for Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

March 11, 2011

A strong Call-to-Action is needed to convert your blog’s visitors into new business opportunities.

The most important key to converting your agency’s blog visitors into leads is to have a “call-to-action”. 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.

People want to work with other people that they, know, trust and like. Prospects are visiting your agency’s blog site or website, they’ve had a chance to kick your tires, check out your upholstery and take a look under your hood - they feel like they know you. What next? Don’t leave them clueless. Clearly outline a first-step engagement for them through a specific call-to-action.

I would suggest creating an offer for a particular service, something that is 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:

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.
Identify the true prospect from those that just want to pick your brain for free and will never pay for your services.
Pay you, at least for a portion of your time, for important face time with your prospective clients.

I consistently hear from agencies, “if we can just get in front of our prospects, we have no trouble closing the deal”. We’ll here’s your chance. By using this approach for a call to action, you meet your primary objective of getting in front of qualified prospects.

Here are a few tips for creating your ‘call-to-action’:

Define your goal. I would suggest that your objective would be for a face-to-face meeting with a qualified prospect.
Keep your offering simple. Remember attention spans is fleeting online. They wont spend a lot of time trying to figure it out.
Make your offering valuable to the prospect. Their takeaway is much greater than their time and monetary investment.
What action. Be clear as to what action you want your readers to take.

1 Comment | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business, advertising agencies, blogs, business development, call to action, Michael Gass, prospective clients, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Report: Inbound Marketing Channels More Cost-Effective for Ad Agency New Business

March 10, 2011

When it comes to ad agency new business, blogs and social media can deliver inbound leads for less.

I often say, “people want to work with other people that they KNOW, TRUST and LIKE”. Social media is an efficient and affordable way to build new business relationships quickly.

According to research from inbound marketing solutions provider HubSpot, businesses dominated by inbound marketing have a 62% lower cost per lead than firms that do mostly outbound marketing.

Inbound marketing refers to efforts that provide web users with information or tools of value to them, as opposed to outbound or interruptive marketing that pushes messages in front of them.

Traditional outbound marketing techniques for ad agency new business – including direct mail and cold calling – are becoming less effective. Your prospects have the capability to evaluate agency services on their own.

Inbound marketing offers your audience useful information and tools that attract prospective clients to your site, while interacting and developing relationships. Inbound marketing tools include blogging, content publishing, search engine optimization and social media.

Here are the top 10 key takeaways from the “State of Inbound Marketing Report”:

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.

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.

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.

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 latest 2011 “State of Inbound Marketing Report” is now available for download. The report is based on data from a recent survey of 644 professionals familiar with their business’ marketing strategy.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

9 Comments | Agency Blogs, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business, blogs, Hubspot, Michael Gass, Social Media, State of Inbound Marketing Report | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

10 Tips for Writing for the Web for Ad Agency New Business

March 3, 2011

To fuel ad agency new business through social media, creating content is critical.

According to a social media study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, original content, both branded and expert, is by far the most employed tactic for social media.

And … “businesses (agencies) that blog, get 55% more website traffic than those that don’t.”

Creating valuable content increases website traffic that will equate into new business leads. But writing for web can be daunting, even for experienced copywriters. They are often the ones that struggle the most with making the transition from print to web.

“Content marketing is a commitment, not a campaign.” – Jon Buscall

It doesn’t matter how great you write if no one finds your content and if they do find it, there’s no benefit to you unless they read it.

You need to think carefully about structuring and formatting your online content to ensure your readers find it and read it. Here are my 10 tips to help you write better for the Web:

Provide a Reader’s Digest or Executive Summary version. Readers love bullet pointed and numbered lists. That’s why so many readers are attracted to post titles that offer 10 tips or 25 ideas, etc.The work you do on behalf of your readers to simplify will be greatly appreciated and keep them coming back for more.
Key words in every post titles. Write for SEO. It doesn’t matter how great your article is if no one can find it. A simple tip to help boost your rankings in Google search is to identify and use certain key words in every post title. 90% of my posts will contain ‘ad agency new business’ in the title. It helps not only for search but will also help drive ‘targeted traffic’ as your posts are repurposed through Twitter. With only 140 characters that you can use for Twitter, that’s not much more than your title and a shortened URL.
Lead with the conclusion. I advise that you begin each post by starting with the conclusion, a take-away or benefits statement. Just answer this question, ‘what is my benefit if I commit to read this post?’
Break up long paragraphs. A reader’s attention span online is much less than for print. Readers tend to scan instead of reading word-for-word. Keep paragraphs concise and short.
Be sure and provide hyper links to your sources. Don’t be afraid that you will lose your audience if they go to another source. Your blog should become a repository of helpful resources for your readers.
Make your content scannable to the eye. Use bold, italics, quotation marks, indention, etc. to make copy pop. A person should be able to quickly scan through your article and get the most important parts.
Write in an Inverted Pyramid style. Similar to the way a newspaper reported would write, the most important copy should be at the top of your post.
Use common language. This is an opportunity to do away with industry jargon and agency speak and write content that resonates with your intended audience.
Get to the point, quickly. Online readers are extremely impatient. If you wade into a story and it takes 3 or 4 paragraphs to make show how it relates, you will have lost your audience before you’ve made your point.
Make your post visually pleasing. I always include a nice photo or graphic to further drive home the main purpose of a post. Using them will create interest and help draw in a reader.

Here are some additional agency blogging resources that may be a help to get you started:

5 Comments | Agency Blogs, Content Marketing | Tagged: Ad Agencies, ad agency new business, content marketing, Hubspot, Michael Gass, Social Media, writing for web | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Ways Ad Agency Blogs Can Produce Significant Traffic for New Business

February 8, 2011

Your ad agency’s blog can become one of the most important tools for new business.

A blog is certainly the most critical component to fuel agency new business through social media. How? As a powerful traffic generator. Traffic = leads and leads = new business opportunities.

In a survey of business technology marketing executives by the research firm MarketingSherpa, blogs were voted the No. 4 tool for generating sales leads.

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

Here are 5 Ways an agency’s blog can increase prospective client traffic:

1. Search visibility

The right search traffic doesn’t just happen. It will only occur if you consistently produce unique content. Frequently updated content makes search engines very happy.

Blogs are organized to be search engine friendly. With focus you can dominate search terms for your best prospects to find you. Writing focused content to a particular audience will help to optimize your blog quickly. When I want to rank well for something like “ad agency new business” optimizing my blog is much easier.

2. Repeat Traffic

Posting fresh content brings visitors back often. Most agency websites are too stagnant to produce repeat traffic. Helpful content that is reader-centric will naturally attract prospective clients to your site and provide top of mind awareness for your agency without having to rely on an interruption tactics such as cold calling for new business.

3. Click-Throughs from Twitter

At the time of writing this post, I have over 57,000 following my two Twitter accounts, @michaelgass and @fuellines. I’m able to fuel traffic by repurposing over 600 articles through these two accounts. This material gets retweeted often into other people’s Twitter networks and makes my content viral, growing my following and exposing my blog to a highly targeted audience.

If you are using Twitter alone, it’s not a very good tool for new business. But in combination with your blog’s content, you are one of the few providing helpful information for the many. Writing in an ‘evergreen’ style your blog’s content has a much longer shelf life than a Tweet. Twitter used in combination with your blog has the potential of creating even more targeted traffic than SEO.

You can continue to generate significant traffic for old posts, if you are intentional about it. Once the blog content is written, Third party Twitter tools like Social Oomph will allow you to easily create a system to consistently keep your content in front of a large audience with very little effort.

4. Personality

It’s hard to socialize an entity such as your agency. Social media is all about people and relationships. A blog puts a face to your age and allows your personality to shine through. You wont appeal to everyone, but that’s okay. You will have a strong appeal among the prospects who are the best fit for your agency.

A good example of this is Bob Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco. Bob’s personality really shines through his writing for his blog, The Ad Contrarian.

I first learned of Bob’s blog through a critical article highlighting his frequent rants about the ad industry, often laced with profanity. I was curious enough to find out for myself and found was intrigued with his writing. Bob came across as a ‘straight-shooter’ who cut through all of the branding and social media b.s. I ended up becoming a fan, as have a significant number of others.

Social media is all about connecting on a personal level. People have a natural desire to work with other people that they know, trust and like. A blog is a great place to foster these initial personal relationships with your prospective clients.

5. Viral Effects

A blog provides content that can be easily shared across multiple social media channels. It can also be repurposed and shared through an email newsletter, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. You could compile related or the best of your content into an eBook or white paper. Readers will share it through bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicious or StumbleUpon. You’re return-on-your-time-investment (ROTI), writing content, can be extensive.

Ultimately, a blog can be highly effective and the most powerful and low-cost new business marketing tool your agency will ever use. Provided you know your target audience, have the right positioning, messaging and rich content that is of benefit to those you are trying to reach.

Here are some additional agency blogging resources that may be a help to get you started:

7 Comments | Agency Blogs, Creating Content, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business, blogging, blogs, Marketing Sherpa, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

A Niche Blog for Ad Agency New Business

February 4, 2011

There are many agency blogs out there, if you don’t go niche, you won’t be able to break out of the crowd.

If you look at all the ad agency blogs out there, most are far to general. Readers are left with thousands of blogs about the same thing. No particular niche, no point of differentiation. The blogging space becomes overcrowded by generalists. There are no experts, no leaders and an agency’s blog gets lost in a crowd of sameness.

A blog provides your agency the opportunity to truly differentiate itself and create an appeal to a particular prospective client audience with less risk. It offers acceptable conditions for the small to mid size agency’s to fly their differentiated flag proudly without fear of missing “other” opportunities that will still come by way of personal networks and referrals.

In an arena of sameness, you will find it extremely difficult to gain the traction needed to be positioned as an expert, distinguish yourself, your agency and create appeal. Your blogging efforts wont have much credibility and you’ll miss a great opportunity to generate new business.

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

To be a leader you need a niche. You need to focus on a narrow topic.

When I began my consultancy, I had some friends who advised me against becoming a consultant for ad agency new business. They said my focus was to narrow, especially concentrating on ‘fueling ad agency new business through social media’. I was told that I would miss opportunities and wouldn’t be able to support my family. But having such a narrow focus, the opposite happened. I was able to grow my consultancy much quicker with less expense and effort.

How do you make your agency’s blog different when everyone is writing about the same thing? Instead of another blog about branding, you could find a niche like ‘blue-collar branding’. When you do that you wont be offering the same tips, advice, and stories that every other agency is doing.

Social media has made all niches marketable. With millions of people participating in social media and searching and sharing information daily, even the smallest niche has an audience. You can bring a significant number of prospects together with your niche site.

No niche is too small you will always find interested followers within your area of expertise.

Don’t be everything to everyone. By going narrow-niche, your blog gains a single purpose. Everything you do focuses around one central theme. It helps focus your content and your audience. It makes blogging much easier.

My blog, Fuel Lines, has a single-mindedness that allows for dominance in one field and builds awareness and recognition within the advertising industry. I’ve been able to build my consultancy well beyond my home state area create a national awareness for my services through my blog.

I recently received this brief email from the president the fastest growing major agency in America according to Ad Age,

It’s impressive how often your blog postings are passed around here.

Best,

Mike

Mike Hughes, President, The Martin Agency, Richmond, VA

You want people to reference your name when people ask where they need to go for help.

There are many agency blogs out there. If you don’t go niche, you won’t be able to create a name for yourself. If you really want to create a blog for new business success, you must pick a niche and be the expert on that. Otherwise, you’ll never break out of the crowd.

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agencies, ad agency new business, blogs, Michael Gass, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Sq1 Agency Top Ad Agency Blog of the Year

January 31, 2011

Congratulations to the Square One agency. Their blog, ‘Sq 1′, was selected as Fuel Line’s Blog of the Year for 2010, by 46% of the 3,222 votes cast. Square One is a 15-year-old Dallas Marketing and Advertising agency.

Second in the voting was the agency blog,‘We Make It All Better’, Copeland Communications, Victoria, BC with 1,147 votes and ‘Jane Nation’, St. John & Partners, Jacksonville, FL, came in third with 497 votes. A special thanks to all of Fuel Lines’s Blog of the Month winners for their participation.

“We are so excited to be Fuel Line’s Blog of the Year. We appreciate all of our support from our fans and followers. You guys rock! Thanks for voting.” – Judge Graham, Sq1 Partner

“Being selected as Blog of the Year means so much to our agency. We are so thankful to everyone who voted. We’re excited to see where our War Room blog can go in 2011.” – Ernie Capobianco, Sq1 Partner

Recent Sq1 blog posts:

“Social Media is the most fluid and influential form of media in the history of journalism. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users – Facebook did it in less than 6 months. Constantly evolving, the social media community has grown exponentially faster than newspaper, radio and television.”

Sq 1 is very involved in social media. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.

Fuel Line’s Blog of the Year not only provides examples of agency blogs but it was an opportunity for agencies to showcase their participation in social media, generating interest and traffic to their site.

How is your agency using a blog for your new business? Submit it for January’s blog of the month. Send me an email and include:

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

1 Comment | Agency Blogs | Tagged: advertising agencies, blogs, Copeland Communications, Jane Nation, Michael Gass, Social Media, Square One, St. John & Partners | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Something for the 34% of Ad Agencies That Have No Blog

January 21, 2011

As important as it was for your ad agency to have a website, it is now equally important that your agency have a blog. A blog is becoming the gateway for agency new business.

Ad 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 an unsolicited direct mail, which consumers are responding to less and less.

In a recent Ad Agency New Business Survey that I recently conducted, 64% of the 430 responding ad agencies said they have a blog. For the remaining 36% of the agencies that don’t but should, I’ve compiled the following check-list to help get your agency’s blog quickly up and running for new business:

RSS Subscription button so your readers can opt to read content through a tool such as Google Reader. Readers may also choose to get these feeds for new content from your blog through their in-box. You can easily set this up through Feedburner.
Email Subscription: provide a linked-button for readers to opt-in to receive your email newsletter.
Also provided linked-buttons in your blog’s sidebar for people to be able to connect with you through your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
Use a Facebook app to post new content directly to your Facebook account. There’s also a similar app for LinkedIn. Anytime you posts, those posts will automatically be published to your social media accounts.
Provide readers a way to ‘Like’ and ‘Tweet’ your posts. Also provide the button-links for your readers to easily share content through sites like Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit or that would allow them to share it through an email or print out a copy.
Host your blog on your own domain. You never know when you might want to change from a WordPress or Typepad blog to something else.
SEO Measure: the number of your inbound links and the power of those links. You can use Page Rank Checker, a free tool, to check the current page rank of your blog. Rankings will range between 1 and 10 (with 10 being the highest)
Unique post titles, less than 75 characters. I recommend consistently including key words to dominate in Google (i.e. for me it’s ”ad agency new business”, which I include in almost every post title.
Post 2 to 5 times per week, 1 ‘original’ post for every 4 to 5 ‘resource’ posts.
Average post length should be 350 to 450 words. Less than that your post probably doesn’t have enough valued content to make it worths someones effort to click-through. If it’s more than 450 words, the amount of content is daunting and they often wont even begin to read your content.
People generally don’t read word-for-word online, they tend to scan. Make your posts scannable. Use bold, italics, indention, quotation marks, bullet-pointed and numbered lists.
Add links to your posts when appropriate. Be sure to provide attribution for resources used in your post and links to your primary resources.
Add 1 image per post, it will make your copy visually more interesting and emphasize your primary point.
Check your blog’s analytics frequently (once or twice a day) to see top posts, number of page views, referring sites, search engine terms, clicks, incoming links, etc. Keep your blog traffic trending upwards from month-to-month.
Your blog should be easy to navigate by your readers. Provide at least 10 to 12 blog post categories and search feature for your blogs content. Highlight your top posts in a sidebar widget.
Make it personal. Include your photo in the blog’s sidebar and a welcome which states the purpose of the blog and ways for your audience to connect. Keep in mind that people want to work with other people that they know, trust and like. Your blog provides them that opportunity.
I would recommend that you add and About page, Contact page and Services page for when a reader wants to check you out further, in their on time. Provide specific information about your first-steps with a new client so that they know exactly how to engage you. For example, my first-point of engagement with a client is a social media | new business workshop.
Be sure that you have a nice a clean blog template that allows for easy navigation and also highlights your content. Content is more important than design and is key to your blog’s traffic.

Here are some additional agency blogging resources that may be a help to get you started:

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Advertising, blogging, blogs, Michael Gass, new business, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Talk Is Cheap: Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month for December

January 12, 2011

26 agency blogs were submitted for Fuel Line’s Ad Agency Blog of the Mont for December. The blog, Talk is Cheap, Strategis, Stoughton, MA was selected by 66% of the votes. Second in the voting was L&S Unscripted, Lawrence & Schiller, Sioux Falls, SD.

strategis, as our name implies, is a strategically based marketing communications company, one prepared to creatively tackle any challenge a client puts forth. if your company, organization or brand is in need of smart, results-driven, media neutral, inventive, smart (did we say that already) ideas – you should probably contact us.

our agency has been at the forefront of the social media revolution. we assist our clients by starting one-on-one dialogs with their consumers, their customers via online tools such as social networking, search optimization, consumer generated content and online public relations. it’s smart to work with strategis – and our smarts make you look smart.

fyi: strategis also provides awesome strategic counsel • brand management • market research • account planning • public relations • event marketing • advertising • web development • direct marketing • media planning / buying • creative development • results tracking /reporting• hr recruiting solutions and branding • diversity marketing

You can also follow Strategis on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

Strategis’s blog will automatically be included in Fuel Line’s Ad Agency Blog of the Year.

Fuel Line’s Blog of the Month not only provides examples of agency blogs but it is an opportunity for agencies to showcase their blog and participation in social media, generating traffic and interest in their site.

How is your agency using a blog for your new business? Submit it for December’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.

A 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 Blogs, Advertising, L&S Unscripted, Lawrence & Schiller, Michael Gass, Social Media, Stoughton, Strategis, Talk is Cheap | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month for December 2010

January 4, 2011

The following 26 agency blogs have been submitted for Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month for December. Review and vote for the agency blog that best understands social media.

Cast your VOTE by CLICKING HERE

These are the ad agency blogs submitted for the month of December. The winner will be included in the voting for Fuel Lines’ Ad Agency Blog of the Year:

Daily Axioms, Axiom Marketing, Bloomington, MN
Digitally Approved, Fanscape Inc., Los Angeles, CA
Emotivator, Emotive Brand, San Francisco, CA
Engauge Blog, Atlanta, GA
Fluid’s Big Idea Blog, Fluid Studio, Salt Lake City, UT
i love e-mail, i love e-mail agency, Malmo, Sweden
Kelsey Pulse, Kelsey Advertising & Design, LaGrange, GA
L&S Unscripted, Lawrence & Schiller, Sioux Falls, SD
Marketing OC Blog, MarketingOC, Orange, CA
MediaCom Beyond Advertising, MediaCom, London, UK
Nology, Nology Media, Seattle, WA
Oh no, not another agency blog, Brokaw Inc., Cleveland, OH
Outside Voice, Origin Design + Communications, Whistler, B.C., Canada
Overdrive eMarketing Blog, Overdrive Interactive, Boston, MA
Priority Integrated Marketing Blog, Priority Integrated Marketing, Minneapolis, MN
PubliGestion’s Bloggers’ Block, PubliGestion, Petion-Ville, Haiti
Sharp Ideas, Cactus, Denver, CO
Smart Marketing with Larry Weintraub, Fanscape, Inc., Los Angeles, CA
Sparksheet, Spafax, Toronto, ON, Canada
Spring Blog, Spring Advertising, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Talk is Cheap, Strategis, Stoughton, MA
The Green Detectives, Enviromedia, Austin, TX
The Net Impact Blog, The Net Impact, St. Louis, MO
The Lead, Padilla Speer Beardsley, Minneapolis | New York
The Reach Blog, Reach Marketing, Irving, TX
Third Degree Creative, Third Degree Advertising & Communications, Oklahoma City, OK

Fuel Lines Agency Blog of the Month for November: Welt’s Weekly Smack Down!,Welt Branding, Cincinnati, OH

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:

Some additional agency blogging resources:

1 Comment | Agency Blogs | Tagged: advertising agencies, blogs, Michael Gass, Social Media, twtpoll.com, Welt Branding | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Welt Branding: Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month

December 16, 2010

“It is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.” Clay Shirky

Out of a list of 30 agency blogs, Cincinnati, Ohio agency, Welt Branding, has been chosen as Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month for November. Their blog, Welt’s Weekly Smackdown! received 45% of the 179 votes cast. Second in the voting was Sparksheet, Spafax Interactive, Toronto, Ontario, CA.

At Welt Branding, we contend that nobody’s an “expert” in social media. How can you master a landscape that is always shifting? However, you can be a marketing professional. Social media is simply a marketing tool that marketing professionals can use.

We use social media and blogging as tools to drive results. Some companies think just having these devices is enough; it isn’t. To use the tools as intended, requires constant monitoring and regular updates. We develop your resources and get the most out of them.

With a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, we have built communities that strengthen our web surface area. Our blogs also create community, but provide a better venue for targeting audiences.

Welt’s Smackdown is a mix of topical news with marketing twists and tips. Are you tech savvy? Do you have an interest in marketing? Then Generation Nerd is for you. This blog is built for the latest marketing tech news. On Lab Smack, we are working with the University of Cincinnati marketing students to get a college perspective on marketing.

Post on our Facebook wall at Welt Branding
Tweet us at WeltBrand
Or join our LinkedIn group at Welt Branding: Challenge

Welt Branding’s blog will automatically be included in Fuel Line’s Ad Agency Blog of the Year.

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

A 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.

Here is a collection of agency blogging resources:

Leave a Comment » | Agency Blogs | Tagged: advertising agencies, blogs, Clay Shirky, Michael Gass, Spafax Interactive, Welt Branding | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

Ad Agency Compensation: The biggest frustration of CMOs

For small to mid-size ad agencies, it’s time to address the cost of creating advertising in terms of time and money.

All our clients want to know is this – Can your agency solve my problems quickly and at less cost?

Advertising agencies aren’t changing of their own accord, they are being changed. We’ve seen digital technology bring about fundamental change to the news industry, then the music industry. Now seismic change is being forced upon the advertising industry.

Zig Ziglar and Ad Agency New Business Directors

Agency new business directors have one of the most important, as well as toughest, jobs in advertising – selling the agency.

Welt Branding: Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month

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

Categories

MICHAEL GASS

Click to view my speaking Schedule for 2012

205.370.7750

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Follow “FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media”

Advertising agencies, PR firms and digital shops should reverse their new business efforts from “Outbound Marketing” techniques to “Inbound Marketing.”

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

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

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.

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.

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

For small to mid-size ad agencies, it’s time to address the cost of creating advertising in terms of time and money.

All our clients want to know is this – Can your agency solve my problems quickly and at less cost?

Advertising agencies aren’t changing of their own accord, they are being changed. We’ve seen digital technology bring about fundamental change to the news industry, then the music industry. Now seismic change is being forced upon the advertising industry.

Agency new business directors have one of the most important, as well as toughest, jobs in advertising – selling the agency.

Continue to generate a great return on your time investment, writing for your agency’s blog, by recycling older content.

A strong Call-to-Action is needed to convert your blog’s visitors into new business opportunities.

When it comes to ad agency new business, blogs and social media can deliver inbound leads for less.

To fuel ad agency new business through social media, creating content is critical.

Your ad agency’s blog can become one of the most important tools for new business.

There are many agency blogs out there, if you don’t go niche, you won’t be able to break out of the crowd.

To be a leader you need a niche. You need to focus on a narrow topic.

As important as it was for your ad agency to have a website, it is now equally important that your agency have a blog. A blog is becoming the gateway for agency new business.

The following 12 ad agency blogs are all Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blogs of the Month for 2010. Please review and vote for your favorite as the Ad Agency Blog of the year.

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

The following 26 agency blogs have been submitted for Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Month for December. Review and vote for the agency blog that best understands social media.

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

Categories

MICHAEL GASS

205.370.7750

Top Posts

Blogs I Recommend

Books I recommend

Workshop Photos

Follow “FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media”